I'm writing a fantasy novel and this is meaningless to me. That seems wrong.

It is not. It may affect your geek cred in general, it won't hurt the novel you are writing. There are very few who have the linguistic skills to come up with a reasonable language such that they should even attempt to write a language into their world in imitation of JRRT, and fewer still who can manage all the rest of world-building and then write a decent story into the bargain. Poor imitations are no favor to any reader, so you might as well strike off on your own. Especially since there are a zillion ways to tell a good tale using different methods.

Yeah, but are they cannon?

Maybe if you stuffed them into an artillery shell.

Let's not forget the two written alien languages on Futurama which the show teaches you how to read over the course of its run so you can get extra jokes.

JRRT's day job was a linguistics professor. Don't try this at home.

Tolkien learned Latin, French and German from his mother, and while at school he learned Middle English, Old English, Finnish, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Old Norse, Spanish, Welsh, and Medieval Welsh. He was also familiar with Danish, Dutch, Lombardic, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Middle Dutch, Middle High German, Middle Low German, Old High German, Old Slavonic, and Lithuanian.

[link]

It is not. It may affect your geek cred in general, it won't hurt the novel you are writing.

I wasn't being entirely serious. Ironically, I don't read a lot of fantasy. I do have a made up language, but I just have a very few words and a couple of very simple rules. I'm not attempting to really make up something. Hmmm... faking a language, I think I might have a blog post subject.

Hello, my bitches. I speak neither Quenya nor Sindarin nor Vulcan nor... well, you get the point. I do speak passable French and Romanian, though. Buna ziua, tutoror, mi-e dor de voi ceva strasnic.

So, um, I tried to Rip Off the Bandaid, and ended up even more stuck. As in, I had my hand ON THE DOORKNOB and my bag o' stuff, but ended up talking it out. Again. There were Mitigating Factors on both sides, and so I'm really going to give it a go. ::shrugs:: I know, don't give me that face, but I'm good with it.

I've decided that I want to wear a corset to Kristin and ND's shindig, and that means I must buy one. I love the Louise Black peacock corset I linked to earlier, but it sounds like she's even further behind than usual and from what Jilli's said I may not want to count on her for a specific event. Sooo... buy another one as a backup, right? I get to buy two corsets? C'mon, Bitches, enable me!

I know, don't give me that face, but I'm good with it.

Honey, as long as you're happy. You're happy, right?

smonster, you definitely must have as many corsets as you please. I think it will make people's brains melt from how hot you will look, but that's ok, they didn't need 'em all that much anyway.

they didn't need 'em all that much anyway.

Seriously. I haven't used this old thing in years, now -- bring on the hawt.

Honey, as long as you're happy. You're happy, right?

I am happy. I'm thinking of him fondly now as My Hermit Boy.

Or as in, did the languages appear in the movies and official novels and have a recognizable pattern, allowing for translation?

I guess it depends on what kind of "recognizable pattern." Let's say Jabba says ten words to his aid, who then brings him a cup of coffee. We can probably assume one of those words is "coffee" (OK, ignoring the possibility that "coffee" might be more than one word in Jabba's language.) Then let's say Jabba says eight words, and his assistant turns the humidifier up. But three of those words are words he used when he asked for coffee. So you just keep on doing this, where essentially you're solving many simultaneous equations, until you conclude that "narnar-uuf" has to = "coffee".

Is that what people do?