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{{Short description|Linguistic work by J. R. R. Tolkien}}
{{italic title}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
The '''{{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}}''' ({{IPA|/ˈɬɑ.mɑs/|lang=sjn}}; [[Sindarin#Creation|Noldorin]] for 'Account of Tongues') is a work of fictional [[sociolinguistics]], written by [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] in 1937, and published in the 1987 ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]'', volume five of ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'' series.

Tolkien, a [[philologist]], became fascinated by [[constructed language]]s, and invented stories to provide his languages with a suitable world, [[Middle-earth]]. This resulted in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. He peopled Middle-earth with [[Elves in Middle-earth|Elves]] and other races, and in the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} presented the theory that all [[languages of Middle-earth|Middle-earth's languages]] had a shared origin. In the document, he diagrammed the resulting "Tree of Tongues" and described the fictional history of the evolution of some 30 [[Elvish languages of Middle-earth|Elvish languages]].

Scholars have noted the realism of Tolkien's family of Elvish languages, analogous to the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] family, as well as his changing views of their linguistic history, which he shifted radically soon after creating the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}}. The result was that the Noldorin language described in the document and in the contemporaneous ''[[The Etymologies (Tolkien)|The Etymologies]]'', soon became the [[Sindarin]] found in ''The Lord of the Rings'', while the new Noldorin became just a dialect of [[Quenya]]; Tolkien redrew his "Tree of Tongues" accordingly.

== Context ==

=== Tolkien's philology ===

From his schooldays, [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] was in his biographer [[John Garth (author)|John Garth]]'s words "effusive about philology"; his schoolfriend Rob Gilson called him "quite a great authority on [[etymology]]".{{sfn|Garth|2003|p=16}} Tolkien was a professional [[Philology|philologist]], a scholar of [[Comparative linguistics|comparative]] and [[historical linguistics]]. He was especially familiar with [[Old English]] and related languages. He remarked to the poet and ''[[The New York Times]]'' book reviewer [[Harvey Breit]] that "I am a philologist and all my work is philological"; he explained to his American publisher [[Houghton Mifflin]] that this was meant to imply that his work was:<ref name="Letter 165"/>

{{blockquote|all of a piece, and ''fundamentally linguistic'' in inspiration. ... The invention of languages is the foundation. The 'stories' were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows.<ref name="Letter 165">{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#165 to [[Houghton Mifflin]], 30 June 1955 }}</ref>}}

The Tolkien scholar [[Verlyn Flieger]] writes that{{sfn|Flieger|1983|pp=5–7}}

{{blockquote|it is important to remember that all of Tolkien's studies, the focus of his profession, was a concentration on the importance of the word. His profession as philologist and his vocation as writer of fantasy/theology overlapped and mutually supported one another".{{sfn|Flieger|1983|pp=5–7}} }}

In other words, Flieger writes, Tolkien "did not keep his knowledge in compartments; his scholarly expertise informs his creative work."{{sfn|Flieger|1983|pp=5–7}} This expertise was founded, in her view, on the belief that one knows a text only by "properly understanding [its] words, their literal meaning and their historical development."{{sfn|Flieger|1983|pp=5–7}}

=== Middle-earth ===

Tolkien is best known as the author of the [[high fantasy]] works ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', both set in [[Middle-earth]].{{sfn|Carpenter|1977|pp=111, 200, 266 and throughout}} He [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|created a family of invented languages]] for [[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elves]], carefully designing the differences between them to reflect their distance from their imaginary common origin. He stated that his languages led him to create the [[A mythology for England|invented mythology]] of ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', to provide a world in which his languages could have existed. In that world, the [[Sundering of the Elves|splintering of the Elvish peoples]] mirrored the fragmentation of their languages.{{sfn|Shippey|2001|pp=228–231}}{{sfn|Flieger|1983|pp=65–87}}

== Text ==

The {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} was written in 1937. It exists in three versions. The two long versions, A and B, are closely similar, so [[Christopher Tolkien]] published B in ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]'', annotating it with A's minor variations on the text. The third, latest, and much the shortest version is the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lammasathen}}.{{sfn|Fimi|2009|pp=73, 102}}<ref name="Lhammas"/>

=== Theory of Middle-earth languages ===

The {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} as published presents the theory that all the [[languages of Middle-earth]] descend from [[Valarin]], the language of the angelic beings or Valar, and were divided into three branches:<ref name="Lhammas">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1987|loc=Part 2, chapter 5, "The Lhammas"}}</ref>

* Oromëan, named after [[Oromë]], who taught the first [[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elves]] to speak. All [[Elvish languages (Middle-earth)|languages of Elves]] and most languages of [[Man (Middle-earth)|Men]] are Oromëan.<ref name="Lhammas"/>
* Aulëan, named after [[Aulë]], maker of the [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarves]], is the origin of the [[Khuzdul]] language. It has had some influences on the Mannish languages.<ref name="Lhammas"/>
* Melkian, named after the rebellious [[Morgoth|Melkor]] or Morgoth, is the origin in the First Age of the many tongues used by the [[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orcs]] and other evil beings. This tongue is unrelated to the [[Black Speech]] that Sauron created.<ref name="Lhammas"/>

{{anchor|Tree of Tongues}}
[[File:Lhammas_Tree_of_Tongues.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.5|A detail of Tolkien's "Tree of Tongues" in the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}}. The tree summarises the development of the Elvish language family over thousands of years. Shown here is the process by which [[Noldorin]] becomes the language of the Elvish city of [[Gondolin]] in [[Beleriand]]; it would have had to evolve extremely rapidly to do so. Soon after the image was made, Tolkien radically reconstructed the history of the languages and of the Noldor Elves to make the language evolution fit the timeline better.{{sfn|Welden|2023|pp=12–29}}]]

The Elves developed the language they were taught into the language of the Laiquendi ('Green Elves') and Eldarin, the shared language of the [[Eldar (Middle-earth)|Eldar]]. This in turn gave rise to the languages of the [[Sundering of the Elves|three divisions of the Eldar]], Lindarin, Noldorin, and Telerin. What Tolkien called "Elf-[[Latin]]", [[Qenya]], the classical and ancient language of the Eldar, derived from Lindarin with influence from Noldorin.<ref name="Lhammas"/>

=== ''Ósanwe-kenta'' ===

The {{Transliteration|sjn|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 {{Transliteration|qya|[[Vinyar Tengwar]]}} (vol. 39) in 1998. Within its fictional context, [[Tolkien's frame stories|a frame story]], the text is presented as a summary by an unnamed editor of the last chapter of the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}}. The subject-matter is "direct thought-transmission" ([[telepathy]]), or {{Transliteration|sjn|sanwe-latya}} ("thought-opening") in [[Quenya]]. The frame story character Pengolodh included it as last chapter to the Lhammas because of the implications of spoken language on thought-transmission, and since the Incarnates (Elves and Men) use a spoken language, telepathy can become more difficult with time.<ref>''Ósanwe-kenta'', or ''Enquiry into the Communication of Thought'', ''[[Vinyar Tengwar]]'', issue 39, 1998</ref>

== Analysis ==

=== Frame story ===

{{further|Tolkien's frame stories}}

Tolkien [[Elvish languages of Middle-earth#With The_Lord of the Rings|later revised the internal history of the Elvish languages]], stating that the Elves were capable of constructing their own languages, but did not update the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} to be coherent with this. The document as it stands in ''The Lost Road and Other Writings'' can be thus seen as an [[Interpolation (manuscripts)|interpolated manuscript]], badly translated by Men in the [[Fourth Age]] or even later: "For many thousands of years have passed since the fall of [[Gondolin]]."<ref name="Lhammas"/> In [[Tolkien's frame stories|Tolkien's frame story]], no autograph manuscripts of the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} of Pengolodh remained; the three surviving manuscripts came from the original manuscript through an unknown number of intermediate copies.<ref name="Lhammas"/> A tradition of [[Philology and Middle-earth|philological study of Elvish languages]] exists within the fiction; Tolkien mentions that "The older stages of Quenya were, and doubtless still are, known to the loremasters of the Eldar. It appears from these notices that besides certain ancient songs and compilations of lore that were orally preserved, there existed also some books and many ancient inscriptions."<ref name="Tolkien phonology">[[J.R.R. Tolkien]], "Outline of Phonology", ''[[Parma Eldalamberon]]'' 19, 2010, p. 68.</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ Timeline of the supposed survival of the ''Lhammas''<ref name="Tolkien phonology"/>
|-
! style="width: 120px;" | Time
! style="width: 350px;" | Events
|-
| [[History of Arda#Years of the Sun|First Age]] 
| Elves in [[Beleriand]]; [[Fall of Gondolin]]; Beleriand destroyed<br/>The [[Found manuscript|Elf Pengolodh writes the ''Lhammas'']] in [[Sindarin]]
|-
| Second Age
| ([[Númenor]] drowned)
|-
| Third Age 
| ([[The Lord of the Rings|The War of the Ring]])
|-
| Fourth Age 
| Men find and translate the manuscript, badly, into [[Westron]]
|-
| Fifth Age  
| ———
|-
| Sixth/Seventh Age 
| Tolkien "[[Pseudotranslation in The Lord of the Rings|translates]]" the 4th Age manuscript into English
|}

=== Realistic language family ===

{{further|Elvish languages of Middle-earth}}

[[File:Middle-earth vs Indo-European language trees.svg|thumb|center|upright=2|[[Elvish languages of Middle-earth|Middle-earth Elvish]] and part of [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Family: Indo-European |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/indo1319 |website=Glottolog |access-date=31 May 2024}}</ref> trees as understood in Tolkien's time compared. Tolkien, a [[philologist]], was intensely interested in the evolution of language families, and modelled his fictional languages and their evolution on real ones.{{sfn|Smith|2020|pp=202–214}} The language names and evolution shown for Middle-earth are as used in the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}}.<ref name="Lhammas"/>]]

The {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} and related writings like "[[The Etymologies (Tolkien)|The Etymologies]]" illustrate Tolkien's conception of the [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|languages of Middle-earth]] as a [[language family]] analogous to [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], with diverging branches and sub-branches – though for the immortal Elves the [[proto-language]] is remembered rather than [[linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed]]. This "concept of increasing separation" was also employed for the [[Sundering of the Elves]] in Tolkien's legendarium.{{sfn|Flieger|2002|p=71}}{{sfn|Smith|2020|pp=202–214}}
The {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} indicates on Tolkien's diagrams of the "Tree of Tongues" that there were at various times some thirty Elvish languages and dialects.<ref name="Lhammas"/><ref name="Nolan 1988">{{cite journal |last=Hyde |first=Paul Nolan |year=1988 |title=Quenti Lambardillion: Turkish Delight |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=14 |issue=3 |at=Article 12 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss3/12}}</ref>

=== Changing views of Elvish linguistic history ===

{{further|The Etymologies (Tolkien)}}

After he had written the contemporaneous {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} and ''[[The Etymologies (Tolkien)|The Etymologies]]'' (also published in ''The Lost Road and Other Writings''), Tolkien decided to make Sindarin the major language of the Elves in exile in [[Beleriand]]. As such, it largely replaced Noldorin; eventually Tolkien settled on the explanation that after the [[Noldor]] returned to Beleriand from [[Valinor]], they adopted the language used by the [[Sindar]] ('Grey Elves') already settled there.<ref name="LROW Etym Intro">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1987|pp=377–385 (Christopher Tolkien's introduction)}}</ref> The {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} thus represents a stage in Tolkien's development of his Elvish languages (and of the [[Tolkien's legendarium|Silmarillion legendarium]]), documented also in ''[[The Etymologies (Tolkien)|The Etymologies]]'' and an essay, "The Feanorian Alphabet".{{sfn|Goering|2017|pp=191–201}}{{sfn|Welden|2023|pp=12–29}}

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=400 heights=250>
File:Elvish language evolution in the Lhammas.svg|Elvish language evolution as described in the ''Lhammas'' and assumed in ''[[The Etymologies (Tolkien)|The Etymologies]]'', 1937
File:Elvish language evolution after Lhammas 01.svg|Elvish language evolution once Tolkien had ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' under development, 1938 onwards. [[Sindarin]] has replaced Noldorin. The 'new' Noldorin is just the Noldor's not very distinct dialect of [[Quenya]].
</gallery>

Bill Welden, writing in ''Arda Philology'', comments that "the High-elven tongue of the Noldor", mentioned by the Tolkien figure [[Faramir]] in a draft of ''The Lord of the Rings'',<ref>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1990|loc=part 2, chapter 5}}</ref>{{sfn|Welden|2023|pp=12–29}} sounds, and looks from the "Tree of Tongues" in the {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}}, as if it must be [[Quenya]] "as we would expect". But, Welden writes, it's actually "almost exactly" Sindarin, which Tolkien derived from Welsh. Further, the version of ''The Lord of the Rings'' that he submitted to [[Allen & Unwin|his publisher]] relied on "pretty much" the same conception of the Elvish language family, with Noldorin instead of Sindarin as the language of [[Gondor]]. Tolkien tried several schemes to make the change to Sindarin work in terms of rates of linguistic change. Because the Noldor's use of Sindarin was rather sudden, he settled on a radically new scheme: when the [[Sundering of the Elves|Noldor arrived back in Middle-earth]] from [[Valinor]], they adopted the native language of [[Beleriand]] where they settled. The Elves of Beleriand were Sindar, [[Silvan Elves]] who had never gone to Valinor. The Noldor had been speaking Noldorin, a dialect of the ancient language of Quenya, and it had changed little, unlike Sindarin. The {{Transliteration|sjn|Lhammas}} and ''The Etymologies'' had been describing Sindarin (but calling it Noldorin). Tolkien hastened to redraw the "Tree of Tongues", in a version recorded in ''[[Parma Eldalamberon]]'' 18, to accommodate this restructuring.{{sfn|Welden|2023|pp=12–29}}

== References ==

{{reflist|24em}}

== Sources ==

* {{ME-ref|Carpenter}}   <!--Carpenter 1977 Biography-->
* {{ME-ref|Letters}}     <!--Carpenter 2023-->
* {{cite book |last=Fimi |first=Dimitra |author-link=Dimitra Fimi |title=Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits |title-link=Tolkien, Race and Cultural History |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-2302-1951-9 }}
* {{cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |year=1983 |title=Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World |title-link=Splintered Light |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8028-1955-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |title=Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World |title-link=Splintered Light |edition=revised |year=2002 |publisher=[[Kent State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8733-8744-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Garth |first=John |author-link=John Garth (author) |title=Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth |title-link=Tolkien and the Great War |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-00711-953-0}}
* {{cite journal |last=Goering |first=Nelson |title=The Feanorian Alphabet, Part 1; Quenya Verb Structure by J.R.R. Tolkien |journal=[[Tolkien Studies]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |date=2017 |issn=1547-3163 |doi=10.1353/tks.2017.0015 |pages=191–201 |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:30764/CONTENT/goering-2017-review-the-feanorian-alphabet-part-1-quenya-verb-structure-by-j.r.r.-tolkien.pdf/ <!--officially shared by the article's author-->|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |date=2001 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261-10401-3 |pages=228–231}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Arden R. |author-link=Arden R. Smith |chapter=Invented Languages and Writing Systems |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |editor-link=Stuart D. Lee |title=[[A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien]] |date=2020 |orig-year=2014 |publisher=[[Wiley Blackwell]] |isbn=978-1119656029 |oclc=1183854105 |pages=202–214}}
* {{ME-ref|LROW}} <!--Tolkien 1987 (for ''Lhammas'')-->
* {{ME-ref|WR}}   <!--Tolkien 1990-->
* {{cite book |last=Welden |first=Bill |chapter=How We Got Sindarin |title=Arda Philology 7: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on JRR Tolkien's Invented Languages, Omentielva Otsea, Hayward, 10-13 August 2017 |editor=Beregond, Anders Stenström |year=2023 |publisher=Arda |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXr7EAAAQBAJ&dq=Lhammas&pg=PA12 |isbn=9789197350075 |pages=12–29}}

{{Languages of Middle-earth}}
{{Middle-earth}}

[[Category:Tolkien linguistic studies]]
[[Category:The History of Middle-earth]]
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