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The Constructed Languages of JRR Tolkien (Patreon)

Published:
2020-07-17 13:04:39
Edited:
2020-07-17 13:12:22
Imported:
2026-06

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I hear u like elvish in your elves -- I wrote an hosted the latest episode of It's Lit, and today we are talking about Tolkien and conlangs! 

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The Constructed Languages of JRR Tolkien | It’s Lit

For more It’s Lit, subscribe to Storied: http://bit.ly/pbsstoried_sub Tolkien is widely regarded as the most influential author on the fantasy genre… period. But one of the less-discussed aspects of his work is the way Tolkien used constructed language in his writing. Nowadays authors are constantly making up words and languages for the worlds they build, but Tolkien was unique in that he constructed languages first, and then created worlds so his fictional languages would have somewhere to live. Hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, It’s Lit! is a show about our favorite books, genres and why we love to read. It’s Lit has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Hosted and Written by: Lindsay Ellis Director: David Schulte Executive Producer: Amanda Fox Producer: Stephanie Noone Editors: Derek Borsheim, Sara Roma Writing Consultants: Maia Krause Executive Producer (PBS): Adam Dylewski Editorial Producer (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/itslitpbs https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis https://twitter.com/weekesprincess Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/itslit_pbs/

Comments

Zachery Gaskins

This one was fascinating! If only you had had time to get to LangBelta, but I see The Expanse on your shelf so it's all good :D

Carl Sage

"Things tribal, yet futuristic... like the Papyrus font." 10/10.... Excellent!

Michał Sporzyński (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-14 06:00 Tolkien, the patron saint of every DM who spends 50+ hours fleshing out the campaign setting for his D&D game, then suddenly remembers to come up with an introductory adventure half an hour before the players arrive.
2020-07-17 13:45

Robert Bracey

Klingon is not developed until the first movie, it doesn't feature in the original series

Chris Snider

The passing mention of Dragon Age has me wondering if anyone on the team for this episode has some spicy Dragon Age hot takes. 👀

Rachel SJ

That analogy hits a little too close to home, lol!

Rachel SJ

I was forbidden to do a whole paper in high school on LOTR itself (I was such a Tina Belcher/Daria hybrid back in the day and kinda still am) so I did one on Tolkien. I was amazed at just how young he was when he started writing his own languages and grew even more respect for his work on crafting the whole of Middle Earth. I have Finnish ancestry and remember my grandma speaking it when I was a kid and could understand how Elvish and Finnish were related in certain ways. Btw, I NEED that shirt Lindsay is wearing!

Benjamin Preston

That was a great video. But honestly I'm just here to say I love Lindsay's shirt & I want one. 😄

Maria Tostado

I'm in this photo and I don't like it

Wet Blanket

I love all of the It's Lit videos to pieces.

JM

I did a dramatic reading from Tolkein for English class in 8th grade and got an "A".

2_Egg_Omlette

A few fantasy series have taken Welsh and other celtic languages as inspo for stuff and while it works well in LOTR (i can understand some of it!), The Witcher most recently used the phrase "Rhwydwaith carthion" for some herbal potion? Yea, that most closely translates to Sewage System....

Tim Hammack

I enjoyed this episode and have been wondering for awhile about how far the fantasy languages go. So much of modern English descends from idioms or words that have changed their meanings over time that I figure it would be extremely difficult to create a "truly living" fantasy language. For example, "I figure" above doesn't mean simply "I think" but something like "I create in my mind the shape of this" from what originally was a Latin noun... et cetera, et cetera. It is *hard* to invent a language that is chock full of cultural associations, idioms, shifted meanings, et cetera. I figured most TV series invented languages are probably pretty sparse.

Tim Hammack

I agree with the bulk of your comment (the languages invented for fictional entertainment lack the depth of real languages. Ironically, however, with respect to "what is 'human' for 'how are you?' or "hello!", languages surprisingly gravitate toward "how is your health?" (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Latin, English). That still doesn't indicate universality, but from such a broad swathe of languages, across language families, one could generalize that when "humans" say "hi", the expression originated from a "question about health or a wishing of good health"

Tim Hammack

But yeah, I follow what you mean: "Klingon", realistically, would have had to have been either the dominant culture's language or a "compromise language" (a bit like "Mandarin Chinese" (which is a hodge-podge of northern Chinese that no one people actually spoke verbatim until the language became established (mandarin is what D&D would call "common")

Stephen Gillie

Ever wonder if J. Michael Straczynski was inspired by Khazad Dum when creating Z'ha'dum for Babylon 5?