Westron, also known as the Common Speech, is the closest thing to the universal language of Middle-earth; at least during the War of the Ring.

The Westron speech was derived from the Adûnaic tongue of Númenor, and originated as a Creole language on the western coastlands of the continent of Middle-earth, when the Númenorians established trade outposts and forts there. From there, it spread east, with the notable exception of Mordor.

Westron was a translation of the original name Adûni, and "Common Speech" translates the Westron term Sôval Phârë, of identical meaning. In Sindarin, the language was called Annúnaid or Falathren ('Shore-language').

Background

In The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Westron was presented as English. This had certain important implications: first of all, proper names with derivations somewhat evident to speakers of Westron had been translated, to preserve the effect. Thus, names like Baggins, Bagshot Row, Peregrin, Rivendell etc., are presented as not the actual names. (For example, Meriadoc Brandybuck's actual name is supposed to have been Kalimac Brandagamba, short Kali (meaning jolly, merry). 'Meriadoc', short 'Merry', is designed to maintain the reference to merriness contained in the original name. Likewise Peregrin Took's actual name was Razanur Tûc, short Razar (name of a small apple). 'Peregrin', short 'Pippin' contained both the actual meaning of the full name (traveller, stranger) and the reference to an apple). Sam Gamgee was actually named Ban Galpsi, short for Banazir Galbasi. The ending of the 'true' Hobbit name Bilbo was also changed: in Westron it was Bilba, but Tolkien changed this to Bilbo because -a is usually a female ending in English.

Place-names and other features were also presented as having been translated from an original form: Rivendell (Sindarin Imladris, "cloven valley") was actually called Karningul, and Bag End Labin-nec, after Labingi, the real form of Baggins. In some cases the explanations became quite involved, such as the river Brandywine (Sindarin Baranduin, "golden-brown river") was actually called Branda-nîn, a punning Westron name meaning "border-water", which was later punned again as Bralda-hîm meaning "heady ale".

The translation went one step further by also changing all languages akin to Westron. Rohirric, the language of the Rohirrim was translated by Anglo-Saxon, as Rohirric is an archaic relative of Westron (since the Edain from whose speech Westron is derived were related to the ancestors of the Rohirrim) much as Anglo-Saxon is an archaic relative of English. Similarly, the tongue of Dale, from which came the names of the Dwarves of Durin's house, was translated by Old Norse, a language related to Anglo-Saxon and modern English as Dalish was related to Rohirric and Westron.

Outside the context of the story, it is clear that most of the "original" forms in Westron or other languages were devised by Tolkien long after the English "translations" were chosen. Several of the Westron forms given above were not published in Tolkien's lifetime. He did not expand Westron vocabulary to the same extent as Quenya, Sindarin, or Adûnaic.[1]

Translations

Foreign Language Translated name Belarusian Cyrillic Вестран Catalan Oestron Chinese 西方语 French Ouestrain Italian Ovestron Japanese 西方語 Korean 서부어 Lombard Lengua ovestron Norwegian Vestrønt Occitan Oestron Russian Вестрон Spanish Oestron Swedish Väströna Thai ภาษาเวสทรอน Ukrainian Cyrillic Вестрон