What languages did Tolkien use as his model?
It is well known that Tolkien loved Finnish and he started to make Quenya in order to give flesh to his phonoesthetic ideal. On the process he loved Welsh and he invented Sindarin. But those two where not his only models. It is clear that he used elements from Latin, Spanish, Greek and much more. It is also known that Tolkien wanted Adunaic and Dwarvish to be “Semitic” and resemble Hebrew. Many people can find similarities with their own mother languages. Some noticed some similarities between Quenya and Hebrew, Sanskrit and others, while some have expressed the idea that Valarin sounds like Sumerian and Telerin like Italian. Did Tolkien had all those languages in his mind or are they just chance resemblances? These few following examples of Quenya words give weight to some words of Faramir’s that did not make it into the published LotR, that “all speech of men in this world is Elvish in descent”. (WR:159) Varda means “exalted”, while Sanskrit vara means “best, most excellent”. The Val
