Morse Code

June 25, 2013 10:40 AM

The Walrus And The Lexicographer, or How Tolkien's OED Etymology Makes An English "Walrus."
posted by the man of twists and turns (12 comments total)

Holy cow, that's actually what Tolkein's handwriting looked like? I always assumed that was an affectation to make the maps seem more olden/magic/elven/otherworldly.
posted by Flunkie at 11:02 AM on June 25, 2013

goo goo g'joob.
posted by Floydd at 11:09 AM on June 25, 2013

I'm curious how Tolkien, whose job on the Dictionary was "the drafting of etymologies for words of Germanic origin," ended up with wampum.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:36 AM on June 25, 2013

Flunkie, I think it was a deliberately antiquarian choice; he used an ink fountain pen long after automatic pens became widespread. I've found some indicators that his penmanship was very similar to his mother's, but that he also adapted his style based on the classic Writing & Illuminating & Lettering by Edward Johnson [archive.org], and that he played around with invented styles of his own throughout his life. The Elvish scripts were only one expression of this interest [as I've noted before, up to this point in history calligraphy and penmanship can be understood as a communications technology].
posted by dhartung at 12:35 PM on June 25, 2013 [3 favorites]

I shall henceforth refer to the walrus as, "Walrus, son of Rosswal" or "Walrus, Rosswal's heir".
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 12:39 PM on June 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was curious about "wampum" too--a pity they didn't show his notes for that. My guess is that he was checking up on whether it entered Dutch or English first? The Dutch were beginning to be active in southern New England/Mid-Atlantic at about the time, and if it entered Dutch first then it might require the services of a Germanic specialist.

Again, it's a pity they only reference it.
posted by Earthtopus at 12:57 PM on June 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

For what it's worth, here's their current etymology of "wampum":

See wampumpeag n. Compare French wampoum (Littré Suppl.).

And "wampumpeag":

Adopted (in 16–17th cent.) from the northerly dials. of the Algonquin language. At the time of the earliest colonization these were spoken in the East of the continent from Nova Scotia to Virginia. The ultimate forms indicated are *wampampiak, *wampampial, signifying ‘string of (white) beads’. Compare Rasles, Abnaki Dict. (1691), wambambi, plural -ak, ‘grain blan de porcelaine’, wambambiar ‘chapelet’; Delaware (Zeisberger) wapapi white wampum (woapaschapiall white beads).

The word is in form a compound of two elements meaning respectively ‘white’ and (probably) ‘bead’ with the ordinary Algonquin plural endings -ak (-ag ), or -al (-ar ) added. For the first element compare Natick wompi , Delaware wapi , Abenaki wambi- , etc. white. An ending -ampi occurs in Rasles' Abnaki Dict. in a large number of words descriptive of strings, etc. See Rasles s.v. chaîne, collier, corde, tresse.

The variations between -k , -g , and between womp- , wamp- , are probably due to dialectal differences within the Algonquian languages, but the remaining variations are due to fluctuating orthography and pronunciation after the word had been adopted into English.

The division into wampum n. and peag n. appears to be a false analysis due to Europeans.

The specific words for ‘black bead-money’ were never adopted into English, and perhaps the tendency to generalize the name of the commoner white variety was already present in the Algonquian languages.

Their "wampum" entry was updated in 2005, but "wampumpeag" in 1921.
posted by Flunkie at 1:49 PM on June 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

Flunkie: "Holy cow, that's actually what Tolkein's handwriting looked like? I always assumed that was an affectation to make the maps seem more olden/magic/elven/otherworldly."

It's driven Christopher Tolkien to distraction trying to decipher some of JRRT's handwriting. Apparently mentioned in his latest book.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:47 PM on June 25, 2013

I've read that the OED was released alphabetically and Tolkien worked on the Ws. Waggle to Warlock per the OED Contributors site. Which would explain wampum.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:19 AM on June 26, 2013

Chrysostom: Flunkie: It's driven Christopher Tolkien to distraction trying to decipher some of JRRT's handwriting. Apparently mentioned in his latest book.

That's an odd assessment to me, because it seems rather precisely stylized. It reminds me of the hand of Stephen Foster, author of an illustrated book of English Medieval Arms, whose italic hand is notoriously inscrutable - until you recognize the patterns in the lettering styles.

It's almost as though he substituted "s" for "k", "j" for "i", and so on for another 10 or so letters, but did so quite reliably. The result is an easily read "code" (which is really just an antiquated calligraphic alphabet style).

My point is: after the first 50 pages or so, I'd expect Tolkien's handwriting to be easily read, simply because it is so stylized. Mine, by comparison, varies wildly in style according to my temperment, tiredness, and access to eyeglasses.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2013

Well, I think Tolkien's public handwriting was quirky, but readable, as you say. But his private notes are pretty inscrutable. Check this out as an example.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:56 PM on June 26, 2013

Oh, er, ... yes, that is problematic.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:24 AM on June 27, 2013