[littlemanpoet]

As requested by Helen, I'm going to give a little background into how Tolkien worked with language in LotR. First of all, let me just say that Linguistics (the study of language) is a fascinating hobby for me, and I'm not really an expert, I just happen to know a little something because I've taken a few courses in college, and just love the topic. Anyway.....

Modern English is loaded with borrowings from Greek, Latin, French, (and in the case of American English) Native American, German, Gaelic, and other languages as well. It's why modern English has such a huge and rich vocabulary.

But here's the rub: Tolkien stuck, as much as he could, with the roots of English, which are found in Anglo-Saxon, which is also known as Old English. There is actually quite a lot written in Old English, because with the acceptance of Christianity, Anglo-Saxons learned their letters. Thus, Old English works include "Beowulf", "Pearl", the Gospels, "Orfeo" (a story borrowed from Greek myth aka Orpheus), and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", borrowed from Celtic myth. The upshot is that we know what Old English vocabulary was like.

Moving on.

If you want to know what the Old English vocabulary was, by and large, read LotR, excluding Elvish words. There are exceptions, such as Frodo using the word "travelers", whereas the Old English choice would be "wayfarers", but by and large, Tolkien used Old English words.

In the 900's, the Vikings rampaged all over Europe, and conquered much of Scotland, Ireland, and England. Because of their influence, the Scots say "kirk" instead of "church". Just one example.

In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy in France, and forced his Norman French to be the accepted language of the upper classes for 200 years in England. Thing is, William's ancestors were Danish Vikings, so that his Norman French was a mix of Danish and French. Because of William, English has such words as: ... bailliff, beef, pork, guard, and so forth. You may wonder what the English called the meat of a pig before 1066. Well, pig. Or hog.

With the Renaissance, many Greek and Latin words entered the language. Greek words tend to be those associated with Medicine and Philosophy, such as cardiovascular, hermetic, encephalogram; and apology, philosophy, theology, etc. Any word ending in ology is Greek. Latin borrowings are a huge part of English. Any word ending in "tion" is from Latin. Deluded is Latin. So is ruin, believe it or not! Peregrine is Latin, as is pilgrim. Illustrate.

French words entered English, all over again, in the 18th century. Most words that have "ou" in them, or most other double vowels, are French. Trouble. Question.

German words tend to have to do with education. Kindergarten. Semester. One exception is Heck. It means Gate. Heck is an abbreviated way of saying "Gates of Hell".

I hope this helps. This is only the briefest and crudest presentation. I've tried to show that there are exceptions to every single one of the generalities I point to above. There you have it. If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask.

LMP