Language Influences

[Elianna]

We all know of the heavy influences of Finnish on Quenya and Welsh on Sindarin, but how do you think the other languages Tolkien knew influenced his Middle-earth languages?

I've found that in Númenor, they added '-nya' to the end of words to make it an affectionate diminuitive (ie 'onya': son plus this ending, and 'tatanya': father plus this ending.) These words are from "Aldarion and Erendis" in The Unfinished Tales. This seems similar to Russian, of which Tolkien had a working knowledge (ie Rodion -> Rodya, Sofya -> Sonya).

I've also noticed that Elvish 'ae', 'au', and 'ei' are pronounced the same as those vowel combonations would be pronounced in Latin.

What other connections have you guys made?

[Boromir88]

The language of Middle-Earth is one that isn't one of my more interested topics, but I did notice one thing, lol.

I believe this is an anglo-saxon based word, Sylvan-creatures of the "wood." Or "wooded creatures." I would imagine Tolkien used "Silvan" based off the anglo-saxon word, Silvan-elves, live in woods, fond of woods. Ya, lol.

[Elennar Starfire]

Well, I noticed a certain similarity between Cirth and Anglo-Saxon runes.

[Elianna]

Yeah, the Angerthas are based on Anglo-Saxon runes, but more interesting is that the Mode of Dale, used in The Hobbit on Thorin's Map, are exactly the futhork, as Anglo-Saxon runes are called.

And about what I said in my first post about Latin and Elvish being pronounced similarly: Tolkien meant to do that. In Appen. F, Tolkien explains that since Quenya was the "Elvish-Latin," he used the Latin pronounciation rules for Quenya (and some Sindarin).

[Elennar Starfire]

Hmm...I know the futhark. I shall have to go look at that again...