by Brooke Wolfe

Created on: April 13, 2009   Last Updated: April 16, 2009

Linguistic Accomplishments in the Lord of the Rings

As with all good writing, fantasy begins with the proper words. All fantasy literature attempts to portray worlds foreign and exotic to our own, entire imaginary cultures that have complete sociological systems the reader believes could likely exist. Language serves as a very integral part of culture because a society cannot exist without words. Language plays such an important role in fact that a linguist can create a culture with a language in the same way "a biologist can reconstruct animal from a bone" (Noel 3). In essence, Tolkien does this in his trilogy of "Lord of the Rings". The invention of Middle Earth simply formed the setting of his created languages, believing that the "language shapes the way people view the world" (Shippey 116). An invented language sets the tone for the make-believe world. Benjamin Lee Whorf believed that language determines culture and our perception of reality; therefore, if an author wants his fantasy to seem believable or simply to entertain, then he needs to give his characters a way of speaking to make that possible. While the reader cannot consider fantasy literature as realistic, it often bestows upon him visions of something real, perhaps even a higher reality than the one in which he lives. The words he reads in fantasy shape that world and the behavior of the characters. This creation of languages acts as a fundamental unit of the kind of reality fantasies seem to portray. While some authors create imaginary languages, the concept of speaking is real and words play a huge part in everyday life. With the established importance that language has in society and society in fantasy, the connection between fantasy and language becomes clear. Because of the vast differences between each fantasy author, each tries to portray a different society, and therefore each takes a new linguistic approach to their writing for the creation of the proper setting; of these authors, Tolkien's philological intellect stands out.

With his trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," Tolkien created a cannon in relation to which all other critics must compare themselves. In his own life, he placed a huge emphasis on language and his writing reflects this interest. All the names of his characters take specific meaning; some have multiple meanings in other languages. Each race of characters speaks its own language, often a form which Tolkien invents himself. He creates fourteen different languages, several

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