Languages are amazing things. They have fascinating histories. Some of the most commonly spoken languages today have deep origins in latin. English Spanish and Italian have so much in common with latin. There are many languaes I want to learn but here are some of the most prominent in my thoughts:
Quenya
Sindarin
Gaelic
Welsh
From this list you can doubtless see how impractical I often am. These languages are probably some of the least commonly spoken in the world. Quenya and Sindarin are two elvish languages. There may be more but those are the two I have heard of. And since you may have never heard of either I may as well tell you a little about them.
Quenya is the language of the high elves, those who went over the sea to dwell with the powers, sometimes called the gods. The elves the first born in Middle Earth and the powers invites them to come and live across the sea with them. But not all of them went, those that stayed were called the gray elves and eventually for them Quenya were developed into Sindarin.
The history of the elves is quite intriguing but it is to long to even summarize it in this entry. If you want to learn more read the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. It may be hard to get through but I highly recommend it. It is well worth the effort.
The other languages on my list, Gaelic and Welsh, are as you probably know, the languages used in certain parts of the British Isles. Gaelic is spoken mainly in Ireland, and Welsh in Wales. I guess the main reason I want to learn Gaelic is because it is spoken in Ireland which happens to be just about my favorite country in Europe (Ireland has some stiff competion in the form of Great Britain). Ireland is a delightful country. It is beautiful, just to begin with. Also I am an irish dancer and I would love to go and see the country where Irish dance originated.
Welsh I suppose I chose mostly for the reason that it was at least one of the languages that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to create the elvish languages. But Wales is a lovely country too from all I hear and I would love to visit there as well.
Anyways languages fascinate me. J.R.R. Tolkien obviously loved languages as well. He created many, many languages for his book, The Lord of the Rings, and for the complex history of the world he created.
Vale(latin) namariee(Elvish, wrong spelling) sayanara(japenanese) vavel (norwegian) and finally Farewell!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
On Languages
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5 comments:
Nice list. I'd love to know those, but also French, Italian, German, and Greek.
Of course, I'm learning Latin already. :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
adriana
Congrats, Ria, you used 'facinating', or a form thereof, 6 times in your entry!!!!
lol
:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
adriana
yeah i tend to repeat words alot, escpecially when I'm not supposed to use cool or awesome in my posts.
Your list of languages is good to but they are not as urgent for me as my other list.
I have to add one to my list, any form of Old English
I think you also managed to misspell "fascinating" six times. :)
I have completely forgotten to check your blogg - I forgot all about it! And what a good posting, too. Well, it is still here and I can comment on it.
First, I think it is good for you to study even a made-up language. Did you know that I have studied perhaps five or more made-up languages? They are the ones I use(or have used) to program computers! And even more fun - like Tolkien, I have studied the "inner workings" of how languages are put together - at least those computer languages! But this is part of what one must learn in order to study Language - I mean the "science of words" which is called "philology" (that is what Tolkien studied and taught). That is different from studying Languages, which is what you indicate by your list.
Here is the list I would like to study, and why:
1. Latin (to read the Aeneid, and the Vulgate Bible)
2. Greek (to read Homer, and the New Testament in its most ancient form available)
3. Hebrew (to read the Old Testament, but especially the Psalms)
4. Italian (to read Dante)
But these are VAST projects, and at present I do not expect to go very far at all. At least I can read tiny bits of the first two - much more Latin than Greek.
But someday I will have to spend some time to learn the Hebrew letters...
If I have some time, perhaps I will get to tell a little about how "language" works over on my blogg. I already started to hint about it when I wrote about "chirality" - did you read that? I will see what I can do...
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