Do you speak Elvish?
« The words arein the elven-tongue of the West of Middle-Earth in the Elder Days', answered Gandalf. 'But they do not say anything of importance to us. They say only: The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. And underneath small and faint is written: 'I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs. »
J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Ring, Part One, The fellowship of the Ring
In Tolkien there is a close link between being and language.
For example: "It is frequently said that the Orcas, characterised by their ugliness, used a verbose and repetitive language, which was degenerate and coarse. Another example: the language of the Ents, unspeakable by anyone but themselves, recreates the rustling of the forest, a mixture of long murmurs and shorter calls assembled in a tonal musical chain that the elves themselves renounced to fix in writing. The Elves, characterised by their beauty and nobility, speak a language considered to be harmonious. On the other hand, the Khuzdul of the dwarves, although learned from the Vala Aulë, is discordant to elven ears." (op.cit, Langage et évolution chez Tolkien).
In animals, sound is an extremely common mode of communication, using a wide range of frequencies. Elephants and whales use infrasound which can be heard for hundreds of kilometres. Sometimes the vocal chords are altered to increase the power of the voice. In the howler monkey, the hyoid bone forms a resonance box, 25 times larger than in other primates.
