Ilkorin is a Quenya

Quenya

Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...

 word, literally meaning "not of Kôr

KOR

KOR may stand for:* kappa Opioid receptor* Kimagure Orange Road, an anime series* "King of the Ring" tournament of World Wrestling Entertainment* Kor , a character in Star Trek...

". The Ilkorindi were a group of Elves

Elf (Middle-earth)

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...

 from J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's fictional universe

Fictional universe

A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....

. They first appear in The Book of Lost Tales

The Book of Lost Tales

The Book of Lost Tales is the title of a collection of early stories by J. R. R. Tolkien, and of the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth, in which he presents and analyses the manuscripts of those stories, which were the earliest form of the...

. It was then a name with a broad meaning for all the Elves who "never saw the light of Kôr" and also for their many tongues. Kôr was the Quenya name for a hill and the city built on it, near the shores of the Bay of Faery.

Later, in the late 1920s, Tolkien applied the word only to those Elves (later called Sindar

Sindar

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the fictional Sindar are Elves of Telerin descent. They are also known as the Grey Elves. Their language is Sindarin...

) who lived in Beleriand

Beleriand

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional legendarium, Beleriand was a region in northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age. Events in Beleriand are described chiefly in his work The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the early ages of Middle-earth in a style similar to the epic hero tales of Nordic...

 and were ruled by King Thingol

Thingol

Elu Thingol is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Silmarillion, The Lays of Beleriand and Children of Húrin as well as in numerous stories in the many volumes of The History of Middle-earth...

:

"In the course of ages the tongues and dialects of Beleriand became altogether estranged from those of other Eldar in Valinor

Valinor

Valinor is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the realm of the Valar in Aman. It was also known as the Undying Lands, along with Tol Eressëa and the outliers of Aman. This is something of a misnomer; only immortal beings were allowed to reside there, but the land itself,...

, through the learned in such lore may perceive that they were anciently sprung from Telerin

Telerin

Telerin is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is one of the many fictional language set in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth....

. These were the Ilkorin speeches of Beleriand."

These Ilkorin Elves spoke three dialects:

• the speech of the Elves of the Kingdom of Doriath
  Doriath
  In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, Doriath is the realm of the Sindar, the Grey Elves of King Thingol in Beleriand. Along with the other great forests of Tolkien's legendarium such as Mirkwood, Fangorn and Lothlórien it serves as the central stage in the theatre of its time, the First Age...
  
  , Doriathrin;
• the speech of the Elves from the havens of Brithombar and Eglarest, Falassian;
• the speech of the nomadic Elves living in Beleriand.

Later on (in the early 1940s) Tolkien conceived the name Lemberin for that language, and said about Ilkorin that it "is not rightly a linguistic name, and included the Pereldar, and all who began the march, but did not come to Kór".

So Lemberin became the name for the tongue of the Teleri

Teleri

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Teleri, Those who come last in Quenya were the third of the Elf clans who came to Aman...

n Elves that remained in Beleriand. Before the coming of the Noldor

Noldor

In the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Noldor are Elves of the Second Clan who migrated to Valinor and lived in Eldamar. The Noldor are called Golodhrim or Gódhellim in Sindarin, and Goldoi by Teleri of Tol Eressëa. The singular form of the Quenya noun is Noldo and the adjective is Noldorin...

 it was spoken far and wide in Beleriand (save in Ossiriand) and all the names of places, of rivers, woods, fields, plains, hills and mountains were given in this tongue.

See also

• Calendar of Imladris
• Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Middle-earth
  Middle-earth
  Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....