Tolkiens quennya was perhaps, so I hear, inspired by Finnish. Many people, who perhaps know what they are speaking of, claim there to be similiarities.
A Finn can to a great degree pronounce elvish "as it is written." Not so when pronouncing english. Perhaps it is understandable that Tolkien elected this base. Some kind of panel some time ago elected finnish pronounciation to be the most beautiful. If this rumor is true, then I can state for a fact that the electorate has never heard words like "Rääkkääkkään" being used. (base verb: (to) rääkätä. = to pester, to tease etc.)
Tolkien was a linguistic and spoke Finnish to a degree though he never mastered it. Indeed I am yet to meet a person to learn it in adulthood and become fluent.
There perhaps is also a similarity in the structure, as Quennya like Finnish seems to rather bend the base word, then to add "in's" and "of's" and "to's" (to a degree that "ratsastuttajattaretta" means "without a woman to make one ride (a horse)", base verb being ratsastaa = to ride )
Once I said that Finnish language has the predicament of being related to practically only Estonian and not at all to any major language. The fellow with whom I was discussing grinned and said "are you forgetting the eleven language." Fact remains however that I do not know whether a true relation exists. Similarities do.
JH
Ps. You know, herenistarion, I knew Kalevala to have been translated to many languages (about 40), though I have to admit that I was not even aware that Georgia had own language. I suppose from now on I have no business getting offended if someone thinks that we here in Finland speak Russian [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] . For some reason the national epics tend to get translated to many languages, but the amounts of copies tend to remain small. They seem to be a form of literature that interrests only few people.
[ September 30, 2002: Message edited by: bombur ]
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