Taliska[note 1] was a Mannish language spoken by the Edain of the House of Bëor and House of Hador.
History
The ancestors of the folk of Marach ("Greater Folk") and of Bëor ("Lesser Folk") were originally one group when they migrated to the West. In the northern Rhûn they met some Dwarves[1] who probably influenced their language.[2] It was at the Northern shore of the Sea of Rhûn that the tribes separated. They didn't meet often, and their languages soon diverged.[3]
The House of Bëor, at least, had long had dealings with the Nandor east of the Ered Luin and, having learned much of their speech, their language resembled the Elven-tongue in "many words and devices".[2][4] The Taliska spoken by these Men was thus considered a dialect of East-Danian.[5]
When the two tribes reached Beleriand, they already spoke different dialects. The language of the folk of Marach was more pure and they viewed the dialect of the folk of Bëor, with the adopted Elvish elements, of lower status.[2]
The language of the House of Bëor eventually almost went extinct, both because of the adoption of Sindarin and because the House was mostly annihilated after the Dagor Bragollach.[6] On the other hand, the House of Hador did not wholly abandon their language, it survived the War of Wrath and was still spoken when the Edain migrated to Elenna; thus it later became Adûnaic.[4]
Related languages
The Greater Folk seemed to have been related to the ancestors of the Northmen,[7] whose language eventually evolved in the various languages of the Northmen in the Third Age.[8]
The folk of Haleth spoke the unrelated Haladin tongue, which was unintelligible to the Houses of the Northern Tribes of Men.
Other versions of the legendarium
Helge Fauskanger and Ellen Schousboe noted several changes in the conception of Taliska:[9]
- The name "Taliska" later 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.
- Much 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 the Halethians that was unrelated to both of them (see pre-Númenorean).
The later conception establishes a wider Hadorian/Beorian language, which however is not given a name. The fate of the term Taliska is vague, and while it could refer to the Halethian isolate (cf. the older conception) it is used sometimes conventionally to refer to the Hadorian/Beorian family.
Inspiration
Taliska was an early language developed by Tolkien. Unlike his later languages which are a priori, it was based directly on the Germanic languages, and has a lot in common with the Gothic language, an early interest of Tolkien;[10] this shows that Tolkien tried to connect his mythos with the origins of Europe, something that was evident in The Book of Lost Tales.
The connection with Germanic persisted in the framework of The Lord of the Rings. The Mannish languages that would derive from Adûnaic, are rendered as Gothic, Norse, Old English, modern English, etc. Non-Taliskan languages are usually rendered with Celtic elements, if at all.[8] (q.v. for more references).
A rather complete grammar and syntax of Taliska is known to exist,[11] but despite work by Tolkienists, this has not yet been published.
Notes
- ↑ The name "Taliska" is used in this article conventionally. See #Other versions of the legendarium
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Jewels, "Part Two. The Later Quenta Silmarillion: Concerning the Dwarves (Chapter 13)"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "Of Dwarves and Men"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Peoples of Middle-earth, "XII. The Problem of Ros", Note 13
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Coming of Men into the West"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Forward", in Parma Eldalamberon XIX (edited by Christopher Gilson)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan", note 4
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F, "The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age", "Of Men"
- ↑ Helge Fauskanger, "Mannish", Ardalambion, accessed 18 November 2014
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Quenya Phonology", in Parma Eldalamberon XIX (edited by Christopher Gilson), p. 22
- ↑ 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", Commentary on the Lhammas, p. 192, footnote
External links
- Mannish in Ardalambion
- Questions About Taliska; Using Taliska Elfling forum thread