The Etymologies is a document edited by Christopher Tolkien which appears in the History of Middle-earth: The Lost Road and Other Writings. It is as Christopher Tolkien wrote: "a remarkable document". It is essentially a list of "roots" which J. R. R. Tolkien used as building blocks in creating the Elvish languages of Arda, namely Quenya and Sindarin. Christopher Tolkien said in his introduction that his father was "more interested in the processes of change than he was in displaying the structure and use of the languages at any given time", in linguistics terms, J. R. R. Tolkien preferred diachronic investigation and creation of his own languages than synchronic. Christopher Reuel Tolkien (born November 21, 1924) is best known as the third son of author J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), and as the editor of much of his fathers posthumously published work. ... The History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books that collect and analyse material relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. ... ... The Lost Road and Other Writings is the fifth volume of The History of Middle-earth, a series of compilations of drafts and essays written by J. R. R. Tolkien. ... John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. ...

Sundokarme: Base Structure

Christopher Tolkien stated that his father "wrote a good deal on the theory of sundokarme or 'base structure'...but like everything else it was frequently elaborated and altered..." This problem is the largest and perhaps most frustrating in observing Tolkien's languages - his niggling as he called it. Yet the published version of 'The Etymologies' must suffice and is essential in studying Tolkien's languages. When creating an artificial language, there are three vital steps: phonology, vocabulary and then grammar. Tolkien needed to create a bare and raw base form in which elaborations could be used to modify the root into a vocabulary which sounded beautiful and functioned correctly in a grammatical context. So the roots were by no means a displayed, complete vocabulary, they were abstractions in which elaborations and modifications could be performed upon to generate a language.

Examples

The following examples serve to illustrate how Tolkien used the roots to create words in his Elvish languages:

1. BAD- *bad- judge. Cf. MBAD. Not in Quenya. Noldorin [Archaic/Old Sindarin]bauð (bād) judgement; badhor, baðron judge.

2. TIR- watch, guard. Quenya tirin I watch, past tense tirne; Noldorin tiri or tirio, past tense tiriant. Quenya tirion watch-tower, tower. Noldorin tirith watch, guard; cf. Minnas-tirith [From root MINI].

What Is The Point?

Using roots in creating one's own artificial language is vital yet not so much a pre-requisite for language creation. Look at Esperanto: it has no base of roots which it relies upon for vocabulary and is the most successful artificial language in history. However, Esperanto is a mixture of modern Romance languages which is essentially another 'European' language generated via other languages' vocabulary. When creating a language a-priori or based in a world of fantasy or removed from reality, then it will be essential to construct some sort of base. The way in which Tolkien achieved delight in creating his own languages is viewing how they changed. This is unfortunately why he never sat down and persisted in completing a language because he was constantly "dissatisfied" with it. To be successful then, you must be determined to achieve a somewhat concrete form of your language and not to change the 'base' too much. The changes should emulate a real language's history. If you go back like Tolkien and fiddle around with the roots, then you can never create a uniform, stable or 'true' language like German or English or Latin. These languages of our own world derived from roots in a Proto language. These roots changed over time and were elaborated into different forms which created a whole series of daughter tongues. It was physically impossible to alter these roots because the laws of diachronic linguistics state that language changes over periods of time in space by generations of people. So we have learned two things from Tolkien's sundokarme method:

1) Create a foundation of roots which will form your language(s) and which will provide vocabulary through phonological change.

2) Do not go back (like Tolkien) and niggle constantly with the roots or else you will have to change your entire vocabulary to create a logical progression from the new changed root to the old derived vocabulary.

This is the key to language creation and vocabulary building, and it is thanks to Professor Tolkien that the art of language creation has now reached new heights - that is, if you are prepared to undertake such a daunting yet no doubt rewarding task.