Sindarin is one of the constructed languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda , primarily in Middle-earth . Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the Elves .
128-636: The word Sindarin is Quenya for Grey-elven, since it was the language of the Grey 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 who sailed over sea. Sindarin derives from an earlier language called Common Telerin , which evolved from Common Eldarin , the tongue of
256-634: A secondary world where these could evolve. One of these languages was created in around 1915, inspired by the Celtic languages , particularly Literary Welsh . 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
384-454: A vernacular language for every-day use, Tarquesta , and a more educated language for use in ceremonies and lore, Parmaquesta . The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger observed that the "degree of proximity" to the light of the Valar affected the development of both languages in terms of phonology, morphology and semantics. The division between Light Elves and Dark Elves that took place during
512-619: A Cornish landscape, with Tuor surrounded by seagulls. Garth states that this means that the Evening Star was not in the western sky that Tuor saw, whereas when Tolkien visited the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall in 1914, the planet had risen and set "due west", an uncommon sight. A few weeks later, Tolkien wrote the first poem of his legendarium, "The Voyage of Earendel the Evening Star". The Tolkien scholar Melanie Rawls identifies Idril as
640-457: A North-Eastern dialect (the highlands of Dorthonion, 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 at Losgar. Later Noldorin Sindarin changed, much owing to the adoption of Quenya features, and partially because of the love of the Noldor for making linguistic changes. Beren 's heritage
768-407: A Welsh-type language. In Tolkien's words, "The changes worked on Sindarin [from Common Eldarin] very closely (and deliberately) resemble those which produced the modern and medieval 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." Tolkien did not provide a detailed description of
896-513: A female character with agency in Tolkien's works: she is shown to be capable of taking action once she has achieved understanding. Idril counsels her father, Turgon, who "is very masculine and in need of a feminine counterpart", in his rule of Gondolin. Rawls states, too, that Idril is a "well-balanced personality", and that Tuor, who combines masculine (warrior) and feminine (counsellor) qualities, "matches her well". In Tor.com ' s series on
1024-688: A letter, namely that Eru Ilúvatar , the One God, directly intervenes as a unique exception, just as in Lúthien 's assumption of a mortal fate. David Greenman, in Mythlore , compares Tuor both with the Hobbit heroes of The Lord of the Rings , and with classical heroes: Tolkien's biographer John Garth writes in his book Tolkien's Worlds that the windswept treeless hills of Nevrast , where Tuor reaches
1152-548: A major source of inspiration , but Tolkien was also fluent in Latin and Old English , and was familiar with Greek , Welsh (the primary inspiration for Sindarin , Tolkien's other major Elvish language), and other ancient Germanic languages , particularly Gothic , during his development of Quenya. Tolkien developed a complex internal history of characters to speak his Elvish languages in their own fictional universe. He felt that his languages changed and developed over time, as did
1280-473: A more complete and developed narrative, which Tolkien began after finishing The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s, is included in Unfinished Tales . However, the narrative gets no further than Tuor's first sight of Gondolin . In the original Fall of Gondolin story, Tuor is said to have carried an axe named Dramborleg , "Thudder-Sharp", that "smote both a heavy dint as of a club and cleft as
1408-469: A number of unpublished writings on Quenya, and later Tolkien scholars have prepared his notes and unpublished manuscripts for publication in the journals Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar , also publishing scholarly and linguistic analyses of the language. Tolkien never created enough vocabulary to make it possible to converse in Quenya, although fans have been writing poetry and prose in Quenya since
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#17327809612771536-644: A particular kind of artificial language that helps to create a fictional world. Other such languages would include Robert Jordan 's Old Tongue in his novel The Wheel of Time , and the Klingon language of the Star Trek series invented by Marc Okrand . It was observed that they form "a sociolinguistic context within which group and individual identities can be created." Two journals, Vinyar Tengwar from issue No. 39 (July 1998), and Parma Eldalamberon from issue No. 11 (1995), have been exclusively devoted to
1664-741: 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 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. Gaurhoth "the Werewolf-horde" and Gaurwaith "wolvish folk", from Gaur "werewolf". Most Sindarin plurals are formed by vowel change and are characterised by i-mutation . The Noldorin term for this
1792-651: A ritual or poetic language, whereas the Vanyar who stayed behind in Eldamar retained the use of Quenya. In this way, the Quenya language was symbolic of the high status of the Elves, the firstborn of the races of Middle-earth, because of their close connection to Valinor, and its decreasing use also became symbolic of the slowly declining Elvish culture in Middle-earth. In the Second Age of Middle-earth's chronology
1920-530: A script invented by the elf Fëanor . Tolkien based the phonology and some of the grammar of Sindarin on Literary Welsh , and Sindarin displays some of the consonant mutations that characterize the Celtic languages . The Dwarves rarely taught their language to others, so they learned both Quenya and Sindarin in order to communicate with the Elves, especially the Noldor and Sindar. By the Third Age, however,
2048-420: A self-consistent character not precisely like any language that I know. Finnish, which I came across when I had first begun to construct a 'mythology' was a dominant influence, but that has been much reduced [now in late Quenya]. It survives in some features: such as the absence of any consonant combinations initially, the absence of the voiced stops b, d, g (except in mb, nd, ng, ld, rd , which are favoured) and
2176-542: A standalone publication in 2018. Tuor and Idril's marriage was one of only three between Men and Elves in Tolkien's writings. Scholars have compared Tuor to Odysseus in Greek mythology , and to Aeneas in Roman mythology , while Idril's story has been likened to those of Cassandra and of Helen of Troy . Tuor Eladar, also known as Ulmondil ("The Blessed of Ulmo "), is the central character of The Fall of Gondolin . He
2304-724: A sword". Later writings state that the Axe of Tuor is preserved in Númenor as an heirloom of the Kings. Scholars have stated that Tuor demonstrated wisdom by listening to his wife, whose wise counsel is her defining trait, whereas a leader of greater stature like Thingol , the Elvenking of Doriath, was brought low by his recklessness and pride. Jennifer Rogers writes in Tolkien Studies that Christopher Tolkien seamlessly introduces
2432-488: 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 very similar to the Germanic umlaut that produced the English forms man/men , goose/geese , and closer still to
2560-488: Is a constructed language , one of those devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for the Elves in his Middle-earth fiction. Tolkien began devising the language around 1910, and restructured its grammar several times until it reached its final state. The vocabulary remained relatively stable throughout the creation process. He successively changed the language's name from Elfin and Qenya to the eventual Quenya . Finnish had been
2688-699: Is a great hero of the Third House of Men in the First Age of Middle-earth , the only son of Huor and Rían and the cousin of the ill-fated Túrin Turambar . Huor is killed covering the retreat of Turgon , King of Gondolin, in the Battle of Tears Unnumbered, the Nírnaeth Arnoediad . Rían, having received no news of her husband, becomes distraught and wanders into the wild. She is taken care of by
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#17327809612772816-404: Is about to destroy it, but Turgon refuses to abandon the city. Tuor remains in the city and falls in love with Turgon's only child, Idril Celebrindal, whose mother Elenwë died crossing the northern ice during the Elves' return from Valinor . In contrast to the first union of Elves and Men , that between Lúthien and Beren , Tuor and Idril are allowed to marry without difficulty. Their wedding
2944-678: Is celebrated with great mirth and joy, as King Turgon had grown fond of Tuor. He makes Tuor the leader of the House of the Swan Wing, one of the twelve houses of Gondolin. Turgon also remembers the last words of Huor, which prophesied that a "star" would arise out of his and Turgon's lineage which would redeem the Children of Ilúvatar (Elves and Men) from Morgoth. However, the marriage angers Turgon's influential nephew Maeglin, who had desired Idril for himself. Maeglin defies Turgon's order to stay within
3072-416: Is not always on the first syllable of a word. Typical Finnish elements like the front vowels ö , ä and y are lacking in Quenya, but phonological similarities include the absence of aspirated unvoiced stops or the development of the syllables ti > si in both languages. The combination of a Latin basis with Finnish phonological rules resulted in a product that resembles Italian in many respects, which
3200-579: Is not easily recognised. Tolkien almost never borrowed words directly from real languages into Quenya. The major exception is the name Earendel/Eärendil , which he found in an Old English poem by Cynewulf . Yet the Finnish influence extended sometimes also to the vocabulary. A few Quenya words, such as tul- "come" and anta- "give", clearly have a Finnish origin. Other forms that appear to have been borrowed are actually coincidental, such as Finnish kirja "book", and Quenya cirya "ship". Tolkien invented
3328-526: Is passed down to their descendant Aragorn by the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings ; when he becomes king, he takes the name Elessar. The story of Tuor and Idril is told briefly in the 23rd chapter of The Silmarillion , which recounts the fall of the Noldor city of Gondolin . A very early version, written circa 1916–17, is found in The Book of Lost Tales . The start of
3456-565: Is phonetically the voiceless uvular fricative /χ/ . 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: [ œ ] ), 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 , e.g. Nírnaeth Arnoediad (read: Nírnaeth Arnœdiad ), Goelydh (read: Gœlydh ). This vowel later came to be pronounced [ɛ] and
3584-474: Is realised as [ʍ] , a " spirantal voiceless w . It has more tense with closer lip-aperture and more friction than the voiceless wh of English". According to Tolkien, the graph ⟨q⟩ or ⟨qu⟩ is pronounced as "a lip-rounded 'k' followed by a partly unvoiced w-offglide", that is /kʷ/ . Tuor Tuor Eladar and Idril Celebrindal are fictional characters from J. R. R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth legendarium . They are
3712-599: Is sixteen their leader Annael decides to leave, but during the march his people are scattered. Tuor is captured by the Easterlings, Men who had been sent there by the Dark Lord Morgoth and who had cruelly oppressed the few people left there. After three years of thraldom under Lorgan the Easterling, Tuor escapes and returns to the caves. For four years he lives as an outlaw, seeing no way of escape from
3840-762: 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
3968-668: 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)
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4096-734: Is therefore transcribed as such (e.g. Gelydh ). Diphthongs are ai (pronounced like ai sle [aɪ]), ei (d ay [ɛɪ]), ui (r ui n [ʊɪ]), and au (c ow [aʊ]). 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 p e t); 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. Tolkien wrote that he gave Sindarin "a linguistic character very like (though not identical with) British-Welsh ... because it seems to fit
4224-412: Is triggered in various ways: 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
4352-455: Is used in addition to singular and plural. It has been suggested that Tolkien used the dual to give Quenya an "archaic feel" in its role as an ancient language of the Elves. About ten years later, Tolkien changed his mind about the origin of the Elvish proto-language. Instead of learning from the Valar, the Elves had created an original language Quenderin which had become the proto-language of
4480-491: Is written ⟨ph⟩ when final ( alph , "swan") or when used to spell a lenited /p/ ( i-pheriannath , "the halflings") which becomes [f] . Old Sindarin, like Common Brittonic and Old Irish , also had a spirant m or nasal v (IPA: /ṽ/ ), which was transcribed as mh . This merged with /v/ in later Sindarin. Phonemically, Sindarin ⟨ch⟩ aligns with the other velar consonants like ⟨c⟩ , ⟨g⟩ , ⟨w⟩ , etc. but
4608-773: 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): "Here is set forth by Eriol at the teaching of Bronweg's son Elfrith or 'Littleheart' (and he
4736-626: The Ainur "; then she is called Talceleb or Taltelepta . Tolkien suspected that his fellow writer and friend C.S. Lewis had borrowed his ideas; he felt that the characters of Tor and Tinidril in Lewis' Perelandra or Voyage to Venus , published by The Bodley Head in 1943, had a "certain echo of Tuor and Idril", and that Tinidril in particular was a pastiche of both Idril and Tinúviel, an earlier version of his Lúthien character. In Peter Jackson 's film adaptations of Tolkien's Middle-earth , Idril
4864-745: 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
4992-623: The Elves divided , Quenya originated as the speech of two clans of "High Elves" or Eldar, the Noldor and the Vanyar, who left Middle-earth to live in Eldamar ("Elvenhome"), in Valinor , the land of the immortal and God-like Valar . Of these two groups of Elves, most of the Noldor returned to Middle-earth where they met the Sindarin-speaking Grey-elves. The Noldor eventually adopted Sindarin and used Quenya primarily as
5120-523: The Men of Númenor learnt the Quenya tongue. In the Third Age , the time of the setting of The Lord of the Rings , Quenya was learnt as a second language by all Elves of Noldorin origin, and it continued to be used in spoken and written form, but their mother-tongue was the Sindarin of the Grey-elves. As the Noldor remained in Middle-earth, their Noldorin dialect of Quenya also gradually diverged from
5248-663: The Sundering of the Elves is reflected in their respective languages. The Elves at first shared a common language, Primitive Quendian, called Quenderin in Quenya. Among the Eldar , i.e. those Elves who undertook the Great March to Valinor and Eldamar , Primitive Quendian developed into Common Eldarin. Some of the Eldar remained in Beleriand and became the Grey Elves ; their language developed into Sindarin . Most of
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5376-558: The Trojan War : like the prophetess, Idril had a premonition of impending danger and like Helen, her beauty played a major role in instigating Maeglin's betrayal of Gondolin, which ultimately led to its downfall and ruin. Conversely, Greeman notes that Idril's advice to enact a contingency plan for a secret escape route out of Gondolin was heeded by her people, and that she had always rejected Maeglin's advances and remained faithful to Tuor. In Tolkien's fictional language of Sindarin ,
5504-517: The Two Trees of Valinor composed by Elemmírë of the Vanyar.) Prenasalised consonants are prominent in Quenya, and include their own tengwar . The following table presents the inventory of classic Noldorin consonants. Grouping of consonants occurs only in the central parts of a word, except for combinations with the semivowels /w/ and /j/ . Quenya orthography (using the Latin script) follows
5632-472: The "Qenyaqetsa". Examples include a different accusative or the abolition of final consonant clusters in later Quenya. Fimi suggests that Qenya as it appears in the "Qenyaqetsa" was supposed to be a mystic language, as the Lexicon contains a number of words with clear Christian religious connotations, such as anatarwesta "crucifixion" and evandilyon "gospel" – these words were not part of late Quenya. In
5760-579: The "dimininution and spiritual impoverishment" of the Noldorin culture. The Noldor at this time had fully mastered Sindarin, while the Sindar were slow to learn Quenya. Quenya in Middle-earth became known as Exilic Quenya when the Noldor eventually adopted the Sindarin language as their native speech after Thingol's ruling. It differed from Amanian Quenya mostly in vocabulary, having some loanwords from Sindarin. It differed also in pronunciation, representing
5888-406: The 1970s, when the total corpus of published Elvish comprised only a few hundred words. Since then, the use of Elvish has flourished in poems and texts, phrases and names, and even tattoos. But Tolkien himself never made his languages complete enough for conversation. As a result, newly invented Elvish texts require conjecture and sometimes the coinage of new words. The use of Quenya has expanded over
6016-669: The 1970s. This has required conjecture and the need to devise new words, in effect developing a kind of neo-Quenya language. J. R. R. Tolkien began to construct his first Elvish tongue c. 1910–1911 while he was at the King Edward's School, Birmingham . He later called it Qenya (c. 1915), and later changed the spelling to Quenya . He was then already familiar with Latin , Greek , Spanish , and several ancient Germanic languages, such as Gothic , Old Norse , and Old English . He had invented several cryptographic codes , and two or three constructed languages. Tolkien took an interest in
6144-652: The Blue Mountains. Quenya was the language of the Exiled High-Elves returning to Middle-earth. The Exiles , being relatively few in number, eventually adopted a form of Sindarin: a southern dialect (of which the purest and most archaic variety was used in Doriath ruled by Thingol). This they used in daily speech, and even adapted their own personal names to its form. But the Sindarin of the High-elves
6272-439: The Dwarves were estranged from the Elves and no longer routinely learned their language, preferring to use Westron . For Tolkien's constructed languages one must distinguish two timelines of development: Tolkien was interested in languages from an early age, and developed several constructed languages while still a teenager. Eventually, as a young adult, he created an entire family of constructed languages spoken by Elves and
6400-416: The Elves name him (but the Gnomes Ilador or Ilathon ) ere the world grew, and some of these dwelt after in the world and ere the Gods or Ainur as say the Elves. 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
6528-531: The Elvish language family. For this new language, Tolkien kept the many roots he had invented for Valarin in the 1930s, which then became "Quenderin roots". The Eldarin family of languages comprises Quenya, Telerin , Sindarin and Nandorin . The evolution in Quenya and Telerin of the nasalised initial groups of Quenderin is described thus in Tolkien's Outline of Phonology : These groups in Quenya normally became simplified to nasals initially. (In Telerin they became b, d, g .) Thus: In contrast to early Qenya,
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#17327809612776656-443: The Elvish languages by Elves, Men and Hobbits in a variety of sources. The documentation about late Quenya phonology is contained in the Appendix E of the Lord of the Rings and the "Outline of Phonology", one of Tolkien's texts, published in Parma Eldalamberon No. 19. Tolkien based Quenya pronunciation more on Latin than on Finnish . Thus, Quenya lacks the vowel harmony and consonant gradation present in Finnish, and accent
6784-477: The Finnish mythology of the Kalevala , then became acquainted with Finnish , which he found to provide an aesthetically pleasing inspiration for his High-elvish language. Many years later, he wrote: "It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me." Regarding the inspiration for Quenya, Tolkien wrote that: The ingredients in Quenya are various, but worked out into
6912-532: The IPA, but uses ⟨c⟩ as an alternative to ⟨k⟩ , writes [ŋ] not followed by another velar as ⟨ñ⟩ (in early Quenya when this still can occur, as in Ñoldor ; otherwise it is written ⟨n⟩ ), and represents the consonants [ç ʍ] using the digraphs ⟨hy hw⟩ . Similarly, the digraphs ⟨ty ndy⟩ may represent palatal stop allophones of [t ⁿd] , namely [c ⁿɟ] , although they are not independent phonemes. In addition, ⟨h⟩ in
7040-413: The Noldor Elves followed their leader Fëanor into exile from Eldamar and back to Middle-earth, where the immortal Elves first awoke. Quenya was used by the godlike Valar. The Elves derived some loanwords from the Valar's language, which was called Valarin in Quenya, although these were more numerous in the Vanyarin dialect than in Noldorin. This was probably because of the enduringly close relationship
7168-411: The Quenya name for "region", just happened to resemble Germanic Erde "earth", while it actually comes from the Valarin and Quenderin root gar- . According to Tom DuBois and Scott Mellor, the name of Quenya itself may have been influenced by the name Kven , a language closely related to Finnish, but Tolkien never mentioned this. Some linguists have argued that Quenya can be understood as an example of
7296-407: The Rings , according to Tolkien, "was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues". This process of first inventing a language and then creating a background setting for its fictional speakers has been described as unique. Dimitra Fimi , a Tolkien scholar, argues that Tolkien's invention of Qenya started as a quest for
7424-458: The Rings , of which it was/is in fact independent." In his lifetime, Tolkien experimented ceaselessly with his constructed languages, and they were subjected to many revisions. Quenya had many grammars with substantial differences between the different stages of its development. During the first conceptual stage of early Quenya c. 1910 to c. 1920, the language was called Elfin in English and Eldarissa in Qenya proper. While its development
7552-461: The Sea, Tuor builds the ship Eärramë ("Sea-wing"). He and Idril sail to the West; the Elves and Men of Beleriand believe that the two of them arrived in Valinor , bypassing the Ban of the Valar that prohibited mortals from entering the Undying Lands, and that Tuor alone of Men is allowed to be treated as an Elf. Eärendil inherits the Elfstone Elessar from Idril; it is a magical green gem which bestows healing powers on those who touch it. The Elfstone
7680-437: 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 Númenor spoke Sindarin fluently. Their descendants, the Dúnedain of Gondor 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 (Quenya for 'letters') –
7808-425: The Valarin and Quenderin root kir- from which sprang his Quenya word cirya . The Latin aurōra "dawn" and Quenya aure "moment of special meaning, special day, festival day" are unrelated. Quenya aurë comes from the Valarin and Quenderin root ur- . Germanic influence can more be seen in grammar (the -r nominative plural ending is reminiscent of the Scandinavian languages ) or phonology, than in words: Arda ,
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#17327809612777936-473: The Vanyar left the city of Túna, Telerin and Noldorin Quenya grew closer. The rebellious Noldor , who followed their leader Fëanor to Middle-earth, spoke only Quenya. But Elu Thingol , King of the Sindar of Beleriand, forbade the use of Quenya in his realm when he learned of the slaying of Telerin Elves by the Noldor. By doing so, he both restricted the possibility of the Sindar to enhance and brighten their language with influences from Quenya and accelerated
8064-416: The Vanyarin Elves had with the Valar. The Quenya as used by the Vanyar also incorporated several words from Valarin that were not found in the Noldorin dialect, such as tulka ("yellow", from Valarin tulukha(n) ), ulban ("blue", presumably from the same root as Valarin ul(l)u meaning "water"), and nasar ("red", original Valarin not given). According to "Quendi and Eldar: Essekenta Eldarinwa", Quendya
8192-447: The Vanyarin dialect spoken in Valinor, undergoing both sound changes and grammatical changes. The Quenya language featured prominently in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings , as well as in his posthumously published history of Middle-earth The Silmarillion . The longest text in Quenya published by Tolkien during his lifetime is the poem " Namárië "; other published texts are no longer than a few sentences. At his death, Tolkien left behind
8320-428: The Vanyarin dialect, ⟨ty⟩ , ⟨dy⟩ , and ⟨hy⟩ were realised as [tʃ] , [dʒ] , and [ʃ] respectively. Tolkien wrote about ⟨py⟩ : "In Vanyarin Quenya and among some Ñoldor the cluster ⟨py⟩ was sounded with voiceless y , sc. as [pç] , which later in Vanyarin became [pʃ] "; cf. Hungarian lopj [lopç] 'steal'. The cluster ⟨hw⟩
8448-407: The Vanyarin varieties, but were gradually replaced with /s/ and /r/ respectively in Noldorin Quenya. Notably, voiced plosives only occur after nasals and liquids , i.e. there is no simple /b, d, ɡ/ but only the clusters /mb, (lb,) nd, ld, rd, ŋɡ/ , and these occur only between vowels. (This may not be true in Vanyarin Quenya, given the word Aldudénië , the name of a lament for the death of
8576-503: The Welsh i-affection plurals in forms like gair/geiriau and car/ceir .) The resulting plural patterns are: Vowels not listed do not undergo any change, such as /y/ remains as /y/ , meaning that it is possible for some words to have the same form in the singular and plural. Sindarin has a series of consonant mutations , varying between dialects as follows. The mutations of "early conceptual Noldorin" are defined in Tolkien's Lam na Ngoluith, Early Noldorin Grammar . Mutation
8704-402: The ancestor of Sanskrit , Greek, Latin, and others; namely, one labial, one coronal, and three velar plosives (palatal, plain, and labial). The first table below provides some of the "Primary Initial Combinations" from the Comparative Tables . Another characteristic of Quenya reminiscent of ancient natural languages like Old Greek, Old English or Sanskrit is the dual grammatical number which
8832-405: The case. The word is Quenya in Vanyarin, and always so in Parmaquesta." The Elves of the Third Clan, or Teleri , who reached Eldamar later than the Noldor and the Vanyar, spoke a different but closely related tongue, usually called Telerin . It was seen by some Elves to be just another dialect of Quenya. This was not the case with the Teleri for whom their tongue was distinct from Quenya. After
8960-432: The child by throwing him from the city wall. After killing Maeglin, they lead a remnant of the people of Gondolin to escape through the secret passage. In the mountain heights they meet a Balrog , which Glorfindel , chief of the House of the Golden Flower, fights and defeats. They reach the estuary of the Mouths of Sirion ; Tuor and his people live there for a while, also founding a town on the Isle of Balar. Longing for
9088-435: The cliffs and becomes the first Man to see the sea in the legendarium, are "perfectly Cornish ". Garth notes that Tuor stands there at sunset with his arms outspread until the sea- Vala Ulmo appears from the water to prophesy the birth of Tuor's son Eärendil, who ends up with a Silmaril in the sky as the Evening Star. The German artist Jenny Dolfen has painted the scene in her 2019 "And His Heart Was Filled With Longing" as
9216-458: The cluster ⟨ht⟩ represents [ç] after ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ and [x] after other vowels. In some instances ⟨x⟩ was used for the combination /ks/ as in Helcaraxë . Some consonants are realised differently when they occur in clusters with certain other consonants. This particularly concerns clusters that involve the approximants /w, j/ or
9344-959: The computational linguist Paul Strack created the Elvish Data Model (abbreviated to "Eldamo") to provide a lexicon – both a dictionary and an analysis of language development – of all Tolkien's languages (despite the name, not limited to Elvish). Eldamo groups Tolkien's creative work into three real-world periods: up to 1930 ("Early"); from then to 1950 ("Middle"); and from then to 1973 ("Late"). Forms of Quenya occur in each of these periods, as follows: Early Primitive Elvish Early Quenya Middle Primitive Elvish Middle Ancient Quenya Middle Quenya Lindarin Primitive Elvish Ancient Quenya Quenya Vanyarin The linguist Alexander Stainton published an analysis of Quenya's prosodic structure in 2022. Attempts by fans to write in Quenya began in
9472-670: The dissolution of the "Hidden Realm". ... The changes of mp, nt, ñk , also proceeded earlier and further than in the other dialects." 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
9600-514: The dual of nouns, pronouns, and verbal personal inflexions, as well as a clear distinction between 'general' or 'collective' plurals (as elenath ), and 'particular' plurals (as elin ). ... But it was none-the-less in a few but important points of phonology marked by changes not universal in Sindarin. Most notable among these was the spirantalizing of m > nasal ṽ , the nasality of which was, however, never lost in Doriathrin proper until after
9728-493: The early 1930s, Tolkien decided that the proto-language of the Elves was Valarin , the tongue of the gods or Valar as he called them: "The language of the Elves derived in the beginning from the Valar, but they changed it even in the learning, and moreover modified and enriched it constantly at all times by their own invention." In the Comparative Tables the mechanisms of sound change were described by Tolkien for
9856-529: The editing and publishing of Tolkien's mass of unpublished linguistic papers. Important grammatical texts, alluded to in the History of Middle-earth series and described as almost unreadable or quite incomprehensible, have been published in these two journals. The "Early Qenya Grammar", written by Tolkien c. 1925, was edited and published in Parma Eldalamberon No. 14. In 1992, according to
9984-427: 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. In Tolkien's words: "Sindarin (Grey-elven) is properly the name of the languages of the Elvish inhabitants of Beleriand, the later almost drowned land west of
10112-408: The following daughter languages: Qenya, Lindarin (a dialect of Qenya), Telerin, Old Noldorin (or Fëanorian ), Noldorin (or Gondolinian ), Ilkorin (especially of Doriath ), Danian of Ossiriand, East Danian, Taliska , West Lemberin, North Lemberin, and East Lemberin . For this proto-language of the Elves, Tolkien appears to have borrowed the five-part plosive system of Proto-Indo-European ,
10240-427: The fondness for the ending -inen, -ainen, -oinen , also in some points of grammar, such as the inflexional endings -sse (rest at or in), -nna (movement to, towards), and -llo (movement from); the personal possessives are also expressed by suffixes; there is no gender. Tolkien never intended Quenya or any of his constructed languages to be used in everyday life as an international auxiliary language , although he
10368-521: The glottal fricative /h/ . Clusters where the second consonant was /j/ are realised as palatalised consonants, and clusters where the second consonant was /w/ are realised as labialised. Consonant clusters where the initial consonant is /h/ are realised as preaspirated and devoiced. The pronunciation of the consonant cluster ⟨hy⟩ is [ç] in Noldorin Quenya, which is a "strong voiceless y, similar to, but more frictional than
10496-475: The grammar of Quenya was influenced by Finnish, an agglutinative language , but much more by Latin , a synthetic and fusional language , and also Greek , from which he probably took the idea of the diglossia of Quenya with its highly codified variety: the Parmaquesta, used only in certain situations such as literature. The phonology of Quenya was also inspired by certain aspects of Finnish, but this
10624-552: The hill of the Elves in Valinor." 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[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
10752-446: The historical languages which he studied professionally—not in a vacuum, but as a result of the migrations and interactions of the peoples who spoke them. Within Tolkien's legendarium, Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi ('speakers') in Quenya. Quenya translates as simply "language" or, in contrast to other tongues that the Elves met later in their long history, "elf-language". After
10880-485: The ideal language, to match the moral and aesthetic objectives that were part of his project of creating "a mythology for England". Fimi argues that Tolkien deliberately used sound symbolism to unify sound and meaning and make the language appear as an ideal language, fit to be spoken in the utopian realm of the Elves and fairies of Valinor. Tolkien considered Quenya to be "the one language which has been designed to give play to my own most normal phonetic taste". From
11008-402: The initial sound in English huge ". In Vanyarin Quenya, ⟨hy⟩ is pronounced [ʃ] . According to Tolkien, the cluster /cj/ ⟨ty⟩ is pronounced as "a 'front explosive' [c], as e.g. Hungarian ty , but it is followed by an appreciable partly unvoiced y-offglide". Tolkien stated that the cluster ⟨ny⟩ is pronounced as in English "new" [njuː] . In
11136-552: The language in published works such as The Lord of the Rings , but he did say that "A precise account, with drawings and other aids, of Dwarvish smith-practices, Hobbit -pottery, Numerorean medicine and philosophy, and so on would interfere with the narrative [of the Lord of the Rings ], or swell the Appendices. So too, would complete grammars and lexical collection of the languages. Any attempt at bogus 'completeness' would reduce
11264-546: 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 (thus it was used to inscribe the West-gate of Moria ), 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
11392-533: The linguist Helge Fauskanger , the Tolkien scholar Anthony Appleyard made "the first comprehensive attempt ... to systematize Quenya grammar in light of the new information published in The History of Middle-earth , particularly The Etymologies , in his article 'Quenya Grammar Reexamined'." Hostetter commented that Appleyard's work was by 2007 useful mainly for summarising the attitudes to Tolkien's languages at that time. He characterised it as: In 2008,
11520-639: The local Grey-elves , and before the end of the year she bears a son and calls him Tuor. But she delivers him to the care of the Elves and departs, dying upon the lonely green grave-mound, the Hill of the Slain, at the site of the Battle of Tears Unnumbered. Tuor is fostered by the Elves in the caves of Androth in the Mountains of Mithrim, in the Hithlum region of Beleriand , living a hard and wary life. When Tuor
11648-483: The mountains of Ered Lómin. Under the guidance of two Elves sent there by Ulmo, Gelmir and Arminas , he passes through the ancient Gate of the Noldor into the land of Nevrast , becoming the first Man to reach the shore of the Great Sea, Belegaer . From there he is led by seven swans, arriving at last at Turgon's old dwellings at Vinyamar. Tuor finds arms and armour in the ruins of Vinyamar, and meets Ulmo himself on
11776-440: The mountains, and is captured by Orcs during a trip to gather resources. Morgoth promises Maeglin both Gondolin and Idril in return for telling him where the hidden city is. Noticing that Maeglin is behaving suspiciously, Idril decides to construct a secret passage out of Gondolin. During the ensuing sack of Gondolin, Tuor defends Idril and their only child Eärendil from Orcs and the traitorous Maeglin, who threatens to murder
11904-413: 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". 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): Quenya Quenya ( pronounced [ˈkʷwɛɲja] )
12032-576: The name Idril is a form of the Quenya name Itarillë , Itarildë , or Itaril , meaning "sparkling brilliance". The epithet Celebrindal means "Silverfoot": according to the early Sketch of the Mythology (the first version of the Silmarillion from 1926), she was so named "for the whiteness of her foot; and she walked and danced ever unshod in the white ways and green lawns of Gondolin." Tolkien describes her thus in this text: "Very fair and tall
12160-550: The old Northern group and except in so far as adopted by the Fëanorians , who had moved east. So that in the days of the Wars, Sindarin was really divided into 'West Sindarin' (including all the Noldor of Finrod and Fingon), 'East Sindarin' (of the North dialect) was only preserved by the house of Feanor; and 'Central' or Doriath ." In the hidden city of Gondolin, an isolated land, a peculiar dialect developed: "This differed from
12288-420: The onset, Tolkien used comparative philology and the tree model as his major tools in his constructed languages. He usually started with the phonological system of the proto-language and then proceeded by inventing for each daughter language the necessary sequence of sound changes . "I find the construction and the interrelation of the languages an aesthetic pleasure in itself, quite apart from The Lord of
12416-520: The other Eldar continued to Eldamar ('Elvenhome') in Aman and founded the great city of Tirion, where they developed Quenya. Quenya's older form, first recorded in the sarati of Rúmil, is called Old or Ancient Quenya ( Yára-Quenya in Quenya). In Eldamar, the Noldor and Vanyar spoke two slightly different though mutually intelligible dialects of Tarquesta: Noldorin Quenya and Vanyarin Quenya . Later Noldorin Quenya became Exilic Quenya , when most of
12544-711: The parents of Eärendil the Mariner and grandparents of Elrond Half-elven : through their progeny, they become the ancestors of the Númenóreans and of the King of the Reunited Kingdom Aragorn Elessar. Both characters play a pivotal role in The Fall of Gondolin , one of Tolkien's earliest stories; it formed the basis for a section in his later work, The Silmarillion , and was expanded as
12672-532: The people of Middle-earth, Megan N. Fontenot praises the characterisation of Idril's wisdom and forbearance as told in the story of the Fall of Gondolin. In Fontenot's view, Idril's story represents "a significant milestone in Tolkien's storytelling career", as she saw in it many echoes of several other female characters of Middle-earth. Greenman compares and contrasts Idril's part in the story to Cassandra and Helen of Troy , two prominent female figures in accounts of
12800-417: 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
12928-523: 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
13056-536: The preceding vowels (as in Welsh and Old English ): S. Adan , pl. Edain , S. Orch , pl. Yrch . Sindarin forms plurals in multiple ways. While Sindarin does not have a grammatical gender , it has like Welsh two systems of grammatical number . 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
13184-440: The rather 'Celtic' type of legends and stories told of its speakers". Unlike the largely agglutinative Quenya, Sindarin is mainly a fusional language with some analytic tendencies. It can be distinguished from Quenya by the rarity of vowel endings, and the use of voiced plosives b d g , rare in Quenya found only after nasals and liquids . Early Sindarin formed plurals by the addition of -ī , which vanished but affected
13312-410: The recognition of sound-changes which had begun among the Noldor before the exile and had caused Noldorin Quenya to diverge from Vanyarin Quenya. The change of z (< old intervocalic s ) to r was the latest in Noldorin, belonging to early Exilic Quenya. The grammatical changes were only small though since the features of their "old language" were carefully taught. From the Second Age on, Quenya
13440-490: The region of Dor-lómin, which is bordered by mountains. He kills many of the Easterlings that he comes upon during his journeys, and his name is feared. Meanwhile, the godlike Vala Ulmo , Lord of Waters, hears of Tuor's plight and chooses Tuor to bear a message of warning to Turgon, Lord of the Hidden City of Gondolin . By Ulmo's power a spring near Tuor's cave overflows, and following the stream Tuor crosses Dor-lómin to
13568-441: The rest of the Sindar. They retained the old name Teleri (in later Sindarin form Telir , or Telerrim ) and remained in many ways a separate folk, speaking even in later days a more archaic language." So during the First Age , before the return of the Noldor, there were four dialects of Sindarin: Doriathrin preserved many archaic features. Unlike the other dialects, it remained free from Quenya influences. The "accent" of Doriath
13696-400: The return of the Noldor, as well as unique sound changes devised by the Noldor (who loved changing languages): "It was the Noldor who in fact stabilized and made improvements to the 'Common Sindarin' of the days of the Wars, and it was based on West Sindarin. The old North dialect practically died out except in place names as Dorlomin, Hithlum , etc. but for a few scattered and hidden clans of
13824-718: The seashore. Ulmo appoints Tuor to be his messenger, and tells him to seek King Turgon in Gondolin. He gives Tuor the Elf Voronwë as his guide. Voronwë leads Tuor along the southern slopes of Ered Wethrin , and they catch a brief glimpse of Tuor's cousin Túrin near the Pools of Ivrin, the only time the paths of the two ever cross. Journeying through the harsh winter, they reach the hidden city of Gondolin. Tuor tells Turgon of Ulmo's warning that Morgoth now knows of Gondolin's existence, and
13952-426: 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]". 'Beleriandic' Sindarin as a lingua franca of all Elves and many Men, and as
14080-623: The story in his book The Fall of Gondolin by providing short extracts of his father's 1926 "Sketch of the Mythology" and "The Flight of the Noldoli from Valinor", thus setting "Tuor's story in the context of the Doom of Mandos and the Oath of Fëanor ", in other words within the legendarium . The Tolkien scholar Linda Greenwood notes that Tuor is the only mortal Man in the legendarium permitted to live as an immortal. Tolkien suggests an explanation in
14208-447: The thing to a 'model', a kind of imaginary dolls house of pseudo-history. Much hidden and unexhibited work is needed to give the nomenclature a 'feel' of verisimilitude. But this story [ The Lord of the Rings ] is not the place for technical phonology and grammatical history. I hope to leave these things firmly sketched and recorded. " [emphasis added] Tolkien wrote many pieces in Sindarin. He made an effort to give to his Elvish languages
14336-402: The tongue and the back of the teeth), alveolar (involving the tongue and the alveolar ridge of the jaw), palatal (involving the tongue and the middle part of the roof of the mouth), velar (involving the back of the tongue and the back part of the roof of the mouth), and glottal (involving the vocal folds ). The dental fricative ( /θ/ ) and the voiced alveolar fricative ( /z/ ) occur in
14464-485: The years as new words have been created, forming a Neo-Quenya language that is based on Tolkien's original Quenya but incorporates many new elements. Quenya and its writing system Tengwar have limited application in hobbyist and public domain works. The Elvish languages are a family of several related languages and dialects. The following is a brief overview of the fictional internal history of late Quenya as conceived by Tolkien. Tolkien imagined an Elvish society with
14592-526: Was (naturally) somewhat affected by Quenya, and contained some Quenya elements. Sindarin is also loosely applied to the related languages of the Elves of the same origin as the Grey Elves of Beleriand, who lived in Eriador and further East." 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". " Círdan
14720-565: Was Tolkien's favourite modern Romance language. The tables below list the consonants (Q. ólamar ) and vowels of late colloquial Noldorin Quenya, i.e. Quenya as spoken among the Exiled Noldor in Middle-earth. They are written using the International Phonetic Alphabet , unless otherwise noted. The Quenya consonant system has 6 major places of articulation: labial (involving the lips), dental (involving
14848-574: Was a Telerin Elf, one of the highest of those who were not transported to Valinor but became known as the Sindar, the Grey-elves; he was akin to Olwë , one of the two kings of the Teleri, and lord of those who departed over the Great Sea. He was thus also akin to Elwë , Olwë's elder brother, acknowledged as high-king of all the Teleri in Beleriand, even after he withdrew to the guarded realm of Doriath. But Círdan and his people remained in many ways distinct from
14976-407: Was a continuous process, Quenya underwent a number of major revisions in its grammar, mostly in conjugation and the pronominal system . The vocabulary, however, was not subject to sudden or extreme change. Tolkien sometimes changed the meaning of a word, but he almost never discarded it once invented, and he kept on refining its meaning, and countlessly forged new synonyms. Moreover, Elvish etymology
15104-476: 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." Tolkien set out much about Doriathrin morphology, and how it contrasts with the other Sindarin dialects, in his linguistic writings: "Doriathrin preserved in common use
15232-569: 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 ,
15360-517: Was clear to Thingol of Doriath as he spoke the North Sindarin of his homeland. "Chief characteristics (of North Sindarin was the) preservation of p, t, k after nasals and l . Intervocalic m remained. No u and o and i/e remained distinct – no a mutation of i . S was unlenited initially. H was preserved medially. tt, pp, kk > t, p, k medially." With the exception of Doriathrin, Sindarin adopted some Quenya features after
15488-527: Was in constant flux. Tolkien delighted in inventing new etymons for his Quenya vocabulary. But after the publication of The Lord of the Rings (finished c. 1949–1950, published in 1954–1955), the grammar rules of Quenya went through very few changes and this version was then defined as late Quenya (c. 1950–1973). The spelling Qenya is sometimes used to distinguish early Quenya from later versions. Qenya differs from late Quenya by having different internal history, vocabulary, and grammar rules as described in
15616-481: Was in favour of the idea of Esperanto as an auxiliary language within Europe. With his Quenya, Tolkien pursued a double aesthetic goal: "classical and inflected". This urge was a major motivation for his creation of a 'mythology' . While the language developed, Tolkien felt that it needed speakers, including their own history and mythology, which he thought would give a language its 'individual flavour'. The Lord of
15744-472: Was she, well nigh of warrior's stature, and her hair was a fountain of gold." Christopher Tolkien comments that this description may be the prototype of that of Galadriel . The account is present in the earliest form of the story The Fall of Gondolin , in which "the people called her Idril of the Silver Feet in that she went ever barefoot and bareheaded, king's daughter as she was, save only at pomps of
15872-647: Was so named for the youth and wonder of his heart) those names and words that are used in these tales from either the tongue of the Elves of Kor as at the time spoken in the Lonely Isle, or from that related one of the Noldoli their kin whom they wrested from Melko. Here first are they which appear in the Tale of Tuor and the Exiles of Gondolin , first among these those ones in the Gnome-speech ( lam Goldrin ). Ainon now these were great beings who dwelt with Ilúvatar as
16000-593: 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 Dorthonion 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
16128-540: Was still spoken daily by a few noble Men in the city Minas Tirith . Aragorn , raised in the safety of the Elvish stronghold of Rivendell , spoke it fluently. Sindarin was designed with a Welsh-like phonology . 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. The phoneme /f/ is voiced to [v] when final or before /n/ , but remains written as ⟨f⟩ . The sound [f]
16256-488: Was the usual Vanyarin name given to the Quenya language, since in Vanyarin, the consonant groups ndy and ny remained quite distinct. In Noldorin, ndy eventually became ny . Tolkien explained that "the word Quenya itself has been cited as an exempla (e.g. by Ælfwine), but this is a mistake due to supposition that kwenya was properly kwendya and directly derived from the name Quendi 'Elves'. This appears not to be
16384-453: Was used ceremonially by the Men of Númenor and their descendants in Gondor and Arnor for the official names of kings and queens; this practice was resumed by Aragorn when he took the crown as Elessar Telcontar. Quenya in the Third Age had almost the same status as the Latin language had in medieval Europe, and was called Elven-latin by Tolkien. Tolkien described the pronunciation of
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