To Red5

[Taka]

What kind of effect do you think there is in having Yoda, the Jedi master, use a lot of inversion in his English?

 

[Tdol]

Confusing it is.;-)

 

[Taka]

Confusing it is.;-)

Yeh, confusing it is, really. :lol:

My question is, what is the idea (of the director) of having Yoda use lots of inversions? How does it sound when one uses inversions quite often like Yoda?

 

[Casiopea]

Confusing it is.;-)

I found this online, but the link is no longer accessible, so I don't know who's saying it:

Talking Backwards. "I remember that George had a feeling about the kind of speech he wanted Yoda to have. It had to do with inversion and with a kind of medieval feeling with religious overtones.

Example of Old English Word Order
Se manfulla gast tha martine gehyrsumode
the evil spirit then Martin obeyed

Old English had greater freedom of rightward extraposition.

 

[Tomasz Klimkiewicz]

Hello,

This topic has reminded me of something I've been wondering about for some time now. In the many phantasy books and Role Playing Games so popular nowadays, the authors frequently use a strange language that they refer to as the 'Older Speech', and which, in those books and games is typically spoken by the Elven community. My question is, whether it's the original Gaelic language or a true subset of Old English, as some suggest, or something made up by the authors?

I know it's a difficult question without a few samples, at least, but perhaps anyone could please shed some light on the mystery.

Thanks in advance,

 

[Casiopea]

Hello,

This topic has reminded me of something I've been wondering about for some time now. In the many phantasy books and Role Playing Games so popular nowadays, the authors frequently use a strange language that they refer to as the 'Older Speech', and which, in those books and games is typically spoken by the Elven community. My question is, whether it's the original Gaelic language or a true subset of Old English, as some suggest, or something made up by the authors?

I know it's a difficult question without a few samples, at least, but perhaps anyone could please shed some light on the mystery.

Thanks in advance,

J.R.R. Tolkien's languages were fabricated, made up. He was not a grammarian; he was an etymologists, so he knew a great deal about how words are formed, how to form new ones, and he did so by drawing on his knowledge of English and related tongues, specifically Gaelic and others There are a great deal of "Cw"s; there's even one in the Elven name for their language: Sindariel Cwenya.

The correct name in the Elves' own language for that speech is Sindariel-Cwenya, roughly translatable as "Jewel of the Tree of Life". Sindariel-Cwenya is often shortened to either Sinariel or Cwen, or in Common Speech dialects, Elven or Elfish. The speech of Alfheim is a form of true High Elven.

 

[Tdol]

Confusing it is.;-)

Yeh, confusing it is, really. :lol:

My question is, what is the idea (of the director) of having Yoda use lots of inversions? How does it sound when one uses inversions quite often like Yoda?

It's a cheap way of creating a style.;-)

 

[Taka]

It's a cheap way of creating a style.;-)

What style? An archaic style as Cas says?

 

[twostep]

It's a cheap way of creating a style.;-)

What style? An archaic style as Cas says?

There are those who just enjoy scifi. Yes, it was hard when Heinlein died. I think there is too much fuss about Tolkin (and Star Wars). I read Tolkin with ruler, pencil and dictionary. The movies leave too much of the finer tones out. As far as artificial language goes - try some of the dialects of the Austrian/German high mountains where I grew up.