Two Tolkien Related

Two Tolkien Related · Three Tolk-Lang Questions · More Tolkien · Even More Tolkien Related

Short version : no, Tolkien did not get his fantasy languages from commerce with demons, and he did not promote marijuana. Whatever Putinist propagandists may say to the contrary.

Q I

In Lord Of The Rings, why are most of the Wizards addicted something harmful, Gandalf to Old Toby (marijuana), Saruman to Tobacca and marijuana from The Shire and Radagast is stated to excessively consume Mushrooms which addled his brain and teeth?
https://www.quora.com/In-Lord-Of-The-Rings-why-are-most-of-the-Wizards-addicted-something-harmful-Gandalf-to-Old-Toby-marijuana-Saruman-to-Tobacca-and-marijuana-from-The-Shire-and-Radagast-is-stated-to-excessively-consume-Mushrooms-which/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

none/ apprx Masters in Latin (language) & Greek (language), Lund University

23.XI.2023

Old Toby is actually tobacco.

No one is addicted to any other mushrooms than those listed as edible in normal mushrom books.

I am obviously speaking of the books. I think the films show Radagast from some other point of view in one scene.

Q II

How did Tolkien create his Elvish languages? Are there other ways to create fantasy languages?
https://www.quora.com/How-did-Tolkien-create-his-Elvish-languages-Are-there-other-ways-to-create-fantasy-languages/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

none/ apprx Masters in Latin (language) & Greek (language), Lund University

23.XI.2023

How did Tolkien create his Elvish languages?

He took over from different languages or invented from scratch words that sounded like the sound shape he wanted. He also (as should anyone) fleshed out pretty detailed grammars for each language he really cared about.

He also reconstructed them back to a proto-language and into the other ones of the Elvish languages.

Are there other ways to create fantasy languages?

Sure. Edgar Rice Burroughs went for mainly monosyllables with a very different sound shape, with basically no consideration of grammar.

Hergé based Syldavian loosely on Marrolsch (they are not identical).

One could also take an accepted Proto-Language or known daughter languages, and find a niche between the extant ones (I tried a blend of Latin, Greek and Romanian once, the note book got stolen, presumably by freemasons).

My Noster Franzeis (easier to keep in mind without a notebook) involves taking Old French into the phonetics of Modern High German. On the French-Picard divide:

• ceci est un cheval (French)
• chechi est un keval (Picard)

I chose another one:

• zezie ist ün Kewal (Noster Franzeis)

It still does have the SH sound, but where German would have it:

• Schriwähn
• Spizerie
• falsch (same meaning and etymology as faux, both in German and in Noster Franzeis)

Hence the absence of this sound from both “ceci” and “keval” (taken respectively from French and Picard).