There is a lot of talk about where Tolkein got his Elvish language for LOTR.
Many say he pieced it together from bits of lots of languages, and some say that he 'borrowed it' from Elves he heard using it.

And I have no clue about which of these is true.

But I want to know if the Elves of ages past had a language of their own, where did it go? Did it just vanish?
No-one speaks it anymore do they? At least not in everyday life. So what happened to it?

I would have thought into the Gaelic and Old English Languages if it went anywhere.

If you look at the language in Tolkien's books there are a lot of similarities to the Gaelic languages, but also some of the Scandinavian ones too, along with some German and French.
If he invented Elvish he must have been a very gifted scholar, as it would have taken a great deal of work to create such an impressively complex language.
I personally think it went the other way.
He learned it as a language (possibly from Elves, who knows?) and that from Elvish came the basis for all the other languages I have mentioned from which the modern versions that we use now eveloved.
But I couldn't honestly say whether it is because it could really be possible that it happened that way, or because I would dearly love that to be the truth.
There is something so romantic and fascinating about the existence of Elves that even if it isn't true I am not sure in my heart I want to know that. My heart loves the romance of it, and I am happy to let it hold onto the belief that Elves are now and always have been as real as you or me.

My mum is going to just love you.

I too believe that the modern languages you mentioned came from Elvish originally, but as you say no-one has anything they can prove.
That's the hardest thing about ever living in a human body. Knowing what you know without a doubt in your mind, remembering what you remember and never questioning in your own mind that it is right just the way you recall it, in every detail. But being able to prove none of it.
Even mum with all her knowledge of her history and her clan memories cannot prove anything to anyone.
We can all be called charlatans and liars, and accused of being those who make believe and play games. And what could we do?
Nothing at all.

They cannot prove that we do not exist and we cannot prove that we do.
Checkmate!

Darkness

That sounds more like stalemate to me.

I think Kes's attitude to Elves and Elvish is good though. I mean at least it must make a change from those people who bahave like:
"Oh Elves are SOOO CUTE! With their little homes in the tree trunks, their cute little caps and their tiny pointed ears. Running around the forest mending shoes with their teeny tiny needles!"

That kind of attitude towards Elves must make your mum's blood reach boiling point.

I know it's been a popular portrayal of Elves in many books and I understand that people have to get their info somewhere, but really, where do they think Elves find shoes in a forest anyway?

Seriously I think that the more people who think about Elves as just people with human lives here on this plane and an Elf equivalent of this life on another plane the more real we will all become. Or at least the more possible we will become.

ROFL.
Enid Blyton has a lot to answer for. She wrote lots of childrens books in just such a style. But of course they were childrens books, and as an introduction to Elves and such, living in a world that exists, but that most humans are unaware of, some of them are works of genius. But they were never meant to make it out of the nursery, you were supposed to then move on to grown up works of fiction like LOTR. Although his idea comes closer to the truth, there is not much Elf in human body there and so they're no help for that either unfortunately. And trying to find information on the internet brings you to Myths and folklore (more shoe mending! lol), Enid Blyton, or LOTR. To say the choices are limited would be an understatement.

Over the years many old languages have gone missing from the spoken world. The Cornish had their own language long ago, as did the people on the Shetland Islands, The Scottish version of Gaelic is spoken very rarely, and usually only in the more remote rural areas, Welsh is being revived in all Welsh schools, in an effort to stop it from dying out, and Irish Gaelic is spoken mostly by the older members of Irish society, and even though it is spoken and taught in schools it is often not kept up with once the children leave school and move elsewhere.
Such is progress, that which survives would be the strongest and best of it's kind, and everything else will be lost to the history books to become, like ancient Egyptian, a written language that no-one alive recalls how to speak.
I believe this is what happened to Elvish. It fell into disuse, and became a written language that people alive today do not know how to speak.

Maybe the Elves got sick and tired of people like Tolkien using it and claiming it as their own, so they took it back and now it's kept safely locked in a very large and beutifully decorated box?
If they had reclaimed it and then done a spell to hide it I wouldn't blame them.

The sources of Tolkiens languages are well documented in his Biography, as a professor of linguistics he took a number of old languages and from them crafted the Tolkien Elvish dialects.. He cites several of the influences being Cornish, Welsh, Nordic and others.. I can paste the quotes here if you would like or direct you to links that will help explain mostly in his own words their origins. As for other languages I am sure most races had their own tongues.. The DeDanaan language is something I have spent years trying to peice back together, however the limitation on it come mostly from communication was primarily telepathic and as such context was conveyed that way among my people and the spoken portion of it was more for the musical quality of the language.. As telepathy in this world and age is fleeting at best the challenge was to construct a working transliteration though I have made a good deal of progress over the past decade.. It always made me wonder how the Celtic Isles, which are SURROUNDED by Latin based languages, had languges that were NOT latin based.. They had to be influenced by languages that preceeded them, like the Picts for example. I expect that ressurecting the DeDanaan language will be something that will occupy the remainder of my days context for my study was adopted from Gaelic which is its closest surviving cousin.. though much of English, (my present language) has been kit-bashed for grammatical structure.

I can provide examples if it is something that interests you.

Grace to you and Peace,
Ezaraudin

So he says, but we have only his word for that.
There are some Elves who would disagree with his claims for the origin of the 'Tolkein' Elvish language.
But of course there is no way for anyone to disprove his claims, or make claims of their own, at least not without appearing like a complete and utter loon.
Still, as it is something that really interests me I would be grateful to you for either the quotes or the links you mentioned. Thank you.

The easiest thing to do you be to direct you to this site, as it has one of, if not THE most comprehensive databases on all of Tolkien's linguistic works, from history, influences, biographical pssages, you name it. It is a great resource for studying the constructed languages of Middle Earth.

As for only having his word for it.. Well.. While the realm of possibility includes that ol' JRR may have been a closet kin, and fanciful notions being what they are, however as both a language professor as well as an author who in his biography has quoted much of his influence for Middle Earth came from his time during the war.. It is reasonable to assume that he would not lie about the sources of language creating simply to provide far reaching conspiracies among us Kin.

http://www.elvish.org/

Grace to you and Peace,

Ezaraudin

hmph I wanna conspiracy.

mind you no one can prove it unless they go find him and ask him .....whistle......... JRR..... you out there man?

YOH TOLKIEN DUDE!!

Can I ask you something?

Zygo

As if he would talk to you when you address him like that!

You should have more respect.

And he may not lie just for conspiracy's sake, but he might lie to make money and to not have to tell people that he got an Elf drunk in a pub one night and stole their language for use in his books!

I suppose humor being what it is and all its worth a yuck or two but seriously.. Simply because we are kin does not mean we have abandoned our common sense. One of the most abundant tendencies I find among kin in general is the speed in which they jump to a magickal conclusion for something that is explained more simply. Which I suppose all things considered is to be expected. It has always been my practice to rule out the naturally occuring things as process of elimination before venturing onto more supernatural explainations. I knew this Wiccan once.. Kept getting dizzy, fainting, head aches the works.. They tell me everything that they are going through.. and that they must be under psychic attack! So I said ok.. Lets go down the check list... Make a long story short.. They skipped a few meals in their hectic day.. A sandwich and some juice later.. They were fine.. :P

As Hilarious as the idea is of getting an elf drunk in a bar.. If the drinking game between Legolas and Gimly was any indication, I don't think Tolkien could have afforded to get an Elf drunk on his teachers Salary. :P

I think an Elf could have drunk him under the table any night of the week personally, but all joking aside there are two sides to that coin Ezaraudin.
Anyone with common sense would check all medical reasons for symptoms such as those, and I am assuming that it was only because your friend was at such a low ebb and drained of energy through lack of food that they didn't think sensibly about it themselves.
But we should not wait until all avenues of physical explanation have been ruled out before we look for another explanation.
I too have been having the symptoms you described above.
My first thought was to renew my sheilds and then that I should visit the doctor. (Which even though I hate them was exactly what I did.)
It turns out that the dizziness and feeling faint was due in part to the fact that I am anaemic, and the dizziness and headaches were due in part to an eye problem which I am now in the middle of having diagnosed to my satisfaction.
If the doctor hadn't found anything I would have been convinced that psychic attack was more than just a possiblility.
The point I am making is just this. Before I went to the doctor and ruled out a physical cause I renewed my shields and re-enforced my protective barriers, just in case. Which I think is a sensible precaution.
The first thing to do in any situation like this is the thing you can do first. Often a visit to the doctor must wait a day or two, if it is a psychic attack you are being subjected to and you wait to see a doctor before taking precautions then you are not helping yourself in the best way possible.
Yes look for a physical cause, but help yourself in every way you can as soon as you can and never rule out any possibility.
That's my advice anyway.

Lady C.