I wonder why most people tend to just care about "late" and "LotR-compatible" material, and despise anything "early" concerning both languages and legendarium. Seriously? This annoys me.
Thankfully there are a few people who, like me, really care about Tolkien's "early" languages and legendarium. The most notable example of whom I know is Roman Rausch, webmaster of Sindanórië.
And finally here's my opinion on the legendarium: I prefer the early versions since they happen in our own world, so one can really feel that might have happened. Moreover I also prefer to believe that Quenya and Noldorin were distinct languages (with Beleriandic being yet another one) rather than that the Noldor spoke Quenya and adopted Sindarin.
Tamas Ferencz Jan 12, 2013 (18:12)
I cannot speak for others, of course. As for my viewpoint on 'early' material: I love them, admire, them, read them, have them available in VTs and PEs. I just have not yet managed to gather the time and energy to learn them to a level on which I could use them comfortably. But I will, one they, because it's intriguing to have the big vocabularies of Goldogrin and Qenya at fingertips!
What I'm not comfortable is mixing e.g. very early Qenya forms with later material. To me that feels as if I started mixing Old English words into my speech.
Jenna Carpenter Jan 12, 2013 (21:00)
Ицхак Пензев Jan 13, 2013 (16:16)
1) they must be phoneticly consistent with LotR-style phonology;
2) they shouldn't override the roots attested later;
3) they need to be adapted grammatically (if needed).
Olga García Jan 13, 2013 (20:34)
Ицхак Пензев Jan 13, 2013 (21:25)
You may wonder how much of the early material
1) is indeed incorporated into Neo-Quenya compositions nowadays;
2) shows stability during the years and decades, and even triconsonantal verb roots pop up as late as in PE17 publications (that's ca. 1960s, I think).
Olga García Jan 13, 2013 (21:55)
Ицхак Пензев Jan 14, 2013 (09:12)
Friendly yours,
Isaac (now I see my Cyrillic signature is illegible ;) )
Fiona Jallings Jan 17, 2013 (22:32)
Olga García Jan 17, 2013 (22:59)
Olga García Jan 18, 2013 (21:33)
But this raises the question of why he really decided to publish The Hobbit instead of his early material...
Jenna Carpenter Jan 18, 2013 (23:14)
Tamas Ferencz Jan 19, 2013 (11:12)
Matt Dinse Feb 06, 2013 (05:17)
Olga García Mar 16, 2013 (19:37)
By the way, I hope this helps everyone get digitalized Tolkien material, including PE's and VT's (and I also hope it doesn't get censored :$): https://forum.suprbay.org/showthread.php?tid=72617
Sorry if I have taken too long to write this...
Matt Dinse Mar 31, 2013 (18:24)
Don't worry about having taken too long; I am far worse in that regard, usually. ;)