David I. Salo | |
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 David Salo giving a speech inBloomington, Illinois, April 30, 2005 | |
| Education | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Occupation | Linguist |
David Salo is an Americanlinguist who worked on thelanguages ofJ. R. R. Tolkien for theLord of the Rings andThe Hobbit film trilogies, expanding the languages (particularlySindarin) by building on vocabulary already known from published works, and defining some languages that previously had a very small published vocabulary.[1][2][3]
Salo's interest in Tolkien's languages arose when he read Tolkien's works as a boy. As anundergraduate atMacalester College,Minnesota he studiedLatin,Greek, and linguistics, and used the knowledge gained to improve his understanding of Tolkien's languages.[4] In 1998 he was among the founders of the Elfling mailing list forTolkienist language enthusiasts.[5] He graduated in linguistics at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. In 2004 he published a linguistic analysis of Sindarin:A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish language from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. This book was reviewed in 2006 in volume 3 of the journalTolkien Studies,[6] and it was further reviewed in the context of Tolkienian linguistics as a whole in volume 4 ofTolkien Studies (2007).[7]
In 2003, when still a graduate student inlinguistics at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, Salo was contracted forTheLord of the Rings film trilogy to write all the material inElvish (particularlySindarin),Khuzdul (Dwarvish) and other languages for the films, as well as to assist with other language-related items such as theTengwar andCirth inscriptions which appear in the films. Salo also translated thelyrics for the films' soundtracks: many of these are sung in Sindarin inHoward Shore's long and innovativemusic score for the film series.[2][1] Subsequently, Salo provided similar services as the Tolkien language consultant forThe Hobbit film trilogy.[3]
He provided assistance with Khuzdul for the 2023 video gameThe Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria.[8]
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