Elvish

The Lord of the Rings mania has hit the schools! BBC has an amusing article "Do you speak Elf?", about Birmingham schoolboys who have volunteered for lessons in Sindarin, the "conversational" form of Elvish, invented by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.

Tolkien, an Oxford academic who was expert in ancient languages, developed two forms of Elvish: Sindarin - based on the sounds of Welsh - is the more commonly used, and Quenya - related to Finnish - is largely a ceremonial language. To me, the word "Elvish" sounds like a cross of Welsh and Finnish - what fun!

In another post, I wrote about the Finnish connection to Tolkien:

"In the National Geographic News, we learn that a native of British Columbia, Canada, anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis traveled to a remote corner of Finland to uncover Tolkien influences among the ancient rune-singers of the Kalevala. It's a fascinating story, worth reading!"

Later: More about Elvish