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 also later etymological essays often derived terms common to Eldarin languages to 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 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 origina lsemantic unity among sign, signifier and signified, which then fragmented into more complex systems, resulting to speech and naming. According to Smith, Tolkien's views coincide with those of Owen Barfield's.

External links

• Primitive Quendian page at Ardalambion