Re: Auxlangs and Orcs' Langs

J Y S Czhang wrote at 2004-03-16 16:32:39 (EST)
 > In a message dated 2004:03:16 08:24:01 PM, m.poxon@VIRGIN.NET writes:
 >
 > >I seem to remember somewhere in that essay he likens Esperanto to
 > >a creation of food hygienists rather than cooks, which given his
 > >view of such things tends to demonstrate his dislike of it (sorry,
 > >I don't have the quote to hand)
 > >
 > >Mike
 > >
 > >>
 > >
 > >> Unlikely, I'd say.  JRRT liked Esperanto, thought the idea of an
 > >> IAL a good one (in "English and Welsh" he mentions as one of the
 > >> external virtues of Welsh the fact that it is not "in
 > >> competition for the ruinous honor" of being a global lingua
 > >> franca), and particularly praised E-o over its competition as
 > >> being "the work of one man, and not a philologist" (an
 > >> artlangish auxlang, in fact).
 >
 >     I think you both are right. IIRC Tolkien was pretty favourable
 > to E-o in his younger days while his colleagues were gaga over
 > Ogden's Basic English, but as he got older his view changed and
 > became highly critical.
 >     What I am curious about is did Tolkien know of Otto Jesperson
 > (and Novial) and vice-versa...
 >

In a 1932 letter(?) to _The British Esperantist_ reproduced here:
http://donh.best.vwh.net/Languages/tolkien1.html

Tolkien writes that "N**" is "ingenious, and easier than Esperanto,
but hideous -- "factory product" is written all over it, or rather,
"made of spare parts" -- and it has no gleam of the individuality,
coherence and beauty, which appear in the great natural idioms, and
which do appear to a considerable degree (probably as high a degree as
is possible in an artificial idiom) in Esperanto -- a proof of the
genius of the original author..."

"N**" is presumed to be Novial by an editor (at what point the
editorial comments were made is not clear from that page, and I have
no further information).

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