Editing Middle Earth (section)

==Languages==
Being a linguistics professor, languages were a huge deal to Tolkien and play a major role in the setting.

* '''Quenya''' - the older Elvish language and primarily spoken by the elves who reached the Undying lands. In Middle Earth, its mainly used as a ceremonial language by both elves and the men of Gondor.
* '''Sindarin''' - the other Elvish language; because the Sindar were the dominant group of Elves in Middle Earth and due to the misdeeds of the Sons of Fëanor, Quenya was forbidden from being spoken in the Sindar kingdom of Doriath, thus causing Sindarin to become the most commonly spoken language by Elves in the First Age. It would retain its dominance in the later ages of Middle Earth, and is a commonly spoken language among educated Men. As such, it's the most complete language in the Lord of the Rings.
* '''Westron''' - aka the "Common Tongue." This language is rendered as English in the books, but some original Westron words appear in the books. Westron is a descendant of Adunaic, with elvish influences. Westron is the dominant language of the Men of the West, and is also used by Hobbits and Dwarves.
* '''Rohirric''' - the language of the men of Rohan. Rohirric is rendered as Old English to show the relationship between the men of Rohan and the men of Gondor. Hobbits picked up a few Rohirric words during their migration from Wilderland to the Shire.
* '''Dalish''' - The language of the men of Dale; because the Dalish are very distantly related to the men of Gondor, Dalish is rendered as Old Norse.
* '''Adunaic'''- The language of the men of Númenor, and derived from the dialects of the Edain. After Númenor became split between the King's Men and Faithful, the King's Men used Adunaic exclusively as they hated all things Elvish.
*'''Khuzdul''' - The language of the Dwarves. Dwarves do not speak Khuzdul in everyday conversation and don't normally teach it to outsiders, and indeed the Petty-dwarves sharing their Khuzdul names openly was part of the reason the little shits were exiled. It is very distinct in sound from both Elvish and Mannish languages.
* '''Entish''' - The language of the Ents. Notable for being very slow to speak, because the Ents believe that anything worth saying takes a long time to say. It presumably sounds like random tree creaking and rustling.
* '''Black Speech''' - Sauron's invented language. Derived from the elvish languages, though made deliberately to sound harsh by removing any pleasant phonetics, such as the letter "e," because it forces the speaker to smile. Used somewhat by Orcs, who mostly prefer to use some vulgar form of pre-existing languages, although they frequently bastardized in loan-words from Black Speech into the resultant mess of a language that was typically called ''Orkish''. Pure Black Speech was typically only spoken by Black Númenóreans directly serving Sauron (such as the Mouth of Sauron), the Nazgûl, and whatever Shadow Cultists existed among the Wicked Men and subjugated peoples.
** '''Orkish''' - An absolute trainwreck of a language spoken by Orcs. This "language" is not in anyway a unified language, with there being as many variations as there groups of Orcs; i.e. Mordor Orcs speak one dialect while Orcs from the Misty Mountains speak another, and even then different tribes amongst the Misty Mountains Orcs may speak their own dialect! The dysfunction of this language is one of the primary motivating factors for Sauron creating Black Speech, in the hope that his subordinates would finally be able to easily communicate with each other. Add one part debased Westron (usually just the profanities), one part Black Speech, and two parts of whatever words that the local Orcs in the area have made up for their dialect and you have Orkish!
[[Category:The Lord of the Rings]]