How Tolkien constructed his Elvish Languages -
the Conceptual Phases
Tolkien did not imagine his Elvish languages once and for all. He did not start at 9 a.m. and finished at 7 p.m. In fact, he started all over again several times over a period of sixty years. Each time he conceived a set of grammar rules, and a new “internal history” for his Elvish languages.
The making of Elvish language was in Tolkien’s mind a continuum but in order to study it E. Kloczko has divided his ‘logopoeia’ into four Conceptual Phases (CP) :
I. 1910 – c.1923
Phase One [Qenyaquetsa, i Lam na Ngoldathon, The Book of Lost Tales]. Eldarissa, Elfin; (conceived c.1915) Gnomish, Goldogrin ;
II. c.1923 – c.1930
Phase Two [The Early Qenya Grammar, The Early Noldorin Grammar] Low Quenya (II); early Noldorin(-Welsh);
III. c.1930 – c.1949
Phase Three [Quenya with a marked nominative, ‘n’; Noldorin as described in several unpublished grammars] Low Quenya (III); Noldorin(-Welsh), Golodhrin;
IV c.1949 – 1973
Phase Four, ‘final’ Quenya ; Sindarin.
