Tumblr crosspost (17 September 2020)

[anghraine]

heckofabecca responded to this post:

what do you mean, it doesn’t make sense???

I replied:

Well, there’s a basic quandary that Tolkien wrangled with:

1. Sindarin is used conversationally in Gondor.

2. Gondorian Sindarin is largely unchanged from classic Sindarin.

Both of these things are pretty non-negotiable based on the text of LOTR. Frodo says that the Gondorian Sindarin he overhears from the Rangers of Ithilien—a language “of their own”—is “little different” from the classic Sindarin he has learned, while Pippin says that “many” people in Minas Tirith chatter to each other in Sindarin behind his back.

The explanation goes like this:

(Going with the most final versions of the story, as far as I recall them):

Many of the Edain picked up Sindarin from the Elves. However, among the Bëorians, it entirely replaced their native language at some point (Tolkien thought about changing this, but seems to have rejected the idea and gone back to the version in “The Mariner’s Wife,” which itself is a pretty late document). So there was a population of Edain who spoke Sindarin natively.

The Bëorians went to Númenor and settled on the Andustar region of the west coast, which in consequence became a predominantly Sindarin-speaking area, whereas Sindarin’s prevalence and dominance varied in the rest of Númenor. Erendis was “nurtured” in Sindarin because of this.

There was a lot of overlap between “the Faithful,” “people of the Andustar,” and “primary Sindarin-speakers,” which partly led to their oppression by the King’s Men. Since it was mainly the Faithful who escaped Númenor, and the Faithful mainly came from the Andustar, many of the survivors were primary Sindarin-speakers.

However, there were other Númenóreans who preferred or only spoke Adûnaic, and non-Númenóreans who spoke languages clearly related to Adûnaic, and so the language that ended up developing was (iirc) heavily Adûnaic-based, though influenced by Sindarin. This spread far and wide through Númenórean influence and became a lingua franca as the Common Tongue/Westron.

(There’s actually an earlier draft where Faramir says that the Dúnedain deliberately created Westron for this purpose—apparently it was going to be a conlang or something at that point?? it’s not canon, of course, just really funny to me.)

Over time, Westron became the dominant tongue even in Gondor itself, apart from the Númenórean aristocracy, who were taught Sindarin (in early childhood rather than from infancy). Thus, speaking Sindarin became a status symbol in Gondor, a way of claiming Númenórean heritage, not a native tongue. Because it was used in this way, it only slightly changed over time, which is why it’s perfectly comprehensible even by the end of the Third Age.

BUT THIS CREATES SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Off the top of my head: if Sindarin was used natively by Bëorians and Bëorian-descended Númenóreans all the way to the Downfall, never mind Gondor—why didn’t it significantly evolve in that time?

Also, people who learn languages as young children can still speak those languages colloquially and participate in linguistic development! It would have to be very restricted to not evolve even if it’s just among the Dúnedain of Gondor.

Also, the people we hear it from in LOTR aren’t necessarily nobility at all! The “many” people who Pippin overhears speaking Sindarin to each other are completely random soldiers calling out to each other on the streets. We have no idea if the Rangers whom Frodo overhears are nobles or not. In fact, it’s the undisputed nobles we meet who predominantly use Westron (probably out of consideration for Pippin’s and the audience’s comprehension, but nevertheless).

Some possible ways to resolve this:

1. Númenórean and then Gondorian Sindarin are actually much more divergent from classic Elvish Sindarin than Frodo suggests; this is perhaps reinforced by “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn,” which describes much earlier Gondorians as speaking Sindarin “after a fashion,” which might indicate that the dialects are more than slightly different from an Elvish perspective.

This deals with the linguistic evolution problem but not the aristocracy problem.

2. The use of Sindarin in Gondor is much more restricted than Pippin and (more debatably) the Rangers of Ithilien suggest; he overhears some nobles using it with each other, but not more than that. The Rangers that Frodo overhears are also aristocrats.

This deals with the aristocracy problem but not the linguistic evolution problem.

3. Alternately, the use of Sindarin in Gondor (or at least Minas Tirith) is as common as Pippin’s account suggests and the whole “only aristocrats speak Sindarin” thing is wrong.

This deals with the aristocracy problem but not the linguistic evolution problem.

4. A combination: Gondorian Sindarin did inherit plenty of dialectical divergence from standard Sindarin via Númenórean Sindarin, but it was effectively frozen in Gondor once Westron became dominant and Sindarin an acquired status language. All the Sindarin-speakers that Pippin and Frodo hear are nobles.

5. The opposite (sort of): Gondorian Sindarin is significantly divergent from Elvish Sindarin, and consequently, there’s no need to justify its static quality with the “acquired language among the nobility” thing. The random people Pippin hears are commoners, as are some of the Rangers.

6. *waves hand* A wizard did it.

But “Sindarin didn’t significantly change among Bëorians or Númenóreans or Gondorians for reasons” combined with “Sindarin is exclusively a language of the aristocracy” just … doesn’t make sense, IMO.