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Comment by WillAdams | Hacker News Reader

Yes, but J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a guide on this (after seeing a couple of really bad quality translations) which later translations benefited from:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Guide_to_the_Names_in_The_Lo...

that this was in _A Tolkien Compass_ which was one of the first books I purchased w/ my own money (along w/ _A Tolkien Reader_) is arguably a big part of why I chose to study languages early on in my life.

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Pedantry:

Tolkien's "Middle-Earth" is itself a "folksy mistranslation"

Closer translation-- "Middle-Yard"

Old English word eardgeard =Earth-Yard

/ ˈæ͜ɑrdˌjæ͜ɑrd / "ardyard" /

https://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=104937

https://english.nsms.ox.ac.uk/oecoursepack/wanderer/notes/no...

I guess that's where Tolkien's "Arda" comes from as well then.

Or even garden.

'garden' came into English via Old French but it's ultimately Frankish (another Germanic language) so 'yard' and 'garden' are cognates. Interestingly they have a close sense.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/garden

Thank you. I’m not American and was trying work that out.

I went straight to metric and Middle Metre approximate and is wrong.

"Nasty, British, and Small," screams the Hanging Yards of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_(TV_series)

wish the link would let itself be read

_A Tolkien Compass_ is pretty affordable, and _The Lord of the Rings: A Readers Companion_ is quite a worthwhile text which is readily available --- see if your local library can provide?

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