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:''For Elvish languages in general, see Elvish languages.'' J. R. R. Tolkien constructed many Elvish languages. These were the languages spoken by the tribes of his Elves. Tolkien was a philologist by profession, and spent much time on his constructed languages. The Elvish languages were the first thing he imagined for his secondary world. Tolkien said that his stories grew out of his languages. Tolkien also created scripts for his Elvish languages, of which the best known are the Sarati, the Tengwar, and the Cirth. == External history == J. R. R. Tolkien began to construct his first ''Elvin tongue'' c. 1910–1911 while he was at the King Edward's School, Birmingham and which he later named ''Quenya'' (c. 1915). At that time, Tolkien was already familiar with Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and several ancient Germanic languages, Gothic, Old Norse and Old English. He had invented several cryptographic codes (one called Animalic), and two or three constructed languages (one called Naffarin). He then discovered Finnish, which he described many years later as "like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."〔Letter number 214, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.〕 He had started his study of the Finnish language to be able to read the Kalevala epic. Tolkien with his Quenya pursued a double aesthetic goal: "classical and inflected".〔Parma Eldalamberon 17, p. 135〕 This urge, in fact, was the motivation for his creation of a 'mythology'. While the language developed, he needed speakers, history for the speakers and all real dynamics, like war and migration: "It was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of ‘history’ for Elvish tongues".〔Tolkien, J. R. R ''The Lord of the Rings'' "Foreword to the Second Edition".〕 The Elvish languages underwent countless revisions in grammar, mostly in conjugation and the pronominal system. The Elven vocabulary was not subject to sudden or extreme change; except during the first conceptual stage c. 1910–c. 1920. Tolkien sometimes changed the "meaning" of an Elvish word, but he almost never disregarded it once invented, and he kept on refining its meaning, and countlessly forged new synonyms. Moreover, Elven etymology was in a constant flux. Tolkien delighted in inventing new etymons for his Elvish vocabulary. From the onset, Tolkien used comparative philology and the tree model as his major tools in his constructed languages. He usually started with the phonological system of the proto-language and then proceeded in inventing for each daughter languages the many mechanisms of sound change needed. In the early 30s Tolkien decided that the proto-language of the Elves was Valarin, the tongue of the gods or Valar: "The language of the Elves derived in the beginning from the Valar, but they change it even in the learning, and moreover modified and enriched it constantly at all times by their own invention."〔J.R.R. Tolkien, "Lambion Ontale: Descent of Tongues", Tengwesta Qenderinwa 1, Parma Eldalamberon 18, p. 23.〕 In his ''Comparative Tables''〔Parma Eldalamberon, 19, pp. 18–28〕 Tolkien describes the mechanisms of sound change in the following daughter languages: ''Qenya, Lindarin'' (a dialect of Qenya), ''Telerin, Old Noldorin'' (or ''Fëanorian''), ''Noldorin'' (or ''Gondolinian''), ''Ilkorin'' (esp. of Doriath), ''Danian of Ossiriand, East Danian, Taliska, West Lemberin, North Lemberin, and East Lemberin''. In his lifetime J.R.R. Tolkien never ceased to experiment on his constructed languages, and they were subjected to many revisions. They had many grammars with substantial differences between different stages of development. After the publication of ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954–1955), the grammar rules of his major Elvish languages Quenya, Telerin and Sindarin went through very few changes (this is late Elvish 1954–1973). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elvish languages (Middle-earth)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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