Lapine language facts for kids

Lapine is a fictional language created by the author Richard Adams. He made it for his famous 1972 book, Watership Down. In the book, the rabbit characters speak Lapine.

This language also appeared in Adams' 1996 sequel, Tales from Watership Down. You can hear Lapine in the movie and TV shows based on Watership Down. The language has only a few dozen words. These words are mostly used for naming rabbits, their myths, and things in their world. The name "Lapine" comes from the French word for rabbit, lapin. It can also describe how rabbits live together.

Understanding Lapine

Many fans of the Watership Down books, including writers and smart people, have studied the Lapine words. They have written about how the language works.

In the books, the rabbits speak Lapine, but readers see it as regular English. However, some special Lapine words are included. When rabbits talk to each other, their Lapine can be formal or very casual. It often includes pauses, interruptions, and unfinished sentences.

Richard Adams included a list of all Lapine words at the end of his book. One interesting thing is how plurals work. To make a word plural, you add -il. If the word ends with a vowel, you remove the vowel first. For example, hrududu means "automobile," and its plural is hrududil.

Another cool fact is how numbers work. Lapine only has words for numbers up to four. Any number bigger than four is called hrair, which means "many." Even though the rabbit Hrairoo's name means "many," it is translated into English as "Fiver."

Lapine words are often used for ideas that are special to rabbits. For example, silflay means "eating grass above ground." Tharn describes a rabbit that is frozen with fear, like when it's in a trance.

Lapine and Other Animals

When rabbits talk to other animals, they use a simpler language called "Hedgerow." It's like a common language for different animals to understand each other.

However, in the books, the rabbits often switch back to formal Lapine once they start talking. Other animals might use a simpler version of Lapine, almost like a "Foreigner Talk." This is a basic way of speaking that helps people who don't know the language well to communicate.

This "Foreigner Talk" in Lapine is like a simple English. It helps young readers learn about how languages change when different groups try to talk to each other.

Lapine in the Real World

Some Lapine words have started to be used outside of the books! Thomas E. Murray studied this. He found that the word "silflay" (meaning "to go above ground to feed") is now used by some people in real life.

People, especially in the Midwest and North Central United States, use "silflay" to mean "the act of rabbits eating above-ground." Murray also found that people from middle and lower-middle class backgrounds used the word more often. He thought that how often people see rabbits might affect if they use the word. For example, someone in New York City might know the word but never use it because they don't see many rabbits.

Another Lapine word, "Crixa," has also found a real-world use. In the books, "Crixa" is the center of a rabbit warren called Efrafa. Students at Ohio State University now use "Crixa" to refer to their dorms!

Lapine is seen as an easy language to learn because it focuses a lot on nouns. It has even been praised as a good tool for young people who are interested in languages or who are learning English as a second language.