Tumblr Users Overanalyze Elvish Dialects In Lord Of The Rings

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mattstaff
Nov 24, 2021 12:00 PM EST

Every now and again the wonderful wandering minds of the Tumblr world band together to take us down wild rabbit holes we never saw coming. In this case, we're talking about a very intense, hyper analysis of the various Elvish dialects in the Lord of the Rings universe. Tolkien honestly seems like he might've been all about researching ridiculous internet vernacular. Check out some more gold from Tumblr with this epic saga about "goat guy." 

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    Human - ll WiFi 12.17 O 50 % E axolola Follow penny-anna Follow Legolas pretty quickly gets in the habit of venting about his travelling companions in Elvish, so long as Gandalf & Aragorn aren't in earshot they'll never know right? Then about a week into their journey like Legolas: *in Elvish, for approximately the 20th time* ugh hobbits, so annoying Frodo: *also in Elvish, deadpan* yeah we're the worst Legolas:
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  • 02
    Font - penny-anna Follow *~earlier~*- Legolas: ugh hobbits Merry: Frodo what'd he say Frodo: I'm not sure he speaks a weird dialect but I think he's insulting us. I should tell him I can understand Elvish Merry: I mean you could do that but consider Merry: you can only tell him ONCE Frodo: Merry. You're absolutely right. I'll wait.
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  • 03
    Font - O penny-anna Follow #legolas' hick accent vs #frodo's 'i learned it out of a book' accent #FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT Legolas: umm well your accent is horrible Aragorn: *hollering from a distance* HIS ACCENT IS BETTER THAN YOURS LEGOLAS YOU SILVAN HICK Frodo: :) storywonker Follow Frodo: Hello. My name is Frodo. I am a Hobbit. How are you? Legolas: y'alld've'ff've Frodo, crying: please I can't understand what you'r saying
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  • 04
    Font - wizard-guff Follow Ok, but Frodo didn't just learn out of a book. He learned like... Chaucerian Elvish. So actually: Frodo: Good morrow to thee, frend. I hope we twain shalle bee moste excellente companions. Legolas: Wots that mate? 'Ere, you avin' a giggle? Fookin' 'obbits, I sware. Aragorn: *laughing too hard to walk* reformedkingsmanagent Follow @ghostriderofthearagon tiny-smol-beastie Follow dYinGggGggg...
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  • 05
    Font - whetstonefires Follow i mean, honestly it's amazing the Elves had as many languages and dialects as they did, considering Galadriel (for example) is over seven thousand years old. english would probably have changed less since Chaucer's time, if a lot of our cultural leaders from the thirteenth century were still alive and running things. they've had like. seven generations since the sun happened, max. frodo's books are old to him, but outside any very old poetry copied down exactly, the
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  • 06
    Font - so like, three to six thousand years old, maybe, which is probably a drop in the bucket of Elvish history judging by all the ethnic differentiation that had time to develop before Ungoliant came along, even if we can't really tell because there weren't years to count, before the Trees were destroyed. plus a lot of Bilbo's materials were probably directly from Elrond, whose library dates largely from the Third Age, probably, because he didn't establish Imladris until after the Last Allianc
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  • 07
    Font - whetstonefires Follow to over-analyse this awesome and hilarious post even more, legolas' grandfather was from linguistically stubborn Doriath and their family is actually from a somewhat different, higher- status ethnic background than their subjects. so depending on how much of a role Thranduil took in his upbringing (and Oropher in his), Legolas may have some weird stilted old- fashioned speaking tics in his Sindarin that reflect a more purely Doriathrin dialect rather than the Doriath
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  • 08
    Font - .it's also fairly likely considering the linguistic politics involved that Legolas is reasonably articulate in Sindarin, though with some level of accent, but knows approximately zero Quenya outside of loanwords into Sindarin, and even those he mostly didn't learn as a kid. which would be extra hilarious when he and gimli fetch up in Valinor in his little homemade skiff, if the first elves he meets have never been to Middle Earth and they're just standing there on the beach reduced to mim
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  • 09
    Font - audreycritter Follow Legolas: Alas, verily would I have dispatched thine enemy posthaste, but y'all'd've pitched a feckin' fit. Aragorn: *eyelid twitching* linguisticparadox Follow Frodo: *frantically scribbling* Hang on which language are you even speaking right now Pippin, confused: Is he not speaking Elvish? Frodo, sarcastically: I dunno, are you speaking Hobbit? Boromir, who has been lowkey pissed-off at the Hobbits' weird dialect this whole time: That's what it sounds like to me. Mer
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  • 10
    Font - Sam, a mere working-class country boy: Honestly y'all could be talkin Dwarvish half the time for all I know. sainatsukino Follow Pippin, entering Gondor and speaking to the castle steward: hey yo my man Boromir, from beyond the grave: jesus
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  • 11
    Font - wodneswynn Follow If I remember correctly, in the "tree of tongues" material from The Lost Road, Tolkien goes into some detail about how the reason elves have so many dialects is that elves view language as a form of collaborative art, which they delight in, so a newly-coined word or grammatical construct gets spread around just like a new song would. Elves may be immortal, but they're also immortal nerd OCs and we must never forget this kittyknowsthings Follow Thank you for this addition
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  • 12
    Font - kyraneko Follow So what you're saying is, they're us. They're the internet. Sending "yeet" and "smol" and "I lik the bred" all over creation until two elves who've never met in their lives and be like "beans, amirite?" and "yeah I love kitter feets too." ekjohnston Follow EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS BEAUTIFUL hobbits-to-isengard Follow When Merry and Pippin met Treebeard, Treebeard actually talks about how the Elves taught the Ents how to speak and also learned the language of the Ents. "The
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  • 13
    Font - halfwaytheremama Follow @saviorsong this post is beautiful saviorsongwrites Follow Oh my god. I love it so much!!!! Also they're talking about Finrod in that last bit. He would talk to and befriend an ant if we let him. #lotr 235.176 notes >
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humor tumblr Lord of the Rings internet ridiculous funny funny tumblr
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