Lapine language
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.
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 "Thethuthinang") 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 two 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, two theses, "Schema Aleoloingoistica" and "Ars Aleolinguistica" 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 two 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 at the Alowvelki' Consulting Ltd website: http://www.alowvelkiconsulting.co.uk/language/lapine.html
"Alowvelki' "(acute accent on final "i") is Lapine for "bittersweet" and "Hririn alowvelki' " means "life is bittersweet." 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; Patrick Jemmer is happy to correspond of this work and can be contacted at:
Eur Chem Dr Patrick Jemmer BA (Hons) CertPostgradStudy MA (Cantab) MA (Oxon) MRSC MInstP MIMA CChem CPhys CMath LNCP MNCH (Lic) LHS LAPH FRSH AMWFH AMBAThH AMSHA AMSHR
Senior Lecturer & Admissions Tutor (Computing)
D110 Ellison Building School of Informatics Northumbria University NE1 8ST UK telephone: +44 (0)191-243-7679 facsimile: +44 (0)191-227-3362
Patrick.Jemmer@northumbria.ac.uk
A totally separate attempt at the extension of Lapine is that of David "Loganberry" Buttery: his extensive and fascinating description of his work is available on-line at http://www.loganberry.furtopia.org/bnb/lapine/overview.html