Rohirric

Rohirric
Rohan, Rohirian, Rohanese
Created by	J.R.R. Tolkien
Setting and usage	Rohan in the fictional world of Middle-earth
Purpose	constructed languages artistic languages fictional languages Rohirric
Sources	a priori language, related to Elvish and other Mannish languages. Influenced primarily from Old English.
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None

In the fictional world of Middle-earth by J. R. R. Tolkien, Rohirric (also Rohirian and Rohanese, see below) is the language of the Rohirrim of Rohan.

Description

In the novels it is always represented by the Mercian dialect of Old English, because Tolkien saw the relationship between Rohirric and the Common Speech to be similar to that of Old English and Modern English, which was used to represent Westron. Only a few actual Rohirric words are given by Tolkien: kûd-dûkan, an old word meaning "hole-dweller" which led to kuduk, the name the Hobbits had for themselves. Even these terms were translated in the book: "hobbit" is said to derive from the Old English word holbytla, or hole-builder.

Etymology

The only other Rohirric given is the element "lô–"/"loh–" corresponding to Anglo-Saxon "éo", horse, and the derived names Lôgrad for Horse-Mark, and Lohtûr for Éothéod, horse-people, or horse-land. Coincidentally, the Rohirric word for horse is an exact homonym of the Hungarian word for horse, ló. The Rohirric word for horse has been identified as a cognate for Tolkien's Elvish words for 'horse': rocco (Quenya) and roch (Sindarin). All names beginning with Éo– are actually names beginning with Lô– or Loh–, but the real forms of Éomer, Éowyn etc. are not given.

Only one proper name is given, that of Théoden: the actual form was Tûrac, an old word for King. Théoden is the Old English word þéoden, meaning "leader of a people" (i.e. "King" or "prince"). As with other descriptive names in his legendarium, Tolkien uses this name to create the impression that the text is "'historical', 'real' or 'archaic'". Théoden is referred to as "Théoden King", rather than "King Théoden", just as Scandinavian and the Anglo-Saxon era kings had the word konungr/cyning ("king") added after their names, e.g. Hervarðar konungr, rather than before. Compare with Alfred the Great, king of England whose name appeared as Ælfred cyning in Old English.

Many Rohirric names appear to be derived from Old English words. These include the given names:

2

As well as, for the Mearas:

2

The placenames:

2

And various other names:

2

Earlier Rohirrim had names in Gothic, which is the oldest Germanic language recorded. The Rohirrim use the Germanic patronymic "-ing". They call themselves the Eorlingas just as Scyld's people were the Scyldingas in Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology.

Related languages

The languages of the Men of Rhovanion, Esgaroth and Dale (often called Dalish or Dale-ish) were related to Rohirric.

Rohirric, Rohirian, or Rohanese?

While Tolkien referred to the language of the Rohirrim as "Rohan" or (disputedly) "Rohanese", the term "Rohirric", coined by Robert Foster, the author of The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, is far more commonly used. "Rohirian" is an alternative form that would parallel forms like "Telerin" (for the language of the Teleri) that were used by Tolkien.

See also

• Languages of Middle-earth

References

General references