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Re: Fave Conlangs WAS: Silindion

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Monday, March 25, 2002, 21:56
Raymond Brown wrote:
>At 12:11 am +0100 23/3/02, Christian Thalmann wrote: > >That's a very interesting but tough question... > > > >- Quenya certainly ranks highest on my list. Tolkien tried hard to > >make it as beautiful as possible, and apart from the inexplicable > >omission of /Z/ he succeeded exceedingly well. > >Nothing inexplicable - Tolkien kept ugly sounds like /Z/ for things like >Sauron's 'Black Tongue' :)
Actually, /Z/ seems to be unattested in Tolkien's created languages - it doesn't even pop up in Black Speech or Valarin*, despite that the few words we know are quite rich in /s z S/. It seems that Tolkien' really despised /Z/. Neither does he seem to've liked /G/, which swiftly disappears everytime it turns up in the Elvish languages, but persists in Black Speech. * Language of the Valar (more-or-less gods), which the Elves found distateful. It features very long words, and a very large phonology (by Tolkien, and Western, standards - not by Khoisan ones!). Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com