[SpaceWeavil]

Wondering if anyone can help me out here. What, if anything, is known about the language the Easterlings would speak? I've checked the obvious languages on Ardalambion to see if they were mentioned, but haven't found any reference.

Basically I've had a plot bunny leap off the computer at me and it won't leave me alone, but to do it I need a few Easterling names, particularly a female one.

[Andreth]

Tolkien said that Dwarves and Men were friends for a long time before the Elves found them (Men) and so "the tongues of the Easterlings many show kinship with Dwarf-speech rather than with the speeches of the Elves." This was also the reason for the similarities between Adunaic and Khudzul. I've known a lot of people who used Numenorean names for Easterling names and that makes sense to me.

[varialectio]

Personally, I just use whatever ancient Phoenecian/Canaanite/Babylonian name that I come across and happen to like. I know that that's not the language that they would have spoken... but in my mind it's a little like the fact that the Rohirrim were not really running around with Old English names, and the fact that Sam and Frodo weren't really called Sam and Frodo... bit confusing, eh? The names from the ancient Middle East help conjure up an image of the sort of cultures that I want to represent, and for the moment that work for me.