Primitive Quendian
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Primitive Quendian is the proto-language of the Quendi, or Elves, which they spoke soon after their Awakening.
Primitive Quendian split into Common Eldarin and the many Avari languages. The etymologies published in The Lost Road and Other Writings and later etymological essays often derived terms common to Eldarin languages from Primitive Quendian bases, and a list of some Primitive Quendian words is given in an essay Quendi and Eldar (in The War of the Jewels).
See also: Languages
Inspiration
According to Ross Smith, the description of how Elves created languages encapsulate Tolkien's notions about the birth of language. In that primitive stage, there was an original semantic unity among sign, signifier, and signified, which then fragmented into more complex systems, resulting in speech and naming. According to Smith, Tolkien's views coincide with those of Owen Barfield.[1]
References
- ↑ Ross Smith, "Linguistic and Aesthetic Theory in Tolkien" Cormarë Series No. 12