Lhammas
The Lhammas (pronounced /ˈɬɑmɑs/) is a work of fictional sociolinguistics by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987), volume five of The History of Middle-earth series. The word lhammas is a Noldorin word meaning "account of tongues". In Tolkien's later development of Sindarin he changed the rules governing initial l- and r- whereby they ceased being devoiced, resulting in the word becoming lammas (/ˈlɑmɑs/).[1][2]
Theory
The Lhammas as published presents the theory that all the
- Oromëan, named after Men are Oromëan.[3]
- Aulëan, named after
- Melkian, named after the rebellious Orcs and other evil beings. (This tongue is unrelated to the Black Speech of Sauron.)[3]
Tolkien later revised this internal history. The Elves were said by Tolkien to have been capable of inventing (constructing) their own language. Tolkien never wrote an 'updated' version of the Lhammas that would be coherent with this later internal history of the Elvish languages. The essay as it stands in
Concept and creation
The Lhammas was written in 1937. It exists in two versions, the shorter one being called the Lammasathen. Both are published, as edited by Christopher Tolkien, in The Lost Road.[4][3]
The Lhammas and related writings like "
Ósanwe-kenta
The Ósanwe-kenta, or Enquiry into the Communication of Thought, was written as a typescript of eight pages, probably in 1960, and was first published in
References
- ^ Strack, Paul (15 May 2022). "S. Lammas". Eldamo — An Elvish Lexicon. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
A book by Pengolodh describing the Elvish languages, translated "Account of Tongues" [...] Tolkien wrote an excerpt from this book in the 1930s, first titled Lammas but soon revised to N[oldorin] Lhammas, because initial [r-], [l-] were unvoiced in his conception of the language during this time. Later the name changed back to S[indarin] Lammas when Tolkien abandoned this particular phonetic development.
- ^ For the single m in the pronunciation cf. Strack, Paul (15 May 2022). "S. [mm] shortened". Eldamo — An Elvish Lexicon. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
In Sindarin and Noldorin, where combinations of [m] and labials had simplified to long [mm], this long [mm] further reduced to [m] [...] In transcription, it was using written as a single m unless the preceding syllable was stressed, in which case it was sometimes written mm to indicate where the stress fell. It seems sometimes Tolkien wrote mm purely for aesthetic reasons. For example: [...] S[indarin] Lammas "Account of Tongues" [...] vs. lam "tongue, language"
- ^ ISBN 0-395-45519-7.
- ^ Fimi 2009, pp. 73, 102.
- ^ Flieger 2002, p. 71.
- Vinyar Tengwar, issue 39, 1998
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-2302-1951-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8733-8744-6.