Lord of the Rings fans, do you speak Elf? :)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3532003.stm
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--It's a hard life being an elf.
As if murderous orcs and magic spells weren't enough to contend with, there are two languages to learn - loosely based on Welsh and Finnish.
Undeterred by the challenge, a group of schoolboys has volunteered for lessons in Sindarin, the "conversational" form of Elvish, invented by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.
Zainab Thorp, a special needs co-ordinator at Turves Green Boys' Technology College in Birmingham, is offering after-hours classes, where pupils struggle through vocabulary and verb tables.
She said: "The recent success of the Lord of the Rings films has increased the interest in learning Elvish.
"The children really enjoy it. It breaks the idea that education should simply be aimed at getting a job."
A little romance
Tolkien, an Oxford academic who was expert in ancient languages, developed two forms of Elvish.
Sindarin - based on the sounds of Welsh - is the more commonly used. Quenya - related to Finnish - is largely a ceremonial language.
Tolkien, who died in 1973, only wrote down around 350 words in Sindarin, so Lord of the Rings experts have had to work together to increase the vocabulary for everyday use.
Mrs Thorp, who studied ancient Egyptian at university, said: "Tolkien never left a word meaning 'to love'.
USEFUL SINDARIN WORDS
Bast - Bread
Toss - Low-growing tree
Bess - Woman
Edhel - Elf
Annabon - Elephant
Salch - Grass
"In one film, there was an early scene where the word 'aniron', usually meaning 'I want' - in the sense of wanting a cup of tea - was adapted to mean 'I love' between Aragorn and Arwen, two Elvish speakers.
"So this word now had romantic associations. David Salo, the expert working on the script, had to think of another word to mean 'I want', in case it seemed like one male elf asking another for something later on was mistakenly thought to have amorous intentions.
"So, he had to come up with another phrase roughly meaning 'It's necessary for me to have your help'.
"We have to be very careful to use words properly, as Sindarin was invented by Tolkien and we should show it respect."
Railway sounds
The number of Sindarin speakers worldwide is unknown but thought to be growing rapidly, following the success of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
The final part, The Return of the King, won 11 Oscars on Sunday and has grossed more than $1bn (£540m).
Tolkien based the sounds of Sindarin on the Welsh words he was exposed to as a boy, living in a house overlooking the railway line from Wales to Birmingham.
Mrs Thorp said: "Tolkien liked to create beautiful sounds. It's very different from just studying a language like French: the boys are doing this for fun, like he did. That has to be a good thing."
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