Sindarin

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien called Sindarin Gnomish. Another name of the language is Goldogrin. The language of the Elves during the Third Era in Middle-earth was Sindarin. The words the Language of the Elves signifies Sindarin. Tengwar was the written text for Quenya and Sindarin. It used Fenorian letterings. Apart from this, there was the Cirth. Cirth refers to the letters of an ancient Germanic alphabet. The Teleri Elves' ancestors decided to stay on the Great Journey going to Aman. During this time, they used Sindarin. The Sindar used Sindarin as the primary language previous to the First era. History says that this was from an old vernacular known as Common Telerin. Upon return of the Noldor, they have somehow used the same. Most of the Sindar populace took a long time learning Quenya, used in Valinor. This was the Noldor's language.

From then on, there were prohibitions on utilizing Quenya (High Elven). The focus of the restriction was in Beleriand. It was after ages that several Numenorean Men used the vernacular. This was right ahead of the Downfall. Confinement of the familiarity of the language was within Gondor. Under the Numenorean Kingdom, the native tongue was exclusive amongst the educated. Durin's Folk made use of Sindarin when they connected with the Elves. In particular, the dwarves did the same. In Tolkien's vision of the story, he planned to make Sindarin a language for the succeeding line of Elves (Noldor). Yet, he opted that it would be the Sindars instead. Noldorins used the language before the Sindars. Sindarin soon evolved into Noldorin.

This had some components of the Ilkorin. Yet, these did not have any connection with each other. Grammatical structures and sounds were from Tolkien's Sindarin. This is Noldorin in Welsh (the language in Wales). In Sindarin, consonants had modifications. These had similarities with the Celtic vernacular, particularly Brythonic. Most likely, the language had German roots. In the academy, Tolkien knew Old Norse and Old English. John Garth deems it is but right that Quenya existed. This was during the time that Tolkien was still a student. He was then also training in the army. Considered as the mother tongue of quests, conflict and misfortune are foreseen to exist after Somme.

Sindarin is systematic by nature. It is a language with a very modulated antecedent.

Welsh phonetics became the pattern for inventing Sindarin. Most sounds and rules in the phoneme sequence are the same.


Inflection means long vowel sounds like /á/ and /é/. In words with one syllable, a diacritic is on top, as in /â/ and /ê/. For those who use ISO Latin-1 letters, /ŷ/ replaces /ý/.
These are the pronunciations of combined vowel sounds or diphthongs:

ai as in bye
ei as in wait
ui as in too young
(the two letter O's in the word too and the Y in young)
/oi/ as in soy.

If the final diphthong is at the end of a word, the spelling is /aw/. Other diphthongs such as /oe/ and /ae/ without equivalents in English. Tolkien suggests replacing /oi/ and /ai/ if one is not very particular. The easiest way is saying words with such diphthongs as /a/ or /o/, like saying /e/ like in the word bet. In ancient Sindarin, a vowel is the same as /ö/(IPA: [œ]) in the German language. Tolkien wrote this out as /œ/. This was contrary to some published content that used /oe/. An example is Silmarillion. Sometime later, the pronunciation became /ɛ/. The written form was the same. In the olden times, Sindarin had a nasal sound /v/ or a fricative /m/. In the IPA, it is [ɱ].The transcription is /mh/. However, the pronunciation has been [v] in the future version of Sindarin.

Nouns in the plural forms of the Sindarin language have an umlaut. Prestanneth is the term in Sindarin. Most words in Sindarin are like English. Some examples are the words woman/women and mouse/mice. This was possible when the words’ vowels change. Below are the plural structures For initial and medial linguistic units:

a > e — galadh > gelaidh
e > e — bereth > berith
i > i — dineth > dinith
o > e — gowest > gewist
u > y — tulus > tylys
y > y — (not available)

For final linguistic units:
a > ai — anar > enair
â > ai — tâl > tail
e > i — adaneth > edenith
ê > î — hên > hîn
i > i — brennil > brennil
î > î — dîs > dîs
o > y — brannon > brennyn
ó > ý — bór > býr
ô > ý — thôn > thýn
u > y — urug > yryg
û > ui — hû > hui
y > y — ylf > ylf
ý > ý — mýl > mýl
au > oe — naug > noeg

The original plural final form is /-î/.The vowel ai can be î (or, not frequently, ý) at times. One could see this in Quenya. There was an impact on vowels in words. Thus, becoming higher. The alteration brought
the disappearance of the postfix /-î /. This was because of the missing vowels.

The language used suffixes which brought about the class plural. This exhibits /ath/ which means a category of entities. An example would be elenath based on elen. This was /êl/ in the old system. It meant star and /-ath/. It signifies the stars on the sky or a collection of stars. /rim/ is another. It means race as in nogothrim hailing from nogoth-dwarf and /-rim/ which means dwarf lineages. The final /-hoth/ signifies something unfavorable. Like in gaurhoth which is from gaur meaning werewolf. /-hoth/ means werewolf-host.

There are complexities in the transformation of Sindarin. These are stop(occlusive), nasal, and soft (lenition). There is also a combined transformation after prepositions. Sindarin has a liquid transformation. It is unsure if this still exists or only in old structures. It is important to note that the first mutations are different from assimilations. Assimilations are usually in blended words (also called compound words). Some examples are the names Caradhras, Araphor, and Arassuil. Below is a table of the impact of mutations on several consonants:

The words having b-, d- or g- as their first letter have differences based on the effect of the mutations. Note that the apostrophe means elision.

The definite article /i/ has a soft transformation. When it is with a word such as /tâl/, it turns into /i dâl/. In the history of Sindarin's phonetics, /t/ is turned into /d/ when it is the mid-word. The text /i tâl/ was one word in ancient times. Therefore, /t/ transformed into /d/. Removing the article makes it tâl. Mutation happens in several instances. The most usual is soft mutation. It is common when the prepositions ab, am, adel, be, dad, di, na, nu and î and after avo. This is also true with the singular article i and the prefixes /u-/, /ú-/, /gwa-/, /go-/, /ath-/ and /athra-/. It also influences the second word of a compound word. It is possible when an adjective is before a noun and the object of a verb. For nasal mutation, it involves the plural article /in/, the prepositions /dan/ and /an/, and the plural form 'nin. Mixed mutations prompt the genitive article /en/. It is the same with the prepositions uin, 'nin, nan, erin, and ben. For stop mutations, there are the prepositions o (d), ned, and ed. It is the preposition or for liquid mutation.

The comparative style recreations are somehow hypothetical. Like the ones in English, pronouns in Sindarin have differences in cases. The forms in Sindarin are accusative, genitive, nominative, and dative.

Verbs in Sindarin are somewhat tricky. The vernacular has a few verbs. Hence, the system is unfamiliar. Different forms are not obtainable. There are kinds of verbs in Sindarin. One is basic. The other one is derived. The former have root words ending in consonants. The derived verbs possess root words of derivational morphemes integrated into them. These are like causative endings. These usually end in /-a/.

Primary action words are fewer than the derived ones in the Sindarin language. These have complicated inflections as the language evolved. The formation of basic verbs is practically making them into the infinitive form. To do this, add -i: giri from gir-. With this, the root word ends in /a/ or /o/ to umlaut going to e: blebi from /blab-/. In Sindarin, it is common to use gerunds to have similar definitions.

Also, it is not usual to use infinitive forms. For the 3rd person in the singular form, it uses /i/. The proper enclitic pronominal ending: girin, girim, girir for the present tense. The /-i/ leads to an /a/ or /o/ in root words to umlaut to e: pedin, pedim, pedir, from pad-. 3rd person singulars have zero-endings. Thus, there is no need to put /-i/. The root word remains the same as its vowels turn into long ones. Some examples are gîr, blâb, and pâd. The formation of the past tense of verbs is quite complex. A recreated system use -n: darn. /-n/ stays the same after root words in /-r/.

When root words end in /-l/, -n becomes -ll: toll. After /-b/, /-d/, /-g/, /-v/, or /-dh/, transposition occurs then the sound changes to the very same location of utterance right after a consonant. This is termed as a backwards mutation as /-b/, /-d/, and /-g/ become /-p/, /-b/, and /-c/, and /-v/ and /-dh/ become /-m/ and /-d/. The inclusion of pronomial endings makes it more complex.The medial sounds /-mp/, /-mb/, /-nt/, /-nd/, and /-nc/ did not exist for long. These turn into /-mm-/, /-mm-/, /-nn-/, /-nn-/, and /-ng/. Root Words in the past tense in /-m/ have /-mm/ before pronominal endings.

The illustration below shows the conversion:
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.

Forming the future tense involves putting /-tha/. /-i/ is also put in the middle of the root word and /-tha/. This again causes /a/ and /o/ to umlaut to /e/. Final syllables apart from the first person singular can be placed with no other changes. Some examples are giritham and blebithar. The first person singular ending /-n/ makes the /-a/ in /-tha/ to become /-o/. For instance, words like pedithon, blebithon, and girithon. Adding /-o/ to the root word forms the imperative such as blabo! , pado! and giro!

These kinds of verbs do not have complicated changes because they possess a theme vowel. This is common /a/. The result is minimizing the consonants put together. Infinitive forms are with /-o/ as a substitute for /-a/ in root words as in lacho coming from lacha-. Formulating the present tense does not involve changes to the root word. Putting pronominal endings does not affect the formulation. The past tense involves adding /-nt/ at the end, making it /-nt/. This becomes /-nne/ when combined with pronominal endings. For instance, erthan and erthanner. The formulation of the future tense is with /-tha/. One has to add the first person singular form /-n/ then turns into /-tho/.

Imperative forms are similar to the infinitive forms.

There were quite a few dialects in the Sindarin language under the First Age:

1. The Doriath language or otherwise known as Doriathrin. It still has the ancient forms.
2. The Falas or Falathrin language. In later times, it became the spoken language in Nargothrond.
3. North Sindarin was the spoken language of the Sindar in Hithlum and Dorthonion. Both had a lot of extraordinary words. Yet, not understandable compared to Beleriand's Sindarin.

There was a transformation in the dialects during the Noldorin times. Doriathrin was an exception. There was acceptance in some characteristics of Quenya like alterations in special sounds. Thanks to the Noldors. The Sindar and Noldor separated from each other during the Battles of Beleriand. At this point, the dialects were no longer in use. Migrants in the Mouths of Sirion and the Isle of Balar used a contemporary dialect. Sindarin soon became the language of Elves and their fellows. This happened in the Second towards the Third Age. Later on, they banished Sindarin. Westron made it a basic language. Westron was the successor of Adunaic and Sindarin had an impact on this. History says that Sindarin is a term from Quenya. It was probably Edhellen. The meaning is Elvish.

Telin le thaed. Lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan galad. - I come to help you. Listen to my word, come back to the radiance.
Ai na vedui Dúnadan! Mae govannen! - Ah, at last, Westman! Well met!
Ónen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim - I gave Hope to the Dúnedain; I have kept no hope for myself.
Noro lim. - Run fast.
Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen! Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen! - Elvish gate open now for us; doorway of the Dwarf-folk listens to the word of my tongue!
Mellon nîn! - My fellow!
Ennyn Durin Aran Moria: pedo mellon a minno. Im Narvi hain echant: Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant I thiw hin. - "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria.
Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin [Eregion] drew these signs."
Yrch! - Orcs!

Examples of some Foundations (in alphabetical order)

• aglar - brightness, prestige
• ar, ara-, aran - important, aristocratic, monarch
• aur - sunshine, daytime
• celeb - silver
• dúath - unlighted, black silhouette
• el - heavenly body
• eryn - woodland, greenwood
• estel - wish
• galad -brilliance
• galadh -evergreen
• gond - stone
• -ion - son (a masculine suffix)
• mith - grey
• nim - white
• orn - tree
• randir-traveler
• rond - hemisphere
• ross - froth
• taur - jungle
• tirith -scout
• -wen - damsel (a female suffix)