Hobbitish

Hobbitish is the language of the Shire, spoken by the Hobbits. It is a dialect under the Middle-earth's common tongue of Westron. Many of the Hobbit's clans and names came from developed terms, shortened forms, combined words, and duplicates of Westron or other languages of Men. Most of the Hobbits took from the ancient speech of the Rohirrim while one specific clan, the Stoors, caught their words from the Dunlendings. The language used by the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit was essentially the Common Speech or Westron. But in their calls and names, Hobbitish was prevalent. These words were rural, classical, and even unusual from the common tongue. Another significant difference between Hobbitish from Westron is the pronouns. The Hobbits use simple pronouns while Westron involves different levels and persons of this part of speech. But in general, Hobbitish is a rustic, traditional variant of Westron.

The Hobbit ancient speech was not detailed but regarded from the predecessors of Rohan, called the clan of Éothéod. The native land of the Éothéod were the valleys along the River Anduin, which was the same land where the Hobbits' ancestors first settled in. For this reason, the Mannish language exceedingly influenced the Halfling's speech. Even during the period of the War of the Ring, Hobbitish and the Rohirric language had plenty of general attributes. Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck showed this point upon hearing the Rohirrim language and recognizing words that are similar to traditional Hobbitish terms of the Shire.

The Stoors, the hobbit clan of Smeagol, formerly inhabited Eriador. As a tribe of Men called Dunlendings resided in the area, the Stoors adapted some of their words. Later, when the Stoors migrated to the Shire, they learned and eventually used Hobbitish. The towns they lived in, such as The Marish and Buckland, also adapted their Dunlending words. Therefore, it caused the differences in the Hobbitish language in these regions.

Hobbitish was far different from the polished and developed languages of Rivendell and Gondor. The language of the Shire adapted to rustic, countryside people, with plenty of primary, uncomplicated, and traditional terms. They only used simple pronouns of the Westron tongue as in English, meaning hobbits don't distinguish their reference in persons. In other words, first or second-person are the same, and they don't differentiate the use of casual versus polite. Peregrin Took exhibited this nonexistence of the formal pronoun as he conversed with Denethor II, the Lord and Steward of Gondor. Pippin used very casual language for the Steward. Denethor commented that his speech is rather strange.

The Hobbits use and give names with various meanings and origins. Some were Hobbitish and traditional, but many depend on the way of naming for their Hobbit clan.

• It is customary for farmers and the working-class like the Gamgees to have medieval names like the names of the Éothéod.
• Hobbits from Buckland, like the Brandybucks, use strange references with influence from the Stoors in the south.
• Middle-class Halflings like the Bagginses usually take simple, short, and unique names. They take those that end with -o.
• Ancient, noble families, such as the Tooks, take from epics and stories, names of valor (an example was Hildifons Took), wars, and swords.

Most of the female Hobbits take names of gems, blossoms, or unique, profoundly feminine names.

• Farmers and Middle-class families, like the Gamgees and Bagginses, use popular flowers such as Poppy Chubb-Baggins and Marigold Gamgee. Middle-class females also use simple, unique names with no specific meanings ending with -e or -o.
• Reputable Hobbit families use rare, legendary flowers like Belladonna Took and Amaranth Brandybuck.

The primary distinction of Hobbitish from the Mannish tongues and Westron were the abundance of traditional, medieval words. Listed here are some of the medieval Hobbitish terms, their meanings, and some with their origins. Many of these Hobbitish terms were from obsolete Old English updated by Tolkien into unique forms.

• Goblins, the vile, enemy creatures, is a common term that Hobbits use for Orcs. It is a traditional term commonly used for the smaller ones, and the term Orcs are usually for the larger ones like the Uruk-hai.
• Hobbit is the name of the Halfling race. This term originated from the Men in the North, during the Halflings' time in the Anduin valley. The word Holbytia in the Rohirric language means hole-builder, while Kuduk is the Westron word for Hobbit.
• Mathom, in Hobbitish, means something useless and old, yet you never want to get rid of it. An example is the Mathom-house (a museum of collected objects in the Shire).
• Oliphaunts, a medieval word the Hobbits use for the Mumakil, the gigantic elephant creatures.
• Smial is a word for a large, unearthed hole used as a dwelling. Examples are Brandy Hall, the Great Smials, and Bag End.
• Swertings is a term for the Easterlings or Swarthy Men.
• Thain is a title used for the chief of the Hobbit army since the downfall of Arvedui.
• Withywindle is a river in the Shire's borders, an unusual word in Hobbitish.

They rarely learn or use other languages, and there were very few instances where the Halflings uttered other tongues. Once Frodo spoke Quenyan words to save himself and escape from a tower in Mordor. Samwise and Frodo also recited and summoned Elbereth in the Return of the King.

In the radio drama, Terrence Tiller once asked for Tolkien's remark on the Hobbitish accent.

The Hobbits did not display any difference in dialect as Samwise Gamgee spoke the same way as the others.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil featured Samwise Gamgee, played by Jonathan Adams, having a thick, groaning, and countryside accent.

There was only a slight variance in the Hobbit dialects, but Samwise Gamgee had a rustic sound. [1]

The films [2] gave special attention to the accuracy of the languages and accents, and so dialect coaches worked meticulously on this with the actors. They used a British Midland accent for Hobbitish as Tolkien mentioned that the inspiration of the Shire was the Midlands, his childhood hometown.

• The Bagginses, Bilbo and Frodo, used an elegant, neutral accent as they were of a Middle-class, well-bred family.
• Merry Brandybuck had the most distinct articulation of the Hobbits, as he was not of the Shire but Brandywine, an outside territory not belonging to any of the four farthings.
• Peregrin Took's accent was Scottish in the films, although the initial plan was that he would sound the same as the other Hobbits. Boyd, who played the part, had a Scottish accent, and it went excellently with his comic lines. Therefore, the film crew created a way to support this by implying that Saruman's orcs had difficulty taking over the Shire due to the rugged, highland region of the Tooks, comparable to Scotland. And so they let Pippin use his real Scottish accent throughout the three movies.
• Samwise used the same rustic accent as the rest of the lesser Hobbit characters.

1. ^The Lord of the Rings (1978).
2. ^The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.