"Fannish" was intended to include me as well as all other fans. However, if you feel any of my messages are in violation of the White Council's policies, send a message to Admin@xenite.org. Someone other than me will look at it and have the final say in the matter.

: "In his creation these peoples did not speak English nor
: anything like it and they did not speak with English accents."

: Again, I'm not sure which book you're reading, Michael.
: Everytime I read Lord of the Rings, I read it in the language
: it was originally written in: English. The characters are
: speaking the same language: English.

The book itself is just a representation or selection from a larger story that evolved, ultimately, from Tolkien's own constructed languages. Although he began it as a sequel to THE HOBBIT, early on he realized it needed to become part of a much larger picture, and he devoted a lot of work to developing those languages which didn't actually make it into the book.

We get a lengthy list of examples of true Westron in THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH, where the full text of the original appendix on languages is provided. So even as he wrote the book, Tolkien was thinking in terms of how the peoples SHOULD have spoken and not just in terms of how an English-language reader would receive the dialogues.

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The Fairy Tales of J.R.R. Tolkien: Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, Roverandom