The ancient
Adunaic of
Numenor became worn down by time - and by neglect. For owing to the disastrous history of Numenor it was no longer held in honour by the 'Faithful' who controlled all the Shorelands from Lune to Pelargir. For the
Elvish tongues were proscribed by the rebel
Kings, and Adunaic alone was permitted to be used, and many of the ancient
books in
Quenya or in
Sindarin were destroyed.
The Faithful, therefore, used Sindarin, and in that tongue devised all names of
places that they gave anew in-Middle-earth. Adunaic was abandoned to unheeded change and corruption as the language of daily life, and the only tongue of the unlettered. All
men of high lineage and all those who were taught to read and write used Sindarin, even as a daily tongue among themselves. In some families, it is said, Sindarin became the native tongue, and the vulgar tongue of Adunaic origin was only learned casually as it was needed.(