Rhûnnic

Rhûnic, also called Rhûnnic, was a language spoken by the Easterling mercenaries known as the Gaudrim in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

History

A summary of Tolkien’s attested human languages

Tolkien never refers to any "Rhûnic" language or people, but uses the broader category of "Easterlings", and the existence of Easterling languages is confirmed even though such languages were not fleshed out by Tolkien (outside of some names like Khamûl). Rhûnic, while allegedly based on one of Tolkien’s languages, was developed for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. In the words of the series composer Bear McCreary:

”

For this series, we always strive to ensure that music sung by soloists or choirs communicates meaning in text that is relevant to the culture the music represents. So, what language would the music of Rhûn be sung in? Rhûn is a large, mostly unexplored area in Tolkien’s published works, left intentionally vague. Tolkien scholars working on our series dug through Tolkien’s unpublished notes and used them to build the foundation of a Rhûnic language, one that has never been heard before by fans. Helping to expand one of Tolkien’s lesser-known languages into a vibrant musical culture was a true honor.

Inspiration

It is possible that Rhûnic is based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Hungarian-based language called Mágol, for which most of existent material remains unpublished.

Vocabulary

The following table contains all known Rhûnic words and their possible meanings.

Rhûnic word	Possible meaning(s)
aibesjar	our sister (? or carried, or far; if “our sister”, then possibly jar means “our”)
aišäd	shrine (sacred shrine?)
anže	forth (? or bring)
arkäd	throne
balan	far (? or carried, or our sister)
bil	in
bauvailun	unseen (? or threat)
bódi	sacred (? or beat)
če	and
dunšig	magic (? or dark magic)
dyúl	her (? or you, or some word indicating a command)
feč	thou
feg	thy/thine/your (genitive case of feč)
fú	under
gileg	bring (? or forth)
go	from
gorul	rise
hez	command (?)
i	the
j'	? (a prefix, possibly from je “to” or i “the”)
jai	with
je	to
ligrám	wings (? or white, or white wings, or beat)
lihiš	white (? or wings, or white wings, or beat)
lún	dark
lurg	threat (? or unseen)
naþa	servant
nädo	flesh (? or grant)
ní	command (?)
niganvil	? (likely a noun or noun phrase, possibly including a prepositional suffix)
*nim	root word relating to moon (? or light)
nimžil	moonlight
pängul	? (probably a verb in imperative form)
raib	border (either normal form or shortened form for use in a compound)
raibo	border (either normal form, or a marked noun declension, or perhaps containing a prepositional suffix -o, meaning “at”)
*šig	root word relating to magic
šigór	Istar, wizard, seemingly coined in relation to the adûnaic noun zigûr “wizard”
taugun	carried (? or far, or our sister)
þabul	grant (? or flesh)
þur	power, might
*žil	root word relating to light (? or moon)
žilid	splendor, maybe distantly related with noldorin silith ?

”

Given that nimžil means “moonlight” and žilid means “splendor”, it is likely that *žil is a root word meaning “light”, or something similar. In which case, nim would mean “moon”. Also, given that dunšig means “magic” (or “dark magic”?), and šigór means “Istar”, or “wizard”, it is likely that *šig is a root word with a meaning related to magic.

Fellowship of Fans.com "Rhûnic Revealed"

Phonology

There are no official sources to document the phonology of the language, the below data is an approximation

Letter(s)	IPA	English equivalent (if there is any)
A	a	The O in south.
Á, Â	aː	The A in far.
Ä	a, æ	The O in south or the A in map.
E	ɛ	The E in bell.
I	ɪ	The I in thin.
Í	iː	The IE in field.
O	o	The A in talk but shorter.
Ó	oː	The O in shore.
U	u	The OO in took.
Ú, Û	uː	The OO in tool.
AI	aj, aɪ̯	The I in mice.
AU	aw, au̯	The OU in mouse.
P	p	The P in pie.
B	b	The B in bait.
F	f	The F in friend.
V	v	The V in vine.
M	m	The M in mace.
N	n	The N in never.
D	d	The D in day.
Þ	θ	The TH in with.
K	k	The C in cape.
G	ɡ	The G in grace.
H	h, x	The H in how or the CH in loch.
L	l	The L in light.
R	r	The thrilled R.
S	s	The S in steep.
Z	z	The Z in wizard.
Š	ʃ	The SH in sheen.
Ž	ʒ	The S in vision.
Č	t͡ʃ	The CH in check.
J	j, ʒ, d͡ʒ	The Y in yes, the S in vision or the J in jeans.
Y	j	The Y in yes.
DY	dj, ɟ	The Czech and Slovak Ď or the Hungarian GY.
NG	ŋ	The NG in thing.
KH	x	The CH in loch.

Note that  only appears in Brânk while Û and KH only appear in Khamûl, the latter of which may not be included in Rhûnic.

Y only appears in the word DYÚL, so It might not represent a separate phoneme, but rather change the D sound into one that’s similar to the Czech and Slovak Ď or the Hungarian GY.

It is also possible that the N in the words NÍ and *NIM is pronounced as /ɲ/, the same way the N in the word new is in some dialects of English.

See also

• Rhûn (soundtrack)
• Sandstorm at the Well
• Rhûn: Portrayal in adaptations

External links

• Analysis of Rhûnic language on soundtrack on Reddit.com
• Rhûnic language? on Reddit.com
• The Lord of the Rings: Episode 202 on bearmccreary.com
• Rhûnic Revealed on fellowshipoffans.com