one sociolinguistic paper to rule them all

An Analysis of Code Switching in the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy

TEAGUE THOMAS, LAUREL GRAHAM, ZOE LINDSTROM-DEMANT, AND ZACH FLATON

Introduction

Carol Myers-Scotton defines code switching (CS) as the “selection by bilinguals or multilinguals of forms

from an embedded variety (or varieties) in utterances of a matrix variety during the same conversation”

(Myers-Scotton Dueling Languages 3). CS can take place on any level of linguistic difference—language,

style, dialect, register—however, this particular study is concerned only with CS between languages.

Therefore, within this study CS will refer to switching between languages.

Bilinguals who code switch do so for a number of reasons; each individuals’ experience is unique to their

personal history, education, attitudes towards language, and their language repertoire—the codes,

dialects, and languages one can speak and understand. A common way to identify the reasons for code

choice and switching are the four social factors of language (Holmes 9). The first social factor of language

(SFL) is participants; a bilingual will choose a code from his or her linguistic repertoire based on who they

are speaking to and who is present during the exchange. Second is the setting of this exchange, referring

to both the physical location of the speaker and the social context which this setting creates. The third

SFL is the function of the interaction—the reason why the speaker is talking. Functions fall into two

categories: referential function expresses objective content while affective function expresses emotions.

Finally, the fourth is topic of discussion. A change in code can usually be associated with, if not attributed

to, a change in one of these SFLs.

In this study, we will be applying the concepts of real-world CS, bilingualism, and the four SFLs to a

fictional bilingual situation. We wish to see how the sociolinguistic patterns of CS are applied to bilingual

characters in the Lord of the Rings films—The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)—

who speak Elvish and English. This study aims to find how closely speech behavior of bilinguals in these

three films compares to real-world bilingual CS.

Research

Because studies on CS in film are few in number, our research is a combination of the creation of Elvish,

the process for incorporating the language into the Lord of the Rings Films, and research on real-world

CS.

The few specific studies on CS in film we could find differ from our study in two distinct ways: first, the

studies analyzed the use of CS between two real-world codes, such as English and Shona in a study on

the film Yellow Card and CS in Zimbabwe (Mukenge). Secondly, these studies differed in their

assumption that the use of CS in film was correct; researchers of other studies analyzed why and when

characters switched and what affect it had on the film instead of analyzing the script’s consistency with

sociolinguistic patterns. For example, a study detailing CS in bilingual films as it creates an “outsider

identity” focused on real languages: English—used to represent Polish—and German in The Pianist,

Hebrew and French in Sweet Mud, and English and ASL in Children of a Lesser God (Barnes). The study

does mention science fiction films, but again it assumes the CS is accurately performed in these fictional

worlds of invented languages; instead, the study focuses on CS as a way to establish character,

specifically to function within an “imaginary world to form a sociolinguistic context from which group and

individual identities emerge. The associative and symbolic value of these languages is more important

than the communicative value” (Barnes 256). As is apparent, a study resembling ours—questioning the

accuracy of CS in a script instead of analyzing its effect—proved impossible to find. Instead, we have

combined knowledge of CS between real languages with our understanding of how Elvish was

incorporated into the films to create our foundation of research.

Of course, the Elvish languages did not begin with the film trilogy. The author of the Lord of the Rings

book series, J.R.R. Tolkien, had been working on developing Elvish dialects and their histories for over

forty years before they appeared in his first book of the Lord of the Rings series in 1954 (Okrent 283).

Tolkien was a linguist and created many Elvish dialects, the primary of which are Quenya and Sindarin,

however it is acknowledged that unless one is fluent in these codes, “readers may not be able to

distinguish them reliably” (Okrent 310; Adams 76). Therefore, for the purposes of this study, “Elvish” will

refer to any of the codes which Elves speak—in the films, English subtitles usually appear when Elvish is

spoken. When referring to Tolkien’s invented languages, he is often praised for his development of a

“self-consistent and technically convincing group of languages...[set] within a fictional world which they

suit perfectly…It is their pre-existence that ensures their success” (Adams 108).

Tolkien’s two greatest achievements are his impressive specificity regarding lexicon and grammar, and

his expansive account of his languages’ origins. This leads us to believe that his focus was primarily on

what Elves say, not necessarily when they say it. Though Tolkien was an avid linguist, in his time

“linguistics” meant the study of correct grammar and lexicon; the field of sociolinguistics—the study of

language relationships in society—did not emerge in the Western world until well into the 1960s—the time

of Peter Trudgill and William Labov. Because of this, it is expected that Tolkien would not have focused

on Elvish as a tool for social interaction. Tolkien himself claimed Elvish was “a form of language

agreeable to my personal aesthetic”—the answer to an artistic problem, not a linguistic one (Okrent, 282-

283). In addition, Tolkien’s languages were his ever-changing, ever-expanding hobby.

In Tolkien's [literary] world, where so much appears in an idealized form, ideals of

language can flourish which do not operate in real-world linguistics…The

complexities of Elvish languages hardly make them ideal in the sense that the

makers of functional auxiliary languages would recognize; but since Tolkien's

ideals of language focus on aesthetics rather than communicative function, they

are, in his terms, ideal. (Adams 107)

His goal, it appears, was simply to incorporate as much of his love of language into his novels as

possible. Even if Tolkien had applied the ideas of CS based on the four SFLs in his novels (a topic

untouched by our study), we have concluded that the way in which Elvish was incorporated into the films

ignores the influences of social factors on switching.

David Salo, a credited “Tolkien linguist,” was in charge of translating for the Lord of the Rings films

(Thompson 95). Though Salo, like Tolkien, is a linguist and expert on constructed languages, because the

films were so secretive during production (due to a large, enthusiastic fan base), no sociolinguistic advice

was given regarding CS in the films. Salo worked via fax and email with script editors in intervals; he was

“sent short passages to translate. He never saw the whole script but only a couple of lines in most cases”

(Thompson 95). Salo only worked on translating what dialogue he was given, never was he asked to

determine where CS between English and Elvish should occur, nor—based on his skill set—would he

have the expertise to do so. So we encounter the same situation; a linguist has taken great care in

translating English to Elvish, but not in assessing the necessity of a code switch.

In order to determine when CS “should” occur, parameters must be found that are applicable to all mutli-

lingual conversations. Professor of linguistics Janet Holmes states, “The specific reason for a switch can

be identified with reasonable confidence. Though it would not be possible to predict when a switch will

occur without knowing what a speaker intended to say next, it is often possible to account for switches

after they have occurred” (Holmes 41). For our study, we initially believed domain would be an excellent

identifier of the necessity for switching codes. However, much research has been done explaining the

issues with the domain parameter.

In the field of sociolinguistics, five domains—as defined by Joshua Fisham—are recognized in influencing

speech patterns: family, friendship, religion, education, and employment (Myers-Scotton Multiple Voices

77). It cannot be said that every CS is predictable and justifiable based on the domain in which it occurs;

rather, “the majority of interactions in domain X are the same at some level. They are the same in the

sense that there is a usual combination of elements in interactions in each domain. Each domain has its

own constellation of expected factors, such as location, topic, and participants” (Myers-Scotton Multiple

Voices 77). As Fishman states, "Each domain in a bilingual community is commonly associated with a

particular variety of language,” so when choices of code don’t match these domains, they are likely to

have “more to do with participant differences than with topic or place" (Myers-Scotton Multiple Voices 78).

This concept led us to critique the use of CS based on the four SFLs: (1) an addition or subtraction of

conversation participants, (2) a change of setting, (3) a switch between affective and referential function,

and (4) a turn in topic of discussion.

A few things must be considered before continuing: Firstly, we only found studies on film-based bilingual

CS where the researchers took for granted that CS would occur in film as expected based on real-world

CS. Second, neither Tolkien—the creator of Elvish—nor Salo—the translator of English to Elvish for the

films—seems to have focused on why or when characters CS, but rather focused on the accuracy of

lexicon and history. Additionally both men are linguistics, not sociolinguistics, so CS and the four SFLs

were not necessarily their concern or part of their expertise. Third, this study has determined the

parameters of the four SFLs—including setting, participants, function, and topic—to be the best way to

diagnose the accuracy of CS. However, it must be kept in mind that "to the extent that social conditions

affect verbal behavior, findings based on research in one type of bilingual situation may not necessarily

be applicable to another socially different one," especially when those situations take place in a fantasy

world with a language invented by a single man (Gumperz 293).

Research Question

Regarding English and Elvish in The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the

King, do the majority of conversations involving two or more bilinguals involve expected or unexpected

CS?

Hypothesis

The majority of CS in the films will be unexpected – either a SFL will change and the according CS will

not occur, or a CS will occur without being prompted by a corresponding change in SFLs.

Methodology

In order to collect data, three of the four group members were assigned two movies from the Lord of The

Rings Trilogy, while the fourth group member watched all three films. While viewing, conversations

involving bilingual characters fluent in English and Elvish were recorded, pausing and rewinding as many

times as necessary for accuracy. In each new scene (defined here by a change in setting) involving at

least one bilingual individual an excerpt, ranging five to ten exchanges of dialogue, was recorded alone

with any changes in the four SFLs, the domain, and which characters in the scene were bilingual. After

watching the films, lists were compiled and separated out into conversations by each film they came from;

duplicates from the same scenes were omitted. After comparing the conversations collected by each

group member, we determined if CS was expected or unexpected according to the parameters of

language use for real-life situations of bilingual speakers.

So, a conversation including a major social change that is accompanied by CS would be deemed

expected. If there was a major social change in a conversation but no CS took place it would be

considered incorrect, or unexpected. Having no major social change but still containing CS would also be

unexpected. For example, if two Elvish speakers were in Rivendell—an Elvish setting—talking about

Elvish politics speaking in Elvish, and their close friend, a human who speaks only English, enters the

scene and joins the conversation, the expected response to this change in a SFL would be for the Elves

to switch to English.

Each film was watched by at least three members of the group so there would be a variety of

perspectives on each conversation regarding our research and to insure no interactions involving

potential CS would be missed. As research on the project continued, the process for recording these

conversations was simplified based on the needs of our research question. Initially, one conversation per

scene involving a bilingual of any language—Elvish, Entish, Orcish—were recorded. Much of this

information proved useless however. For example, a conversation between Gandalf, a bilingual, and

Frodo, who only speaks English, holds no sway in a study of bilingual CS. It doesn’t take a sociolinguist to

recognize that if Frodo doesn’t understand Elvish, Gandalf has no reason to hinder his communication

with Frodo by speaking a different language.

To modify our data collection in response, we decided to select only conversations involving two or more

bilingual speakers. As outside research continued, it was clear that Elvish was the only Tolkien language

we could find enough information on to draw confident conclusions from, so by the time we began

compiling our master list of dialogue excerpts, only conversations involving two or more bilingual Elvish

speakers were included. As more conversations were recorded, it became clear that dividing examples of

CS into “expected” and “unexpected” was far too restricting—in all three films there were special cases

where we were uncertain which category to place them in. Therefore, our data is primarily qualitative, not

quantitative, in order to help classify these anomalies.

Before watching the films, we compiled a list of bilingual individuals: bilingual Elves include Legolas,

Arwen, Haldir, and Elrond. Bilingual humans include Aragorn, Gandalf, and Saruman. It must be noted,

that as wizards Gandalf and Saruman use Elvish as a language of magic as well as conversation. In

addition, though Aragorn is human he was raised by the elves in Rivendell from the age of two; while

Elvish is not his “native language,” he is an expert speaker and is capable of using both English and

Elvish for affective purposes.

Results

We sorted our data into two categories, “expected CS” and “unexpected CS”.  The “expected CS” data

includes examples where CS occurs due to a change in one of the four SFL; participants, setting,

function, or topic.  The “unexpected CS” data includes examples where a SFL changes yet a CS does not

occur, or a CS occurs without a change in a SFL. 

We will now discuss examples of “expected” and “unexpected” CS throughout The Lord of the Rings

films. Names in bold-face represent bilingual characters who speak both English and Elvish.  Underlined

dialogue represents Elvish speech; the English translation was transcribed from the films’ subtitles.

Expected CS

Our first scene analysis takes place in the second film, The Two Towers. It is set in a barn in Helm’s Deep

—a city populated by humans—in preparation for an upcoming battle. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and the

men of Rohan are all loosely gathered in the domains of friendship and government. Aragorn and Legolas

are the only bilingual individuals present.  In this scene, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas are discussing the

fate of the (English-speaking) Rohan soldiers.

Aragorn: These are no soldiers. Gimli: Most have seen too many winters. Legolas: Or too few. Look at them. They’re frightened. I can see it in their eyes. And they should be. Three hundred against ten thousand! Aragorn: They have more hope of defending themselves here than at Edoras. Legolas: Aragorn, you cannot win this fight. They are all going to die. Aragorn: Then I shall die as one of them!

In this example, CS occurs due to a change in the SFLs of participants and conversation function. When

Legolas switches to Elvish, his function changes from informative discussion about the Rohan warriors

into an emotional discussion between Legolas and Aragorn. The participants also influence this CS;

although Legolas and Aragorn are in a large public setting, the Elvish discussion is a private conversation

between them. They switch to Elvish to avoid panicking the soldiers into discovering that the battle is

hopeless—the switch purposefully excludes every monolingual human within earshot. Because of these

apparent changes in SFLs, the CS is entirely expected.

The next example is found in The Fellowship of the Ring.  A large council of men, hobbit, elves, and

dwarves gather to discuss what to do with The Ring.  The scene occurs in Rivendell, an Elvish city that

rarely hosts other species, much less other languages. The individuals present include Gandalf, Legolas,

Aragorn, Gimli, Elrond, Boromir, Frodo, and numerous unnamed elves, dwarves, and men.  The example

that follows is a point in the discussion when Boromir questions Aragorn’s authority, and Legolas gets up

from his seat to confront Boromir.  At this point in the film Boromir and Aragorn are acquaintances, and

Legolas and Aragorn are good friends.

Boromir: And what would a Ranger know of this matter? Legolas: [Rises from his seat] This is no mere Ranger. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance. Boromir: Aragorn. This is Isidur’s heir? Legolas: And heir to the throne of Gondor.Aragorn: Sit down, Legolas. Boromir: Gondor has no king. Gondor needs no king.

Boromir and Legolas are bickering about Aragorn’s credentials, when Aragorn directs a command

towards Legolas.  This is an example of a CS due to a change in both participants and topic.  Aragorn is

not continuing the discussion about his leadership, but rather switching topic by requesting that Legolas

sit down. He does this in Elvish both because it is not a continuation of the conversation with Boromir—

who only speaks English—and because Aragorn is also speaking only to Legolas, demonstrated by his

use of a language that Boromir cannot understand. In addition, this could also be considered a change

due to function because while Aragorn uses his power to ask Legolas to sit, he does not want the

responsibility of his royal ancestors to befall to him—he simultaneously exercises his authority with

Legolas and hides it from Boromir with a natural, expected CS.

In this third example, from The Two Towers, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli have stumbled upon burning orc

carcasses on the edge of the forest after a battle has taken place.  As these friends are looking for Merry

and Pippin, their hobbit companions, they find one of the hobbit’s belts. The Merry and Pippin were

captured by the orcs, and finding the belt starts a discussion about the fate of the hobbits.

Gimli: It’s one of their wee belts Legolas: [Murmurs in Elvish: no subtitles are displayed, we are made to assume he is praying] Aragorn: [Yells]Gimli: We failed them! Aragorn: A hobbit lay here, and the other, they crawled, their hands were bound. Their bonds were cut. They ran over here...their tracks lead away from the battle into Fangorn Forest.

A CS from English to Elvish occurs because of a change in function of language.  The domain has

switched from friendship to religion—from a referential conversation regarding the hobbits to an affective,

private prayer—as Legolas prays quietly to himself for the hobbits.  It makes sense that Legolas would

use Elvish for religious purposes because it is his native tongue. Legolas was likely introduced to religion

and prayer by other elves, making this CS expected. In addition, there are instances of other characters

using Elvish as a language of prayer. The rest of this conversation occurs in English due to the desire to

include Gimli, who does not speak Elvish.  

Unexpected CSThe following examples were found in all three movies. We included them in the unexpected portion of

examples either because a CS occurs without a corresponding change in SFLs, or an SFL change was

not accompanied by the expected CS. There were also different scenes that appeared to involve CS—or

lack thereof—due to artistic, cinematic choices for the movie rather than following the expected rules of

CS.

The first unexpected example that we found was taken from The Return of the King. It is a conversation

between father, Elrond, and daughter, Arwen. Arwen confronts her father after she decides to stay on

Middle Earth and accept a mortal life in order to be with her love Aragorn instead of leaving Middle Earth

to live an immortal, Elvish life. The conversation takes place in Rivendell within the familial domain, as

Arwen and her father are the only people present in the scene. There are no changes in SFL in this scene

as they discuss Arwen’s future on Middle Earth and her relationship with Aragorn. 

Arwen: Tell me what you have seen. Elrond: Arwen. Arwen: You have the gift of foresight. What did you see? Elrond: I looked into your future and I saw death. Arwen: But there is also life. You saw there was a child. You saw my son. Elrond: That future is almost gone. Arwen: But it is not lost. Elrond: Nothing is certain Arwen: Some things are certain. If I leave him now, I will regret it forever. It is time. Re-forge the sword. Father.

Due to the lack of change in SFLs and the setting and participants involved in the conversation, we

expected this conversation to occur entirely in Elvish. Arwen and Elrond are both Elves, and Elvish is their

first language. In addition, Arwen probably learned Elvish from her father—it is a common bond they

share. The conversation takes place in their home of Rivendell where Elvish is spoken, and the topic of

conversation is very personal and emotional for both of them. Not only did we expect the entire

conversation to take place in Elvish, but the addition of the word “father” in Elvish puzzled us as this small

CS at the end of the exchange occurs without a change in any of the four SFLs.

This next example also occurs in Rivendell, though the participants are different. This scene, from The

Fellowship of the Ring, is an exchange between romantic interests Aragorn and Arwen. This scene

occurs in the private sphere, under the domain friendship: neither its function nor its participants change

during the exchange.

Arwen: Why do you fear the past? You are Isildur’s heir, not Isildur himself. You are not bound to his fate. Aragorn: The same blood flows in my veins. The same weakness Arwen: Your time will come. You will face the same evil. And you will defeat it. The Shadow does not hold sway yet. Not over you…not over me. Do you remember when we first met? Aragorn: I thought I had strayed into a dream.

Arwen: Long years have passed. You did not have the cares you carry now. Do you remember what I told you? Aragorn: You said you’d bind yourself to me forsaking the immortal life of your people. Arwen: And to that I hold. I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the Ages of this world alone. I choose a mortal life. [Hands Aragorn her necklace]Aragorn: You cannot give me this. Arwern: It is mine to give to whom I will, like my heart.

For this conversation, we found that there was a change in topic. Aragorn and Arwen transition from

talking about Aragorn’s lineage, to when the two first met, to an intimate promise. We found that the topic

change could justify a CS into Elvish due to the more personal topic, however the CS and topic shift do

not line up—we expected Arwen to wait to switch to Elvish until “Do you remember when we first met?”

which would cause the CS and SFL change to occur simultaneously. Later in the conversation, it was

unexpected for Aragorn to CS back into English while the two are still discussing their initial meeting.

The topic has not changed from their relationship and yet the languages change—the same discontinuity

occurs at the end of the conversation, a CS absent a SFL change. It could be reasoned that the topic has

again changed—to Arwen’s choice to forget her Elvish roots—however, it is still an intimate scene

between two people raised speaking the Elvish language. The CS and the SFL changes do not

correspond as expected.

Although the next small conversation is not five lines—as we distinguished in our methodology—we found

it to be an interesting example of unexpected CS. Aragorn and Legolas have been friends for many years,

and this particular exchange (taken from The Two Towers) is a linguistic demonstration of their friendship;

because they are so close, they choose to speak mainly in Elvish in a public domain, surrounded by

humans, while in Helm’s Deep.

Legolas: You’re late. You look terrible. [Hands Aragorn Arwen’s necklace]Aragorn: [Speaks in Elvish, no subtitles provided; we assume the response is “Thank you”]

This example was added to the unexpected list because of a CS without a corresponding SFL change—

yet there is a CS from Elvish to English, and back to Elvish. Aragorn mumbles back to Legolas in Elvish

and we assumed it was a response along the lines of “Thank you”. Without a SFL change, we did not

expect Legolas to switch to English in the middle of his dialogue, especially since Aragorn can understand

him in both languages. Aragorn and Legolas have had many conversations in Elvish before this point, and

since Aragorn is fluent in Elvish the line “You look terrible” in English is unexpected.

After sorting our data into “expected CS” and “unexpected CS”, we found that CS occurred when

expected approximately 75% of the time. Our results disprove our hypothesis by demonstrating that

though unexpected CS does sometimes occur, CS occurs primarily alongside a corresponding change in

one or more SFL.

Conclusion

Based on our results, our hypothesis that the majority of CS in the films would be unexpected was

incorrect. In fact, the majority of CS occurred alongside a change of at least one SFL. The instances we

found to be unexpected could be due to the lack of sociolinguistic advice during production, an aesthetic

choice (more cinematic than linguistic), or due to the bias of an English-speaking film crew and to appeal

to an English-speaking audience. We were surprised that the majority of CS in the films occurred

alongside an SFL, as one would find in real life. Theories as to this result include the possibility of the

screenwriter, Fran Walsh, doing her own sociolinguistic research. Another possibility is the application of

common sense—the majority of changes in SFLs we recorded were those of participants and topic.

These are simple, everyday changes in SFL which are easy for someone without a sociolinguistic

background to understand. CS in bilinguals becomes innate and natural. So screenwriters may have

inserted CS instinctively. They could also have referenced the books—the accuracy of CS in Tolkien’s

novels is unknown to us as we, admittedly, have not read them.

If we wanted to be more extensive in our research, we could have broadened our sample to other science

fiction/fantasy films, or even compared these invented cinematic languages to those like the films in

Barnes’ study which involved real languages on screen. We feel that our methodology was thorough

enough to provide a large sample of conversational data, while being specific enough to render

analyzable data. There are parts in the films with linguistic situations so far beyond reality that we could

not find a way to include them in our study—these examples regard telepathic communication, including

an exchange in The Fellowship of the Ring from Arwen to Frodo in Elvish (even though Frodo does not

speak the language). In addition, a domain that demands CS exists in Lord of the Rings that does not

exist in Fishman’s five, nor does it exist largely in western culture—for Elves, Elvish is a language of all

forms of communication. But for wizards, they are likely to only speak Elvish within the domain of magic

or prayer. This adds an element to the study that we were not able to research.

Regardless of our struggles with fictional domains and situations, our experience with fictional languages

was fascinating—to watch such popular films for the purpose of analyzing them instead of merely being

entertained was an intriguing insight to both film production and sociolinguistics. Overall it was an

educational, enjoyable experience. If anything, this experiment has made us more aware of how our daily

linguistic interactions carry over into film; we appreciate the Lord of the Rings’ adherence to sociolinguistic

patterns, even if some were unintentional. Of course, looking for that devotion made the occasional

altogether avoidance of CS even more obvious. Our personal favorite is a line from a bilingual Ent, and a

complete cop-out: “There is no curse in Elvish, Entish or the tongues of Men for this treachery.” Films will

never be able to fully represent the complexity and variety of our sociolinguistic reality, but for such a

fantastical plot, Lord of the Rings made a valiant effort with satisfactory results.

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