In an older version of J.R.R. Tolkien's conception of the Languages of Middle-earth as expounded in the Lhammas, Oromëan is the language phylum to which all Elvish languages, such as Qenya, Kornoldorin and Ilkorin, belong. It is there contrasted with Aulëan, the language phylum of Khuzdul, the language of the Dwarves.
The Oromëan languages are so named because their ancestral language supposedly derives from the speech of Oromë, the Vala of the Forest, who was the first of the Valar to meet the Elves at Cuiviénen in Middle-earth.[1]
This concept was later dropped and it is mentioned that when Oromë found the Elves they already had devised by themselves Primitive Elvish.
See also
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, "Part Two: Valinor and Middle-earth before The Lord of the Rings, V. The Lhammas"