e-mail: Patrick Jemmer  website: Patrick Jemmer telephone: +44-(0)7761-625344 Language Construction Lapine

 

" Lapine, the language of the rabbits in Watership Down, is seen by some as one of the best naming languages ever created, and is a minimalist virtuoso performance, a haiku of a language compared to the sonnet of Sindarin. Lapine consists of about a hundred words or so, used for naming rabbits, their mythological characters and objects common to their world. "

Taken from the Wikipedia article on Lapine [accessed 23 February 2004]

 

My Work

Other authors, academics and fans of the book have attempted to expand on the few words and phrases extant in the corpus of Watership Down. One such linguist, Patrick Jemmer, corresponded with Richard Adams and "subcreated" a language around his Lapine. Adams commented that the motivation for the sound of Lapine was that it should sound "wuff-fluffy" (as in the name Thethuthinnang) and akin in some phonological respects to Arabic (from his time in N Africa in WWII). For example, the proper Lapine name Kehaar is quoted as being reminiscent of the Arabic "Behaar." This correspondence resulted in fact in 2 related languages (which might be construed as different historical states of development). This work was funded by the award of the D H I Powell Memorial Scholarship from University College of Wales Swansea UK (1988) and the Projects Fund Scholarship (1989) and First Yeomanship (1990) from Trinity College Cambridge UK. The former resulted in a dissertation, Linguistic Analysis: A Developmental Approach, and the latter, 2 theses, Schema Aleoloingoistica [1] and Ars Aleolinguistica [2] in which Jemmer developed the idea of "Aleolinguistics" - the study of the "subcreation" of languages in literature (as exemplified by Tolkien). A summary of these longer works appears in 2 articles published in Quettar (Vol 25 p 3) 1986 and (Vol 31 p 8) 1988, journal of the linguistics group of the UK Tolkien Society, and in Aglared (English edition), journal of the Swiss Tolkien Society (July 1987) and (June 1988). Further work on the historical predecessor to Lapine awaits funding: the work-in-progress is provisionally to be called Studia Aleolinguistica.

 Some examples of script and so on are found below. Incidentally,  Alowvelkí is Lapine for "bittersweet" and Hririn alowvelkí  means "bittersweet life," and is a gloss for the Russian phrase "gorko-sladkii." This and other phrases have been used in designs for tattoos and for other purposes. Examples of poetry and prose are U Frithhain - "The Sunsong" and U Sthinga-i-Kelaabr, a translation of Tolkien's "Ring Poem." Jemmer's work is currently unavailable in electronic format but can be obtained from the libraries mentioned; images of some pages from the first thesis are displayed below.

Patrick  is happy to correspond regarding this work, and can be contacted by e-mail.

 

[1] Jemmer, P. (1989) Schema Aleolinguistica. [Thesis: Projects fund awarding Committe, Trinity College Cambridge 1989. Univ of Wales Swansea. Subject: Linguistics. Location: LIC Theses. Call number: P28 JEM];

[2] Jemmer, P. (1990) Ars Aleolinguistica. [This volume is a 'sequel' to Schema Aleolinguistica (Jemmer (1989)) writen in fulfilment of the Projects Fund Award conditions. Univ of Wales Swansea. Subject: Linguistics. Location: LIC Theses. Call number: Theses]; Jemmer, P. (1990) Ars Aleolinguistica: a thesis, being the continuation of Schema Aleolinguistica. [Imprint Swansea. Privately Printed 1990.  Trinity College Library Cambridge. Lower Library. Subject: Linguistics. Class No. LL 130 J 102].

 

 

Extracts from Schema Aleolinguistica

[  JPEG images of scans of various pages ~ not the whole thesis! ]

 

 

 

 

 

Example of Lapine (comparing with Welsh and English)

[thanks to Mr John Morton ('Joni Saes') of Northumbria University for help with the Welsh translations]

 

 

For God is good; he gives us light. And God's light is life. And came they to the place of the God of Light, calling unto him: "There is no life because the Lord is dead. We are doomed." For the Sun it was that came down from the sky.

 

 

Er da Duw; goleuni inni a ddyry.   A bywyd goleuni Duw yw.   A daethant hyd fan Duw goleuni,   wrth alw iddo:    "Ni bywyd canys farw'r Arglwydd.    Barnedigion yr ydym."     Er mai'r Haul y bu a ddisgynnodd o'r nef.

 

Oherwydd bod Duw yn dda; mae o'n rhoi i ni olau.  Ac mae golau Duw'n fywyd. Ac maen nhw wedi dwad at le Duw golau, wrth alw iddo: "Does 'na ddim bywyd gan fod farw'r Argwydd. Rydyn ni wedi cael ein barnu." Gan mai'r Haul sy wedi dwad i lawr o'r nefoedd.

 

 

Example of Lapine (to be done!)

[thanks to Mrs Beti Davies ('Modryb Beti') of Olchfa School Swansea for help with the Welsh translation]

 

 

Fe fuodd yr Arglwydd farw;   Ond daulu eto yn fyw.   Ar hyd y nos felly mae'r mynyddoedd yn canu   O wybod yr Iechydwr Mawr yn fynd eto.

 

 

The Lord has died   But has returned again to life.   All through the night therefore the mountains are singing   At the knowledge that the Great Healer has come again.

 

 

 

A totally separate attempt at the extension of Lapine is that of David Buttery: his extensive and fascinating description of his work is available on-line at the Loganberry site.

David also comments: "I would first like to pay tribute to the work of Zoe Kealtan, on which a good chunk of my version of Lapine has been based - I highly recommend you check out her posts on the watershipdown Yahoo! Group (see the files section for her work - Yahoo! ID required)."

More information is available at the Lapine Conlang Profile.

 

 

 

 

 

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