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Dunlendish

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This article describes a concept which is mentioned in J.R.R. Tolkien's canonical works, but was never given a definite name.

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Dunlendish was the Mannish tongue used by the Dunlendings, who inhabited the lands west of the Misty Mountains and northward from the Gap of Rohan.

The language was akin to the language of the House of Haleth of the First Age and is almost completely lost, and only a single recorded word remains - forgoil, a Dunlendish word literally meaning 'strawheads', and used as an insult for their enemies, the Rohirrim.

At one time, a language akin to Dunlendish was spoken by some of the Hobbits of Stoor-kind, but by the later Third Age their descendants in the Shire had long abandoned it for the Common Speech.

The only analysis that can be done with some degree of credibility, is that the final part -il could be the plural marker of the word; then, it would be reminiscent to the Elvish partitive plural -li, and perhaps related.

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