The language of Dale[1] was the tongue spoken by the Men of Dale and as a Northern language, it was related to Rohanese and, more distantly, to Westron.
History
Most of the people of Dale like most of the ancestors of the people of Rohan were descended from the Edain of the First Age or from a people closely related with them. As a consequence, their language was related to the Adûnaic of the Edain who had migrated to Númenor at the beginning of the Second Age and had preserved a likeness to the Common Speech who was descended from Adûnaic.[2]
Many of the high-sounding names of old Hobbit families, such as the Tooks and the Bolgers closely resembled the names of Men in the Vale of Anduin where the ancestors of the Men of Rohan had lived, in Rohan or in Dale, because most of these seem to have been taken from legends of the past of Men and of Hobbits.[1][note 1]
The language of Dale was adopted by the Dwarves from that region, such as the Dwarves of Erebor. In fact they used names from the language of Dale as their "outer" names,[1] because it was a taboo to use their true, original names in their own language Khuzdul when talking with persons from other races.[3]
The writing system used by the Men of Dale was an old and simple form of the Cirth.[4]
Translation
In Tolkien's stories names of Dwarves in the language of Dale were represented by names in Old Norse,[3] a language related to Old English and modern English, because the language of Dale was related to Rohanese and Westron.[2] If the language of Dale and the Long Lake would have appeared in The Lord of the Rings, it would have been represented as "more or less Scandinavian in character".[3] In a note on a page dated 9 February 1942 about the fictitious translation of the languages of the Shire, Dale, and Rohan, he specified that the language of Dale[note 2] was represented by Norse and that it was used by the Dwarves of the region of Dale.[5][6]
Name
A suggested name for the language of Dale is Dalian.[7] Another "invented" name commonly used by fans is Dalish.[8][9]
Other versions of the legendarium
An earlier manuscript version of what would later become Appendix F states that the name Stoor seemed to have originally meant "big" and that this word was common in "the language of Dale".[10] This version also mentions that Scandinavian stor- means "big".[11]
An earlier manuscript version of what would later become the chapter "A Knife in the Dark" mentions that Cram was a word in the language of the men of Dale and the Long Lake.[12] In the final published version of the chapter "Farewell to Lórien", Gimli only says after trying lembas "I thought it was only a kind of cram, such as the Dale-men make for journeys in the wild".[13]
Notes
- ↑ The relationship of the languages can be seen in Brand, the name of a king of Dale, Ferdibrand, the name of a Hobbit, and Erkenbrand, the name of the lord of Westfold in Rohan.
- ↑ In the note on the page dated 9 February 1942, Tolkien capitalized "Language of Dale", though this is most likely because the "L" is simply at the beginning of the second line.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "On Translation", p. 1135
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", "Of Men", p. 1129
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 144, (dated 25 April 1954)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, "Writing". p. 1118
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", Commentary, §58, p. 70
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Treason of Isengard, "XXIII. Notes on Various Topics", p. 424
- ↑ Andreas Moehn, "Etymologies of the Atani Languages" (accessed 26 March 2011)
- ↑ "Breelendish, a Welsh-style Conlang" (message 33106; 12 March 2006) at Elfling mailing list (accessed 27 March 2011)
- ↑ "Scandinavians in Middle-earth?" (message 1075; 15 July 1999) at Elfling mailing list (accessed 27 March 2011)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", manuscript F 2, §24
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "II. The Appendix on Languages", manuscript F 2, §56
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Return of the Shadow, "The First Phase: X. The Attack on Weathertop", p. 177
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "Farewell to Lórien", p. 369