Father of All

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There is no end of fantastic, constructed languages, and wonderful stories written around them. But no constructed language fan - particularly no computer-literate conlanger - can afford to be ignorant about the wonderful tools and information available with computers about Tolkien and his languages.

The picture above is the box for the audio-cassette version of the excellent BBC adaption of the Lord of the Rings. Hearing the voices, hearing elven words and names through this is a wonderful way to experience the reality Tolkien created in his work. Since I walk a mile every day to the bus, spending a week listening to this while walking and going to work really feels like I've walked from the Shire and on to Mordor. A wonderful adaption, and far more faithful to the books than the (excellent!) Jackson films. This makes a nice complement - listening with the mental pictures from the movies




For years people all over the world admire the great work of professor Tolkien's fantasy world. His genius talent gave us all not only a nice novell, but a whole universe with history, legends, wars, poetry and much more. Languages spoken by peoples of Middle Earth have also their written form. Quenya, Sindarin and other languages used Tengwar. There are many pages about the alphabet itself on the web. Of course sooner or later someone came with the idea of transcription software. YaTT: Yet Another Tengwar Tool


Dragon Flame


Dragon Flame is a freeware application for Microsoft Windows (98, Me, XP, NT4, 2000), now also available on Linux. it includes the Sindarin dictionary, additional lexicons and a complete Sindarin corpus. This website http://www.jrrvf.com/hisweloke/sindar/df20.html includes an online lookup tool.

Ardalambion

the Ardalambion is a great collection of information and links about the Tolkien languages.

Interactive Edition Available Now Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our Two-minute Survey! You made it very obvious that you wanted to see an offline Interactive Edition of the Encyclopedia, so we've put one together. Not only does it contain all the information held on this online version, but it also has more than a few extra features as well. Find out more...

Movie-goer’s Guide If you've enjoyed the movie version of The Return of the King, we've prepared a page to help you make the transition from the movie to the book. Here, you'll find all the major differences between the book and the film, some tidbits of movie trivia and background, and links for all the major characters and places in the movie. Find out more...

About this Site In the User Guide, you'll find an explanation of the site's menus, and descriptions of the terms and conventions used on the site. Find out more... Early Warning It's possible you may have occasional difficulties accessing the site as it becomes busier over the next few months. Find out more...

The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship

LOTR Radio - the one podcast to rule them all.

Grey Elven - derivative (not directly from Tolkien)

On the Horizon

podcast

A new language - could be a solid competitor to other developed SF languages. The first "official" SF media language for a long time. [aggh - "thinko" alert. Early in the podcast I refer to "Republic Command: Hard Contact" as "Rebel Commando" - NOT quite, but you'll hear the correct name later as I read from Karen Traviss's letter.]

Official LucasArts Mandalorian music and lyrics
(mouse over "navigate," then find "Downloads" and click on MP3s)

Karen Traviss - Home page
Tremendous amount about this very gracious author. You can find links to her personal blog, and her official Star Wars blog. Both contain, if you dig, a good amount of background on her developing the Mando'a language.

Karen provides this, in particular about Hard Contact:

Read an excerpt

Read the reviews

Want to hear the background to Republic Commando: Hard Contact? There's an interview on STAR WARS EN DIRECT radio from Quebec. There 's also an interview with me online at the official Star Wars site and a couple more at the unofficial Clone Wars site.

All about Mandalorians Not entirely canonical, but a good compilation of info

Mandalorian language from Hard Contact at SWlanguages.mrklingon.org


COMING soon (but not soon enough)

The sequel to Hard Contact - REPUBLIC COMMANDO: TRIPLE ZERO - will be out on February 28 2006. Check out the site.

Looking for new words or phrases? WORDSPY.com

I can eat glass!

podcast

Notes from Lessons.MrKlingon.org....

Why Make Up Languages?

Lots of reasons! Here are only a few:

1. Linguistic research
2. Artificial intelligence
3. International Communciation
4. Psychiatry
5. Secret Languages
6. Fiction and Art

Ergane 8.0

What is Ergane?

Ergane is a multilingual translation dictionary for Windows that uses the artificial language Esperanto to translate words and short expressions from one natural language to another. Ergane is a product of Majstro Aplikaĵoj.

Ergane's user interface and manual are available in three languages: English, Esperanto and Dutch. The user interface alone is also available in Spanish.

The I Can Eat Glass Project

Some years ago, one Ethan Mollick created the I Can Eat Glass Project, which he described thus:

The Project is based on the idea that people in a foreign country have an irresistable urge to try to say something in the indigenous tongue. In most cases, however, the best a person can do is "Where is the bathroom?" a phrase that marks them as a tourist. But, if one says "I can eat glass, it doesn't hurt me," you will be viewed as an insane native, and treated with dignity and respect.

Getting started with Klingon:

tlhIngan Hol	pronounciation	English
nuqneH?	nook-neck	Hello (literally, what do you want?)
Qapla'	kkhopla-uh	Goodbye (literally, Success!)
nuqjatlh?	nook-jatl	Hunh? (literally, what did you say?)