How can i learn how to write and speak elvish and dwarvish?

[Michael]

I really want to learn how but i have no idea.

[Geoffrey]

Orlando Bloom is giving private classes on speaking elvish.

[Annia]

Read the appendixes of Lord of the Rings for a start.

You can find websites that will teach you Sindarin or Quenya. However, there are a lot of rubbish ones out there. I can direct you to the good sites but I can't find goodreads' policy on linking to external sites so I won't do it as I don't know if we are allowed to.

As for Khuzdûl, that's much trickier. Tolkien really didn't leave us with that much vocabulary.
David Solo created most of the dwarvish language that you hear in the films based upon what little we know of Khuzdûl. What David Solo created is known as Neo-Khuzdûl but it's still got a really limited vocabulary.

If you are interested in learning languages from Tolkien, probably the easiest one where you don't really have to worry if the person teaching you has actually got it right or if they've made stuff up, is Old English. Tolkien used Old English to represent Rohirric, like how he used modern day English to represent Westron.

[Keri]

councilofelrond.com has great language lessons, resources and sections in their forum for getting help etc. Should check it out.

[Lynx]

Looking the the Appendix will probably be the best bet, but this website is also helpful for elvish: http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/elvish.... . As for Dwarvish, aside from looking in the appendixes, just look up how to write in runes, I've seen rune keys before.

Hope that helps, I really want to learn elvish too.

[Lesley]

When I was a teenager, I used to write in Elvish - which I took straight from the appendices of the book. It's not hard to work it out.

[Sam]

Lesley wrote: "When I was a teenager, I used to write in Elvish - which I took straight from the appendices of the book. It's not hard to work it out."

Curious: could you actually use Elvish words, or did you just substitute the characters? (I know the Silmarillion has an appendix with prefixes and suffixes, but sadly, it's hardly a dictionary!) I would really love to just spout out real, genuine Elvish one day. (And has anyone actually published an Elvish dictionary, I wonder?)

[Lesley]

I cheated - I wrote in English with Elvish characters.

[[deleted user]]

Oh wow! That is soooo cool!

[Anon]

Elvish was actually created by tolkien by using welsh but swapping around a few letters, so if you can speak welsh...

[Anon]

I have worked out ALL the dwarven runes using the cover of the hobbit ilistrated by alan lee and at the start of the book

[Jacob]

Anon: Elvish was actually created by Tolkien as an entirely new language- actually a whole collection of languages that are related to each other like English, German, French, Spanish, etc. are. The sound of one of the main languages (Sindarin) is inspired by Welsh but it's not as simple as "swapping around a few letters."

[Alexandra]

This is good if you are really serious about learning Tolkien's languages: An Introduction to Elvish, Other Tongues, Proper Names and Writing Systems of the Third Age of the Western Lands of Middle-Earth as Set Forth in the Published Writings of Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. But it is a proper language- learning textbook, not a quick "cheat".

Caveat: one reviewer has pointed out that it is incorrect in places. It was carefully researched, but was written before the "Etymologies" were published, so it did not use those source materials.

[Alcarinquono]

Eldaiva haryuma tarias eryesse Elvish is not difficult! go to council of elrond

[Alcarinquono]

quetinye I lambe eldaiva, lertalye carir!

[Alcarinquono]

of course, the accent marks are quite hard