The Halethian language was the language of the Folk of Haleth, the Second House of the Edain.[1]
Very little is known about it, and it died out completely sometime between F.A. 501[2] and 542.[3][note 1][4]
History
Unlike the languages of the Folk of Hador and Bëor, which were somewhat intelligible to each other, the Halethian language was completely unrelated to the two, or, at any rate, it split off from the ancestor of the former two a very long time ago by the time that the Folk of Haleth reached Beleriand.[5]
The language was already going extinct even before Túrin Turambar, a tragic hero of the First Age, came to Brethil in F.A. 496.[1][6]
Etymology and other names
Who told you, and who sent you?
The term Halethian is likely a combination of the name Haleth (the legendary chieftainess of the Haladin in the First Age) + the suffix -ian ("from, related to, or like"): which ultimately traces its roots to the Latin -iānnus, which forms adjectives of belonging or origin from a noun.
The Halethian language was also called the language of the Folk of Haleth.
Wordlist
Other versions of the legendarium
...there is much else that may be told.
Originally, the name "Taliska" referred to the language of the Houses of Bëor and Haleth whereas it was the House of Hador that spoke another language, which would eventually be conceived as Adûnaic. In an early text by Tolkien, some words he labels as Taliska refer to terms which in the later version would be used by the Haladin. However, later, in the essay "Of Dwarves and Men" (published in The Peoples of Middle-Earth), Tolkien wrote that the Bëorians and Halethians did not speak related languages: The Hadorians still spoke "ancient Adûnaic", and the Bëorians had a closely related language; it was the language of Halethians that was unrelated to both of them (see pre-Númenorean).[7]
See also
- Pre-Númenórean languages (incl. Dunlendish, their direct descendant in the Third Age), akin to the Halethian language
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XII. The Problem of Ros", "Notes", Note 4, p. 372
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Three. The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings not forming part of the Quenta Silmarillion: I. The Wanderings of Húrin", entry 501, pp. 257-8
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Three. The Wanderings of Húrin and Other Writings not forming part of the Quenta Silmarillion: V. The Tale of Years", entry 536, p. 348
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XII. The Problem of Ros", "Notes", Note 17, p. 374
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XII. The Problem of Ros", p. 368
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part One. The Grey Annals": §496, pp. 91-2
- ↑ Helge Fauskanger, "Mannish", Ardalambion, accessed 18 November 2014