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The sentence is:

For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches.

There are 2 different meanings for 'twitter':

  1. (of a bird) give a call consisting of repeated light tremulous sounds.
  2. to tremble with agitation

Please, help me figure out the right one. It's from "The Hobbit", when thanks to Gandalf's meddling the 2 Trolls turned to stone at the dawn.

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  • Birds usually start to sing at dawn. It's called the 'dawn chorus'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jan 21, 2023 at 19:39
  • Michael, that was my thinking too. But then I saw the professional translation of the book and it was 'ветви деревьев сильно задрожали' - the branches were shaking. But you seem to agree with me though, so maybe my intuition was right.
    – Antipups Z
    Commented Jan 21, 2023 at 19:48
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    I don't recognise the second sense. Unless it is the sense in phrases like "be all of a twitter", or "in a twitter". The only meaning I'm aware of is the bird meaning (or obvious similes)
    – James K
    Commented Jan 21, 2023 at 23:26

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I would say that the birds are making noise and that the Russian translation is wrong.

If you've ever lived in the country and slept outside, you've probably observed this phenomenon. The instant the light hits the trees, the birds start twittering. I also remember once sleeping between two stands of trees and the light hit the tops of the unshaded western ones before the shaded eastern ones. There was a mass migration of birds over my head from the eastern stand to the western stand, and they were twittering, all right!

I haven't heard "twittering" used to indicate movement except to describe a human state where the same excitement that makes you twitter verbally might make you jitter physically.

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  • I would tend to agree with you - and the OED seems to confirm this with its recent examples, saying that the usage is now "usually coloquial or regional"."1966 R.S.Heinlein Moon is Harsh Mistress (1967) 133We had Mort in a twitter; he was yelling for help." "2003 Times 15 Sept. 31/1 Even the vividly stressed O'Brien has never looked in quite such a twitter over a horse."
    – WS2
    Commented Jan 21, 2023 at 20:54

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