Animalic: Difference between revisions
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'''Animalic''' was a private language invented by [[Mary Incledon]] and [[Marjorie Incledon]], Tolkien's young cousins, around [[1905]]. Tolkien, then about ten years old and already strong in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, found it amusing and learned it. The only surviving fragment of the Animalic is the phrase given by Tolkien in [[The Monsters and the Critics]] p. 200: Dog nightingale woodpecker forty, meaning "you are a donkey" | '''Animalic''' was a private language invented by [[Mary Incledon]] and [[Marjorie Incledon]], [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s young cousins, around [[1905]]. [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]], then about ten years old and already strong in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, found it amusing and learned it. The only surviving fragment of the Animalic is the phrase given by [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]] in [[The Monsters and the Critics]] p. 200: Dog nightingale woodpecker forty, meaning "you are a donkey". Forty was the Animalic word for "donkey" while donkey was the word for 40. It appears that the Animalic was a rather awkward language; certainly it was not rational that extremely frequent grammatical words like "are" or the article "one / one" be rendered by long words like nightingale and woodpecker. We will never know how many animal words [[Mary Incledon|Mary]] and [[Majorie Incledon|her sister]] made. Tolkien's judgment is harsh, but justified : the Animalic was "raw ... to the extreme" (MC: 200). However, he was one of his very first acquaintances in invented language, perhaps the first. And he was going to generate the [[Nevbosh]] - the first invented language to which [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]] contributed. |
Revision as of 18:06, 7 February 2020
Animalic was a private language invented by Mary Incledon and Marjorie Incledon, Tolkien's young cousins, around 1905. Tolkien, then about ten years old and already strong in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, found it amusing and learned it. The only surviving fragment of the Animalic is the phrase given by Tolkien in The Monsters and the Critics p. 200: Dog nightingale woodpecker forty, meaning "you are a donkey". Forty was the Animalic word for "donkey" while donkey was the word for 40. It appears that the Animalic was a rather awkward language; certainly it was not rational that extremely frequent grammatical words like "are" or the article "one / one" be rendered by long words like nightingale and woodpecker. We will never know how many animal words Mary and her sister made. Tolkien's judgment is harsh, but justified : the Animalic was "raw ... to the extreme" (MC: 200). However, he was one of his very first acquaintances in invented language, perhaps the first. And he was going to generate the Nevbosh - the first invented language to which Tolkien contributed.