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Article: Inventing an alphabet, real or pretend: It seems like an obvious idea, but it took 1,000 years to occur to anyone.(The Home Forum)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- November 27, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Pamela S. Turner
"Dear Hugh," began Ronald's note. "This is just to wish you a happy Christmas." There was nothing special about the message - except that it was written first in a dwarf alphabet, and then in an Elvish one.
As a boy, Ronald loved words. As a teen, he made up a language and wrote it with an alphabet he invented. Even after he became an English professor, Ronald went on inventing. But what good is a language no one writes or speaks? To create a world where his languages would be spoken and written, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote famous fantasy books: "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings."
'Picture writing' came ...