Sindarin
Encyclopedia
Sindarin is a fictional language
devised by J. R. R. Tolkien
, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth
.
Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves
, called the Eledhrim ˈɛlɛðrim or Edhellim ɛˈðɛllim in Sindarin.
Called in English "Grey-elvish" or "Grey-elven", it was the language of the Sindar
in Elves of Beleriand
. These were Elves of the Third Clan who remained behind in Beleriand after the Great Journey. Their language became estranged from that of their kin that sailed over sea. Sindarin derives from an earlier form of language called Common Telerin which itself had evolved from Common Eldarin
, the tongue of the Eldar before their divisions, e.g. those Elves who decided to follow the Vala Oromë and undertook the Great March to Valinor
. Even before that the Eldar Elves spoke the original speech of all Elves, or Primitive Quendian
.
In the Third Age
(the setting of The Lord of the Rings
), Sindarin was the language most commonly spoken by most Elves in the Western part of Middle-earth. Sindarin is the language usually referred to as the elf-tongue or elven-tongue in The Lord of the Rings
.
When the Quenya
-speaking Noldor
returned to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language. Quenya and Sindarin were related, with many cognate words but differing greatly in grammar and structure. Sindarin is said to be more changeful than Quenya, and there were during the First Age a number of regional dialects. The tongue used in Doriath (home of Thingol King of the Sindar), known as Doriathrin, was said by many Grey-elves to be the highest and most noble form of the language.
In the Second Age
, many Men
of the island of Númenor
spoke Sindarin fluently. Their descendants the Dúnedain
of Gondor
and Arnor
continued to speak Sindarin in the Third Age.
Within this fictional universe
, Sindarin was first written using the cirth
, an Elvish alphabet. Later, it was usually written in tengwar
.
Tolkien based the sound and some of the grammar of Sindarin on Welsh
, and Sindarin displays some of the consonant mutations that characterize the Celtic languages
. The language was also influenced by Old English
and Old Norse
.
The word Sindarin is itself a Quenya form. The only known Sindarin word for this language is Eglathrin. It was probably only used in the First Age (see Eglath).
Tolkien was interested in languages from an early age, and developed several constructed language
s while still a teen. Eventually, as a young adult, he created an entire family of constructed languages spoken by Elves and a secondary world where these could evolve.
One of these languages was created c. 1915 and it was inspired by the Celtic languages
. Tolkien called it Goldogrin
or "Gnomish" in English. He wrote a substantial dictionary of Gnomish and a grammar. This is the first conceptual stage of the Sindarin language. At the same time Tolkien conceived a History of the Elves and wrote it in the Book of Lost Tales. Gnomish was spoken by the Gnomes or Noldoli, the Second Clan of Elves
, and Elfin was the other tongue spoken by the great majority of the Elves of the Lonely Isle.
The beginning of the "Name-list of the Fall of Gondolin
", one of the Lost Tales, gives a good example of both languages (Gnomish and Elfin):
A few years later, c. 1925, Tolkien began anew the grammar and lexicon of the tongue of his Gnomes. He abandoned the words Goldogrin and lam Goldrin in favour of Noldorin (a Quenya word already sparingly used for his Gnomish tongue). This is the second conceptual stage of Sindarin. Tolkien composed then a grammar of this new Noldorin, the Lam na Ngoluith.
In the early 1930s Tolkien wrote a new grammar of Noldorin. This is the "late conceptual Noldorin". At the same time, Tolkien was developing the Ilkorin tongues of the Elves of the Third Clan who remained in Beleriand (those same Elves whom Tolkien would much later name Sindar in Quenya).
Noldorin (the Welsh-style language) was at that time conceived as having evolved from Old Noldorin spoken in Valinor. The Noldorin Elves wanted to speak a distinct tongue from the First Clan Elves who also lived with them and spoke Quenya, and so they developed Old Noldorin from what Tolkien called Koreldarin: "the tongue of those who left Middle-earth, and came to Kór, the hill of the Elves in Valinor."
When the Noldor went into exile to Beleriand, Old Noldorin evolved into Noldorin, a Welsh-style language with many dialects.
The Ilkorin
tongues of Beleriand did not resemble Welsh. Later on Tolkien conceived the name Lemberin for them.
Tolkien created his Sindarin only c. 1944. He used much of Noldorin and blended it with "Ilkorin Doriathrin" and added in some new features. On that matter, he wrote a side note on his "Comparative Tables": "Doriath[rin], etc. = Noldorin ((?)viz. as it used to be)". The Ilkorin tongues of 1930-50 spoken in Beleriand, e.g. Doriathrin and the other dialects, were not as much based on Welsh as Noldorin was, and Tolkien wanted his new "tongue of Beleriand" to be a Welsh-type language.
Tolkien never intended Gnomish, Noldorin or Sindarin, or any of his constructed languages, to be used in everyday life as an international auxiliary language
.
The Sindarin language was not a fragile construction, tossed from one side to another in the ever-changing mind of Prof. Tolkien. He wrote many fine pieces in it. Tolkien struggled to give to his Elvish languages the feel and taste of natural language
s. He wanted to infuse in them a kind of life, while fitting them to a very personal aesthetic taste. He wanted to build languages primarily to satisfy his personal urge and not because he had some universal design in mind.
Two magazines — Vinyar Tengwar, from issue 39 (July 1998), and Parma Eldalamberon, from issue 11 (1995) — are today exclusively devoted to the editing and publishing of J.R.R. Tolkien's gigantic mass of unpublished linguistic papers. These are published at a pace considered by many to be excessively slow. The editors have not published a comprehensive catalogue of the unpublished linguistic papers they are working on. Even more disturbing for some is the fact that access to the unpublished documents is severely limited. These papers were not published by Christopher Tolkien in the volumes of his "The History of Middle-earth
". Almost each year, new-found words of Sindarin, Noldorin and Ilkorin are published and the grammar rules of these languages are disclosed.
for the movies directed by Peter Jackson
, require conjecture and sometimes coinage of new words.
. The Kingdom of Doriath became an isolated land after the return of the evil Vala Melkor (as Morgoth
) to his stronghold of Angband. So from that time it remained conservative, and later resisted the Noldorin influence almost entirely. Until then, owing to the nomadic life of the Grey Elves, their tongue had remained practically uniform, with one notable exception. In the North-West region of Beleriand there were settlements of Elves who seldom went far abroad. Their language, although generally of Sindarin kind in many linguistic aspects, early diverged from that of the other Sindar. It was usually called Mithrimin.
The Southern group had a much larger territory, and included Doriathrin or "Central Sindarin".
So during the First Age
, before the return of the Noldor, there were four dialects of Sindarin:
influences. The "accent" of Doriath was also quite recognisable, so that after Túrin
had left Doriath he kept a Doriathrin accent until his death, which immediately pinpointed his origin to speakers of other dialects of Sindarin.
"The post-war 'Beleriandic' as lingua franca and as a language of Noldor was strongly influenced by Doriath."
Much about Doriathrin morphology, and how it contrasts with the other Sindarin dialects, has been set out by J.R.R. Tolkien in his linguistic writings:
and Hithlum
, it contained many unique words and was not fully intelligible to the other Elves.
The Northern dialect was in many ways more conservative, and later divided itself into a North-Western dialect (Hithlum, Mithrim, Dor-lómin) and a North-Eastern dialect (Calenardhon before its ruin and the highlands of Taur-nu-Fuin).
It was this language which was at first adopted by the exiled Noldor
after their return to Middle-earth
at Losgar. Later Noldorin Sindarin was changed much due to the adoption of Quenya
features, and partially due to the love of the Noldor for making linguistic changes. Beren
's heritage was clear to Thingol
of Doriath
as he spoke the North Sindarin of his homeland.
features after the return of the Noldor, as well as unique sound changes devised by the Noldor (who loved changing languages).
In the hidden city of Gondolin, an isolated land, a peculiar dialect developed: "This differed from the standard (of Doriath) (a) in having Western and some Northern elements, and (b) in incorporating a good many Noldorin-Quenya words in more a less Sindarized forms. Thus the city was usually called Gondolin (from Q. Ondolin(dë)) with simple replacement of g-, not Goenlin or Goenglin [as it would have been in standard Sindarin]".
of all Elves, and many Men, and as the language of the Noldor in exile was based on Western Sindarin, but was strongly influenced by Doriathrin. During the Second Age
Sindarin was a lingua franca for all Elves and their friends, until it was displaced for Men by Westron
, which arose in the Third Age as a language heavily influenced by Sindarin.
In Gondor at the end of the Third Age, Sindarin was still spoken daily by a few noble Men in the city Minas Tirith
. Aragorn
, raised in Imladris, spoke it fluently.
-like phonology
. It has most of the same sounds and a similar sound structure, or phonotactics
. The phonologies of Old English, Old Norse
and Icelandic
are also fairly close to Sindarin and, along with Welsh, certainly did have an influence on some of the language's grammatical features, especially the plurals (see below).
/f/ is voiced to [v] when final or before /n/.
Old Sindarin also had a spirant m or nasal v (IPA: [ṽ]), which was transcribed as mh (though always pronounced [v] in later Sindarin).
An accent signifies a long vowel (á, é, etc.). In a monosyllabic word, a circumflex is used (â, ê, etc.). However, for practical reasons, users of the ISO Latin-1 character set often substitute ý for ŷ, as ISO Latin-1 does not have a character for ŷ, only ý and ÿ.
In Old Sindarin, there was a vowel similar to German ö (IPA: [œ]), which Tolkien mostly transcribed as œ (usually not as oe as is often found in publications like The Silmarillion
, e.g. Nírnaeth Arnoediad
[read: Nírnaeth Arnœdiad], Goelydh [read: Gœlydh]). This vowel later came to be pronounced [ɛ] and is therefore transcribed as such (e.g. Gelydh).
of the Sindarin tongue from published data because Sindarin is a fictional irregular language (closely modelled on a natural language, Welsh) and not an international auxiliary language with a regular morphology.
Sindarin is mainly analytic. It can be distinguished from Quenya by the rarity of vowel endings, and the use of voiced stops b d g, absent from Quenya (except in intervocalic clusters mb, nd, ng, ld, rd). Early Sindarin formed plurals by the addition of -ī, which vanished but affected
the preceding vowels (as in Welsh and English): S. Adan, pl. Edain
, S. Orch, pl. Yrch.
Sindarin has also a 2nd plural of nouns formed with a suffix: S. êl 'star', 1st pl. elin 'stars', 2nd pl. elenath 'all the stars'; Ennor 'Middle-earth', 2nd pl. Ennorath '(all) the Middle-lands'.
, it has just like Welsh two systems of grammatical number
. Singular/plural
nouns correspond to the singular/plural number system just as of English, although unlike English, Welsh and Sindarin noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways. If Tolkien did not provide us with the plural form of a Sindarin (or Noldorin) noun we have no certain way of inferring it.
Some Sindarin (and Noldorin) nouns form the plural with an ending (usually -in), e.g. Drû, pl. Drúin "wild men, Woses, Púkel-Men". Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g. golodh and gelydh, "lore master, sage" (obsolete as a tribal name before the Noldor came back to Beleriand); Moredhel, pl. Moredhil, "Dark-Elves". Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, and a few do not change in the plural: Belair, "Beleriandic-Elf/Elves" is singular and plural.
The other system of number was called by Tolkien 2nd plural or collective number. The nouns in this system form it usually by adding a suffix to the plural (as in Welsh); for example -ath, as in elenath, "all the stars (in the sky)", but not always as in Drúath. Another ending of the 2nd pl. is -rim, used especially to indicate a race-group: Nogothrim "the race of the Dwarves", from pl. Nogoth (sg. Nogon, "Dwarf"). There exist another such ending -lir, as in Nogothlir. The ending -hoth, a full Sindarin word meaning 'host', is added to a singular noun to form the 2nd plural. It has an strong unfriendly sense, e. g. Gaurhoth "the Werewolf-horde" from Gaur "Were-wolf"; or as in Gornhoth a derogative name for the Dwarves, the "Hard-host/people". Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups.
s are formed by apophony
and are characterised by i-mutation
. The Noldorin term for this is prestanneth "affection of vowels". In an earlier stage of the language, plurals were marked by the suffix -ī, to which the root vowel(s) assimilated, becoming fronted
(and raised if low
); later the final -ī was lost, leaving the changed root vowel(s) as the sole marker of the plural. (This process is similar to the Germanic umlaut
which produced the English forms man/men, goose/geese.) The resulting plural patterns are:
The only complete explanation is of the mutations of "early conceptual Noldorin" from Tolkien's Lam na Ngoluith, Early Noldorin Grammar.
Mutation is triggered in various ways:
Initial mutations must not be confused with assimilations
that may occur in compound words (such as, for instance, in the Sindarin names Araphor, Arassuil and Caradhras
).
The following table outlines how different consonants are affected by the three mutations.
The apostrophe ’ indicates elision
.
Noldorin words beginning in b-, d-, or g- which descend from older mb-, nd-, or ng- are affected differently by the mutations:
Noldorin words beginning in n, m, l, r, s are not affected by mutation.
For example, the deictic
singular article i triggers soft mutation in Noldorin. When added to a word like tî, "line" it becomes i dî, "the line". In Noldorin's phonological history, t became d in the middle of a word. With the preposition no, 'to', tî becomes no thî, 'to the line'. With the plural article, i(n), tî becomes i thiath "the lines".
Many of the mutations of Noldorin appear to be taken into Sindarin a few years later. The Sindarin word gwath "shadow" becomes i 'wath, "the shadow".
These are subjective forms used in conjugation. Sindarin used objective detached forms, like dhe (2nd pers. formal/polite singular).
Sindarin pronouns, like those in English, still maintain some case distinction ammen (< an men, "for/to us"), annin "for/to me". But they are not well documented in the published Corpus.
About -ant, the 3rd person past tense ending of Sindarin, he wrote: "it is rather like that of Medieval Welsh -as, or modern Welsh -odd." So with teith- "make marks of signs, write, inscribe", teithant is the 3rd person singular past tense. Cf. Welsh Chwaraeodd e, "he played".
Basic verbs form the infinitive by adding -i: giri from gir-. This ending causes an a or o in the stem to umlaut to e: blebi from blab-. Sindarin does not use infinitive forms very often, and rather uses the gerund to achieve the same meaning.
For all persons except the third person singular, the present tense is formed by the insertion of -i, and the proper enclitic pronominal ending: girin, girim, girir. As with the infinitive, -i causes an a or o in the stem to umlaut to e: pedin, pedim, pedir, from pad-. The third person singular, because it has a zero-ending, does not require the insertion of -i. This leaves the bare stem, which, because of Sindarin's phonological history, causes the vowel of the stem to become long: gîr, blâb, pâd.
The past tense of basic verbs is very complicated and poorly attested. One common reconstructed system is to use -n: darn. However, the only time this -n actually remains is after a stem in -r. After a stem ending in -l, -n becomes -ll: toll. After -b, -d, -g, -v, or -dh, it is metathesized
and then assimilated
to the same place of articulation as the consonant it now follows. The consonant then experiences what could be called a "backwards mutation": -b, -d, and -g become -p, -t, and -c, and -v and -dh become -m and -d. The matter is complicated even further when pronominal endings are added. Because -mp, -mb, -nt, -nd, and -nc did not survive medially, they become -mm-, -mm-, -nn-, -nn-, and -ng. In addition, past tense stems in -m would have -mm- before any pronominal endings. Because this all may seem rather overwhelming, look at these examples which show step-by-step transformations:
The future tense is formed by the addition of -tha. An -i is also inserted between the stem and -tha, which again causes a and o to umlaut to e. Endings for all persons except for the first person singular can be added without any further modification: giritham, blebithar. The first person singular ending -n causes the -a in -tha to become -o: girithon, blebithon, pedithon.
The imperative is formed with the addition of -o to the stem: giro!, pado!, blabo!.
The infinitive is formed with -o, which replaces the -a of the stem, e. g. lacho from lacha-.
The present tense is formed without modification to the stem. Pronominal endings are added without any change, except with the first person singular enclintic -n, where the final vowel becomes an o, e.g. renion < renia - I wander.
The past tense is formed with the ending -nt, which becomes -nne with any pronominal endings, e. g. erthant, erthanner.
The future tense is formed with -tha. With the addition of the first person singular -n, this becomes -tho.
The Lexicon
s of Gnomish, Noldorin and Sindarin (even if today all of it has not been published) lack modern vocabulary (television, motor, etc.).
See also Douglas A. Anderson
, Carl F. Hostetter: A Checklist, Tolkien Studies
4 (2007).
Fictional language
Fictional languages are by far the largest group of artistic languages. Fictional languages are intended to be the languages of a fictional world and are often designed with the intent of giving more depth and an appearance of plausibility to the fictional worlds with which they are associated, and...
devised by 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,...
, and used in his secondary world, often called 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....
.
Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal 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...
, called the Eledhrim ˈɛlɛðrim or Edhellim ɛˈðɛllim in Sindarin.
Called in English "Grey-elvish" or "Grey-elven", it was the language of the 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...
in Elves of 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...
. These were Elves of the Third Clan who remained behind in Beleriand after the Great Journey. Their language became estranged from that of their kin that sailed over sea. Sindarin derives from an earlier form of language called Common Telerin which itself had evolved from Common Eldarin
Common Eldarin
Common Eldarin, or simply Eldarin, 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....
, the tongue of the Eldar before their divisions, e.g. those Elves who decided to follow the Vala Oromë and undertook the Great March to 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,...
. Even before that the Eldar Elves spoke the original speech of all Elves, or Primitive Quendian
Primitive Quendian
Primitive Quendian 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....
.
In the Third Age
Third Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....
(the setting of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
), Sindarin was the language most commonly spoken by most Elves in the Western part of Middle-earth. Sindarin is the language usually referred to as the elf-tongue or elven-tongue in The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
.
When the 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...
-speaking 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...
returned to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language. Quenya and Sindarin were related, with many cognate words but differing greatly in grammar and structure. Sindarin is said to be more changeful than Quenya, and there were during the First Age a number of regional dialects. The tongue used in Doriath (home of Thingol King of the Sindar), known as Doriathrin, was said by many Grey-elves to be the highest and most noble form of the language.
In the Second Age
Second Age
The Second Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. Tolkien intended for the history of Middle-earth to be considered fictionally as a precursor to the history of the real Earth....
, many Men
Man (Middle-earth)
The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender...
of the island of Númenor
Númenor
Númenor is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was a huge island located in the Sundering Seas to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was known to be the greatest realm of Men...
spoke Sindarin fluently. Their descendants the Dúnedain
Dúnedain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Dúnedain were a race of Men descended from the Númenóreans who survived the sinking of their island kingdom and came to Eriador in Middle-earth, led by Elendil and his sons, Isildur and Anárion...
of Gondor
Gondor
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with...
and Arnor
Arnor
Arnor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. The name probably means "Land of the King", from Sindarin Ara- + dor...
continued to speak Sindarin in the Third Age.
Within this 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 ....
, Sindarin was first written using the cirth
Cirth
The Cirth are the letters of an semi-artificial script which was invented by J. R. R. Tolkien for the constructed languages he devised and used in his works. The initial C in Cirth is pronounced as a K, never as an S....
, an Elvish alphabet. Later, it was usually written in tengwar
Tengwar
The Tengwar are an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien. In his fictional universe of Middle-earth, the tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and used first to write the Elven tongues: Quenya, Telerin, and also Valarin. Later a great number of languages of Middle-earth were written...
.
Tolkien based the sound and some of the grammar of Sindarin on Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, and Sindarin displays some of the consonant mutations that characterize the Celtic languages
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
. The language was also influenced by Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
and Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
.
The word Sindarin is itself a Quenya form. The only known Sindarin word for this language is Eglathrin. It was probably only used in the First Age (see Eglath).
Two timelines
For Tolkien's constructed languages we must distinguish two timelines of development:- one internal, consisting of the sequence of events within the fictional history of Tolkien's secondary world; and
- one external, in which Tolkien's linguistic taste and conceptions evolved.
External history
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
s while still a teen. Eventually, as a young adult, he created an entire family of constructed languages spoken by Elves and a secondary world where these could evolve.
One of these languages was created c. 1915 and it was inspired by the Celtic languages
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
. Tolkien called it Goldogrin
Goldogrin
Goldogrin is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth. Goldogrin was spoken by the Second Clan of Elves, called Goldorim in that language, Gnomes in English .- External history :Tolkien was interested in languages from an early...
or "Gnomish" in English. He wrote a substantial dictionary of Gnomish and a grammar. This is the first conceptual stage of the Sindarin language. At the same time Tolkien conceived a History of the Elves and wrote it in the Book of Lost Tales. Gnomish was spoken by the Gnomes or Noldoli, the Second Clan 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...
, and Elfin was the other tongue spoken by the great majority of the Elves of the Lonely Isle.
The beginning of the "Name-list of the Fall of Gondolin
Fall of Gondolin
In the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, the "Fall of Gondolin" is the name of one of the original Lost Tales which formed the basis for a section in his later work, The Silmarillion....
", one of the Lost Tales, gives a good example of both languages (Gnomish and Elfin):
A few years later, c. 1925, Tolkien began anew the grammar and lexicon of the tongue of his Gnomes. He abandoned the words Goldogrin and lam Goldrin in favour of Noldorin (a Quenya word already sparingly used for his Gnomish tongue). This is the second conceptual stage of Sindarin. Tolkien composed then a grammar of this new Noldorin, the Lam na Ngoluith.
In the early 1930s Tolkien wrote a new grammar of Noldorin. This is the "late conceptual Noldorin". At the same time, Tolkien was developing the Ilkorin tongues of the Elves of the Third Clan who remained in Beleriand (those same Elves whom Tolkien would much later name Sindar in Quenya).
Noldorin (the Welsh-style language) was at that time conceived as having evolved from Old Noldorin spoken in Valinor. The Noldorin Elves wanted to speak a distinct tongue from the First Clan Elves who also lived with them and spoke Quenya, and so they developed Old Noldorin from what Tolkien called Koreldarin: "the tongue of those who left Middle-earth, and came to Kór, the hill of the Elves in Valinor."
When the Noldor went into exile to Beleriand, Old Noldorin evolved into Noldorin, a Welsh-style language with many dialects.
The Ilkorin
Ilkorin
Ilkorin is a Quenya word, literally meaning "not of Kôr". The Ilkorindi were a group of Elves from J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe. They first appear in The Book of Lost Tales. 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 of Beleriand did not resemble Welsh. Later on Tolkien conceived the name Lemberin for them.
Tolkien created his Sindarin only c. 1944. He used much of Noldorin and blended it with "Ilkorin Doriathrin" and added in some new features. On that matter, he wrote a side note on his "Comparative Tables": "Doriath[rin], etc. = Noldorin ((?)viz. as it used to be)". The Ilkorin tongues of 1930-50 spoken in Beleriand, e.g. Doriathrin and the other dialects, were not as much based on Welsh as Noldorin was, and Tolkien wanted his new "tongue of Beleriand" to be a Welsh-type language.
Tolkien never intended Gnomish, Noldorin or Sindarin, or any of his constructed languages, to be used in everyday life as an international auxiliary language
International auxiliary language
An international auxiliary language or interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language...
.
The Sindarin language was not a fragile construction, tossed from one side to another in the ever-changing mind of Prof. Tolkien. He wrote many fine pieces in it. Tolkien struggled to give to his Elvish languages the feel and taste of natural language
Natural language
In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...
s. He wanted to infuse in them a kind of life, while fitting them to a very personal aesthetic taste. He wanted to build languages primarily to satisfy his personal urge and not because he had some universal design in mind.
Two magazines — Vinyar Tengwar, from issue 39 (July 1998), and Parma Eldalamberon, from issue 11 (1995) — are today exclusively devoted to the editing and publishing of J.R.R. Tolkien's gigantic mass of unpublished linguistic papers. These are published at a pace considered by many to be excessively slow. The editors have not published a comprehensive catalogue of the unpublished linguistic papers they are working on. Even more disturbing for some is the fact that access to the unpublished documents is severely limited. These papers were not published by Christopher Tolkien in the volumes of his "The History of Middle-earth
The History of Middle-earth
The History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books published from 1983 through to 1996 that collect and analyse material relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Some of the content consists of earlier versions of already published...
". Almost each year, new-found words of Sindarin, Noldorin and Ilkorin are published and the grammar rules of these languages are disclosed.
Use of Sindarin
Attempts by fans to write in Sindarin began in the 1960s, when the total corpus of published Elvish was only a few hundred words. Since then, usage of Elvish has flourished in poems and texts, phrases and names, and tattoos. But Tolkien himself never intended to make his languages complete enough for conversation; as a result, newly invented Elvish texts, such as dialogue written by David SaloDavid Salo
David I. Salo is a linguist who worked on the languages of J. R. R. Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, expanding the Elvish languages by building on vocabulary already known from published works, and defining some languages that previously had a very small published vocabulary...
for the movies directed by Peter Jackson
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
, require conjecture and sometimes coinage of new words.
Internal history
Sindarin developed from Old Sindarin (preserved only in some Doriathrin records), itself from Common Telerin under the "shadow" of Middle-earth and not in the holy light of the Two Trees of ValinorTwo Trees of Valinor
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Two Trees of Valinor are Telperion and Laurelin, the Silver Tree and the Gold that brought light to the Land of the Valar in ancient times...
. The Kingdom of Doriath became an isolated land after the return of the evil Vala Melkor (as Morgoth
Morgoth
Morgoth Bauglir is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He is the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, figures in The Children of Húrin, and is mentioned briefly in The Lord of the Rings.Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turned to darkness and became...
) to his stronghold of Angband. So from that time it remained conservative, and later resisted the Noldorin influence almost entirely. Until then, owing to the nomadic life of the Grey Elves, their tongue had remained practically uniform, with one notable exception. In the North-West region of Beleriand there were settlements of Elves who seldom went far abroad. Their language, although generally of Sindarin kind in many linguistic aspects, early diverged from that of the other Sindar. It was usually called Mithrimin.
Dialects
The divergence of Sindarin (Old Sindarin) begun first into a Northern or Mithrimin group and a Southern group.The Southern group had a much larger territory, and included Doriathrin or "Central Sindarin".
So during the First Age
First Age
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set...
, before the return of the Noldor, there were four dialects of Sindarin:
- Southern group
- Doriathrin, the language of DoriathDoriathIn 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...
; - Falathrin or "West Sindarin", the language of the Falas;
- Doriathrin, the language of Doriath
- Northern group
- North-Western dialect, spoken in Hithlum, Mithrim, and Dor-lómin;
- North-Eastern dialect, spoken in Calenardhon (before its ruin), and the highlands of Taur-nu-Fuin.
Doriathrin
Doriathrin preserved many archaic features. Unlike the other dialects Doriathrin remained free from QuenyaQuenya
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...
influences. The "accent" of Doriath was also quite recognisable, so that after Túrin
Turín
Turín is a municipality in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador....
had left Doriath he kept a Doriathrin accent until his death, which immediately pinpointed his origin to speakers of other dialects of Sindarin.
"The post-war 'Beleriandic' as lingua franca and as a language of Noldor was strongly influenced by Doriath."
Much about Doriathrin morphology, and how it contrasts with the other Sindarin dialects, has been set out by J.R.R. Tolkien in his linguistic writings:
Falathrin
The language of the followers of the Elf Círdan, called Falathrin (Falassian in English), is the other dialect of the Southern Sindarin group. It remained close to the tongue of Doriath because there was great trade between the two groups up to the time of the Wars of Beleriand.North Sindarin
North Sindarin was spoken by the Mithrim, the northernmost group of the Grey-elves. It differed from the Central Sindarin of Beleriand in many aspects. Originally spoken in DorthonionDorthonion
In the fictional world of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Dorthonion , later Taur-nu-Fuin, was a highland region of the First Age, lying immediately to the north of Beleriand, and south of the plains of Ard-galen that extended north to Morgoth's stronghold of Thangorodrim...
and Hithlum
Hithlum
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Hithlum is the region north of Beleriand near the Helcaraxë.Hithlum was separated from Beleriand proper by the Ered Wethrin mountain chain, and was named after the sea mists which formed there at times: Hithlum is Sindarin for "Mist-shadow";...
, it contained many unique words and was not fully intelligible to the other Elves.
The Northern dialect was in many ways more conservative, and later divided itself into a North-Western dialect (Hithlum, Mithrim, Dor-lómin) and a North-Eastern dialect (Calenardhon before its ruin and the highlands of Taur-nu-Fuin).
It was this language which was at first adopted by the exiled 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...
after their return to 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....
at Losgar. Later Noldorin Sindarin was changed much due to the adoption of 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...
features, and partially due to the love of the Noldor for making linguistic changes. Beren
Beren
Beren is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in The Silmarillion. Huan spoke to him.-Character overview:...
's heritage was clear to 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...
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...
as he spoke the North Sindarin of his homeland.
Noldorin Sindarin
With the exception of Doriathrin, Sindarin adopted some QuenyaQuenya
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...
features after the return of the Noldor, as well as unique sound changes devised by the Noldor (who loved changing languages).
In the hidden city of Gondolin, an isolated land, a peculiar dialect developed: "This differed from the standard (of Doriath) (a) in having Western and some Northern elements, and (b) in incorporating a good many Noldorin-Quenya words in more a less Sindarized forms. Thus the city was usually called Gondolin (from Q. Ondolin(dë)) with simple replacement of g-, not Goenlin or Goenglin [as it would have been in standard Sindarin]".
In the Second and Third Age
'Beleriandic' Sindarin as a lingua francaLingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of all Elves, and many Men, and as the language of the Noldor in exile was based on Western Sindarin, but was strongly influenced by Doriathrin. During the Second Age
Second Age
The Second Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. Tolkien intended for the history of Middle-earth to be considered fictionally as a precursor to the history of the real Earth....
Sindarin was a lingua franca for all Elves and their friends, until it was displaced for Men by Westron
Westron
Westron, or the Common Speech, is a fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien.Westron is the closest thing to a lingua franca in Middle-earth, at least at the time during which The Lord of the Rings is set. "Westron" is an invented English word, derived from West...
, which arose in the Third Age as a language heavily influenced by Sindarin.
In Gondor at the end of the Third Age, Sindarin was still spoken daily by a few noble Men in the city Minas Tirith
Minas Tirith
Minas Tirith , originally named Minas Anor, is a fictional city and castle in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. It became the heavily fortified capital of Gondor in the second half of the Third Age...
. Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
, raised in Imladris, spoke it fluently.
Phonology
Sindarin was designed with a WelshWelsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
-like phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
. It has most of the same sounds and a similar sound structure, or phonotactics
Phonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
. The phonologies of Old English, Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
and Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
are also fairly close to Sindarin and, along with Welsh, certainly did have an influence on some of the language's grammatical features, especially the plurals (see below).
Pulmonic
| Labial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
||||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k3 ɡ | ||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ŋ 4 | ||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f v | θ ð1 | s | ɬ2 | x5 | h | |
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r̥ 6 r | ||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
l | j | ʍ7 w | ||||
- written ⟨th⟩ and ⟨dh⟩ respectively
- written ⟨lh⟩
- written ⟨c⟩
- written ⟨ng⟩
- written ⟨ch⟩
- written ⟨rh⟩
- written ⟨hw⟩
/f/ is voiced to [v] when final or before /n/.
Old Sindarin also had a spirant m or nasal v (IPA: [ṽ]), which was transcribed as mh (though always pronounced [v] in later Sindarin).
Orthographic conventions
| Letter | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| i | j, i | Represents [j] when initial before vowels, [i] everywhere else. |
| ng | ŋ, ŋɡ | Represents [ŋ] when final, [ŋɡ] everywhere else. |
| ph | f, ff | Represents [f] when final, [ff] everywhere else. |
Monophthongs
| Vowel Vowel In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some... s | Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... | Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i y | u |
| Open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
ɛ | ɔ |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a | |
An accent signifies a long vowel (á, é, etc.). In a monosyllabic word, a circumflex is used (â, ê, etc.). However, for practical reasons, users of the ISO Latin-1 character set often substitute ý for ŷ, as ISO Latin-1 does not have a character for ŷ, only ý and ÿ.
In Old Sindarin, there was a vowel similar to German ö (IPA: [œ]), which Tolkien mostly transcribed as œ (usually not as oe as is often found in publications like The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion
The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay, who later became a noted fantasy writer. The Silmarillion, along with J. R. R...
, e.g. Nírnaeth Arnoediad
Nirnaeth Arnoediad
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium of Middle-earth, the Nírnaeth Arnoediad or Unnumbered Tears was the climactic Fifth Battle in the Wars of Beleriand.-The Fifth Battle as told in The Silmarillion:...
[read: Nírnaeth Arnœdiad], Goelydh [read: Gœlydh]). This vowel later came to be pronounced [ɛ] and is therefore transcribed as such (e.g. Gelydh).
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are ai , ei (day [eɪ])), ui (too young) or (ruin) [uɪ]), and au (cow [aʊ])). If the last diphthong finishes a word, it is spelt aw. There are also diphthongs ae and oe with no English counterparts; if one does not care about the details, Tolkien recommended to substitute ai and oi, respectively. If one does care, it is similar to pronouncing a or o respectively in the same syllable as one pronounces an e (as in pet); IPA [aɛ, ɔɛ]. Tolkien had described dialects (such as Doriathrin) and variations in pronunciations (such as that of Gondor), and other pronunciations of ae and oe undoubtedly existed.Grammar
It is almost impossible to extrapolate the morphological rulesMorphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
of the Sindarin tongue from published data because Sindarin is a fictional irregular language (closely modelled on a natural language, Welsh) and not an international auxiliary language with a regular morphology.
Sindarin is mainly analytic. It can be distinguished from Quenya by the rarity of vowel endings, and the use of voiced stops b d g, absent from Quenya (except in intervocalic clusters mb, nd, ng, ld, rd). Early Sindarin formed plurals by the addition of -ī, which vanished but affected
Affection (linguistics)
In Celtic linguistics, affection is the change in the quality of a vowel under the influence of the vowel of the following, final syllable. The vowel triggering the change may or may not still be present in the modern language.The two main types of affection are a-infection and i-infection...
the preceding vowels (as in Welsh and English): S. Adan, pl. Edain
Edain
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Edain were men who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves....
, S. Orch, pl. Yrch.
Sindarin has also a 2nd plural of nouns formed with a suffix: S. êl 'star', 1st pl. elin 'stars', 2nd pl. elenath 'all the stars'; Ennor 'Middle-earth', 2nd pl. Ennorath '(all) the Middle-lands'.
Nouns
While Sindarin does not have a grammatical genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, it has just like Welsh two systems of grammatical number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. Singular/plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
nouns correspond to the singular/plural number system just as of English, although unlike English, Welsh and Sindarin noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways. If Tolkien did not provide us with the plural form of a Sindarin (or Noldorin) noun we have no certain way of inferring it.
Some Sindarin (and Noldorin) nouns form the plural with an ending (usually -in), e.g. Drû, pl. Drúin "wild men, Woses, Púkel-Men". Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g. golodh and gelydh, "lore master, sage" (obsolete as a tribal name before the Noldor came back to Beleriand); Moredhel, pl. Moredhil, "Dark-Elves". Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, and a few do not change in the plural: Belair, "Beleriandic-Elf/Elves" is singular and plural.
The other system of number was called by Tolkien 2nd plural or collective number. The nouns in this system form it usually by adding a suffix to the plural (as in Welsh); for example -ath, as in elenath, "all the stars (in the sky)", but not always as in Drúath. Another ending of the 2nd pl. is -rim, used especially to indicate a race-group: Nogothrim "the race of the Dwarves", from pl. Nogoth (sg. Nogon, "Dwarf"). There exist another such ending -lir, as in Nogothlir. The ending -hoth, a full Sindarin word meaning 'host', is added to a singular noun to form the 2nd plural. It has an strong unfriendly sense, e. g. Gaurhoth "the Werewolf-horde" from Gaur "Were-wolf"; or as in Gornhoth a derogative name for the Dwarves, the "Hard-host/people". Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups.
Plural forms
Most Sindarin pluralPlural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
s are formed by apophony
Apophony
In linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information .-Description:Apophony is...
and are characterised by i-mutation
I-mutation
I-mutation is an important type of sound change, more precisely a category of regressive metaphony, in which a back vowel is fronted, and/or a front vowel is raised, if the following syllable contains /i/, /ī/ or /j/ I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or...
. The Noldorin term for this is prestanneth "affection of vowels". In an earlier stage of the language, plurals were marked by the suffix -ī, to which the root vowel(s) assimilated, becoming fronted
Front vowel
A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
(and raised if low
Open vowel
An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
); later the final -ī was lost, leaving the changed root vowel(s) as the sole marker of the plural. (This process is similar to the Germanic umlaut
Germanic umlaut
In linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
which produced the English forms man/men, goose/geese.) The resulting plural patterns are:
- In non-final syllables:
- a > egaladh > gelaidh
- e > ebereth > berith
- o > enogoth > negyth
- u > ytulus > tylys
- y > yylf > ylf
- In final syllables:
- a with one consonant following > aiaran > erain
- a with consonant cluster following #1 > enarn > nern
- a with consonant cluster following #2 > aicant > caint (nasalNasal consonantA nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
& plosiveStop consonantIn phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
) - a with consonant cluster following #3 > eialph > eilph (liquidLiquid consonantIn phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:...
& fricativeFricative consonantFricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
) - â > aitâl > tail
- e > iadaneth > edenith
- ê > îhên > hîn
- i > ibrennil > brennil
- î > îdîs > dîs
- o > ybrannon > brennyn
- o > eorod > ered (in some cases)
- ó > ýbór > býr
- ô > ŷthôn > thŷn
- u > yurug > yryg
- û > uihû > hui
- y > yylf > ylf
- ý > ýmýl > mýl
- au > oenaug > noeg (cf. German au > äu)
- aea > ei - aear > eir (presumably changed further to air as is common at the end of Sindarin words; "a" actually changes to "ei" before "ai")
Mutation
Sindarin has a complex series of mutations which are not yet fully understood because no Sindarin Grammar written by J.R.R. Tolkien has been published. The corpus of published Sindarin sentences is yet very small, and Sindarin has many dialects each with its own set of mutation rules.The only complete explanation is of the mutations of "early conceptual Noldorin" from Tolkien's Lam na Ngoluith, Early Noldorin Grammar.
Mutation is triggered in various ways:
- Soft mutation is triggered by a closely connected word ending in a vowel, the consonant then assumes the form it should have medially.
- Hard mutation is due to the gemination of an original initial consonant due to precedence of a closely connected word ending in a stop.
- Nasal mutation is due to a preceding nasal.
Initial mutations must not be confused with assimilations
Assimilation (linguistics)
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
that may occur in compound words (such as, for instance, in the Sindarin names Araphor, Arassuil and Caradhras
Caradhras
In the fictional universe of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Caradhras, also called the Redhorn , and known in the Dwarves' language as Barazinbar, is one of the mightiest peaks in the Misty Mountains...
).
The following table outlines how different consonants are affected by the three mutations.
| Basic | Soft | Hard | Nasal |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | v (bh) | b | m |
| d | dh | d | n |
| g | ’ | g | ng |
| gw | ’w | gw | ngw |
| p | b | f | f |
| t | d | th | th |
| c | g | ch | ch |
| cw | gw | chw | chw |
The apostrophe ’ indicates elision
Elision
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
.
Noldorin words beginning in b-, d-, or g- which descend from older mb-, nd-, or ng- are affected differently by the mutations:
| Basic | Soft | Hard | Nasal |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | m | b | m |
| d | n | d | n |
| g | ng | g | ng |
Noldorin words beginning in n, m, l, r, s are not affected by mutation.
For example, the deictic
Deixis
In linguistics, deixis refers to the phenomenon wherein understanding the meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their denotational meaning varies depending on time and/or place...
singular article i triggers soft mutation in Noldorin. When added to a word like tî, "line" it becomes i dî, "the line". In Noldorin's phonological history, t became d in the middle of a word. With the preposition no, 'to', tî becomes no thî, 'to the line'. With the plural article, i(n), tî becomes i thiath "the lines".
Many of the mutations of Noldorin appear to be taken into Sindarin a few years later. The Sindarin word gwath "shadow" becomes i 'wath, "the shadow".
Pronouns
One source is used for the Sindarin pronouns, another for the possessive suffixes.| Pronoun | Possessive suffix | |
| 1st person singular | -n | -en |
| 2nd pers. imperious/familiar sg. | -g | -eg |
| 2nd pers. formal/polite sg. | -dh | -el |
| 3rd person singular | nil | -ed |
| 1st pers. pl. inclusive | -m | -em |
| 1st pers. pl. exclusive | -nc | -enc |
| 2nd person imperious/familiar plural | -g, -gir | -eg, -egir |
| 2nd person formal/polite plural | -dh, -dhir | -el, -elir |
| 3rd person plural | -r | -ent |
| Dual (used only by speakers from Doriath) | ||
| 1st pers. dual inclusive | -m, -mmid | ? |
| 1st pers. dual exclusive | -nc, -ngid | ? |
| 2nd person imperious/familiar dual | -ch | ? |
| 2nd person formal/polite dual | -dh, -dhid | ? |
| 3rd person dual | -st | ? |
These are subjective forms used in conjugation. Sindarin used objective detached forms, like dhe (2nd pers. formal/polite singular).
Sindarin pronouns, like those in English, still maintain some case distinction ammen (< an men, "for/to us"), annin "for/to me". But they are not well documented in the published Corpus.
- Lamm, "tongue" > lammen "my tongue".
Verbs
While Tolkien wrote that Quenya inflections were pretty regular, he also wrote: "Sindarin verbal history is complicated." The number of attested verbs in Sindarin is actually small. The Sindarin verb system will be imperfectly known until the grammars and treatise of Sindarin conjugation written by Tolkien are published.About -ant, the 3rd person past tense ending of Sindarin, he wrote: "it is rather like that of Medieval Welsh -as, or modern Welsh -odd." So with teith- "make marks of signs, write, inscribe", teithant is the 3rd person singular past tense. Cf. Welsh Chwaraeodd e, "he played".
Basic verbs
Basic verbs, though smaller in number than derived verbs, have a very complex conjugation which arises from Sindarin's phonological history.Basic verbs form the infinitive by adding -i: giri from gir-. This ending causes an a or o in the stem to umlaut to e: blebi from blab-. Sindarin does not use infinitive forms very often, and rather uses the gerund to achieve the same meaning.
For all persons except the third person singular, the present tense is formed by the insertion of -i, and the proper enclitic pronominal ending: girin, girim, girir. As with the infinitive, -i causes an a or o in the stem to umlaut to e: pedin, pedim, pedir, from pad-. The third person singular, because it has a zero-ending, does not require the insertion of -i. This leaves the bare stem, which, because of Sindarin's phonological history, causes the vowel of the stem to become long: gîr, blâb, pâd.
The past tense of basic verbs is very complicated and poorly attested. One common reconstructed system is to use -n: darn. However, the only time this -n actually remains is after a stem in -r. After a stem ending in -l, -n becomes -ll: toll. After -b, -d, -g, -v, or -dh, it is metathesized
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
and then assimilated
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
to the same place of articulation as the consonant it now follows. The consonant then experiences what could be called a "backwards mutation": -b, -d, and -g become -p, -t, and -c, and -v and -dh become -m and -d. The matter is complicated even further when pronominal endings are added. Because -mp, -mb, -nt, -nd, and -nc did not survive medially, they become -mm-, -mm-, -nn-, -nn-, and -ng. In addition, past tense stems in -m would have -mm- before any pronominal endings. Because this all may seem rather overwhelming, look at these examples which show step-by-step transformations:
- cab- > **cabn > **canb > **camb > camp, becoming camm- with any pronominal endings.
- ped- > **pedn > **pend > pent, becoming penn- with any pronominal endings.
- dag- > **dagn > **dang (n pronounced as in men) > **dang (n pronounced as in sing) > danc, becoming dang- with any pronominal endings.
- lav- > **lavn > **lanv > **lanm > **lamm > lam, becoming lamm- before any pronominal endings.
- redh- > **redhn > **rendh > **rend > rend, becoming renn- before any pronominal endings.
The future tense is formed by the addition of -tha. An -i is also inserted between the stem and -tha, which again causes a and o to umlaut to e. Endings for all persons except for the first person singular can be added without any further modification: giritham, blebithar. The first person singular ending -n causes the -a in -tha to become -o: girithon, blebithon, pedithon.
The imperative is formed with the addition of -o to the stem: giro!, pado!, blabo!.
Derived verbs
Derived verbs have a much less complex conjugation because they have a thematic vowel (usually a) which reduces the number of consonant combinations which occur.The infinitive is formed with -o, which replaces the -a of the stem, e. g. lacho from lacha-.
The present tense is formed without modification to the stem. Pronominal endings are added without any change, except with the first person singular enclintic -n, where the final vowel becomes an o, e.g. renion < renia - I wander.
The past tense is formed with the ending -nt, which becomes -nne with any pronominal endings, e. g. erthant, erthanner.
The future tense is formed with -tha. With the addition of the first person singular -n, this becomes -tho.
Vocabulary
It is very difficult to know how many Elvish words J.R.R. Tolkien imagined, as much of his writings on Elvish languages are still unpublished. As of 2008, about 25 thousand Elvish words have been published.| Meaning | Sindarin | Pronunciation | Quenya equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| earth | amar, ceven | ˈɑmɑr ˈkɛvɛn | ambar, cemen |
| sky | menel | ˈmɛnɛl | menel |
| water | nen | ˈnɛn | nén |
| fire | naur | ˈnɑʊ̯r | nár |
| man (male) | benn | ˈbɛn | nér |
| female | bess | ˈbɛs | nís |
| eat | mad- | ˈmɑd | mat- |
| drink | sog- | ˈsɔɡ | suc- |
| big, great | beleg, daer | ˈbɛlɛɡ ˈdɑɛ̯r | alta, halla |
| race, tribe | noss | ˈnɔs | nóre |
| night | dû | ˈduːː | lóme |
| day | aur | ˈɑʊ̯r | aure, ré |
The Lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
s of Gnomish, Noldorin and Sindarin (even if today all of it has not been published) lack modern vocabulary (television, motor, etc.).
In Tolkien's lifetime
- The HobbitThe HobbitThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
(1937) and The Adventures of Tom BombadilThe Adventures of Tom BombadilThe Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a collection of poetry written by J. R. R. Tolkien and published in 1962. The book contains 16 poems, only two of which deal with Tom Bombadil, a character who is most famous for his encounter with Frodo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring...
(1962) contain a few elvish names (ElrondElrondElrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is introduced in The Hobbit, and plays a supporting role in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.-Character overview:...
, Glamdring, Orcrist), but no texts or sentences.
- 1954-1955 The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
. - 1968 The Road Goes Ever OnThe Road Goes Ever OnThe Road Goes Ever On is a song cycle that has been published as sheet music and as an audio recording. The music was written by Donald Swann, and the words are taken from poems in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, especially The Lord of the Rings.The title of this opus is taken from "The...
.
Posthumously
- 1981 Unfinished TalesUnfinished TalesUnfinished Tales is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980.Unlike The Silmarillion, for which the narrative fragments were modified to connect into a consistent and...
: the "Oath of Cirion" - 1983 A Secret ViceA Secret ViceA Secret Vice is the title of a lecture written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1931, given at a conference. Some twenty years later, Tolkien revised the manuscript for a second presentation....
in The Monsters and the CriticsThe Monsters and the CriticsThe Monsters and the Critics is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's scholarly linguistic essays edited by his son Christopher and published posthumously in 1983.The essays are:* "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics" looks at Beowulf....
.
- Oilima Markirya
- Nieninqe
- Earendel
- 1985 Fíriel's Song, in The Lost Road and Other Writings, p. 72
- 1985 "Alboin Errol's Fragments", in The Lost Road and Other Writings, p. 47.
- 1989 The Plotz Quenya Declensions, first published in part in the fanzine Beyond BreeBeyond BreeBeyond Bree is the monthly newsletter of the Tolkien Special Interest Group of American Mensa.Bree is a village in Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth.-External links:* *...
, and later in full in Vinyar Tengwar 6, p. 14 - 1991 Koivieneni Sentence in Vinyar Tengwar 14, p. 5–20.
- 1992 New Tengwar Inscription in VT 21, p. 6
- 1992 Liège Tengwar Inscription in VT 23, p. 16
- 1993 Two Trees Sentence in VT 27, p. 7–42
- 1993 Koivieneni Manuscript in VT 27, p. 7–42
- 1993 The Bodleian Declensions, in Vinyar Tengwar 28, pp. 9–34.
- 1994 The Entu Declension in VT 36, p. 8–29
- 1995 Gnomish Lexicon, Parma Eldalamberon 11.
- 1995 Rúmilian Document in Vinyar Tengwar 37, p. 15–23
- 1998 Qenya Lexicon Parma Eldalamberon 12
- 1998 Osanwe-kentaOsanwe-kentaThe Ósanwe-kenta or Enquiry into the Communication of Thought is a text by J. R. R. Tolkien, written as a typescript of eight pages, probably in 1960, published in Vinyar Tengwar in 1998....
, Enquiry into the communication of thought, Vinyar Tengwar 39 - 1998 "From Quendi and Eldar, Appendix D." Vinyar Tengwar 39, pp. 4–20.
- 1999 Narqelion, Vinyar Tengwar 40, p. 5–32
- 2000 Etymological Notes — Osanwe-kenta Vinyar Tengwar 41, p. 5–6
- 2000 From The Shibboleth of Fëanor (written ca. 1968) Vinyar Tengwar 41, p. 7–10 (A part of the Shibboleth of Fëanor was published in The Peoples of Middle-earthThe Peoples of Middle-earthThe Peoples of Middle-earth is the 12th and final volume of The History of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien from the unpublished manuscripts of his father J. R. R. Tolkien. Some characters only appear here...
, p. 331–366) - 2000 Notes on Óre Vinyar Tengwar 41, p. 11–19
- 2000 Merin Sentence Tyalie Tyalieva 14, p. 32–35
- 2001 The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor (written 1967–1969) Vinyar Tengwar 42, p. 5–31.
- 2001 Essay on negation in Quenya Vinyar Tengwar 42, p. 33–34
- 2001 Goldogrim Pronominal Prefixes Parma Eldalamberon 13 p. 97
- 2001 Early Noldorin Grammar, Parma Eldalamberon 13, p. 119–132
- 2002 "Words of Joy: Five Catholic Prayers in Quenya (Part One), Vinyar Tengwar 43:
- Ataremma (Pater NosterLord's PrayerThe Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
in Quenya) versions I-VI, p. 4–26 - Aia María (Ave MariaHail MaryThe Angelic Salutation, Hail Mary, or Ave Maria is a traditional biblical Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Hail Mary is used within the Catholic Church, and it forms the basis of the Rosary...
in Quenya) versions I–IV, p. 26–36 - Alcar i Ataren (Gloria Patri in Quenya), p. 36–38
- 2002 "Words of Joy: Five Catholic Prayers in Quenya (Part Two), Vinyar Tengwar 44:
- Litany of LoretoLitany of the Blessed Virgin MaryThe Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Marian litany originally approved in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V. It is also known as the Litany of Loreto, for its first-known place of origin, the Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto , where its usage was recorded as early as 1558.The litany contains many of the...
in Quenya, p. 11–20 - Ortírielyanna (Sub tuum praesidiumSub tuum praesidiumBeneath thy protection is the oldest extant hymn to the Theotokos .-History:The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Coptic Orthodox Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250. It is used in the Coptic liturgy to this day, as well as in the...
in Quenya), p. 5–11 - Alcar mi tarmenel na Erun (Gloria in Excelsis DeoGloria in Excelsis Deo"Gloria in excelsis Deo" is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn. The name is often abbreviated to Gloria in Excelsis or simply Gloria.It is an example of the psalmi idiotici "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest")...
in Quenya), p. 31–38 - Ae Adar Nín (Pater NosterLord's PrayerThe Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
in Sindarin) Vinyar Tengwar 44, p. 21–30- 2003 Early Qenya Fragments, Parma Eldalamberon 14.
- 2003 Early Qenya Grammar, Parma Eldalamberon 14.
- 2003 "The Valmaric Scripts", Parma Eldalamberon 14.
- 2004 "Sí Qente Feanor and Other Elvish Writings", ed. Smith, Gilson, Wynne, and Welden, Parma Eldalamberon 15
- 2005 "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals (Part One)." Edited by Patrick H. Wynne. Vinyar Tengwar 47, pp. 3–43.
- 2005 "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals (Part Two)." Edited by Patrick H. Wynne. Vinyar Tengwar 48, pp. 4–34.
- 2006 "Pre-Fëanorian Alphabets", Part 1, ed. Smith, Parma Eldalamberon 16
- 2006 "Early Elvish Poetry: Oilima Markirya, Nieninqe and Earendel", ed. Gilson, Welden, and Hostetter, Parma Eldalamberon 16
- 2006 "Qenya Declensions", "Qenya Conjugations", "Qenya Word-lists", ed. Gilson, Hostetter, Wynne, Parma Eldalamberon 16
- 2007 "Eldarin Hands, Fingers & Numerals (Part Three)." Edited by Patrick H. Wynne. Vinyar Tengwar 49, pp. 3–37.
- 2007 "Five Late Quenya Volitive Inscriptions." Vinyar Tengwar 49, pp. 38–58.
- 2007 "Ambidexters Sentence", Vinyar Tengwar 49
- 2007 "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
", edited by Gilson, Parma Eldalemberon 17. - 2009 "Tengwesta Qenderinwa", ed. Gilson, Smith and Wynne, Parma Eldalemberon 18.
- 2009 "Pre-Fëanorian Alphabets, Part 2", Parma Eldalemberon 18.
See also Douglas A. Anderson
Douglas A. Anderson
Douglas Allen Anderson is an author and editor on the subjects of fantasy and medieval literature, specializing in textual analysis of the works of J. R. R...
, Carl F. Hostetter: A Checklist, Tolkien Studies
Tolkien Studies
Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review is an academic journal publishing papers on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Douglas A. Anderson, Michael D. C. Drout, and Verlyn Flieger. It states that it is the first scholarly journal published by an academic press in the area of Tolkien...
4 (2007).
See also
- Calendar of Imladris
- Elvish languages (Middle-earth)
- Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Lothlórien
- Middle-earthMiddle-earthMiddle-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....
- QuenyaQuenyaQuenya 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...
External links
- Parma Tyelpelassiva
- http://www.phy.duke.edu/~trenk/elvish/downloads/pedin_edhellen_en.pdf.gz Renkian Neo-Sindarin course.
- Ardalambion With Fauskangerian Neo-Sindarin course.
- Sindanórië
- Hisweloke's Sindarin dictionary project
- Hesperides (Dragon Flame port for Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
)
- Hesperides (Dragon Flame port for Mac OS X