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Not much. Maybe I noticed it because, as a native German speaker, I am a bit more sensitive and also occasionally stumble over a word, I do not know. I just made a test and opened "The Fellowship of the Ring" at a random page. Here (in chap. 8: "Fog on the Barrow-downs") I read: "The air was growing very warm again. The hobbits ran about for a while on the grass, as he told them. Then they lay basking in the sun with the delight of those that have been wafted suddenly from bitter winter to a friendly clime, or of people that, after being long ill and bedridden, wake one day to find that they are unexpectedly well and the day is again full of promise." Here my observations: - It is not that Tolkien avoids words of Italic (Romance) origin altogether. In this passage there are several: "delight" (< lat.: delectare), "clime" (< lat.: clima), "unexpectedly" (< lat.: expectare/exspectare) and "promise" (< lat.: promissum). But he uses such words sparingly. In this way, he still sounds modern and not comically mannered. - At the same time, is prose has a lyric undertone. He uses discreet metaphors ("The air was growing ver warm agin" [not "getting"], "basking in the sun", "bitter winter", "friendly clime", "full of promise") and unusual, poetic words ("wafted", "clime" [instead of "climate"], "bedridden"). The changed feelings of the hobbits is not simply state (as if to say: "The sun came out and the hobbits' mood improved."), but demonstrated by their behaviour and then explained not with a single, but with a double elaborate comparison that emphasises the contrast between the hobbits previous and their current state. - His style is plain but not simplistic. The whole passage has a nice rhythm, starting with a short simple sentence, a slightly less simple second and a long third, which is nevertheless not overly complex. He uses simple words to make his point ("very warm", not "boiling hot"). I would suggest you try it out yourself. Just open the Lord of the Rings somewhere, take a short passage or a few lines and write down your observations for at least half an hour. If you feel that you have finished earlier resist that urge and carry on for half an hour. The interesting observations typically happen a while after you have written down the obvious. Another very instructive experiment is a backwards translation. If you know a language other than English, get a translation of the Lord of the Rings and translate a random page (without looking at the original first, of course) back into English. Then compare it with the original. |