1/ Have you heard about the story of Maura Labingi, a cūbuc from Suzat who one day has to go on a big adventure to save the world? Maybe not, but you probably know the story of #Frodo Baggins, a #Hobbit from #theShire… #TolkienFriday

2/ #Tolkien presented his writing as “translations” from #MiddleEarth languages they were originally written in. Accordingly, the “Red Book of Westmarch” (aka #TheHobbit and #TheLordOfTheRings) was written in #Westron – the Common Tongue of Middle-earth in the Third Age.

3/ #Westron probably is a fully devised #conlang but we do not know that much about it. However, we do know many names of Hobbits and places in Westron. Westron itself is called “Sōval Phārë” “’Common Tongue’ in Westron. Rivendell is called “Carbandur” and Moria “Phūru-nargian”.

4/ “Sūza-t” is ‘The Shire’ in Westron, “sūza” being the name for a specific piece of land (like a Shire ). A smial is called a “gluva” and the hobbits call themselves “cūbugin” (singular “cūbuc”, please read on before you write a comment about this word!!)

5/ Frodo’s “real” name is Maura Labingi, Bilbo is called “Bilba Labingi” in Westron. “Banzīr Galbassi” is “Samwise Gamgee”, “Razanur Tūc” is Peregrin Took and “Cilimanzar Brandugamba” (again, please read on before writing a comment!!).

6/ Tolkien used his method of “etymologizing” the Westron names and then “translating” them into English. Sometimes a etymology is “unclear” and then Tolkien has to use all has skills as a historical linguist to understand his own names *haha*

7/ For example, the root “maur-“ found in “Maura” ‘Frodo’ is not used in the Westron of the late Third Age, However, Tolkien “found” an adjective “maur-“ ‘wise, experienced” in Rohirric (a language related to the language the hobbits spoke before they adopted Westron) and ...

8/ ... therefore Tolkien used an old English word “frōd” with a similar meaning to “translate” the name.

Most of the information in this thread comes from “The Peoples of Middle-earth”, the last volume of the “History of Middle-earth” #HoMe, ...

9/ ... namely from the essay “The Appendix on Languages” an earlier and longer version of what is published as Appendix F in #LotR. I often refrain from using such information because we never can be sure ...

10/ ...whether it didn’t make it into the published book because for spatial reasons, because Tolkien considered it less important or because it was outdated. For example, the word for ‘hobbit’ appears in #LotR as “kuduk” but as “cūbug” in the earlier version and ...

11/ the name “Cilimanzar Brandugamba” has changed into “Kalimac Brandagamba”.

12/ What can we learn about #Westron from Tolkien’s scarce writings about it? We know that Westron has sounds written with <p>, <b>, <t>, <d>, <k>, <g>, <m>, <n>, <ng>, <r>, <v>, <ph>, <th>, <s>, <z>, <h>, <y>, <l>, <ch>, <sh>, <hr> and <hl> ...

13/ ... and that the vowels are <a>, <e>, <i>, <o>, <u> and can also be lengthened. There may also be long consonants as the <ll> in <hamanullas> translated as ‘Lobelia’.

14/ We know that male names often end in <a> (which Tolkien changed to <o> in the “translations, like in “Bilba” vs ‘Bilbo’) and that <a> may also serve as a nomen agentis suffix. We know that one plural ending is <-in> as in “cūbugin” ...

15/ and that the definite article is suffixed as in ‘Sūza-t’ ‘The Shire’. And we also know that there is a distinction between formal and familiar 2nd person pronouns which has been lost in The Shire.

16/ Almost everything there is to know about #Westron is collected on this website: https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/westron.htm

17/ I am aware that many people have recently tweeted about the original Westron names, especially in the context of debates on diversity in Tolkien’s works. As Tolkien himself has written, #LotR would have a completely different effect on “Western” readers ...

18/ ... if the Westron names were used throughout the books. Language is powerful and names are powerful is well and we all know that we (maybe unconsciously) treat people differently depending on whether they have a familiar or a somewhat “exotic” name.

19/ One reason why Tolkien’s works became so popular is that they have characters easily to relate to and the Westron names could reduce this relatability.

20/ I strongly believe that we as the #Tolkien fandom can and should use the “true” Hobbit names to draw attention to this issue! #TolkienFriday