Sound and language in Middle-earth: Difference between revisions

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Tolkien explained in the essay that the person inventing a language must address the "fitting of notion to oral symbol", and that the pleasure in such invention derives mainly from the "contemplation of the relation between sound and notion". He went so far as to state that he was "personally more interested perhaps in word-form in itself, and in word-form in relation to meaning (so-called phonetic fitness) than in any other department".{{sfn|Tolkien|Tolkien|1983|pp=206, 211}}

The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] notes that in ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', the poem ''[[A Elbereth Gilthoniel]]'', written in [[Sindarin]], one of Tolkien's invented Elvish languages, is presented directly without translation:{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=129–131}}<ref>A similar view is voiced in {{cite journal |last=Robbins |first=Susan |year=2013 |title=Beauty in language: Tolkien's phonology and phonaesthetics as a source of creativity and inspiration for ''The Lord of the Rings'' |journal=Žmogus ir žodis ['Man and Word'] |issue=1 |pages=183-191 |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/21979431/beauty-in-language-tolkiens-phonology-and-biblioteka }}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>A Elbereth Gilthoniel