> Well met, languagy campanionions!
>
> On 26/02/07, Sanghyeon Seo <sanxiyn@...> wrote:
> > 2007/2/22, Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>:
> > > I know some ppl here study Quenya. I found a textbook among the
> Wikibooks:
> > >
> > >
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/5/5d/Quenya_wikibooks.pdf
> > >
> > > What do you think, how reliable/trustworthy is it?
> >
> > I quickly skimmed it. It looks like a good summary of current
> > knowledges, in standard "reconciled" coursebook form.
> >
> > By "reconciled" I mean, it is done by the school who thinks writing a
> > coursebook on Quenya is possible at all, while "Quenya" itself is
> > continuum of ever-shifting fifty years of development, contradicting
> > itself. I also note that this book makes absolutely zero effort to
> > state how its materials were derived from Tolkien's writings, which is
> > a good fun of detective work but very fragile in many places.
> >
> > It's like "Gospel harmony", a similar futile attempt to reconcile
> > so-called "synoptic" gospels. No, it's much worse.
> >
> > To anyone trying to read any such Quenya coursebooks, I recommend
> > reading "Elvish as She Is Spoke" together to balance the view.
> >
> >
http://www.elvish.org/articles/EASIS.pdf
> >
> > From Tolkien's manuscripts, we know that he tried to write
> > comprehensive grammar of Quenya himself multiple times. He always
> > started with sounds, then etymology, and at one time he managed to pin
> > down the noun paradigm which is included in Appendix 1 of the above
> > coursebook. In all cases, he never reached the stage of writing down
> > the verb paradigm of Quenya, to say nothing of syntax. In the process
> > of writing he started to tinker with the language, which soon became
> > too extensive that he had to start from scratch.
> >
> > In one of his story, he let one of his character speak this line:
> > 'I've got something new!', he shouted. 'More than mere words. Verbs!
> > Syntax at last!' Alas, Quenya never reached that stage.
> >
> > --
>
> IMO, one cannot justifiably criticise attempts to create literature in
> Tolkienian Elvish (or quasi-Tolkienian Neo-Elvish) on the basis of
> that article, without paying due attention to the fact that the author
> concludes that, to coin a phrase "there is hope" of creating limited
> TE/TNE texts.
>
> Just a fool's hope.
>
> Jeff
>
>
> --
> Now, did you hear the news today?
> They say the danger's gone away
> But I can hear the marching feet
> Moving into the street
>
> Adapted from Genesis, "Land of Confusion"
>
>
http://latedeveloper.org.uk
>