Citizendia

Sindarin
Edhellen
Created by:J. R. R. Tolkien 
Setting and usage:Fantasy world of Arda
Total speakers:—
Category (purpose):constructed languages
 artistic languages
  languages of Middle-earth
   Quendian
    Eldarin
     Telerin
      Sindarin 
Category (sources):a priori language, but relative to the other Elvish languages
Language codes
ISO 639-1:none
ISO 639-2:art
ISO 639-3:sjn
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting In J R R Tolkien 's Legendarium, Arda is the name given to the Earth in a period of prehistory wherein the places mentioned in The Lord of the Rings A constructed or artificial language known colloquially or informally as a conlang is a Language whose Phonology, Grammar An artistic language ( artlang) is a Constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure The Languages of Arda are artificial languages invented by J R Elvish languages are Constructed languages used typically by elves in a Fantasy setting This is the article about constructed languages For other uses of the term "a priori" see A priori. Elvish languages are Constructed languages used typically by elves in a Fantasy setting ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Sindarin is an artificial language developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. An artificial language is a Language created by a person or a group of people for a certain purpose usually when this purpose is hard to achieve by using a Natural In Tolkien's mythos, it was the Elvish language most commonly spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age. Elvish languages are Constructed languages used typically by elves in a Fantasy setting It was the language of the Sindar, those Teleri which had been left behind on the Great Journey of the Elves. Edhel redirects here See Éðel for the Anglo-Saxon term In the works of J In the works of J R R Tolkien, the Teleri (meaning Those who come last, singular Teler) were the third of the Elf clans who came to In J R R Tolkien 's Legendarium, an Elf is an individual member of one of the races that inhabit the lands of Arda. It was derived from an earlier language called Common Telerin. For Elvish languages in general see Elvish languages. J R R Tolkien 's fantasy fiction contains several languages for Elves Although the Telerin spoken in Aman remained relatively close to Quenya, Sindarin diverged significantly, so that it was now about as far from Quenya as Brithenig is from Italian. Brithenig is an invented language or Constructed language ("conlang" Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. When the Noldor returned to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language, although they believed their native Quenya more beautiful. In the works of J R R Tolkien, the Noldor (meaning those with knowledge) were those of the second clan of the Elves, the Tatyar, who came Quenya 'kwɛɲa is one of the fictional languages spoken by the Elves (the Quendi, "those who speak with voices" because when Sindarin shared common roots with Quenya, and the two languages had many similar words. Quenya 'kwɛɲa is one of the fictional languages spoken by the Elves (the Quendi, "those who speak with voices" because when Sindarin was said to be more changeful than the older tongue, however, and there were a number of regional 'dialects' of the tongue. The Sindarin spoken in Doriath, known as the Doriathrin dialect, was said to be the highest and most noble form of the language.

Before the downfall, most of the Men of Númenor also spoke the language. 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 Númenor (ˈnuːmɛnɔɹ is a Fictional place in J R R Tolkien 's writings which the author intended to be an allusion to the legendary Atlantis. Knowledge of it was kept in the Númenórean exile realm of Gondor, especially amongst the learned. In J R R Tolkien 's Legendarium, the Dúnedain (singular Dúnadan, "man of the west" were a race of Men descended from 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 Sindarin is the language referred to as the Elven-tongue in The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings is an epic

Tolkien originally imagined that the language which would become Sindarin was spoken by the Noldor (second clan of Elves). In J R R Tolkien 's Legendarium, an Elf is an individual member of one of the races that inhabit the lands of Arda. However, Tolkien later decided that it was the language of the Sindar. Edhel redirects here See Éðel for the Anglo-Saxon term In the works of J For this reason it is called Noldorin in the older material, such as the Etymologies. When Noldorin became Sindarin, it also adopted some features of the originally unrelated language Ilkorin. Tolkien based the sound and some of the grammar of his Noldorin/Sindarin on Welsh, and Sindarin displays some of the consonant mutations that characterise the Celtic (especially Brythonic) languages. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages or British languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family the other being The language was also probably influenced to an extent by the Germanic languages, as Tolkien was a scholar of Old English, Old Norse and Gothic. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths.

Within the fiction Sindarin was written in the Cirth alphabet prior to the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth, but afterwards it was usually written in Tengwar. The Cirth (" Runes " are the letters of an Artificial script which was invented by J Note some of the tengwar used in this article may not display properly unless tengwar fonts are installed

In the real world the language is usually written in the Latin alphabet, representing a transcription from the "original Tengwar" or "original Cirth". Transcription is the conversion into written typewritten or printed form of a Spoken language source such as the proceedings of a court hearing Some Tolkien enthusiasts write in Cirth or Tengwar, using specialized fonts or the Unicode proposal in the ConScript Unicode Registry, but most neo-Sindarin samples are written in the Latin alphabet. Tolkien fandom is an international informal community of fans of the works of J In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's The ConScript Unicode Registry is a volunteer project to coordinate the assignment of code points in the Unicode Private Use Area for the encoding of Artificial Neo-Eldarin is a term that may be employed to describe the language of texts attempting to actually use the "Elven" tongues invented by British author and philologist J

Contents

Phonology

Sindarin was designed to have a Welsh-like sound phonology. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning It has most of the same sounds and a similar sound structure, or phonotactics. Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course is a branch of Phonology that deals with restrictions in a Language on the

Consonants

 LabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
plainlateral
Plosivep  b t  d  k³ g 
Nasalm n  ŋ 4 
Fricativef  vθ  ð1sɬ² x5h
Trill  r̥ 6 r    
Approximant   ljʍ7  w 
  1. written <th> and <dh> respectively
  2. written <lh>
  3. written <c>
  4. written <ng>
  5. written <ch>
  6. written <rh>
  7. written <wh>

/f/ is voiced to [v] when final or before /n/. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants

Vowels

Monophthongs

VowelsFrontBack
Closei yu
Open-midɛɔ
Opena

Other orthographic notes

LetterIPANotes
ij, iRepresents [j] when initial before vowels, [i] everywhere else. A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract 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 forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as 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 The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language
ngŋ, ŋgRepresents [ŋ] when final, [ŋg] everywhere else.
phf, ffRepresents [f] when final, [ff] everywhere else.

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. ISO 8859-1, more formally cited as ISO/IEC 8859-1 is part 1 of ISO/IEC 8859, a standard Character encoding of the Latin alphabet.

Diphthongs are ai (pronounced like aisle [aɪ]), 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), or to German ei and eu/äu respectively. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.

In archaic 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, cf. Nírnaeth Arnoediad [read: Nírnaeth Arnœdiad], Goelydh [read: Gœlydh]). This vowel later came to be pronounced ɛ and is therefore transcribed as such [sc. Gelydh].

Archaic Sindarin also had a spirant m or nasal v (IPA: [ɱ]), which was transcribed as mh (though always pronounced [v] in later Sindarin).

Grammar

Sindarin is mainly analytic, though traits of its highly inflected progenitor can still be seen.

Nouns

Pluralization

Sindarin plurals are characterised by i-mutation. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is an important type of Sound change The Sindarin term for this is prestanneth (disturbance, affection). Almost all Sindarin nouns form their plurals like English man/men and goose/geese — by changing the vowels in the word. They are due to the Primitive Elvish plural marking -ī (still in Quenya as -i) making the other vowels higher and fronter in a sort of vowel harmony, but then the final -ī was lost, leaving the altered medial vowels behind: singular tulus > primitive plural tulussī > tylyssī > tylys. Quenya 'kwɛɲa is one of the fictional languages spoken by the Elves (the Quendi, "those who speak with voices" because when Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance ( see below) assimilatory phonological process involving Vowels in some languages This feature of Sindarin clearly shows the influence of the Celtic languages (especially Welsh) and Old English on the language (see Affection (linguistics) and Germanic umlaut). Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic In Celtic linguistics affection (or more precisely "i-affection" is the fronting of vowels in the main syllable of a word caused by an original front vowel in a suffix In Linguistics, umlaut (from German um - "around"/"the other way" + Laut "sound" is a process whereby a The plural patterns are:

Note that ai can sometimes become î (or, less commonly, ý).

Class plural

Sindarin also has several suffixes which denote a so-called class plural. For example, -ath indicates a group of something, e. g. elenath from elen (an archaic form of êl), meaning star, and -ath. It means a group of stars or all the stars in the sky. Another ending, -rim, is used to indicate a race, e. g. nogothrim from nogoth — dwarf and -rim, meaning the race of dwarves. The ending -hoth is generally used in an unfriendly sense, e. g. gaurhoth from gaur — werewolf and -hoth, meaning werewolf-host.

Mutation

Sindarin has a complex series of mutations. Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a Consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment There are three main different types of mutations: soft mutation (or lenition), nasal mutation and stop (occlusive) mutation. Lenition is a kind of Consonant mutation that appears in many Languages Along with assimilation, it is one of the primary sources of historical change Additionally, a mixed mutation is also observed after certain particles or prepositions. Finally, it is presumed that Sindarin also once had what we could call an archaic spirantal mutation (also sometimes called liquid mutation by scholars). Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a Consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment It is still uncertain whether this mutation is still productive or if it only occurs in ancient constructs.

Initial mutations must not be confused with assimilations that may occur in compound words (such as, for instance, in the names Araphor, Arassuil and Caradhras). Assimilation is a common Phonological process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary

The following table outlines how different consonants are affected by the different mutations.

BasicSoftNasalMixedStopLiquid
bvmbbv
cgchgchch
ddhndddh
g'nggg'
hchchhchch
lhthl'l'lthl'l
mvmmmv
pbphbbph
rhthr'r'rthr'r
shshss
tdthdthth

Here the apostrophe indicates elision. Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier

Words beginning in b-, d-, or g- which descend from older mb-, nd-, or ng- are affected differently by the mutations:

BasicSoftNasalMixedStopLiquid
bmmbmbmbb
dnndndndd
gnggggg

Take, for example, the deictic article i, which triggers soft mutation. In Pragmatics and Linguistics, deixis is collectively the orientational features of human languages to have reference to points in time space and the speaking event When added to a word like tâl, it becomes i dâl. In Sindarin's phonological history, t became d in the middle of a word. Because i tâl at the time was considered one word, the t became d, and thus i dâl. However, without the article the word is still tâl.

Mutation is triggered in various ways:

Pronouns

Pronouns are perhaps the most poorly attested feature of Sindarin. What has been reconstructed by the comparative method is largely conjectural and is not agreed upon, and therefore will not be addressed in this article. The comparative method (in Comparative linguistics) is a technique used by linguists to demonstrate genetic relationships between Languages It aims to prove

Sindarin pronouns, like those in English, still maintain some case distinction. Sindarin pronouns have nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative forms. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another

 First PersonSecond PersonThird Person
SingularPluralSingularPluralSingularPlural
Nominativeime
Accusativenin#menle (resp. )le (resp. )dendi
hain (inanim. )
Genitivenínmín (subi. vín)líntîn (subi. dîn)
Dativeenni (refl. anim)ammen
Enclitic (with nouns)–(e)n–(e)mir, du. –(e)nc–(e)g/–(e)l–(e)lir–(e)d–(e)nt

Verbs

Sindarin verbs are also quite complex. The number of attested verbs in Sindarin is small, so the Sindarin verb system is imperfectly known; no verb has a full paradigm of forms available. There are two main types of verbs: basic and derived. Basic verbs have stems which end in a consonant, and derived verbs have stems which incorporate some sort derivational morpheme (such as a causative ending) which ends in -a.

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 and then assimilated to the same place of articulation as the consonant it now follows. A region or society where several different groups are spontaneously assimilated is sometimes referred to as a Melting pot. The consonant then experiences what could be called a "backwards mutation": -b, -d, and -g become -p, -b, 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!.

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.

The imperative is formed like the infinitive.

Dialects

During the First Age there were several dialects of Sindarin:

With the exception of Doriathrin, the dialects were changed under Noldorin influence, and adopted many Quenya features, as well as unique sound changes devised by the Noldor (who loved changing languages). Quenya 'kwɛɲa is one of the fictional languages spoken by the Elves (the Quendi, "those who speak with voices" because when The distinct dialects disappeared after the Noldor and Sindar were dispersed during the later Battles of Beleriand. In J R R Tolkien 's The Silmarillion, there were many battles between the Elves of Beleriand and the forces of Morgoth. In the refuges on the Isle of Balar and the Mouths of Sirion a new dialect arose among the refugees, which mainly took after Falathrin. In J R R Tolkien 's Fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Isle of Balar was a refugee camp of the Eldar and Edain of Beleriand Mouths of Sirion is a Fictional location in J R R Tolkien 's Middle-earth universe During the Second Age and Third Age Sindarin was a lingua franca for all Elves and their friends, until it was displaced as the Common tongue by Westron, a descendant of Adûnaic which was heavily influenced by Sindarin. The Second Age is a time period from J R R Tolkien 's Middle-earth fantasy writings The Third Age is a time period from J R R Tolkien 's Middle-earth fantasy writings A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely Westron, or the Common Speech, is an Artificial language developed by J In the fiction of J R R Tolkien, Adûnaic ("language of the west" was the language of the Men of Númenor during the Second Age In Gondor, Sindarin was still spoken, but very little in daily use, and it had a heavy accent; a Gondorian speaking Sindarin would sound somewhat like an Englishman speaking French; a warning Orcs! in Sindarin Yrch!, would be [yrx] proper, [irk] Gondorian.

Sindarin is actually a Quenya term, a dative form meaning to the Sindar. Quenya 'kwɛɲa is one of the fictional languages spoken by the Elves (the Quendi, "those who speak with voices" because when Edhel redirects here See Éðel for the Anglo-Saxon term In the works of J The Sindarin word was likely to have been Edhellen ("Elvish").

See also

References

External links

Dictionary

Sindarin

-proper noun

  1. A constructed language developed by J. R. R. Tolkien, based on Welsh.
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