"The invention of languages is the foundation. The ‘stories’ were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows." (Letters p.219)
Il dit cependant l'inverse -- que le comportement fait évoluer la langue. C'est est en particulier dit à propos du Noir Parler :
"The orcs and goblins had languages of their own, as hideous as all things that they made or used, and since some remnant of good will, and true thought and perception, is required to keep even a base language alive and useful even for base purposes, their tongues were endlessly diversified in form, as they were deadly monotonous in purport, fluent only in the expression of abuse, of hatred and fear" (The Peoples of Middle-Earth)