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Region

Region

Region can be used to mean either:
- any more or less well-defined geographical area of a country or continent, defined by geography, culture or history
- in political geography, an administrative subdivision of a country or of the European Union. It is a common English translation of the Russian and Ukrainian administrative subdivision область (oblast) It is worth noting that regions are found in the minds of humans and so regions can be of any size and that each region is unique in its own way. The term also has a more specific use in relation to DVDs; see also regional lockout. For the place-name Region in the works of JRR Tolkien, see Region (Middle-earth).

Administrative regions

The word "region" is taken from the Latin regio, and a number of countries have borrowed the term as the formal name for a type of subnational entity (eg, the región, used in Chile). In English, the word is also used as the conventional translation for equivalent terms in other languages (eg, the область (oblast), used in Russia alongside with a broader term регион).
Countries using administrative regions
The following countries use the term "region" (or its cognate) as the name of a type of subnational entity:
- Belgium (in French, région; in German, Region; the term gewest is used in Dutch)
- Chile (región)
- Congo (région)
- Côte d'Ivoire (région)
- Denmark (effective from 2007)
- France (région)
- Ghana
- Hungary (régió)
- Italy (regione)
- Mali (région)
- Namibia
- New Zealand
- Peru (región)
- Tanzania
- Togo (région) The Canadian province of Québec also uses the "administrative region" (région administrative). Prior to 1996, Scotland was also divided into regions. The government of the Philippines uses the region (in Filipino, rehiyon) when it's necessary to group provinces, the primary administrative subdivision of the country. this is also the case in Brazil which groups its primary administrative divisions (estados; "states") into grandes regiões (≈"greater regions") for statistical purposes, while Russia uses экономические районы ("economic regions") in a similar way. The government of Singapore makes use of regions for its own administrative purposes. Similarly, the British government also makes limited use of regions for England. The following countries use an administrative subdivision conventionally referred to as a region in English:
- Russia, which uses the область (oblast).
- Ukraine, which uses the область (oblast). China has five 自治区 (zìzhìqū) and two 特別行政區 (or 特别行政区; tèbiéxíngzhèngqū) which are conventionally translated as "autonomous region" and "special administrative region", respectively.
Geographical regions
A region can also be used for a geographical area; with this usage, there is an implied distinctiveness about the area that defines it. Such a distinction is often made on the basis of a historical, political, or cultural cohesiveness that separates the region from its neighbours. Geographical regions can be found within a country (eg, the Midlands, in England), or transnationally (eg, the Middle-East).
Examples of geographical regions

- Geographical regions in Serbia and Montenegro
- Historical regions of Central Europe
- Historical regions of the Balkan Peninsula
- List of regions in Australia
- List of regions of Canada
- List of regions of the United States
- List of traditional regions of Slovakia
- Regions of Japan
See also

- Autonomous region
- Committee of the Regions
- Euroregion
- Latin names of regions
- Regional district
- Regional municipality Category:Regions ja:地方

Subregion
A subregion is a conceptual unit which derives from a larger region or continent and is usually based on location. Directional prefixes, such as north or southern, are commonly used to define a subregion.
Subregions by continent
Here are a few examples of subregions sorted by continent:
Africa

- by UN subregion:
- Northern Africa
- Western Africa
- Middle Africa
- Eastern Africa
- Southern Africa
- by geography:
- North Africa
- Maghreb
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- West Africa (Bulge of Africa)
- East Africa (Horn of Africa)
- Central Africa
- Southern Africa
America

North America

- by UN subregion:
- Northern America
- Central America
- The Caribbean
- by geography:
- Canadian Arctic
- Great Basin
- Great Plains
- Great Lakes
- The Greater Antilles
- The Lesser Antilles
- by geology:
- Canadian Shield
- North American craton
- Slave craton
- Superior craton
- Wyoming craton
South America

- by geography:
- Altiplano
- Amazon Basin
- Andes
- Caribbean South America
- Gran Chaco
- Guianas
- Pampa
- Pantanal
- Patagonia
- by economics (South American Community of Nations):
- Andean Community
- Mercosur
Eurasia

Asia

- by UN subregion:
- Western Asia
- Central Asia
- Southern Asia
- Eastern Asia
- Southeastern Asia
- by geography:
- Central Asia
- West Asia (or Middle East)
- Gulf States
- Near East
- Anatolia
- Caucasus
- Arabian Peninsula
- Levant
- North Asia (see Siberia)
- East Asia
- South Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent
- Bengal
- Himalayan States
- Southeast Asia
- Maritime
- Mainland
- Indochina
Europe

- by UN subregion:
- Western Europe
- Northern Europe
- Southern Europe
- Eastern Europe
- by peninsula:
- Balkan Peninsula
- Iberian Peninsula
- Italian Peninsula
- Scandinavian Peninsula
- by other groupings:
- Baltic States
- Benelux or the Low Countries
- British Isles
- Central Europe
- Nordic States
- Visegrad Group
Oceania

- Australasia or Australia
- Melanesia
- Micronesia
- Polynesia
See also

- continent for definitions of large land masses such as Africa-Eurasia.
- subcontinent
- supercontinent

Continent

shows land mass with minimal distortion as only one continuous continent]] A continent (Latin continere, "to hold together") is a large continuous land mass. There are several conceptions of what a continent is, geographic, geologic, and tectonic.

Geographic continents

Because geography is defined by local convention, there are several conceptions as to which landmasses qualify as continents. There are names for six, but America is often divided, and Europe is often united with Asia. Ignoring cases where Antarctica is omitted, there are half a dozen lists. tectonic The 7-continent model is usually taught in Western Europe, the United States, Australia, and much of Asia. In Canada, the government-approved [http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/international/world/referencemap_image_view Atlas of Canada] names 7 continents and teaches Oceania instead of Australia. The 6-continent combined-America model is taught in Iran, and Latin America. The 6-continent Eurasia model is preferred by the scientific community, and as such is commonly found in all parts of the world, but is especially used in Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe, and in Japan. Historians may use the 5-continent model in which North Africa is separated from Sub-Saharan Africa and attached to Eurasia (Jared Diamond) or the 4-continent Afro-Eurasian model (Andre Gunder Frank). In its original sense, "continent" meant (and still means) mainland. In the Greco-Roman world, there was but one known, the Continent, which we today call the Old World. In the mid 1600s Peter Heylin wrote in his Cosmographie that "A Continent is a great quantity of Land, not separated by any Sea from the rest of the World, as the whole Continent of Europe, Asia, Africa." As late as 1727 Ephraim Chambers wrote in his Cyclopædia, "The world is ordinarily divided into two grand continents: the old and the new." However, since Classical times this Continent was divided into "peninsulas" which also came to be called continents, since they were great land masses themselves. Through the Middle Ages, there were three such continents in the Western conception: Europe, Africa, and Asia. The European discovery of America in 1492 made four; and Australia in 1606 would make five, though not right away: as late as 1813 geographers wrote of Australia as "New Holland, an immense Island, which some geographers dignify with the appellation of another continent". However, dividing America in two was commonplace by this time, and would also produce a fifth continent. The idea of the Five Continents is still strong in Europe and Asia, and is represented by the five rings on the Olympic flag. Antarctica was sighted in 1820, for the sixth and last continent to be given a separate name, though a great "antarctic" (antipodean) landmass had been anticipated for millennia. Dividing the Americas now made seven continents, nicely symmetrical with the magical number of the Seven Seas, Seven Heavens, and the seven heavenly bodies that gave their names to the seven days of the week. However, this division never appealed to Latin America, which saw itself spanning America as a single landmass, and there the conception of six continents remains, as it does in scattered other countries such as Japan. From a modern perspective, the continent with the least reason for separate recognition is Europe, and in scientific circles people generally prefer to subsume Europe and Asia into Eurasia. This appealed to Russia, which spans Eurasia, and in Russia and (at least formerly) in Eastern Europe, Eurasia is or was taught as being one of six continents. Geographers and historians often find it useful to define larger land masses connected by land bridges: # Africa-Eurasia (also called Eurafrasia): the combined land mass of Africa and Eurasia; # America (or the Americas): the combined land mass of North America and South America; # Laurasia: the combined land mass of Eurasia and North America, which were connected by Beringia during the Ice Age; # Sahul: the combined land mass of Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania during the Ice Age. That is, during the last Ice Age, there were three large landmasses: Africa-Eurasia + America (which has no name), Sahul, and Antarctica. These larger land masses are usually considered supercontinents rather than continents, however. In the last century it has also become conventional to subdivide Eurasia into the regions of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. America is often divided into the regions of North America, Central America, and South America. Continents are also sometimes subdivided into subcontinents that are isolated by geological features. The prototype of this is the Indian subcontinent. Islands are usually considered to belong geographically to the continent they are closest to. The Coral Sea and South Pacific islands may be associated with Australia/Australasia to form the "continent" of Oceania (though the Pacific islands without Australia are also called Oceania). The British Isles have always been considered part of Europe, and Greenland is considered part of North America. When the Continent is referred to without clarification by a speaker of British English, it is usually presumed to mean Continental Europe, that is Europe, explicitly excluding Great Britain and Ireland. The Continental United States excludes Hawaii. Contiguous or Co(n)terminous United States means the United States without Alaska or Hawaii (the "Lower 48"), but it is very common for people to say continental for contiguous. See also List of countries by continent, Satellite Images of Continents.

Geologic continents

Geologically, the surface of Earth consists of many tectonic plates, consisting of rigid lithospheric mantle and crust moving together over the much less viscous asthenosphere. Continental crust is primarily granitic in composition, overlain by sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Much of the continental crust extends above sea level as dry land. Oceanic crust is basaltic in composition, and much thinner than continental crust, thus generally lying below sea level. Although from a human perspective shallow inland seas such as the Bering Sea appear to divide up land masses into continents, such ephemeral features do not define continents geologically. For instance, many times over the past few million years, the continents of Eurasia and America were connected by dry land. A geologic continent, therefore, is a continuous piece of continental crust, whether wet or dry at a particular time. As such, Laurasia and Africa-Arabia are one continent, which for the past three million years has also been linked to South America. This world-spanning land mass has no name except for the Classical meaning of "The Continent". The other large geologic continents are Sahul and Antarctica, but there are many so-called microcontinents as well: Madagascar, the Seychelles (the northern Mascarene Plateau), New Zealand, New Caledonia, etc., which are splinters of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. Note that volcanic Iceland is an exposed bit of oceanic crust at the mid-ocean ridge, and therefore not a microcontinent. Likewise, the British Isles, Sri Lanka, Borneo, and Newfoundland are integral parts of the Laurasian continent which happen to be separated by shallow (and temporary) inland seas flooding its margins.

Tectonic plates

During the 20th century, it became accepted by geologists that continents move location on the face of the planet over the geologic timescale, a process known as continental drift, explained by the theory of plate tectonics. It is the tectonic plates that have drifted, broken apart and joined together over time to give rise to the continents we now recognize. Consequently, in the geological past and prior to the present continents, other continents existed - see :Category:Historical continents. Occasionally there are calls for the continents to be defined by the tectonic plates that carry them. However, not only would this make Arabia on the Arabian plate and India on the Indian plate continents, but also Central America on the Caribbean plate and California on the Pacific plate, and this definition has never been widely accepted.

Physical geography

Physical geography or physiogeography is a subfield of geography that focuses on the systematic study of patterns and processes within the hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere. It aims to understand the physical layout of the Earth, its weather and global flora and fauna patterns. Many areas of physical geography make use of geology, particularly in the study of weathering and erosion. The geology of other planets is discussed at Geological features of the Solar System.

Fields of physical geography

Cultural geography

Cultural Geography is the study of natural and man-made representations on our society. This is a very terse description and by no means complete. To attend a greater feel of the subject the following terms and brief definitions are provided below.
- Political Theory of Culture (p 14): understanding culture in a manner seeing politics, economics, and society as concerned with the material relations of society and culture with the symbolic - looking at the total way of life.
- Culture (p 14): a way of life encompassing ideas, attitudes, languages, practices, institutions, and structures of power and whole range of cultural practices (art, canons, commodities); opposite of nature; sets people apart from one another (I am an American); hierarchical order.
- Cultural Hegemony (p 51): Antonio Gramsci's idea; looks at how and why people consent to being dominated, when and under what conditions do subordinates consent to rule by the dominate group, and "consent" v "coercion".
- Cultural Differentiation (notes): differences of patterns across cultural groups; a way of life.
- Social Reproduction (p 54): everyday perpetuation of the social institutions and relations that make possible the material conditions of life; looks at what is produced and consumed.
- Cultural Resistance (p 62): explores the contours of cultural control and challenges; looks the conditions under which resistance occurs.
- Cultural Representation (p 66): people who act collectively can produce reality, represent beliefs, and lifestyles (eg: punk rock and Sex Pistols).
- Neo-Lamarckism (p 17): part of environmental determinism; belief that an organism can pass on acquired characteristics to its offspring / is part of genetic make-up; environmental conditions cause and create certain habits and get passed on to future generations; nature causes cultural differences.
- Lebensraum (p 18): means living space and like an organic thing it needs to grow; to Nazis meant "blood and soil"; was used to justify Nazi imperial order.
- Social Darwinism (notes): survival of the fittest; explains why some cultures are "fitter"; facilitated "civilized" argument.
- Carl O. Sauer (p 27): father of Cultural Geography; concerned with material aspects of culture (artifacts, tangible things); concerned with cultural landscape: (derived from man, not nature, the effect of man on his environment); written as a reaction to the errors of environmental determinism.
- Archaeological culture (p 44): concentrates on material conditions of society.
- Cultural Relativism (p 25): cultures can only be understood in their own terms and heirarchial scale is impossible.
- Cultural Area (p 25): geographical regions sharign particular distributions of cultural traits; is a means to an end (understanding culture process/historical events).
- Cultural Particularism (Sauer): vanquish ethnocentrism from geography by replacing it with a developed empathy for people and places of the world.
- Superorganism (p 30): Wilbur Zelinsky; belief in force larger than -- and independent of -- human lives; culture is a real, exisiting force independent of human will / interaction.
- Mass Culture (p 48): "popular culture" or expression of popular tastes; large network of practices.
- Antonio Gramsci: cultural hegemony; asked how and why subordinates consent to rule by dominate group, why the subordinates go against what looks good for them objectively, when and under what conditions do people consnet to being dominated, looks at the relationship between powerful and not powerful.
- Cultural Materialism (p 60): looks at the material conditions of society; believes in the indossolubility of culture, politics, and economy.
- Wilbur Zelinsky: superorganism; culture is a force independent of human will and interaction; the force is larger than and independent of human lives.
- Enviromental Determinism (p 17): the environment or nature caused cultural differences by providing varying conditions under which cultures developed and were transmitted form one generation to another; enviromental control over human society; Neo-Lamarckism; environment causes culture (eg: Lebensraum).
- New' Cultural Geography: looks at the differences in cultural areas, not hegemony; looks at power and class (Williams); attacks mass culture(Hoggart); focuses on concept identity (Hall); looks at material conditions of society.
- Johann Gottfried Herder: recognition of multiple cultures; how individuals are bound to culture; looks at cultural relativism (cultures are equally valid); justified cultural traditions of Folk Germany.
- Franz Boas (p 24 - 25): pioneer of modern Anthropology; one must loose his/her own culture to truly understand another culture; attacked Darwinism; looks at how natural and social environments both conditioned and were conditioned by cultural interaction.

Subnational entity

Subnational entity is a generic term for an administrative region within a country — on an arbitrary level below that of the sovereign state — typically with a local government encompassing multiple municipalities, counties, or provinces with a certain degree of autonomy in a varying number of matters. Confusingly, in countries that are not nation states, this may well mean that some or all "subnational" entities in reality are also national entities. Subnational entities are conceptually separate from dependent areas so that the former are included in the core or mainland of the respective state.

Designations

Some of the designations for subnational entities are:
- Autonomous community - Autonomous communities of Spain
- Autonomous region - Political divisions of China
- Bailiwick - Channel Islands
- Bundesland - States of Austria, States of Germany
- Canton - Cantons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cantons of Switzerland, Cantons of France
- City - Nelson, New Zealand (the only city in the country that is not part of a larger region)
- Commune - Commune in France, Comune of Italy
- Community - Belgium
- County - Counties of Ireland
- Department - Departments of France, Departments of Bolivia
- District
- Municipality - Municipality of China, Municipalities of Sweden
- Parish
- Periphery - Peripheries of Greece
- Prefecture - Prefectures of Japan
- Province - Provinces of Canada, Political divisions of China, Provinces of Italy, Provinces of Madagascar, Provinces of the Philippines, Provinces of Spain, Provinces of Thailand, Provinces of Belgium
- Region - Regions of Finland, Regions of France, Regions of Italy, Regions of New Zealand, Regions of Belgium
- Republic - Republics of Russia
- Shire - Shires of England
- Subprefecture
- State - U.S. state, Australian states and territories, States and territories of India
- Territory - Provinces and territories of Canada, Chatham Islands
- Voivodship - Voivodships of Poland

Terms used in English-speaking countries

- Area
- Barangay (Philippines)
- Urban
- Borough
- City
- Town
- Township
- County
- Despotate (not subnational)
- District
- Division (sub-national)
- Duchy (partial subnational)
- Empire (not subnational)
- Kingdom
- Local council
- Municipality (Canada)
- also rural municipality [Manitoba]
- regional municipality [Ontario]
- regional county municipality [Quebec]
- Parish
- Prefecture (Rwanda)
- Principality (partial subnational)
- Province
- Region
- Republic (partial subnational)
- Indigenous:
- Reserve
- Reservation
- First Nation
- Band
- Electoral:
- Riding
- Electoral district
- Constituency
- State (sub-national)
- Subdivision
- Territory

Native terms

see: List of native terms for subnational entities Translation into english sometimes is difficult.

Compare:

- Country (a national or supra-national entity)
- Empire (a supra-national entity)
- State (a national or supra-national entity)

Region (Europe)

In European politics, a region is the layer of government directly below the national level. The term is especially used in relation to those regions which have some historical claim to uniqueness or independence, or differ significantly from the rest of the country. Examples of regions include:
- Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in the UK. The UK has also defined regions of England that are less culturally well-defined.
- French régions, especially Brittany, Corsica, Alsace and others which have been historically culturally distinct, but also many that have no historical background (e.g. Pays-de-la-Loire, Centre).
- Italian regioni which are not just geographic, but administrative divisions. The island-regions of Sardinia and Sicily, and also Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-South Tyrol, Valle d'Aosta have a special autonomous status to enact legislation regarding some local matters.
- Spanish comunidades autónomas, especially Catalonia, Basque Country (Spain and France), Galicia and others which have been historically culturally distinct.
- German Länder, like the culturally distinct Bavarian Region
- The Västra Götaland Region, Skåne Region, and Gotland in Sweden have in a process of devolution been named as regions
- The Regions of Finland serve as forums of cooperation for the local authorities in Finland. Note that some regions are located outside of continental Europe. French ones are called départements d'outre mer or régions d'outre mer. Examples of other overseas regions:
- Azores
- Guadeloupe
- Canary Islands The current historical trend in Europe is for the devolution of power to the regions from the central authorities. Examples of this trend include the devolution process in Britain (the Scotland Act 1998, the Government of Wales Act 1998) and the current negotiations in France concerning increased autonomy for Corsica. The politics of the regionalism have also had their impact on the pan-European level. The regions of Europe have lobbied for an increased say in EU affairs, especially the German Länder. This has resulted in the creation by the Maastricht treaty of the Committee of the Regions, and provision for member states to be represented in the Council by ministers from their regional governments. The desire of the German Länder however has been frustrated by other member states, which are opposed to direct involvement by the regions in EU decision-making. The German Länder successfully lobbied the German government (which has in turn lobbied the European Council) for the 2004 IGC to deal with the division of powers between the EU, national and regional levels of government. The Council of Europe also has a Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, similar to the EU's Committee of the Regions.

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian (украї́нська мо́ва, ukrayins'ka mova, ) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Ukrainian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. It shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Slovakian. Ukrainian traces its origins to the Old East Slavic language of the ancient state of Kievan Rus'. The language has persisted despite the two bans by Imperial Russia and political persecution during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ukrainian has survived mainly due to its broad base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, kobzars, prominent poets like Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka.

History

Perspective

Before the eighteenth century the precursor to the modern Ukrainian language was a vernacular language used mostly by peasants and petit bourgeois, existing side-by-side with a literary language of foreign origin, the Church Slavonic evolved from the Old Slavonic language from Bulgaria. Although the spoken Ukrainian language was in no danger of extinction, it was only raised to the level of a language of literature, philosophy and science by being promoted at the expense of a separate "high language", be it Greek, Church Slavonic, Polish, Latin or Russian. Ivan Kotlyarevsky in 1794 published an epic poem, Eneyida, a burlesque in Ukrainian, based on Vergil's Aeneid. The book turned out to be the first literary work published in the vernacular Ukrainian, becoming an undying classic of Ukrainian literature. The Ukrainian language has a rich history that reflects the history of Ukraine, full of foreign oppression and undying resistance. Ukrainian traces its roots through the mid-fourteenth century as one of the state languages of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, back to the early written evidences of tenth-century Kievan Rus'.

Origin

Until the end of 18th century the written language used in Ukraine was quite different from the spoken one. From these reasons, there is no direct data on the origin of the Ukrainian language. One has to rely on indirect methods: analysis of typical mistakes in old manuscripts, comparison of linguistic data with historical, antropological, archeological ones, etc. Because of the difficulty of the question, several versions of the origin of Ukrainian language exist. Some early versions have already been proven wrong by modern linguistics, while others are still being discussed in the academic community. The first version of the origin was proposed by Mikhail Lomonosov in the middle of the 18th century when modern linguistic studies were not available. Lomonosov assumed existence of the common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of Kievan Rus', the language he called Русский (Russkiy) (it should be noted that in the Russian language the word Russkiy (Russian) relates both to what pertains to modern Russia and to Rus', see also Etymology of Rus and derivatives). According to Lomonosov, the differences that subsequently developed between Great Russian and Ukrainian (then called Little Russian) could be explained by the influence of the Polish language when, after the disintegration of the East Slavic state, the lands of Ukraine fell under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This theory became a basis of the mainstream scholarship within the Russian Empire, largely due to its political convenience. The theory of "polonization" was supported by the government of the Imperial Russia when in 1876 Ukrainian was banned from printing in the territory of the empire (see Ems Ukaz). The "polonization" theory was criticised as early as in the first half of the nineteenth by Mykhailo Maxymovych. In fact, the most distinctive features of Ukrainian language are present neither in Russian nor in Polish. Ukrainian and Polish language do share a lot of common or similar words, but so are most Slavic languages, since many words are carried over from the extinct Proto-Slavic language, predecessors of the modern ones. Much smaller part of their common vocabulary can be attributed to the later interaction of the two languages. The "polonization" theory has not been taken seriously by the academic community since the beginning of 20th century, but still has some circulation among anti-Ukrainian organizations and politicians. Another point of view developed during nineteenth and twentieth centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia and Soviet Union. Similarly to Lomonosov they assume the existence of the common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. But unlike Lomonosov's hypothesis, this theory does not view "polonization" or any other external influence as the main driving force that led to the formation of three different languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian from the common Old East Slavic language. The supportes of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet historiography manifested an ideology of three brotherly East Slavic nations. Soviet scholars tend to admit a difference between Ukrainian and Russian only at later time periods (fourteenth through sixteenth centuries). According to this view, Old East Slavic diverged into Belarusian and Ukrainian to the west (collectively, the Ruthenian language of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries), and Old Russian to the north-east, after the political boundaries of Kievan Rus’ were redrawn in the fourteenth century. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia (Ukraine and Belarus) into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukrainian and Belarusian diverged into identifiably separate languages. Other scholars see a divergence between the language of Halych-Volhynia and the language of Novgorod-Suzdal by the 1100s, assuming that before the 12th century the two languages were practically indistinguishable. Some European and American linguists concur (see, for example the articlein Encyclopedia Britannica). This point of view is, however, in varience with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes (that later likely became Volhynians and Buzhans), White Croatians, Tivertsi and Ulichs lived on the theritory of today's Ukraine long before the 12th century. It is notable that Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. Some researches admitting the differencies between the dialects spoken by East Slavic tribes in 10th and 11th centuries still consider them as "regional manifestations of a common language" (see, for instance, the article by Vasyl Nimchuk). In contrast, Ahathandel Krymskyi and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Easten Slavs only in pre-historic times. According to their point of view, the disintegration of the Old East Slavic language took place in 8th or at the beginning of 9th century. The Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stockyi went even further: he denied the existence of common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar point of view was shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes derived gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermadiate stages during 6st - 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by mixing and convergence of tribal dialects mostly due to intensive migration of the population within the theritory of today's Ukraine in the later historical periods. This point of view was also confirmed by phonological studies of Yurii Shevelov. This theory gains growing number of supporters among Ukrainian scientists. See also Ruthenian language.

Ancient history

Beyond the polemics between several ideological conceptions, the continuous presence of Slavic settlements in Ukraine, since at least the sixth century, provides an underlying ethno-linguistic factual basis for the origins of the Ukrainian language. The westernmost areas of modern-day Ukraine lay to the south from the postulated homeland of the original Slavs. Immigration of Slavic tribes to the Western Slavic and Southern Slavic portions of Eastern Europe led to the dissolution of Early Common Slavic into three groups by the seventh century (East Slavic, West Slavic, and South Slavic). During this time period, some East Slavic elements could have already provided a Slavic identity to the Antes civilization (of which nothing but an Iranian name is known).

Kievan Rus' and Halych-Volhynia

During the Khazar period, the territory of Ukraine, originally settled by Iranian (post-Scythian), Turkic (post-Hunnic, proto-Bulgarian), and Finno-Ugric (proto-Hungarian) tribes, was progressively Slavicized by several waves of migration from the Slavic north. Finally, the Varangian ruler of Novgorod, called Oleg, seized Kiev (Kyiv) and established the political entity of Rus'. Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here; others term this era Early East Slavic or Old Ruthenian/Rus'ian. Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. Some hold that linguistic unity over Rus' was not present, but tribal diversity in language was present. The era of Rus' is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as the language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Slavonic. At the same time, most legal documents throughout Rus' were written in a purely East Slavic language (supposed to be based on the Kiev dialect of that epoch). Scholarly controversies over earlier development aside, literary records from Rus' testify to substantial divergence between Russian and Ruthenian/Rusyn forms of the Ukrainian language as early as the era of Rus'. One vehicle of this divergence (or widening divergence) was the large scale appropriation of the Old Slavonic language in the northern reaches of Rus' and of the Polish language at the territory of modern Ukraine. As evidenced by the contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes of Halych and Kiev called themselves "Russkie," which contrasts sharply with the lack of ethnic self-appellation for the area until the mid-nineteenth century. One prominent example of this north-south divergence in Rus' from around 1200, was the epic, The Tale of Igor's Campaign. Like other examples of Old Russian literature (for example, Byliny, the Russian Primary Chronicle), it survived only in Northern Russia (Upper Volga belt) and was probably written there. It shows dialectal features characteristic of Severian dialect with the exception of two words which were wrongly interpreted by early nineteenth-century German scholars as Polish loan words.

Post-independence: Lithuania/Poland, Muscovy/Russia, and Austro-Hungary

Severia (1561).]] After the fall of Halych-Volhynia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania, then Poland. Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. Polish rule, which came mainly later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. The Polish language has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (and on Belarusian). As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from Tatar and Turkish occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ukrainian was also the official language of Ukrainian provinces of the Crown of Polish Kingdom. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kiev-Mogila Academy), founded by the Orthodox Metropolitan Peter Mogila (Petro Mohyla), was the most important. In the anarchy of the Khmelnytsky Uprising and following wars, Ukrainian high culture was sent into a long period of steady decline. In the aftemath, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by Russia. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian, in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian widely. After the partitions of Poland, the Ukrainian language was banned from printing by Alexander II of Russia, in the Ems Ukaz, which retarded the literary development of the Ukrainian language. At the same time, in Austria-ruled Galicia and Bukovina, Ukrainian was widely used in the education and in official documents.

Soviet era

Bukovina".]] During the seven-decade-long Soviet era, the Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR. However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards the Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to discouragement and, at times, suppression. Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek would be used in the Uzbek SSR, and so on. However, Russian was used in all parts of the Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication" was coined to denote its status. In reality, Russian was in a privileged position in the USSR and was the state official language in everything but formal name—although formally all languages were held up as equal. Often the Ukrainian language was frowned upon or quietly discouraged, which led to the gradual decline in its usage. Partly due to this suppression, in many parts of Ukraine, notably most urban areas of the east and south, Russian remains more widely spoken than Ukrainian. Soviet language policy in Ukraine is divided into six policy periods # Ukrainianization and tolerance (1921–late-1932) # Persecution and russification (1933–1957) # Khrushchev thaw (1958–1962) # The Shelest period: limited progress (1963–1972) # The Shcherbytsky period: gradual suppression (1973–1989) # Gorbachev and perestroika (1990–1991)

Ukrainianization and tolerance

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire was broken up. In different parts of the former empire, several nations, including Ukrainians, developed a renewed sense of national identity. In the chaotic post-revolutionary years, Ukraine went through several short-lived independent and quasi-independent states, and the Ukrainian language, for the first time in modern history, gained usage in most government affairs. Initially, this trend continued under the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union, which in a political struggle with the old regime had their own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire. While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about many political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire. Soviet Union, and the defence of Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."]] The widening use of Ukrainian further developed in the first years of Bolshevik rule into a policy called Korenization. The government pursued a policy of Ukrainianization (Ukrayinizatsiya, actively promoting the Ukrainian language), both in the government and among party personnel, and an impressive education program which raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone rural areas. Newly-generated academic efforts from the period of independence were co-opted by the Bolshevik government. The party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking but were encouraged to learn the Ukrainian language. Simultaneously, the newly-literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized—in both population and in education. The policy even reached those regions of southern Russian SFSR where the ethnic Ukrainian population was significant, particularly the areas by the Don River and especially Kuban in the North Caucasus. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as a second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications were started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five raions

JRR Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. He worked as reader and professor in English language at Leeds from 1920 to 1925, as professor of Anglo-Saxon language at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English language and literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was a strongly committed Catholic. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis', and a member of the Inklings, a literary discussion group to which both Lewis and Owen Barfield belonged. In addition to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's published fiction includes The Silmarillion and other posthumous books about what he called a legendarium, a fictional mythology of the remote past of Earth, called Arda, and Middle-earth (from middangeard, the lands inhabitable by Men) in particular. Most of these posthumously published works were compiled from Tolkien's notes by his son Christopher Reuel Tolkien. The enduring popularity and influence of Tolkien's works have established him as the "father of the modern high fantasy genre". Tolkien's other published fiction includes adaptations of stories originally told to his children and not directly related to the legendarium.

Biography

The Tolkien family

As far as is known, most of Tolkien's paternal ancestors were craftsmen. The Tolkien family had its roots in Saxony (Germany), but had been living in England since the 18th century, becoming "quickly and intensely English (not British)" (Letters, 165). The surname Tolkien is anglicised from Tollkiehn (i.e. German tollkühn, "foolhardy", the etymological English translation would be dull-keen, a literal translation of oxymoron). The character of Professor Rashbold in The Notion Club Papers is a pun on the name.

Childhood

Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892, in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State), South Africa, to Arthur Reuel Tolkien (1857–1896), an English bank manager, and his wife Mabel, née Suffield (1870–1904). Tolkien had one sibling, his younger brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel, who was born on February 17, 1894. When he was three, Tolkien went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of a severe brain haemorrhage before he could join them. This left the family without an income, so Tolkien's mother took him to live with her parents in Birmingham, England. Soon after in 1896, they moved to Sarehole (now in Hall Green), then a Worcestershire village, later annexed to Birmingham. He enjoyed exploring Sarehole Mill and Moseley Bog and the Clent Hills and Lickey Hills, which would later inspire scenes in his books along with other Worcestershire towns and villages such as Bromsgrove, Alcester and Alvechurch and places such as his aunt's farm of Bag End, the name of which would be used in his fiction. Alvechurch Mabel tutored her two sons, and Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil. She taught him a great deal of botany, and she awoke in her son the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees. But his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, and his mother taught him the rudiments of Latin very early. He could read by the age of four, and could write fluently soon afterwards. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and, while a student there, helped "line the route" for the coronation parade of King George V, being posted just outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. He later attended St Phillip's School and Exeter College, Oxford. His mother converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900, despite vehement protests by her Baptist family. She died of diabetes in 1904, when Tolkien was twelve, at Fern Cottage, Rednal, which they were then renting. For the rest of his life, Tolkien felt that she had become a martyr for her faith; this had a profound effect on his own Catholic beliefs. Tolkien's devout faith was significant in the conversion of C. S. Lewis to Anglicanism. During his subsequent orphanhood he was brought up by Father Francis Xavier Morgan of the Birmingham Oratory, in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. He lived there in the shadow of Perrott's Folly and the Victorian tower of Edgbaston waterworks, which may have influenced the images of the dark towers within his works. Another strong influence was the romantic medievalist paintings of Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a large and world-renowned collection of works and had put it on free public display from around 1908. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Youth

Tolkien met and fell in love with Edith Mary Bratt, three years his senior, at the age of sixteen. Father Francis forbade him from meeting, talking, or even corresponding with her until he was twenty-one. He obeyed this prohibition to the letter. In 1911, while they were at King Edward's School, Birmingham, Tolkien and three friends, Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman, formed a semi-secret society which they called "the T.C.B.S.", the initials standing for "Tea Club and Barrovian Society", alluding to their fondness of drinking Tea in Barrow's Stores near the school and, illegally, in the school library. After leaving school, the members stayed in touch, and in December 1914, they held a "Council" in London, at Wiseman's home. For Tolkien, the result of this meeting was a strong dedication to writing poetry. In the summer of 1911, Tolkien went on holiday in Switzerland, a trip that he recollects vividly in a 1968 letter (Letters, no. 306), noting that Bilbo's journey across the Misty Mountains ("including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods") is directly based on his adventures as their party of twelve hiked from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, and on to camp in the moraines beyond Mürren. Fifty-seven years later, Tolkien remembers his regret at leaving the view of the eternal snows of Jungfrau and Silberhorn ("the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams"). They went across the Kleine Scheidegg on to Grindelwald and across the Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen. They continued across the Grimsel Pass and through the upper Valais to Brig, and on to the Aletsch glacier and Zermatt. Zermatt (from Carpenter's Biography)]] On the evening of his twenty-first birthday, Tolkien telephoned Edith and asked her to be his bride, and she converted to Catholicism for him. They were engaged in Birmingham, in January 1913, and married in Warwick, England, on March 22, 1916. With his childhood love of landscape, he visited Cornwall in 1914 and he was said to be deeply impressed by the singular Cornish coastline and sea. After graduating from the University of Oxford (Exeter College, Oxford) with a first-class degree in English language in 1915, Tolkien joined the British Army effort in World War I and served as a second lieutenant in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. His battalion was moved to France in 1916, where Tolkien served as a communications officer during the Battle of the Somme, until he came down with trench fever on October 27, and was moved back to England on November 8. Many of his fellow servicemen, as well as many of his closest friends, were killed in the war. During his recovery in a cottage in Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England, he began to work on what he called The Book of Lost Tales, beginning with The Fall of Gondolin. Throughout 1917 and 1918 his illness kept recurring, but he had recovered enough to do home service at various camps, and was promoted to lieutenant. When he was stationed at Kingston upon Hull, one day he and Edith went walking in the woods at nearby Roos, and Edith began to dance for him in a thick grove of hemlock. This incident inspired the account of the meeting of Beren and Lúthien, and Tolkien often referred to Edith as his Lúthien.

Oxford

Tolkien's first civilian job after World War I was at the Oxford English Dictionary (among others, he initiated the entries wasp and walrus). In 1920 he took up a post as Reader in English language at the University of Leeds, and in 1924 was made a professor there, but in 1925 he returned to Oxford as a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College. Tolkien and Edith had four children: John Francis Reuel (November 17, 1917), Michael Hilary Reuel (October 1920–1984), Christopher John Reuel (1924) and Priscilla Anne Reuel (1929). Tolkien assisted Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the unearthing of a Roman Asclepieion at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, in 1928. During his time at Pembroke, Tolkien wrote the The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings. Of Tolkien's academic publications, the 1936 lecture "Beowulf: the monsters and the critics" had a lasting influence on Beowulf research. In 1945, he moved to Merton College, Oxford, becoming the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, in which post he remained until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien completed the The Lord of the Rings in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches. During the 1950s, Tolkien spent many of his long academic holidays at the home of his son John Francis in Stoke-on-Trent. Tolkien had an intense dislike for the side effects of industrialisation, which he considered a devouring of the English countryside. For most of his adult life he eschewed automobiles, preferring to ride a bicycle. This attitude is perceptible from some parts of his work, such as the forced industrialisation of The Shire in The Lord of the Rings. industrialisation, next to one of his favourite trees (a Pinus nigra) in the Botanic Garden, Oxford.]] W.H. Auden was a frequent correspondent and long-time friend of Tolkien's, initiated by Auden's fascination with The Lord of the Rings: Auden was among the most prominent early critics to praise the work. Tolkien wrote in a 1971 letter, "I am [...] very deeply in Auden's debt in recent years. His support of me and interest in my work has been one of my chief encouragements. He gave me very good reviews, notices and letters from the beginning when it was by no means a popular thing to do. He was, in fact, sneered at for it." (Letters, no. 327).

Retirement and old age

During his life in retirement, from 1959 up to his death in 1973, Tolkien increasingly turned into a figure of public attention and literary fame. The sale of his books was so profitable that Tolkien regretted he had not taken early retirement. While at first he wrote enthusiastic answers to reader inquiries, he became more and more suspicious of emerging Tolkien fandom, especially among the hippy movement in the USA. Already in 1944, he made a somewhat sarcastic comment about a fan letter by a twelve-year-old American reader (It's nice to find that little American boys do really still say 'Gee Whiz'., Letters no. 87). In a 1972 letter he deplores having become a cult-figure, but admits that :even the nose of a very modest idol (younger than Chu-Bu and not much older than Sheemish) [idols in a story by Lord Dunsany] cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense! (Letters, no. 336). Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory, and eventually he and Edith moved to Bournemouth at the south coast. Tolkien was awarded a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on March 28, 1972. 1972 Edith Tolkien died on November 29 1971, at the age of eighty-two, and Tolkien had the name Lúthien engraved on the stone at Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. When Tolkien died 21 months later on September 2 1973, at the age of 81, he was buried in the same grave, with Beren added to his name, so that the engraving now reads: Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889–1971 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892–1973 Posthumously named after Tolkien are the Tolkien Road in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and the asteroid 2675 Tolkien. Tolkien Way in Stoke-On-Trent is named after J.R.R.'s son Father John Francis Tolkien, who used to be the priest in charge at the nearby Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Angels and St. Peter in Chains.

Writing

Stoke-On-Trent Beginning with The Book of Lost Tales, written while recuperating from illness during World War I, Tolkien devised several themes that were reused in successive drafts of his legendarium. The two most prominent stories, the tales of Beren and Lúthien and that of Túrin, were carried forward into long narrative poems (published in The Lays of Beleriand). Tolkien wrote a brief summary of the mythology these poems were intended to represent, and that summary eventually evolved into The Silmarillion, an epic history that Tolkien started three times but never published. The story of this continuous redrafting is told in the posthumous series The History of Middle-Earth. From around 1936, he began to extend this framework to include the tale of The Fall of Númenor, which was inspired by the legend of Atlantis. Tolkien was strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon literature, Germanic and Norse mythologies, Finnish folklore, the Bible, and Greek mythology. The works most often cited as sources for Tolkien's stories include Beowulf, the Kalevala, the Poetic Edda, the Volsunga saga and the Hervarar saga. Tolkien himself acknowledged Homer, Oedipus, and the Kalevala as influences or sources for some of his stories and ideas. His borrowings also came from numerous Middle English works and poems. In addition to his mythological compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. He wrote annual Christmas letters from Father Christmas for them, building up a series of short stories (later compiled and published as The Father Christmas Letters). Other stories included Mr. Bliss, Roverandom, and Smith of Wootton Major. Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major, like The Hobbit, borrowed ideas from his legendarium. Tolkien never expected his fictional stories to become popular, but he was persuaded by a former student to publish a book he had written for his own children called The Hobbit in 1937. However, the book attracted adult readers as well, and it became popular enough for the publisher, George Allen & Unwin, to ask Tolkien to work on a sequel. Even though he felt uninspired on the topic, this request prompted Tolkien to begin what would become his most famous work: the epic three-volume novel The Lord of the Rings (published 1954–55). Tolkien spent more than ten years writing the primary narrative and appendices for Lord of the Rings, during which time he received the constant support of the Inklings, in particular his closest friend C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set against the background of The Silmarillion, but in a time long after it. Tolkien at first intended The Lord of the Rings as a children's tale like The Hobbit, but it quickly grew darker and more serious in the writing. Though a direct sequel to The Hobbit, it addressed an older audience, drawing on the immense back story of Beleriand that Tolkien had constructed in previous years, and which eventually saw posthumous publication in The Silmarillion and other volumes. Tolkien's influence weighs heavily on the fantasy genre that grew up after the success of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien continued to work on the history of Middle-earth until his death. His son Christopher, with some assistance from fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, organised some of this material into one volume, published as The Silmarillion in 1977. In 1980 Christopher Tolkien followed this with a collection of more fragmentary material under the title Unfinished Tales, and in subsequent years he published a massive amount of background material on the creation of Middle-earth in the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth. All these posthumous works contain unfinished, abandoned, alternative and outright contradictory accounts, since they were always a work in progress, and Tolkien only rarely settled on a definitive version for any of the stories. There is not even complete consistency to be found between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the two most closely related works, because Tolkien was never able to fully integrate all their traditions into each other. He commented in 1965, while editing The Hobbit for a third edition, that he would have preferred to completely rewrite the entire book. The library of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, preserves many of Tolkien's original manuscripts, notes and letters; other original material survives at Oxford's Bodleian Library. Marquette has the manuscripts and proofs of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and other manuscripts, including Farmer Giles of Ham, while the Bodleian holds the Silmarillion papers and Tolkien's academic work. The Lord of the Rings became immensely popular in the 1960s and has remained so ever since, ranking as one of the most popular works of fiction of the twentieth century, judged by both sales and reader surveys. In the 2003 "Big Read" survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the "Nation's Best-loved Book". In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite "book of the millennium". In 2002 Tolkien was voted the ninety-second "greatest Briton" in a poll conducted by the BBC, and in 2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in a list of the Greatest South Africans, the only person to appear in both lists. His popularity is not limited just to the English-speaking world: in a 2004 poll inspired by the UK’s "Big Read" survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings (Der Herr der Ringe) to be their favourite work of literature.

Languages

See also Languages of Middle-earth. Both Tolkien's academic career and his literary production are inseparable from his love of language and philology. He specialised in Greek philology in college, and in 1915 graduated with Old Icelandic as special subject. He worked for the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918. In 1920, he went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of linguistics from five to twenty. He gave courses in Old English heroic verse, history of English, various Old English and Middle English texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory Germanic philology, Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Medieval Welsh. When in 1925, aged 33, Tolkien applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, he boasted that his students of Germanic philology in Leeds had even formed a "Viking Club". Privately, Tolkien was attracted to "things of racial and linguistic significance", and he entertained notions of an inherited taste of language, which he termed the "native tongue" as opposed to "cradle tongue" in his 1955 lecture English and Welsh, which is crucial to his understanding of race and language. He considered west-midland Middle English his own "native tongue", and, as he wrote to W. H. Auden in 1955 (Letters, no. 163), "I am a West-midlander by blood (and took to early west-midland Middle English as a known tongue as soon as I set eyes on it)". Parallel to Tolkien's professional work as a philologist, and sometimes overshadowing this work, to the effect that his academic output remained rather thin, was his affection for the construction of artificial languages. The best developed of these are Quenya and Sindarin, the etymological connection between which are at the core of much of Tolkien's legendarium. Language and grammar for Tolkien was a matter of aesthetics and euphony, and Quenya in particular was designed from "phonæsthetic" considerations. It was intended as an "Elvenlatin", and was phonologically based on Latin, with ingredients from Finnish and Greek (Letters, no. 144). A notable addition came in late 1945 with Numenorean, a language of a "faintly Semitic flavour", connected with Tolkien's Atlantis myth, which by The Notion Club Papers ties directly into his ideas about inheritability of language, and via the "Second Age" and the Earendil myth was grounded in the legendarium, thereby providing a link of Tolkien's 20th-century "real primary world" with the mythical past of his Middle-earth. Tolkien considered languages inseparable from the mythology associated with them, and he consequently took a dim view of auxiliary languages. In 1930 a congress of Esperantists were told as much by him, in his lecture A Secret Vice, "Your language construction will breed a mythology", but by 1956 he concluded that "Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Novial, &c &c are dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends" (Letters, no. 180). The popularity of Tolkien's books has had a small but lasting effect on the use of language in fantasy literature in particular, and even on mainstream dictionaries, which today commonly accept Tolkien's spellings dwarves and elvish (instead of dwarfs and elfish). Other terms he has coined, like legendarium and eucatastrophe, are mainly used in connection with Tolkien's work.

Works inspired by Tolkien

In a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman (Letters, no. 131), Tolkien writes about his intentions to create a "body of more or less connected legend", of which :The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. The hands and minds of many artists have indeed been inspired by Tolkien's legends. Personally known to him were Pauline Baynes (Tolkien's favourite illustrator of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham) and Donald Swann (who set the music to The Road Goes Ever On). Queen Margrethe II of Denmark created illustrations to the Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. She sent them to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity to the style of his own drawings. But Tolkien was not fond of all the artistic representation of his works that were produced in his lifetime, and was sometimes harshly disapproving. In 1946 (Letters, no. 107), he rejects suggestions for illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of the Hobbit as "too Disnified", :Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of. He was sceptical of the emerging fandom in the United States, and in 1954 he returned proposals for the dust jackets of the American edition of the Lord of the Rings (Letters, no. 144): :Thank you for sending me the projected 'blurbs', which I return. The Americans are not as a rule at all amenable to criticism or correction; but I think their effort is so poor that I feel constrained to make some effort to improve it. And in 1958, in an irritated reaction to a proposed movie adaptation of the Lord of the Rings by Morton Grady Zimmerman (Letters, no. 207) he writes, :I would ask them to make an effort of imagination sufficient to understand the irritation (and on occasion the resentment) of an author, who finds, increasingly as he proceeds, his work treated as it would seem carelessly in general, in places recklessly, and with no evident signs of any appreciation of what it is all about. He went on to criticise the script scene by scene ("yet one more scene of screams and rather meaningless slashings"). But Tolkien was in principle open to the idea of a movie adaptation. He sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1968, while, guided by scepticism towards future productions, he forbade that Disney should ever be involved (Letters, no. 13): :It might be advisable […] to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible […] to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing). United Artists never m