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G-i-P Report: languages of Middle-earth
in the H2 soundtrack

Thanks to Eva Zhekova we could see today a Digital Booklet with the lyrics, descriptions and credits from the soundtrack of The Desolation of Smaug. This is the linguistic material we can find in the following themes:

I. The Arkenstone [Κhuzdûl]

„The Company is almost home, and they know that somewhere within Erebor’s vast halls, the Arkenstone awaits them. The cherished Arkenstone, the glowing gem that once sat above the King’s throne, was lost when Smaug took the Lonely Mountain, but its luminous theme can still be heard amidst the kingdom’s ruins and memories. With uncharacteristic delicacy, chorus sings in Khuzdul:”

Tân sanki zasairadihu
Ata Raklaban

‚You will know it when you see it / It is the Arkenstone

*tân pron. ‚it’ [?]
*sanki
v. ‚you will know’ [?]
*zasairadihu
v. ‚seeing it’ [?]
*ata v. ‚it is’
*Raklaban
n. ‚Arkenstone’

II. Tauriel and Kili [Sindarin]

Tauriel also yearns to understand more of the outside world, for there is also softness and kindness outside
the seclusion of Mirkwood—and its light can shine in the least-suspected places. Philippa Boyens’ text
“The White Light of Forever” acknowledges this openness in Tauriel’s character by combining Khuzdul and
Sindarin lyrics with probing harmonic progressions.”

Hae ephadron
theri thaur
am na dhû
ias fîr i ambar
A tre hil i ‚alad ‚ân uir tri ‚wilith

‚I go walking / Beyond the forest / Where the world falls away/ And the white light / Of forever fills the air.’

hae adj. ‚far, further’ [David Salo, GtS, p. 262]
*ephadron
v. ‚I am going walking’ from *ephadra- ‚to go/walk out’ from ed- + padra-
*theri ‚across the’, pl. form of thar ‚across, beyond, on the other side’ + in ‚the’ (GtS, p. 146)
thaur
n. pl. (?), nasal mutation of taur (3) ‚great wood, forest’ (GtS, p. 75, 287)
am prep. ‚up, above, over, high’ (GtS, p. 140)
na
prep. ‚to, toward, at; of; with, by’ (GtS 144)
dhû
n., soft mutation of ‚night, nightfall, dusk, late evening, darkness’ (GtS 249)
*ias adv. ‚in which; cf. Quenya yassen ‚in which’
*fîr v. 3rd p. sg. form of *fir– ‚to die’, cf. Q fir-
i ambar
n. ‚the world’
a conj. ‚and’ (2) (GtS, p. 236)
tre
prep. ‚completely, utterly, all the way through’ (GtS, p. 146)
*hil
n., soft mutation of sil (?)
i ‚alad
n. soft mutation of galad ‚light, bright light, sunlight, brilliance, radiance, glittering reflection’ (GtS, p. 255)
‚ân
v. (?) soft mutation of gân
uir n. ‚eternity’ (GtS, p. 292)
tri prep. ‚through’ (GtS, p. 146)
‚wilith n. soft mutation of gwilith ‚air as a region’ (GtS, p. 262)

III. The Nine [Quenya]

„As The Hobbit progresses, this dark compositional vein becomes sturdier and more pronounced. Chromatic instabilities become locked into oppressive minor modes. Short, brusque statements are replaced with longer, more ambitious lines. Most unsettlingly, the score comes to favor thick, clotted minor chords that add the ninth in closed spacing. Beneath these smoldering telltale harmonies, voices sing a slow chanting line in Quenya that warns of…”

Ye i húna tanna cole

‚the bearer of a cursed sign’

Let us analyze this material! Help us, the Wordsmiths!

_____________________

G-i-P stands for Gwaith-i-Phethain, ‘The Fellowship of the Word-smiths’ or the linguistic website devoted to post-Tolkienian constructions in the “reconstructed” languages of Middle-earth [link].

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Kategorie wpisu: Adaptacje tolkienowskie, Filmy: Hobbit i WP, G-i-P Report, In Westron (English), Lingwistyka

6 Komentarzy do wpisu "G-i-P Report: languages of Middle-earth
in the H2 soundtrack"

cerebrum, dnia 30.12.2013 o godzinie 22:06

Some complements to the Sindarin lyrics:

_*ephadra-_: „to go/walk out” (< _ed-_ + _padra-_)
_*fîr_: 3rd p. sg. form of _*fir-_ ("to die", cf. Q _fir-_)
_uir_: eternitiy

Galadhorn, dnia 30.12.2013 o godzinie 22:55

Thank you, Cerebrum. I have added your complements.

Pekka, dnia 31.12.2013 o godzinie 17:13

„a slow chanting line (…) that warns of
‹ye i [húna tanna] cole›”
(lit.) ‚that who [a cursed sign] bears’

(the square brackets to highlight word order)

The Fauskanger’s qya-eng wordlist says:
‹ye› relative pronoun
‹i cole› ‚(the one) who bears’, where ‹cole› is sg3 aorist from ‹col-› ‚bear, carry’
‹húna› adj ‚(ac)cursed’
‹tanna› noun ‚sign, token’

Estel, dnia 31.12.2013 o godzinie 22:50

In Polish please!!
moja znajomość angielskiego pomaga zrozumieć co 3 lub 2 słowo co 4 tłumacz. Rozumiem o co biega. Krótkie objaśnienia oraz tekst do utworów ciekawe np. o Tauriel coraz bardziej mi się podoba ta postać. I tekst w sindarinie, tylko jedna mnie dziwi skąd język Khazdul skoro Tolkien nie rozwinął tego języka. We władcy pierścieni, Gimli użył tego języka nazywając kilka górskich szczytów i w Morii raptem kilka słów. Język Khazdul w filmie został wyrzucony z kapelusza.

S. P., dnia 01.01.2014 o godzinie 22:57

„ias fîr i ambar”

Well, that should have had either _ammar_ or _amar_ of course. . . Pretty sure _ambar_ would make it diglossic.

Emrhys, dnia 23.01.2014 o godzinie 3:45

i think Salo is considering the aspect that myrwood elvish is not the same as the one in rivendell and that’s why we have some new word for some already known (mal instead of dan (but) and ambar instead of amar (world)) and thus cí from Q. cé for ”if” which if you remember ae is used by Galadriel but cí is used but Legolas probably because ae in myrwood elvish become a long ”e” as explain in his name Laeg, golas (CS)
Lêg,golas (MyrkS) ae would become ê and would be confusing so to not misunderstand it as the pronoun emphatic he which is e i think he take the quenya cé and reconstructed it as cí

Ae boe i le eliathon im telithon (Galadriel)
and
Cí orch im, dangen le (Legolas)
If i was an orch you would be dead

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