Taliska

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Taliska was the language spoken by the Bëorian (First) and Hadorian (Third) Houses of the Atanatári, who spoke different dialects.

The Second House of Men spoke an unrelated language, the Haladin tongue. This language and Taliska were not mutually intelligible.

The exact origin of Taliska is not clear, but certain is that there are both Elvish and Dwarvish (Khuzdul) influences, suggesting the Atanatári (Fathers of Men) had contacts with both peoples before arriving in Beleriand.

Adûnaic, the language of Númenor, and ultimately also Westron (the "Common Speech" from "The Lord of the Rings") are derived from Taliska.

Other versions of the legendarium

Taliska, unlike Tolkien's later languages, was originally based on the Germanic languages, and has a lot in common with the Gothic language, which shows that Tolkien tried to connect his mythos with the origins of Europe. Gothic was an early interest of Tolkien. A rather complete grammar and syntax of that early version of Taliska is known to exist, but despite work by Tolkienists this has as of 2008 not yet been published.

The "Germanic" origin of Taliska was dropped in the major revisions to the legendarium Tolkien undertook after the publication of "The Lord of the Rings", but the concept language survived as the primordial tongue of the forefathers of the Númenóreans.