"My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'"
— J. R. R. Tolkien

January 1, 1970

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J. R. R. TolkienPhilologistsFormalist poets
Original Language: English

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Years later, in an incomplete draft of a letter (1956; quoted more extensively below) he stated that Esperanto and other constructed languages like Volapuk, Ido and Novial were "dead, far deader than ancient unused languages, because their authors never invented any Esperanto legends."