Sindarin is one of
the fictional languages devised by
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
for use in his fantasy stories set in
Arda, primarily in
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the '' Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is ...
. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the
Elves
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes " ...
. The word is a
Quenya word.
Called in English "Grey-Elvish" or "Grey-Elven", it was the language of the Grey Elves of
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 ...
. 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 who sailed over sea. Sindarin derives from an earlier language called
Common Telerin
J. R. R. Tolkien constructed many Elvish languages; the best known are Quenya and Sindarin. These were the various languages spoken by the Elves of Middle-earth as they developed as a society throughout the Ages. In his pursuit for realism and i ...
, which evolved from
Common Eldarin
Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed la ...
, the tongue of the
Eldar before their divisions, e.g., those Elves who decided to follow the Vala
Oromë
The Valar (; singular Vala) are characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. They are "angelic powers" or "gods", #154 to Naomi Mitchison, September 1954 subordinate to the one God ( Eru Ilúvatar). The Ainulindalë describes how those of th ...
and undertook the Great March to
Valinor
Valinor ( Quenya'': Land of the Valar'') or the Blessed Realms is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the home of the immortal Valar on the continent of Aman, far to the west of Middle-earth; he used the name Aman mainly to m ...
. Even before that the Eldar Elves spoke the original speech of all Elves, or
Primitive Quendian
Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed la ...
.
In the
Third Age
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional un ...
(the setting of ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...
''), 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 term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
. The tongue used in
Doriath (home of
Thingol
Elu Thingol or Elwë Singollo is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in ''The Silmarillion'', '' The Lays of Beleriand'' and ''The Children of Húrin'' and in numerous stories in '' The History of Middle ...
, 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
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional unive ...
, many
Men
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...
of
Númenor
Númenor, also called Elenna-nórë or Westernesse, is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was the kingdom occupying a large island to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was the greatest civ ...
spoke Sindarin fluently. Their descendants, the
Dúnedain
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, the Dúnedain (; singular: Dúnadan, "Man of the West") were a race of Men, also known as the Númenóreans or ''Men of Westernesse'' (translated from the Sindarin term). Those who survived the s ...
of
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 at the end of the Third Age. The third volume of ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Return of the King'', is largel ...
and Arnor, continued to speak Sindarin in the Third Age. Sindarin was first written using the
Cirth, an Elvish runic alphabet. Later, it was usually written in the
Tengwar
The Tengwar script is an artificial script, one of several scripts created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of ''The Lord of the Rings''.
Within the fictional context of Middle-earth, the Tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and use ...
(Quenya for 'letters') – a script invented by the elf
Fëanor. Tolkien based the
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
and some of the grammar of Sindarin on
Literary
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
Welsh,
and Sindarin displays some of the consonant mutations that characterize the
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...
.
[ The language was also influenced to a lesser degree by ]Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
and Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
.
The Dwarves rarely taught their language to others,[ Foster, Robert (1978) '']The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
''The Complete Guide to Middle-earth: from ''The Hobbit'' to ''The Silmarillion is a reference book for the fictional universe called Middle-earth of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, compiled and edited by Robert Foster. It was first published in ...
''. Ballantine. so they learned both Quenya and Sindarin in order to communicate with the Elves, especially the Noldor and Sindar.[, '']Quenta Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavrie ...
'', ch. 10 "Of the Sindar" By the Third Age, however, the Dwarves were estranged from the Elves and no longer routinely learned their language, preferring to use Westron
The English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created a number of constructed languages, including languages devised for fictional settings. Inventing languages, something that he called ''glossopoeia'' (paralleling his idea of ''mythopoe ...
.
Two timelines
For Tolkien's constructed languages one must distinguish two timelines of development:
* One external, in which Tolkien's linguistic taste and conceptions evolved
* One internal, consisting of the sequence of events within the fictional history of Tolkien's secondary world
External timeline
Tolkien
Tolkien was interested in languages from an early age, and developed several constructed language
A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...
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
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...
where these could evolve.
One of these languages was created in around 1915, inspired by the Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...
, particularly Literary
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
Welsh. Tolkien called it ''Goldogrin
The English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created a number of constructed languages, including languages devised for fictional settings. Inventing languages, something that he called '' glossopoeia'' (paralleling his idea of ''mythopoe ...
'' or "Gnomish" in English. He wrote a substantial dictionary of Gnomish and a grammar.[I-Lam na-Ngoldathon: The Grammar and Lexicon of the Gnomish Tongue. '']Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'' 11. 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
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes " ...
, 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
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...
''", 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''.['']Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'' 13. In the early 1930s Tolkien wrote a new grammar of ''Noldorin''.[Still unpublished as of 2011.] 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 the ''Old Noldorin'' spoken in Valinor to the many (not Welsh-like) dialects, later called ''Lemberin'', that were spoken in Beleriand. 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."[ Tolkien, J. R. R., ''Tengwesta Qenderinwa 1''. ]Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
18, p. 24.
Tolkien created Sindarin in around 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 in etc. = Noldorin ((?)viz. as it used to be)".[ Tolkien, J. R. R. "Comparative Tables". '']Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'' 19, p. 23. 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. In Tolkien's words, "The changes worked on Sindarin rom Common Eldarinvery closely (and deliberately) resemble those which produced the modern and mediaeval Welsh from ancient Celtic, so that in the result Sindarin has a marked Welsh style, and the relations between it and Quenya closely resemble those between Welsh and Latin."[, p. 135.]
Tolkien did not provide a detailed description of the language in published works such as ''The Lord of the Rings'', but he did say that[
Tolkien wrote many pieces in Sindarin. He made an effort to give to his Elvish languages the feel and taste of natural languages. 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.][, #165 to ]Houghton Mifflin
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
, 30 June 1955
Scholarship and fandom
Two magazines—'' Vinyar Tengwar'', from issue 39 (July 1998), and ''Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'', from issue 11 (1995)—are exclusively devoted to the editing and publishing of Tolkien's gigantic mass of unpublished linguistic papers. These are published at a slow pace and the editors have not published a comprehensive catalogue of these unpublished linguistic papers. Access to the original documents is severely limited as Christopher Tolkien
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father ...
omitted them from his 12-volume ''The History of Middle-earth
''The History of Middle-earth'' is a 12-volume series of books published between 1983 and 1996 that collect and analyse much of Tolkien's legendarium, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. The series shows the development over ti ...
''. Many new-found words of Sindarin, Noldorin and Ilkorin have been published and the grammar rules of these languages disclosed.
Attempts by Tolkien fans to write in Sindarin began in the 1970s, 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 the linguist David Salo for Peter Jackson's ''Lord of the Rings'' films, require conjecture and sometimes coinage of new words.
Internal timeline
In Tolkien's words:
Dialects
The divergence of Sindarin (Old Sindarin) begun first into a Northern or group and a Southern group. The Southern group had a much larger territory, and included or "Central Sindarin".[
So during the First Age, before the return of the Noldor, there were four dialects of Sindarin:
* Southern group
** ', the language of Doriath;][
** or "West Sindarin", the language of the ]Falas
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- ...
;
* Northern group
** North-Western dialect, spoken in Hithlum, Mithrim, and Dor-lómin;
** North-Eastern dialect, spoken in Ard-galen (before its ruin), and the highlands of Dorthonion (Taur-nu-Fuin).
Doriathrin
Doriathrin preserved many archaic features. Unlike the other dialects, it remained free from Quenya 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."[, p. 132] Tolkien set out much about Doriathrin morphology, and how it contrasts with the other Sindarin dialects, in his linguistic writings:[
]
Falathrin
The language of the followers of the Elf CÃrdan, 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 , the northernmost group of the Grey-elves. It differed from the Central Sindarin of Beleriand in many aspects. Originally spoken in Dorthonion and Hithlum
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- ...
, 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 (the highlands of Taur-nu-Fuin, and the wide plains of Ard-galen to the north of the highlands). This language was at first adopted by the exiled Noldor after their return to Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the '' Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is ...
at Losgar. Later Noldorin Sindarin changed, much owing to the adoption of Quenya features, and partially because of to the love of the Noldor for making linguistic changes. Beren's heritage was clear to Thingol
Elu Thingol or Elwë Singollo is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He appears in ''The Silmarillion'', '' The Lays of Beleriand'' and ''The Children of Húrin'' and in numerous stories in '' The History of Middle ...
of Doriath as he spoke the North Sindarin of his homeland.[
]
Noldorin Sindarin
With the exception of Doriathrin, Sindarin adopted some Quenya 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. ) with simple replacement of ''g-'', not ''Goenlin'' or ''Goenglin'' s it would have been in standard Sindarin.][, p. 29]
In the Second and Third Age
'Beleriandic' Sindarin as a lingua franca 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
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional unive ...
Sindarin was a lingua franca for all Elves and their friends (thus it was used to inscribe the West-gate of Moria), until it was displaced for Men by Westron
The English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien created a number of constructed languages, including languages devised for fictional settings. Inventing languages, something that he called ''glossopoeia'' (paralleling his idea of ''mythopoe ...
, 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
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Man (Middle-earth), Men in the west of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. The third volume of ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Return of the ...
. Aragorn
Aragorn is a fictional character and a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. Aragorn was a Ranger of the North, first introduced with the name Strider and later revealed to be the heir of Isildur, an ancient King of Ar ...
, raised in the safety of the Elvish stronghold of Rivendell
Rivendell ('' sjn, Imladris'') is a valley in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, representing both a homely place of sanctuary and a magical Elvish otherworld. It is an important location in '' The Hobbit'' and '' The Lord of ...
,[, Appendix A "The Númenórean Kings"] spoke it fluently.[, book 1, ch. 12 "Flight to the Ford"]
Phonology
Sindarin was designed with a Welsh-like phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
.[, p. 135.]
Stress is as in Latin: on the penult if that is heavy (a closed syllable, long vowel or diphthong) and on the antepenult if the penult is light.
Consonants
The phoneme is voiced to when final or before , but remains written as . The sound is written when final (''alph'', "swan") or when used to spell a lenited (''i-pheriannath'', "the halflings") which becomes . Old Sindarin, like Common Brittonic and Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, GoÃdelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghà idhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...
, also had a spirant ''m'' or nasal ''v'' (IPA: ), which was transcribed as ''mh''. This merged with in later Sindarin. Phonemically, Sindarin aligns with the other velar consonants like , , , etc. but is phonetically the voiceless uvular fricative
The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , the Greek chi. The sound is represented by (ex with underdot) in Am ...
.
Orthographic conventions
Vowels
Monophthongs
An acute signifies a long vowel (á, é, etc.). In a monosyllabic word, a circumflex is used (â, ê, etc.).
In Old Sindarin, there was a vowel similar to German ''ö'' (IPA: ), which Tolkien mostly transcribed as ''œ''. Although this was meant to be distinct from the diphthong ''oe'', it was often simply printed ''oe'' in publications like ''The Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavri ...
'', e.g. (read: ''NÃrnaeth ArnÅ“diad''), (read: ''GÅ“lydh''). This vowel later came to be pronounced and is therefore transcribed as such (e.g. ''Gelydh'').
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are ''ai'' (pronounced like aisle ɪ, ''ei'' (day ›Éª, ''ui'' (ruin ŠÉª, and ''au'' (cow ÊŠ. If the last diphthong finishes a word, it is spelt ''aw''. There are also diphthongs ''ae'' and ''oe'' with no English counterparts, similar to pronouncing ''a'' or ''o'' respectively in the same syllable as one pronounces an ''e'' (as in pet); IPA . 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
Tolkien wrote that he gave Sindarin "a linguistic character very like (though not identical with) British-Welsh ... because it seems to fit the rather 'Celtic' type of legends and stories told of its speakers".
Unlike the largely agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
Quenya, Sindarin is mainly a fusional language
Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. ...
with some analytic tendencies. It can be distinguished from Quenya by the rarity of vowel endings, and the use of voiced plosive
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is manner of articulation, blocked so that all airstream mechanism, airflow ceases.
The occlusion may be made with the tongu ...
s ''b d g'', rare in Quenya found only after nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
and liquids
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...
. Early Sindarin formed plurals by the addition of ''-Ä«'', which vanished but affected the preceding vowels (as in Welsh and Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
): S. , pl. , S. , pl. ''Yrch
An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by Tolkien's legendarium, the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutis ...
''. Sindarin forms plurals in multiple ways.
Nouns
While Sindarin does not have a grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
, it has like Welsh two systems of grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages pres ...
. Singular/plural nouns correspond to the singular/plural number system just as of English. Sindarin noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways.
Some Sindarin (and Noldorin) nouns of one syllable form the plural with an ending (usually ''-in''), e.g. , pl. "wild men, Woses, Púkel-Men". Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g. and , "lore master, sage" (obsolete as a tribal name before the Noldor came back to Beleriand); , pl. , "Dark-Elves". Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, and a few do not change in the plural: , "Beleriandic-Elf/Elves" is singular and plural.
The other system of number was called by Tolkien 2nd plural or collective number.[, p. 26 and p. 45-46.] The nouns in this system form it usually by adding a suffix to the plural (as in Welsh); for example ''-ath'', as in , "all the stars (in the sky)", but not always as in . Another ending of the 2nd pl. is ''-rim'', used especially to indicate a race-group: "the race of the Dwarves", from pl. (sg. , "Dwarf"). There exist another such ending ''-lir'', as in .
The endings ''-rim'', ''-hoth'', and ''waith'', Sindarin words meaning 'multitude', 'host', and 'people' respectively, are added to a singular noun to form a 2nd plural, e. g. "the Werewolf-horde" from "Were-wolf"; "wolvish folk".
Plural forms
Most Sindarin plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
s are formed by vowel change and are characterised by ''i-mutation
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal appro ...
''. The Noldorin term for this is ''prestanneth'' "affection of vowels". In an earlier stage of the language, plurals were marked by the suffix ''-Ä«'', to which the root assimilated, becoming fronted (and raised if low); later the final ''-Ä«'' was lost, leaving the changed root as the sole marker of the plural. (This process is very similar to the Germanic umlaut that produced the English forms ''man/men'', ''goose/geese'', and closer still to the Welsh i-affection plurals in forms like and .) The resulting plural patterns are:
* In non-final syllables:
** a > e – (tree) > (trees)
** e > e – (queen) > (queens)
** o > e – (female dwarf) > (female dwarves) (originally became œ, which later became e)
** u > y – (poplar tree) > (poplar trees)
* In final syllables:
** a with one consonant following > ai – (king) > (kings)
** a with consonant cluster following #1 > e – (saga) > (sagas)
** a with consonant cluster following #2 > ai – (outline, shape)> (outlines, shapes)( nasal & plosive)
** a with consonant cluster following #3 > ei – (swan) > (swans) ( liquid & fricative
A fricative is a consonant 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 t ...
)
** â > ai – (foot) > (feet)
** e > i – (mortal woman) > (mortal women)
** ê > î – (child) > (children)
** o > y – (lord) > (lords)
** o > e – (mountain) > (mountains) (in some cases)
** ó > ý – (steadfast man) > (steadfast men)
** ô > ŷ – (pine tree) > (pine trees)
** u > y – (monster> (monsters)
** û > ui – (dog) > (dogs)
** au > oe – (dwarf)> (dwarves) (cf. German ''au'' > ''äu'')
** aea > ei – (sea) > (seas) (presumably changed further to ''air'' as is common at the end of Sindarin words; "a" actually changes to "ei" before "ai")
Vowels not listed do not undergo any change, such as remains as , meaning that it is possible for some words to have the same form in the singular and plural.
Initial consonant mutations
Sindarin has a series of consonant mutations, varying between dialects as follows.
Mutations found in Noldorin
The mutations of "early conceptual Noldorin" are defined in Tolkien's ''Lam na Ngoluith, Early Noldorin Grammar''.[ Tolkien, J. R. R., ''Lam na Ngoluith. Early Noldorin Grammar.'' ]Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
13, p. 120.
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 because of precedence of a closely connected word ending in a plosive.][
* Nasal mutation is due to a preceding nasal.][
The following table outlines how different consonants are affected by the three mutations.
The apostrophe ’ indicates elision, and is not necessarily written. Those forms of lenited ''p'' that are pronounced ''f'' are written ''ph'' as mentioned above.
Noldorin words beginning in ''b-'', ''d-'', or ''g-'', which descend from older ''mb-'', ''nd-'', or ''ng-'' are affected differently by the mutations:
Many of the mutations of Noldorin were taken into Sindarin a few years later. The Sindarin word ''gwath'' "shadow" becomes ''i 'wath'', "the shadow".][, p. 41.]
Mutations found in Salo's grammar
David Salo's ''A Gateway to Sindarin'' proposes a more complex set of mutations, based on extrapolation from the Sindarin corpus, as follows (empty cells indicate no change):
The nasal mutation however does not affect 'd' and 'g' when found in the clusters 'dr', 'gr', 'gl' or 'gw'. By Salo's admission, the liquid mutation is speculative and not attested in Tolkien's writings at the time he wrote ''A Gateway to Sindarin''.
Pronouns
One source is used for the Sindarin pronouns,[, p. 132.] another for the possessive suffixes.[, p. 46]
These are subjective forms used in conjugation. Sindarin used objective detached forms, like ''dhe'' (2nd pers. formal/polite singular).[, p. 26]
Sindarin pronouns could combine with prepositions as in Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...
, Welsh: "to/for us" from 'to/for' and 'we/us'. [, p. 38] annin "for/to me".[, p. 147] The first person singular pronoun suffixes could combine with nouns: Lamm, "tongue" > lammen "my tongue".
Verbs
Tolkien wrote that Quenya inflections were pretty regular,[ Tolkien, J. R. R., "Early Qenya Grammar", '']Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'' 14, p. 56. but that "Sindarin verbal history is complicated."[, p. 43.] About ''-ant'', the 3rd person past tense ending of Sindarin, he wrote: "it is rather like that of Medieval Welsh ''-as'', or modern Welsh p sing.
P, or p, is the sixteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''pee'' (pronounced ), plural ''pees''.
History
The ...
''-odd''." So with "make marks of signs, write, inscribe", is the 3rd person singular past tense.[ Cf. Welsh , "he played" (< 'to play' + and 'he'). ''-ant'' is the Welsh 3p ''plural'' ending: 'they (will) play'.
]
Basic verbs
Basic verbs form the infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
by adding ''-i'': from . This ending causes an ''a'' or ''o'' in the stem to umlaut to ''e'': from . The infinitive is not used as a noun; the gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...
is used instead.
For all persons except the third person singular, the present tense is formed by the insertion of ''-i'', and the proper enclitic pronominal ending: , , . As with the infinitive, ''-i'' causes an ''a'' or ''o'' in the stem to umlaut to ''e'': , , , from . 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: , , .
The past tense of basic verbs is very complicated and poorly attested. One common reconstructed system is to use ''-n'': . However, the only time this ''-n'' actually remains is after a stem in ''-r''. After a stem ending in ''-l'', ''-n'' becomes ''-ll'': . After ''-b, -d, -g, -v,'' or ''-dh'', it is metathesized and then assimilated to the same place of articulation as the consonant it now precedes. 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. These examples show the transformations step-by-step:
* ''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: , . The first person singular ending ''-n'' causes the ''-a'' in ''-tha'' to become ''-o'': , , .
The imperative is formed with the addition of ''-o'' to the stem: , , .
Vocabulary
As of 2008, about 25 thousand Elvish words have been published.[According to the French linguist Edouard Kloczko in ''L'Encyclopédie des Elfes'', Le Pré aux Clercs (2008), , p. 145.]
The Lexicons of ''Gnomish
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its character ...
'', '' Noldorin'' and ''Sindarin'' lack modern vocabulary (television, motor, etc.). Tolkien fans have extended Sindarin to enable it to be spoken.
Numerals
According to Tolkien, the elves preferred duodecimal counting (base 12) to the Dunedain's decimal system (base 10: Quenya ''maquanotië'', *''quaistanótië''), though the two systems seem to have coexisted. The numbers 1–12 are presented below (reconstructed forms are marked with an asterisk *), as well as a few higher numbers.
The form * (extracted from ) appears in the King's Letter, but at the time the roots for ten were and , resulting in Sindarin *, . This was later changed to , , resulting in Sindarin , so that this older form must be updated. The word * is extracted from the name ''Menegroth
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- ...
'', "the Thousand Caves", although this could technically be a base-12 "thousand" (i.e., 123 or 1,728).
References
Primary
:''This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.''
Secondary
Sources
* Bellet, Bertrand
"Noldorin Plurals in the Etymologies." ''Tengwestië'' (2005)
*
* Derzhanski, Ivan A. "Peth i dirathar aen: Some Notes on Eldarin Relative Constructions." '' Vinyar Tengwar'' 38 (1997): 9–13, 18.
*
* Gilson, Christopher. "Gnomish is Sindarin: The Conceptual Evolution of an Elvish Language." In ''Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on the History of Middle-earth'', edited by Verlyn Flieger Verlyn Flieger (born 1933) is an author, editor, and Professor Emerita in the Department of English at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she taught courses in comparative mythology, medieval literature, and the works of J. R. R. Tol ...
and Carl F. Hostetter, 95-104. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2000.
*
* Hemmi, Yoko. "Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' and His Concept of ''Native Language'': Sindarin and British-Welsh." ''Tolkien Studies'' (2010): 147–74.
*
* Hostetter, Carl F. "The 'King's Letter': An Historical and Comparative Analysis." '' Vinyar Tengwar'' 31 (1993): 12–34.
* Hostetter, Carl F.br> "The Past-Tense Verb in the Noldorin of the Etymologies."
''Tengwestië'' (2003).
* Hostetter, Carl F. "I Lam na Ngoldathon: The Grammar and Lexicon of the Gnomish Tongue." In '' J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment'', ed. Michael D.C. Drout, pp. 291–92. New York: Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, 2007.
* Hostetter, Carl F.br>"The Two Phonetic Values of ll in Elvish Sindarin in the Lord of the Rings"
''Tengwestië'' (2003).
*
* Marmor, Paula, Laurence Krieg, and David Strecker. "Initial Consonant Mutation in Celtic and Sindarin." ''Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'' 4 (1974): 12–16.
* MartÃnez, Helios De Rosario
"Light and Tree: A Survey Through the External History of Sindarin." ''Tengwestië'' (2005).
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Welden, Bill. "On the Formation of Plurals in Sindarin." ''Parma Eldalamberon
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
'' 1, no. 1 (1971): 10–11.
External links
English <=> Sindarin translation online
*
Thorsten Renk's Pedin Edhellen: a Sindarin-Course (gz archive)
Ardalambion
Helge Fauskanger
Helge KÃ¥re Fauskanger (born 17 August 1971) is a Norwegian author and philologist. In Norway he is known as a crime novelist; elsewhere, he is best known as a Tolkien scholar with an interest in Tolkien's constructed languages.
Education
Fau ...
's site on Tolkien's languages
*
Helge Fauskanger's page on Sindarin
R. R.vf.com/hisweloke/sindar/ Hisweloke's Sindarin dictionary project
*
(Dragon Flame port for Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
)
{{Authority control
Fusional languages
Middle-earth languages
Constructed languages
Constructed languages introduced in the 1940s