As Tolk Lang QQ Keep Dropping In

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: Tolk Lang QQ · Tolkienophobia · As Tolk Lang QQ Keep Dropping In · Φιλολoγικά/Philologica: I'm Not the First to Ask · New blog on the kid: Since I'm Being Pestered by Tolkienophobes ...

Q I

Are there grammar rules for Tolkien's languages? Where can I find them?
https://www.quora.com/Are-there-grammar-rules-for-Tolkiens-languages-Where-can-I-find-them/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

amateur linguist

18.VII.2024

Yes, there are grammar rules for them.

You can find lots of info on them on Fauskanger’s site:

Ardalambion
https://ardalambion.net/

For instance, adjectives decline for plural but not for case in Quenya, while nouns decline both for number and for case.

Q II

What is the word for 'no' in the Elvish language?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-word-for-no-in-the-Elvish-language/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

amateur linguist

18.VII.2024

In Quenya, according to Fauskanger’s wordlist, a “no” that means “it is not so” is “ui (uito)” or “lá” while a “no” that means “I won’t” or “you can’t” is “vá” ….

Q III

What are some guidelines for creating fictional languages or writing systems, similar to those used by J.R.R. Tolkien?
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-guidelines-for-creating-fictional-languages-or-writing-systems-similar-to-those-used-by-J-R-R-Tolkien/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

amateur linguist

21.VII.2024

1. DIY
2. DIFYOP

Explanations? “do it yourself” and “do it for your own pleasure” …

But starting point is knowing things about languages. It’s not just about how many languages you know, it is also how different they are and how much you know theoretically about them. And it even helps to know theory about languages you don’t actually know.

Tolkien’s writing systems are loosely based on Hangul, though aesthetically very different.

Then, there are the possibilities that come with “inventing like from scratch” and “inventing varieties” … Tolkien invented runes from the aesthetics of Anglo-Saxon runes and the principles of Hangul. You could also, if you want to invent runes look at the actual rune alphabets and make some kind of variety. If the Older Futhark is based on the Bolsano alphabet (not certain but also not totally improbable), try to make a similar shift to the Classical Etruscan alphabet of 20 letters, used in Etruria from 400 BC.

Tolkien invented some differences in Quenya and Sindarin from Q- and P-Celtic, which also is mirrored in Q- and P-Italic (Latin vs extinct Umbrian), but you could try to construct a couple starting with Old Latin and ending with French style Umbrian …

The problem if you do that is, of course, where does this fit in into known or alternative history? Noster Franzeis, which I have tried to construct is (I like to imagine) a language of a subterranean race dwelling in the caves below borders between France and Germany, perhaps down to Switzerland, probably down to Austria, hence the possibility of picking up the French language as it was c. 1000 and developing it with sound shifts like those found in Viennese German. If you can’t imagine a scenario where your population picks up French (any period) or develops it into sth sounding like Viennese German (though with other words and grammar, obviously), don’t do Noster Franzeis.

That’s one reason why Tolkien (whose scenarios are supposed to predate known history, except Genesis 3 and possibly Genesis 9) didn’t make varieties of known languages (he did however borrow from them, basically at an inverse from Pokorny’s borrowings to the Reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European, so Quenya “alqua” is among other things meant to explain why Icelandic has the Pre-Indo-European word “álft” and “ranca” explains why Lithuanian has “ranka” and Polish “ręka” also not probable as the Proto-Indo-European word for “hand” or even “hand / arm”).

Q IV

Are you fluent in any of J.R.R. Tolkien's languages? If so, which one and how did you learn it?
https://www.quora.com/Are-you-fluent-in-any-of-J-R-R-Tolkiens-languages-If-so-which-one-and-how-did-you-learn-it/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

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

St. Mary Magdalene

22.VII.2024

I’m, regrettably, not.

Twenty years ago, I was fluent in Quenya grammar and in the 240 words involved in Fauskanger’s course.[1] I was also sufficiently into Polish to be able to read The Magician’s Nephew in Polish translation, using a dictionary every once in a while.

THAT was 20 years ago!

“How?”

Fauskanger’s course.

Footnotes

[1] Quenya Course

Q V

What is the reason behind the belief that Elvish is a real language?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-reason-behind-the-belief-that-Elvish-is-a-real-language/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

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

22.VII.2024

St. Mary Magdalene

Depending on what you mean by real language, and ignoring the mistake that you speak of (Tolkien’s) Elvish as one, rather than at least two, there is a very good case that it is, at least as much as Esperanto before it got used, and Proto-Indo-European in Schleicher’s fable.

Quenya and Sindarin are not natural languages spoken as native language by actually extant populations, the Noldor and Sindar of Beleriand being only fictional populations.

They are, like Esperanto, like Proto-Indo-European, Constructed languages. Esperanto is an Auxiliary language, constructed for the purpose of international communication. Proto-Indo-European is a Reconstructed or Proto-Language, constructed for the purpose of exploring why Latin, Lithuanian, Greek and Sanskrit have certain similarities in vocabulary and grammar, and where Germanic fits into it.

Quenya and Sindarin are constructed for art. When it comes to Quenya, it certainly cannot express as many topics as Esperanto, but it is also not quite as limited as Schleicher’s Fable.[1]

Footnotes

[1] Speak Elf Yourself - Part 1

23.VII.2024

Joseph Foster

Concur mostly and in judgement but one note. Proto-Indoeuropean is a reconstructed language. Done on the basis of comparative data and thorough knowledge of phonetics, phonology, and sound and even semantic change patterns. If by “constructed” you only meant Scheicher’s Fable but not the PIE Language, then I pretty much agree. It was an interesting exercise, and there have been a couple of revisions proposed since Schleicher first did it.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Well, reconstruction is one form of construction.

I’m not saying there is no evidence behind it, I’m only saying it is construction rather than observation of what someone actually speaks in one’s hearing or someone actually writes in texts one can read.

Q VI

Is Elvish a real language or is it based on other languages like Spanish or French?
https://www.quora.com/Is-Elvish-a-real-language-or-is-it-based-on-other-languages-like-Spanish-or-French/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

I know more than one Latin and Germanic language.

22.VII.2024

St. Mary Magdalene

I suppose you here mean “real language” as opposed to code for some other language.

Like Hergé’s Syldavian is often seen as code for a marrolsch pronunciation of Flemish, used in the Flemish speaking parts of Bruxelles.

Unlike my Noster Franzeis, it is not based on an existing language in that or (for my Noster Franzeis) similar sense. It’s calculated to sound, in the case of Quenya somewhere between Finnish, Homeric Greek and Latin, in the case of Sindarin, somewhere between Welsh and Spanish.

But like he imitated rune like shapes without imitating the Futhark, Quenya is neither Finnish, nor Homeric Greek. Despite verbs like “utúlien” and nouns like “Helcaraxe” it’s neither Finnish nor Homeric Greek.

Think of it like this. Whenever you learn a new language, it’s usually not just a dialect of one you know (not true when I was learning Danish, but definitely true when I learned French). You cannot predict its grammar from any single language which you know, though it will have things in common with them. So, for French, unlike German and like Swedish and English, French lacks Ach-Laut. Like English and unlike German and Swedish, French lacks Ich-Laut / Tje-Ljud. Unlike Swedish (and Danish) and like German and English, French has an article before the noun. Like German and Swedish and unlike English, French has gendered nouns. Unlike German and Swedish, English not being comparable, French has only Masculine and Feminine. Like English, unlike German, French does not have four cases. Unlike all Germanic languages, French doesn’t even have a possessive case expressed with and ending, not even for names, but expresses the genitive (possessive and other types) with “de” …

Tolkien loved this feeling of discovering a new language and that was the feeling which he accessed by creating ones of his own. Any given systematic trait would be in common with some language he knew. But no grammar was followed to the full on its own, Quenya was always a surprise, and when one aspect of it was fixed, he tinkered with another one.[1]

My own Noster Franzeis[2] is very inferior, that’s how I can keep it up without notebooks (a notebook of mine got stolen with a language meant to combine traits of Old Latin, Mycenaean Greek and Romanian). But it can still surprise me at times. For instance, when I realised that not all French “oi” become “ei” in Noster Franzeis, but you have “Sint Ambrósi” and “el trotóri” since Saint Ambroise comes from “Sanctus Ambrosius” and “trottoire” from the verb “trotter” (“walk”, when applied to horses obviously “trot”) + an ending coming from Latin “-orium” … or when I decided that, like German, it has only one normal past tense (non-perfect, non-conditional), one that’s usually from Passé Simple, but in “estern” = “être” from Imparfait.

Footnotes

[1] Tolkien's Not-So-Secret Vice
[2] Noster Franzeis - üne Lange konstreute per mei!

Q VII, A

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/Bruce-Walton-13

Bruce Walton

Keen reader of Tolkien (including posthumous works)

22.VII.2024

St. Mary Magdalene

As far as I’m aware, not one single person with any significant knowledge on the subject asks “whether Tolkien really created his languages”. The “many” alleged by the querant do not exist.

It is a certain and provable fact that Tolkien invented several languages, to various degrees of completeness. His original autograph notes still exist, which demonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt that he did.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

I did not state that “the many” were people with significant knowledge on the subject.

Being ignorant and not existing are two different things.

I have had to answer such questions on quora more than once, so, thanks for adding the autograph notes to my arsenal!

Bruce Walton

You’re welcome, and my apologies for the pejorative tone.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

No problem!

Thanks again!

Q VII, B

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-2

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Studied Latin (language) at Lund UniversityJ

22.VII.2024

St. Mary Magdalene

To my somewhat a surprise but still not a complete surprise, I got an AI answer and I commented on it:

I'm Not the First to Ask
https://filolohika.blogspot.com/2024/07/im-not-first-to-ask.html

Now, I have a little hunch that is not often repeated, which was therefore not given by the AI, but which can be correct.

• Some people dislike Tolkien. Not all of them dislike all speculative fiction, some like Asimov[1] or Howard better than Tolkien. They don’t like to admit even one point, be it ultimately totally technical, in Tolkien’s favour. Being able to create languages is not a matter of whether Tolkien did so and used them with good judgement, it’s about simple ability.
• Some linguists consider it integral part of the definition of “language” that it was “developed” and that by a society over generations. Atheists will deny the two Biblical counterexamples, like Adam getting a full-fledged language from scratch, straight on being created, and like people at Babel getting other full-fledged languages from scratch, in order to prevent them supernaturally from cooperating. Well, once the supernatural act was done, it was immediately a natural barrier from cooperation, just like with people learning different first languages and never learning each others’ so far. Someone had denied the capacity of God to create that many languages, and in order to point out their incapacity to imagine what the Christian view of God being all wise even means, I stated[2] “How? Instantaneous miraculous change of someone's language implies that just as his old language existed before the confusion, his new language exists after it, immediately. [§] As God is the ultimate origin of language, it is totally possible for him. Tolkien could invent Quenya and Sindarin over some years, and they have later been learnt and adopted for fun by other writers. God could invent several more in an instant, and impose them on people by necessity, making them forget their old language. Which means the passage is a point FOR, rather than against Divine Omnipotence and Wisdom. As a linguist you should know that making a language/a grammar implies wisdom.” People disagreeing on this have picked this definition as a fighting point.
• Some people like to see Tolkien fans as gullible, and indeed as taken in. To them, the idea that Tolkien created Quenya is a prime example of such gullibility. I answered one such person today.[3]
• Some people seem to imagine Tolkien was dabbling in the Black Arts[4] or was part of a secret society[5] or was mad (like his fanbase), in which case Tolkien would have been either suffering demonic glossolalia, or pathologic glossolalia, or getting a lot of help from teamwork. The idea that constructing a language at all was in fact possible, and possible rationally and for a single man, goes against their thesis.

I seem to be running in those types with these agendas. More than once.

Footnotes

[1] Notes on Asimov, Isaac
[2] ...on Tower of Babel or language evolution
[3] Hans-Georg Lundahl's answer to What is the reason behind the belief that Elvish is a real language?
[4] Tolkien och den svarta magin – Wikipedia
[5] John Todd, an Illuminati Defector, Exposes J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis - video Dailymotion

Hans-Georg Lundahl

While the source given for John Todd’s testimony is not identical to the one I read, but a video, I think it has the same content, and is therefore also fair game for my old debunking:

Why Not to Take John Todd's Testimony Against CSL and JRRT
https://nov9blogg9.blogspot.com/2015/07/why-not-to-take-john-todds-testimony.html

Q VII, C

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/Lucy-Miller-302

Answer requested by

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Lucy Miller

Read the trilogy 1st time in '66.

22.VII.2024

St. Mary Magdalene

It seems like, these days, there are certain people who don’t want to believe that someone could have the kind of creativity that Tolkien had. I certainly don’t see anyone asking if someone really developed a Klingon language for Star Trek, which certainly happened.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

I think you are right.

Creativity in beauty (Klingon isn’t beautiful).

Q VII, D

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/Mark-Decker-1

Mark Decker

Been an active Quora participant for 10 years at least

22.VII.2024

St. Mary Magdalene

So many?

I’ve been on Quora for a long time, never heard anyone ask it.

23.VII.2024

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Either you’ve been lucky or I have been unlucky.

Q VII, E

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/John-Sierra-38

John Sierra

Tolkien fan since the 80s

23.VII.2024

I have seen these questions, and I think that they stem from genuine curiosity borne from wonder at such a feat as creating languages basically from scratch.

I think that people are amazed that Tolkien would create languages for his stories, but the actual truth is more amazing - he didn’t do this, but rather created stories to fit his languages. Tolkien was a natural storyteller, but he was a linguist, philologist and professor first - his interest in languages dates back to before ever told his first story.

Nobody really had operated in this fashion previous, and not afterwards either. This I believe is what leads to the disbelief that he did it - it’s unusual to write a mythology to justify a language. Though Quenya is not quite a complete language, it is fairly close to being one, and with practice and careful study, one can speak Quenya fairly well.

Image Credit - Dave Lubbert

Answered three times

A, B, C

A

Klaus Ole Kristiansen

Professor M A R Barker created the Tsolyanu language as a hobby. Then he made up a whole society that speaks that language. This was published as part of a role playing game, The Empire of the Petal Throne. Later both Barker and fans have published several role playing games set in Tekumel. Barker eventually wrote novels set in this world, but he was far from the writer Tolkien was. Read The Man of Gold and Flamesong if you are already interested in Tsolyanu and Tekumel. Only read his last three novels if you are very interested.

B

Stan Dalone

It’s too bad he didn’t put some more effort into fleshing out Sindarin.

24.VII.2024

Vigil of St. James

C

Lui Peres

Though Quenya is not quite a complete language, it is fairly close to being one, and with practice and careful study, one can speak Quenya fairly well.

Is Sindarin considered a complete language, in that sense? Legit question.

John Sierra

Sadly not, it’s less complete than Quenya is.

Q VII, F

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/Deborah-Raven-Lindley-1

Answer requested by

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Deborah Raven-Lindley

Author, literary quality Tolkien fanfiction.

24.VII.2024

Vigil of St. James

Who is the ‘so many’ that are asking? Please cite examples and sources…if you indeed are able. I do not believe you can, for no one would wish to embarrass themselves by having their name attached to a query of this nature.

Reams of documents exist in the man’s own handwriting spanning decades that create irrefutable evidence of his authorship and the evolutionary lineage of the languages from Gnomish to Nandorin, Quenya to Black Speech. Short of summoning him from the dead, who else is supposed to have managed these works of art? To try to strip the Professor of credit for the centerpiece of his Legendarium by asking such a specious question strikes me as beyond the pale.

This is emblematic of why I visit Quora is infrequently as possible. Ah, but carry on…

Hans-Georg Lundahl

I admit they are anonymous, usually.

Here are questions I have received on quora:

Are there grammar rules for Tolkien's languages? Where can I find them?

What is the word for 'no' in the Elvish language?

What are some guidelines for creating fictional languages or writing systems, similar to those used by J.R.R. Tolkien?

Are you fluent in any of J.R.R. Tolkien's languages? If so, which one and how did you learn it?

Can you provide some examples of Sindarin and Quenya poetry?

This one is especially clear on putting in doubt the fact:

What is the reason behind the belief that Elvish is a real language?

This one comes near:

Is Elvish a real language or is it based on other languages like Spanish or French?

This one is pretty clear:

Did J.R.R. Tolkien create his own constructed languages, such as Elvish? Is there any evidence to support this?

This one again comes near:

Who created Elvish, the fictional language from The Lord of the Rings? Is it a real language or was it invented for the purpose of the book?

I may have wrongly interpreted the first batch as simmply reinforcing the other four.

“Ah, but carry on…”

You are brave, my lady, to venture here. I even answer this type of questions (including the 2–4 where the doubt was especially clear).

Q VII, G

Why are so many asking whether Tolkien really created his languages?
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-so-many-asking-whether-Tolkien-really-created-his-languages/answer/Zeddik-1

Zeddik

Knows a lot

24.VII.2024

Vigil of St. James

Because it sounds unbelievable and crazy that a single elderly guy invents over twenty artificial languages. But he did, even if some of them just consist of few words, and he had started inventing languages from his early childhood on. So it seems extremely unrealistic, but it is proven and true.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

One thing is true about the doubters’ position, as you state it.

He could probably not have done it if he had started as an elderly guy. And, as you rightly answer, he started out young in fact.

Q VIII

What factors contribute to the complexity of natural languages compared to artificial ones? Why are they not as complex and powerful as human language?
https://www.quora.com/What-factors-contribute-to-the-complexity-of-natural-languages-compared-to-artificial-ones-Why-are-they-not-as-complex-and-powerful-as-human-language/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

amateur linguist

2.VIII.2024

St. Alphons Maria Liguori

There is nothing inherent in an artificial language which makes it incompatible with being as complex as an already existing language.

As to powerful, well, that partly depends on vocabulary, and when Helge Fauskanger translates the Bible (or a Protestant pirate copy of it) to Quenya, as well as when Esperantists use their favourite conlang in contexts not foreseen by Zamenhoff, they sometimes resort to making new vocabulary.

Does that clear up the question, Tolkienophobe?

Q IX

Did J.R.R. Tolkien create all of the languages in his works, or did he draw inspiration from other sources? If he did borrow, where did he find inspiration for these languages?
https://www.quora.com/Did-J-R-R-Tolkien-create-all-of-the-languages-in-his-works-or-did-he-draw-inspiration-from-other-sources-If-he-did-borrow-where-did-he-find-inspiration-for-these-languages/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

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

6.VIII.2024

Transfiguration of the Lord

I’ll give you a sample of inspirationS for Quenya.

Phonology: Finnish and Homeric Greek.
Verbal morphology: Greek.
Noun morphology: between Latin and Finnish, not all that far from Turkish, with some Greek inspired choices, like Genitive in -o.
Giving adjectives a separate ending from nouns: Esperanto.

Vocabulary:
alqua, swan — Icelandic álft (close enough to Sindarin alph, supposed cognate of alqua, so Sindarin was more directly inspired by Icelandic in this case, Quenya indirectly over reconstructing its cognate to alph)
pé, mouth — Hebrew
lá, no, not (one word for no) — Arabic
[different words for no — Greek had it too (and I think so has Arabic)]
ranca, hand or arm — Lithuanian
tulen, I come — Finnish
tiuca, thick — Scandinavian languages
serce (=serke), blood — probably a mixture of Greek “sarka” with Polish “serce” (sertse), the one meaning flesh and the other heart, the things that blood flows between.

In other words, since he was widely read in languages, he was able to get inspirations from so many different of them that the result is an original thing. Reminds me of a Greek professor. Mine, actually. He said (of papers, not conlangs) “use one source, it’s plagiarism, use two, it’s compilation, use three [or more], it’s original research”

The point being, on Professor Blomqvist’s criteria, Tolkien did certainly not plagiarise one language.

EDIT: correction, the Greek professor didn’t say “use” he said “copy” …

Q X

Is it considered speaking a language if someone speaks a language that is not understood by anyone else? If so, what is this type of language called?
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-considered-speaking-a-language-if-someone-speaks-a-language-that-is-not-understood-by-anyone-else-If-so-what-is-this-type-of-language-called/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-2

Hans-Georg Lundahl

amateur linguist

11.VIII.2024

XII LD after Pentecost

Conlangers usually have some kind of plan to let people understand parts of their language.

But if they haven’t, that’s kind of the situation Tolkien found when he overheard someone say “I think I’ll express the accusative with a preposition” (he interpreted this as someone else also creating a conlang, which is reasonable).

A conlang that is not shared with anybody is called (and Tolkien called it) a “private language” … he thought the hobby was pretty common.

If you meant a very different situation, being the last speaker who speaks a language, and muttering your last words in it, and no one was interested in learning even a bit, yes, that’s speaking a language.

When it’s a language no one else longer understands or a language no one else as yet understands, it’s still a language and it’s not inherent in it that no one else should be understanding it at the moment, but due to external factors as in not yet sharing a conlang or no longer having co-nationals of one’s linguistic minority around.

Q XI

Were all the Elvish names in The Lord of the Rings invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, or were they already in existence before him?
https://www.quora.com/Were-all-the-Elvish-names-in-The-Lord-of-the-Rings-invented-by-J-R-R-Tolkien-or-were-they-already-in-existence-before-him/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

avid reader back when I had better sleep than now

17.VIII.2024

Any name in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion, that’s in either Quenya or Sindarin was, like these languages themselves, invented by Tolkien.

Some names were in existence before, but those are usually Norse names, sometimes Latinate ones, given as (equivalents of) the Westron of Men and Hobbits.

Elrond and Elros are Sindarin names, invented by Tolkien.

Sam Gamgee is a name in (the English equivalent of) Westron and not only was already in existence, but carried by a man who wrote Tolkien a worried letter. Lobelia Baggins is definitely a name that could exist in England, though I don’t think it did, and by now, any Baggins (if such) who named a daughter would probably want to avoid naming her Lobelia.

While The Shire is not on an island, it is meant as culturally equivalent to certain rural parts of England. Númenor, where Elros ruled some six thousand years before The Lord of the Rings, and Imladris / Rivendell where his brother Elrond still ruled when The Lord of the Rings started, well, they are meant to be mysterious, like Atlantis or like a Faerie, and Elfland. Therefore NOT to be culturally equivalent to rural England. Therefore in languages Tolkien invented, including names, which Tolkien also has to invent along with the languages.

Exception, Atalantë as a name of Númenor after it sank is obviously, if not identic to, at least clearly based on, Atlantis (which Númenor is supposed to represent).

Q XII

What is the equivalent of a language in Tolkien's world?
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-equivalent-of-a-language-in-Tolkiens-world/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

avid reader back when I had better sleep than now

26.VIII.2024

Two examples:

• English is the equivalent of Westron
• Anglo-Saxon is the equivalent of Rohirric.

This makes Westron and Rohirric, at least in relation to the novel fictitious languages rather than constructed ones.

The point is, if the setting is NW Europe in the times when Doggerland was above water (before there was an English Channel), it is basically impossible anyone would have been speaking English for real. The English is the equivalent of the most used language in the narrative, and this because, as unlike Sindarin or Quenya, Westron was not exotic to main characters, it is represented with its “equivalent” English, as English is not exotic to us.

Rohirric as related to Westron is treated with Anglo-Saxon equivalent, because in each case there is a close relation, and even so no complete intercomprehension, if you have not learned the other language.

If you write a novel in English, you won’t make its main characters speak a very different language (apart from when it’s set in India or Africa within English colonies where some speak Hindi or Kwazulu or Igbo). You will usually reserve other languages (real-world or constructed ones for a fantasy setting) for other characters.