He’s lord of the ‘Rings’ language

David Salo, a graduate student in linguistics, became interested in the invented languages of J.R.R. Tolkien at the age of six or seven – some 25 years ago.

At that time, he began learning to read and write Tolkien’s runic script from reading his books, starting with “The Hobbit.” As an undergraduate at Macalester College, Salo studied Latin, Greek and linguistics and used the knowledge he gained to analyze Tolkien’s languages.

What became a fascinating hobby for Salo earned him a role as a language consultant on “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. The first installment, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters Wednesday, Dec. 19. The second and third films, “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King,” will be released in 2002-03 respectively.

Salo never got a chance to meet the cast (which includes Eliijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett) or the crew, because all three films were shot in New Zealand. So, while continuing to work and study here in Madison, he advised the producers on Tolkien-related scripts and languages and translated script lines into the languages at their request.

How did he get involved in the first place? When he heard that the film was being made, he wrote the producers and gave them a resume outlining the work he had done with Tolkien’s languages in various media. Two other sources recommended him as well.

His graduate studies at UW–Madison are not related to Tolkien. He is concentrating on the morphology of Tocharian, an Indo-European language formerly spoken in the west of medieval China.

“Most linguists feel they have enough trouble with real-world languages without bothering with invented ones,” he says.