• Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    What should we call this being so powerful and mysterious as to be completely unaffected by the one ring?

    Tom

    • daisyKutter@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      There is a new version for the Hobbit in spanish, ilustrated and annotated that explains it this way

  • yggdar@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    He also called them mûmakil in elvish. In my mind, when the Hobbits call them oliphaunts it is because a long time ago someone talked about elephants, and over the years the correct pronunciation was lost.

  • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I mean Mediterranean is literally middle earth.

    I think I was 27 when that gem hit me upside the head

    • _Gandalf_the_Black_@feddit.de
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      4 months ago

      I think Middle Earth is meant to be more of an analogue of Midgard. It’s the middle of the earth, as opposed to the sea in the middle of the earth.

      • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Mediterranean literally translates to “middle of the earth”

        Medi = middle Terran = earth Ean = of the

        The complete sea name in a native romance language, not English, is Mar de Mediterranean. The word is obviously Latin in origin and the sea has been known as such since antiquity, probably predating Rome (who at the height of their control called the Mediterranean a Roman lake, since they encircled it on all sides. How quaint of them, yea?). This would have been known to Tolkien as the educated, well everybody really, back in the day, had more exposure to Latin, which had spread out widely due to the Church. Martin Luther and Guggenheim started that unraveling, tho Latin is still spoken in many many Catholic churches today.

        Midgard does translate to middle earth as well. Tolkien was prob aware of this as well, tho i think that this is lesser well known than Mediterranean, just by the global reach of Spanish.

        • _Gandalf_the_Black_@feddit.de
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          4 months ago

          I’m well aware of that, but conceptually Middle Earth is an analogue of Midgard. It’s the land inhabited by humans in the middle.

  • Nicoleism101@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    It sent me on a trip and in the end to Hittite 𒆷𒄴𒉺𒀸 (laḫpaš, “ivory”) 3700 years ago

    I love etymology honestly and how it is all connected. I am really curious about onomatopoeias.

    For example is ‘hmmm’ used in many unrelated languages just because it has a soothing vibration? Why do we have same onomatopoeias in cultures that never met?

    Is there a language that is closest to interpreting the brain signals if we consider onomatopoeias to be a part of the language?

    Perhaps some primitive pre language consisting of grunts without words. Then the evolution comes into play and animal communication.