Post by Móreadhiel on Jan 21, 2007 12:32:59 GMT -5
"So I see it in my thought. Would that trees might speak on behalf of all things that have roots, and punish things that wrong them."
-Yavanna, Of Aulë and Yavanna
"Conceived in the minds of the Valar during the First Music, the Ents alone of all the Kelvar were given the gift of speech so that they could protect the plants that could not speak for themselves. When the Elves awoke the Ents, they taught the trees their speech (Quenya), and learned the Ent's 'tree-talk.' However, we know very little about Old Entish, likely because it is too long and complex to be translated into any human tongue.
Old Entish happens to be extremely long-winded and complex. In Appendix F, Tolkien describes it as "slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed long-winded, formed of a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinguished tone and quality." In fact, it was so complex that no others were able to learn it, pronounce it, or write it down. There is no alphabet for Entish, because the sound structure is too complex 'for even the Elves to put down in letters.' The Ents never feared enough to keep their language secret, for no-one could learn it.
However, we do get many hints about how Old Entish sounded. It is (apparently) filled with many interjections and articles, seen in words like hoom; and in phrases like, "Hoom hm, hoom hm, how did it go? Room tum, room tum, roomty toom tum." [Treebeard, TTT]. As well, we know it is slow and rather musical sounds may have differed in meaning according to the pitch they were voiced at. Merry and Pippin note that:
. . .it sounded like boom boom rumboom boorar boom boom dahar boom boom dahar boom, and so on with a constant change of note and rhythm. Now an again they thought they heard an answer, a hum or a given sound, that seemed to come out of the earth, or from the boughs above their heads, or perhaps from the holes of trees. [Treebeard, TTT]
It could be assumed that Old Entish is sung rather than spoken; each vowel or consonant had many tones which altered meaning. It is also likely that, to conserve time, more than one Ent talked at a time, observed by the Hobbits during the Entmoot:
The Ents began to murmur slowly, first one joined and then another, until they were all chanting together in a long rising and falling rythym, now louder on one side of the ring, now dying away there and rising into a great boom on the other side. [Treebeard, TTT]
Though we have only one small piece of Old Entish to analyse, we can get a slight idea of how words were formed in this language. When talking to Merry and Pippin, Treebeard names the 'hill' in his own tongue, then tries to translate the name in hopes that the Hobbits will understand. He says, "A-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-burúmë," then follows with a description:
I do not know what the word is in outside languages, you know, the thing we are on, where I stand and look out on fine mornings, and think about the sun, and the grass beyond the wood, and the horses, and the clouds, and the unfolding of the world.
This description attaches emotional connotations to the word 'hill', and explains (in detail that may get repetetive to the non-Entish speaker) exactly what a hill is. It seems that the Ents try to honour things through their language, so they used a long, winding description to describe exactly how they felt about the object, and its place in the world. When Treebeard learns the Westron name for hill, he is rather displeased, for 'it is a hasty word for a thing that has stood here since this part of the world was shaped'.
There is one further example of the Entish system of naming things, but this is only a rendering by Treebeard into Westron/English and Quenya:
There was a great inrush of those, burárum, those evileyed - blackhanded - bowlegged - flinthearted - clawfingered - foulbellied - bloodthirsty, morimaite - sincahonda, hoom, well, since you are hasty folk and their full name is as long as years of torment, those vermin of orcs.
Here, he tries to describe the orcs, but finds their name too disgusting to utter any more. Note, however, the roundabout descriptions of orcs (given that this is but a small fragment of what is evidently a much longer word). Each attribute is mentioned many times, each with a slightly different shade of meaning (Morimaite-sincahonda means 'blackhanded-flinthearted' in Quenya). This extremely complex and repetitive grammar structure is another of the reasons why none but the Ents were able to speak Old Entish.
This method of naming inanimate objects may have carried over to naming sentient beings. Treebeard says, "Real names tell the story of things in Old Entish, as you might say." He then refuses to recount his name due to the great amount of time it would take, for he has 'lived a very long, long time; so my [Treebeard's] name is like a story'. As well, Treebeard notes that Bregalad (Quickbeam) was given his Elvish name when he was 'hasty,' and answered a question being posed to him by an elder Ent before the Ent was finished asking it. Pippin apparently makes note of this tradition, for during the Entmoot he wonders if 'Treebeard had to call the roll, how many days it would take to sing all the names'.
It is important to note that Treebeard's descriptions of Lothlórien and Fangorn Forest are not Old Entish, but rather Quenya words strung together as they would have been were they Old Entish. In Letter 230, Tolkien gives a translation of the two phrases:
Laurelindórenan lindelorendor malinorélian ornemalin.
Golden-song-land vale song-gold-land gold-tree-beach tree-golden.
'The valley where the trees in a golden light sing musically, a land of music and dreams; there are yellow trees there, it is a tree-yellow land.' (Treebeard's description of Lothlórien, TTT)
Taurelilómëa-tumbalemorna Tumbaletaurëa Lómëanor.
Forest-many-shadowed deep-valley-black deep-valley forested gloomyland.
'There is a black shadow in the deep dales of the forest.' (Treebeard's description of Fangorn Forest, TTT)
As Treebeard says, Entish 'is a lovely language, but it takes a long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a very long time to say.'
-Yavanna, Of Aulë and Yavanna
"Conceived in the minds of the Valar during the First Music, the Ents alone of all the Kelvar were given the gift of speech so that they could protect the plants that could not speak for themselves. When the Elves awoke the Ents, they taught the trees their speech (Quenya), and learned the Ent's 'tree-talk.' However, we know very little about Old Entish, likely because it is too long and complex to be translated into any human tongue.
Old Entish happens to be extremely long-winded and complex. In Appendix F, Tolkien describes it as "slow, sonorous, agglomerated, repetitive, indeed long-winded, formed of a multiplicity of vowel-shades and distinguished tone and quality." In fact, it was so complex that no others were able to learn it, pronounce it, or write it down. There is no alphabet for Entish, because the sound structure is too complex 'for even the Elves to put down in letters.' The Ents never feared enough to keep their language secret, for no-one could learn it.
However, we do get many hints about how Old Entish sounded. It is (apparently) filled with many interjections and articles, seen in words like hoom; and in phrases like, "Hoom hm, hoom hm, how did it go? Room tum, room tum, roomty toom tum." [Treebeard, TTT]. As well, we know it is slow and rather musical sounds may have differed in meaning according to the pitch they were voiced at. Merry and Pippin note that:
. . .it sounded like boom boom rumboom boorar boom boom dahar boom boom dahar boom, and so on with a constant change of note and rhythm. Now an again they thought they heard an answer, a hum or a given sound, that seemed to come out of the earth, or from the boughs above their heads, or perhaps from the holes of trees. [Treebeard, TTT]
It could be assumed that Old Entish is sung rather than spoken; each vowel or consonant had many tones which altered meaning. It is also likely that, to conserve time, more than one Ent talked at a time, observed by the Hobbits during the Entmoot:
The Ents began to murmur slowly, first one joined and then another, until they were all chanting together in a long rising and falling rythym, now louder on one side of the ring, now dying away there and rising into a great boom on the other side. [Treebeard, TTT]
Though we have only one small piece of Old Entish to analyse, we can get a slight idea of how words were formed in this language. When talking to Merry and Pippin, Treebeard names the 'hill' in his own tongue, then tries to translate the name in hopes that the Hobbits will understand. He says, "A-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-burúmë," then follows with a description:
I do not know what the word is in outside languages, you know, the thing we are on, where I stand and look out on fine mornings, and think about the sun, and the grass beyond the wood, and the horses, and the clouds, and the unfolding of the world.
This description attaches emotional connotations to the word 'hill', and explains (in detail that may get repetetive to the non-Entish speaker) exactly what a hill is. It seems that the Ents try to honour things through their language, so they used a long, winding description to describe exactly how they felt about the object, and its place in the world. When Treebeard learns the Westron name for hill, he is rather displeased, for 'it is a hasty word for a thing that has stood here since this part of the world was shaped'.
There is one further example of the Entish system of naming things, but this is only a rendering by Treebeard into Westron/English and Quenya:
There was a great inrush of those, burárum, those evileyed - blackhanded - bowlegged - flinthearted - clawfingered - foulbellied - bloodthirsty, morimaite - sincahonda, hoom, well, since you are hasty folk and their full name is as long as years of torment, those vermin of orcs.
Here, he tries to describe the orcs, but finds their name too disgusting to utter any more. Note, however, the roundabout descriptions of orcs (given that this is but a small fragment of what is evidently a much longer word). Each attribute is mentioned many times, each with a slightly different shade of meaning (Morimaite-sincahonda means 'blackhanded-flinthearted' in Quenya). This extremely complex and repetitive grammar structure is another of the reasons why none but the Ents were able to speak Old Entish.
This method of naming inanimate objects may have carried over to naming sentient beings. Treebeard says, "Real names tell the story of things in Old Entish, as you might say." He then refuses to recount his name due to the great amount of time it would take, for he has 'lived a very long, long time; so my [Treebeard's] name is like a story'. As well, Treebeard notes that Bregalad (Quickbeam) was given his Elvish name when he was 'hasty,' and answered a question being posed to him by an elder Ent before the Ent was finished asking it. Pippin apparently makes note of this tradition, for during the Entmoot he wonders if 'Treebeard had to call the roll, how many days it would take to sing all the names'.
It is important to note that Treebeard's descriptions of Lothlórien and Fangorn Forest are not Old Entish, but rather Quenya words strung together as they would have been were they Old Entish. In Letter 230, Tolkien gives a translation of the two phrases:
Laurelindórenan lindelorendor malinorélian ornemalin.
Golden-song-land vale song-gold-land gold-tree-beach tree-golden.
'The valley where the trees in a golden light sing musically, a land of music and dreams; there are yellow trees there, it is a tree-yellow land.' (Treebeard's description of Lothlórien, TTT)
Taurelilómëa-tumbalemorna Tumbaletaurëa Lómëanor.
Forest-many-shadowed deep-valley-black deep-valley forested gloomyland.
'There is a black shadow in the deep dales of the forest.' (Treebeard's description of Fangorn Forest, TTT)
As Treebeard says, Entish 'is a lovely language, but it takes a long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a very long time to say.'
