Can there be a "too much Middle-Earth fan"

Talking about Middle-Earth and all that relates to it is great, but when it comes to speaking elf, I think it's becoming a littl bit crazy.
I've heard that one of the goals Tolkien had was insert, give a reason for the elf language to live, when he wrote the book, language he created himself.
It's nice to know, but (and I know some of you know it) some people actually learn it! Everyone have passions, but to what extent?
How many people speak Sindarins in the world?
Personnaly, I think it's a waist of time and energy to learn it, even if Middle-Earth is a passion to you (which is in my case).

Uh, I have a passion for English and learning new things >.> I mean, you have to know when to stop, but...I love LoTR, so humph!

Viva LotR, but Quenia and Sindarin... come on guys!
And I also am curious and want to learn new things... that are USEFUL! 🙂

Hey, learning new things helps your mind learn new things later in life. I personally have no time to learn the languages. I mean, all their lives LoTR geeks were laughed at for studying "useless" things, and then they got jobs on the movies. Besides, that's not all they're good at. The point is, I think if someone wants to learn the language, that's fine, it doesnt make you wierd. If you don't want to learn it, it doesn't mean you aren't a fan.

Allright, but it's still useless.
And I didn't say people learning it are weird. But learning those languages is my line between fans and fanatics.

Yes, I do think that one can exaggerate fan-ness especially about Tolkien's creation,
But - to defend languages a little 😛 ... I don't think that learning a language can in any way be an 'exaggeration' of interest, even less in a case like the Eldarin languages one can study without dedicating all day to it, without pressure, and that are so essential for the place they come from. And besides providing further information and understanding of their culture, learning a constructed or in this case fictional language / family of languages definitely improves one's abilty to get used to and learn other, 'real' languages, too, by offering more insight in how a language as a system actually works, how it's built up et cetera, even if that isn't its specific purpose, not having been designed as a logic language.

Beside that, the tongues of Middle-earth are art, and as some may find delight in music or painting or literature, others can simply enjoy a language per se, as a living system, as a vivid, breathing being, maybe finding pleasure in admiration of its superficial beauty, its fragile and idiosyncratic character hiding its overwhelming power and strength; others can marvel at the complex obscurities of intertwined cases and tempora, daydream adoring the undescribe- and unimitatable flowing sounds of the phonetic complexion of a people's philosophy and way of thinking.
Others can love languages.
And that is more than a good reason to try to understand them, I think 🙂

Maybe they are fanatics, radicals... but harmless ones 😛

As for your question - there are thousands of people learning Sindarin or Quenya; hardly anyone uses it for spoken communication though, after all it's no GA-language, but the product of excessive linguaphilia 😛

Ok, but do you realize they are studying a fiction language and that Middle-Earth, no doubt a great creation, is not reality and is only fiction.
Thus, my point is said.

but then so is the klingon language... just don't tell them trekkies that, though...

kaplagh!

So is the klingnon indeed

but why then is latin studied still???

only the clerics speak it, but only in rituals... or are we offtopic?

It's the base of our language. Trust me, it helps.

well... actually the base of our language is germanic...

now if you're referring to spanish, italian, and all the romance languages, then yes latin is the base

Originally posted by Mandos
Ok, but do you realize they are studying a fiction language and that Middle-Earth, no doubt a great creation, is not reality and is only fiction.
Thus, my point is said.

Originally posted by Fëanor
but why then is latin studied still???

only the clerics speak it, but only in rituals... or are we offtopic?

And even if it was dead, death doesn't kill beauty.
</ot>

edit
@ language-basis-idea - actually, even if English may be a Germanic language, around 70% of the vocabulary are of Roman origin; looking at typologic properties, English more ressembles Asian 'isolated' languages like from China or Vietnam 😉

There you see

Originally posted by Exabyte
death doesn't kill beauty.

...but what is death?

is it the ending of life, or a beginning?

or is life the nightmare we dream, and death the state of being asleep?

if so... then let me sleep

WTF

FTW

You're toying with me.

trust me... i do not toy

Aren't we losing the topic a little

Originally posted by Fëanor
...but what is death?

is it the ending of life, or a beginning?

As for a language, the ultimate death is Forgetting, the loss of memories and admiration. A language can only die when nobody lives to remember it, and so we can never know what languages have died, because if we did, they wouldn't be dead... that's what differs us from them, probably... they can only die when they're forgotten and will always endure, will live as long as there is somebody to love them

in the end that's what languages are all about, death and making things undying

if so... then let me sleep