Sindarin as a linguistic phenomenon

A number of three-syllable verbal stems in -da must also be assigned to the mixed conjugation: aphada- (follow), nimmida- (whiten) and tangada- (make firm). Past tenses: aphant, nimmint, tangant, or with endings aphanne-, nimminne, tanganne. Long vowels would probably be shortened before the consonant cluster arising in the past tense: aníra- (wish) > anirn (wished), síla- (shine) > sill (shone), tíra- (watch) > tirn (watched). As usual, final -m, -nc, -nt, -mp becomes -mm-, -ng-, -nn-, -mm- between vowels: drava- (hew) > dram (he/she/it hewed) > drammen (I hewed), drammem (we hewed), drammeg/drammech (you heaved), drammer (they hewed), laba- (hop) > lamp (hopped) > lammen (I hopped), soga- (drink) > sunc (drank) > sungen (I drank).

The passive participle would be derived with the ending -en, just as in the case of normal basic verbs. Thus, as usual, the past participle is identical to the 1st person singular form, hence drammen could also be hewed as a participle, sungen is also drunk, etc. These participles would have plural forms in -in (causing umlaut), in other words behaving just like the passive participles of normal basic verbs.

 

These verbs have active participles in -ol, like normal A-stems drava- (hew) > dravol (hewing). The perfective active participle would presumably be formed according to the rules of the I-stems, as if the final vowel did not exist. Hence we would see the ending -iel combined with lengthening of the stem-vowel, í, ó, ú representing í, á, ó :drava-(hew) > dróviel (having hewed), soga- (drink) > súgiel (having drunk). If the vowel is long already, we must assume that it simply stays long: síla- (shine) > síliel (having shone").

Irregular or special verbs

Original u surviving before a nasal: at one point in the evolution of Sindarin, original u in very many cases became o. For instance, the verb soga- (drink) comes from a stem suk. However, this change did not occur before a nasal, like n or m. So if a verbal stem containing the vowel o < u has a past tense form involving nasal infixion, the original quality of the vowel would persist before this consonant. Hence, Tolkien noted that the 3rd person singular: past tense of soga- is sunc [12, p.388]. Other likely cases of the same phenomenon: groga- (feel terror) > grunc (he/she/it felt terror), loda- (float) > lunt, tog- (lead, bring) > tunc.

The past participles of all the verbs we are dealing with here can be formed, quite regularly, by adding -en to the 3rd person singular past tense: groga- (feel terror) > grunc (felt terror) > grungen (having felt terror), loda- (float) > lunt, (floated) > lunnen (having floated), nod- (tie, bind) > nunt (tied) > nunnen(having tied).

The pronoun

Attested Sindarin pronouns include:

1st person plural: ending -m is we; our, ours is vín. 2nd person plural: not found, unless -ch covers both singular and plural you [15].  3rd person plural: hain (them) .

When added to a stem ending in -a, the pronominal ending -n "I" seems to change this vowel to -o; contrast avam (we won't) with avon (I won't) [21, p.371], also linnon (I sing) and linnathon (I will sing); the stems are evidently linna(sing) and linnatha (will sing).

The article

Like Quenya, Sindarin has no indefinite article like English a, an. The absence of a definite article indicates that the noun is indefinite: Edhel (Elf or an Elf). The definite article the is i in the singular: aran (king), i aran (the king). The Sindarin Lord's Prayer includes the phrase i innas lin (your will).

In both the singular and the plural, the article may appear as a suffix appended to prepositions. This suffix has the form -n or -in. Thus the preposition na (to) becomes nan (to the). Bben (in the) is a word occurring in the King's Letter, seems to be a preposition according to with the suffix -n (the). The preposition nu or no (under) becomes nuin (under the), as in Dagor-nuin-Giliath (Battle under the Stars) (Silm, ch.13). When the article occurs in the form -in, it may trigger phonological changes in the word it is appended to. Or (over, on) turns into erin (on the); the vowel i umlauting o to e. The preposition o (from, of) appears as uin when the article is suffixed, since in Sindarin earlier oi becomes ui. Presumably –n/-in suffixed to prepositions represents an oblique form of the article that is used both in the singular and the plural. In some cases, the normal independent article is used following an independent preposition, just as in English: naur dan i ngaurhoth (fire against the werewolf-host). Dan i (against the) is not replaced by a single word. Perhaps some prepositions just can't receive a suffixed article, or perhaps it is optional whether one wants to say nan or nain for to the, erin or orin for on/over the, uin or oin for f/from the.

Sindarin often expresses genitival relationships by word order alone, like Ennyn Durin (Doors of Durin) and Aran Moria (Lord of Moria) in the Moria Gate inscription. However, if the second word of the construction is a common noun and not a name as in these examples, the genitival article en (of the) is used if the noun is definite. Cf. names like Haudh-en-Elleth (Mound of the Elf-maid) [19, chapte 21], Cabed-en-Aras (Deer's Leap or Leap of the Deer) [22, p.140], Methed-en-Glad (End of the Wood) [22, p.153].

The articles are also used as relative pronouns: Perhael i sennui Panthael estathar aen (Samwise who ought to be called Panthael) in the King's Letter, or the name Dor Gyrth i chuinar (Land of the Dead that Live) [3, p.417].

Conclusion

The topic of this graduate work is “The Elvish languages as linguistic phenomena”. We have analysed the history of the Elvish languages development during the lifetime of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, found out other works on this topic, made a brief characteristic of all the Elvish languages and their evolution, have made a deep research of the Elvish languages: their outer and inner history, their phonological and grammatical features and found the differences and the similarities with the nglish language.

According to the theme of this work and its main aim, there arose several tasks: 1) to discover psychological and social causes of the phenomenon of the Elvish languages and their appearance; 2) to recreate the chronology of the development of the Elvish languages in Tolkien’s mythology; 3) to establish clear phonological and grammatical system of the three main languages; 4) to find out the differences and similarities with English and, probably, some other European languages.

In conformity with these tasks we have made the following conclusions:

1) While studying the biography of the author we discovered that his interest in languages showed out in the childhood and that he liked the appearance, sounding of words, but not their meaning. Tolkien got aquainted with many languages and the greatest impression the Finnish and the Welsh languages made on him. That is the reason why two the most developed Elvish languages resemble them so much. Why did Tokien created these languages? The answer is also not very difficult to find out. He wanted to create the languages of his own, beautiful for hearing, complete in structure, and he made it. Only in few years of their development he understood that these languages should be spoken by some race and he discovered that this race is the Elves, and thus began their history as the Elvish ones;

2) The development of the Elvish languages in Tolkien’s mythology began from the awakening of the Elves and lasted till the Fourh Age (later history of Middle-earth is unknown, but we can suppose that Quenya and Sindarin, adopted by the Human race, remained in the same state or were simplified to some extent and was used in the same quality by the people of Gondor and Rohan while these Kingdoms exist). This chronology was made with the great accuracy. Tolkien established it as the peoples of our world made for all its existence: from the most primitive forms the languages developed in more and more sophisticated and complicated phenomena. And thus they can be learned, spoken by people although these languages lack some words but modern tolkienists make up new words according to the grammatical rules of these languages and thus fill the blanks;

3) During this investigation we had developed quite a clear and easy-to-understand system of Elvish phonology, grammar, watched through the dictionaries to find the examples of every rule that is described above. We suppose, not all the diviations and exceptions were taken into account, though we have tried to present here the most important cases according to Tokien’s letters and notes;

4) During the investigation we found out that in these three Elvish languages there are some similarities with th English language and other European languages. Briefly, the Primitive Elvish has some phonological features from Old English which can be seen while studying its vocabulary and phonology. Quenya has its phonological base in the Finnish language. The most important feature is a great amount of vowels, long vowels that are similar to the Finnish double vowels, etc. Sindarin phonology was based on the Welsh language. Even sounds in both languages are similar (except for two of them, which do not exist in Sindarin but in usage in Welsh). Throughout all this work, many references to the English grammar were made, while describing the grammatical features of these languages.

The results of this investigation are important for the new stage in modern linguistics development. About half of the people on our planet knows about Tolkien, these people are amazed by this mythology, by these languages and the want to learn them, they want to speak the languages, spoken by the fairiest creatures, the first children of the One, but they all face one problem: the absence of the one book in which they could find all the necessary information to study grammar and phonology so, as a result, they ask others where they can find the manuals on these languages and the answers are something like: “You can find this information here”, “This problem can be well explained here”, etc. A lot of serious scholars worked in this direction, many of books have been written, but they are all separated. We hope, that this work would be very helpful for the Elvish linguistics and its development in our country where this phenomenon is actually the new one and most people even do not pay attention to it. But we hope that the amount of the tolkienists increase and the investigation will cross to the academic level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of literature used

1. Allan Jim, An Introduction to Elvish, the Bath Press, Bath, 2003.
2. Carpenter Humphrey, J.R.R.Tolkien: A Biography, HarperCollins, London, 2001.
3. Carpenter Humphrey with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien, HarperCollins, London, 2001.
4. Farell Robert, J.R.R.Tolkien, Scholar and Storyteller: Essays in Memoriam, Cornell University Press, 2004.
5. Fauskanger Helge Kare, Th Evolution from Primitive Elvish to Quenya, Ardalambion, USA, 2004.
6. Foster Robert, The Complete Guide to Middle-Earth: From the Hobbit To The Silmarillion, Ballantine Books, 2006.
7. Lobdell Jarad, Guide to The Names in The Lord Of The Rings, USA, Illinois, 2002.
8. Neil D. Isaac and Rose, Tolkien and The Critics: Essays on Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 2001.
9. Pearce Joseph, Tolkien Man and Myth: A literary Life, HarperCollins, London, 2002.
10. Renk Thorsten, Quetin i lambë Eldaiva ein Quenya-Sprachkurs, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 2004.
11. Tolkien Christopher, the Etymologies, HarperCollins, 2003.
12. Tolkien Christopher, The Lost Road and Other Writings, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
13. Tolkien Christopher, The Monsters and The Critics and Other Essays, George Allen and Unwin, London, 2003.
14. Tolkien Christopher, Morgoth’s Ring, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
15. Tolkien Christopher, The Peoples Of Middle-Earth, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
16. Tolkien Christopher, the Return of the Shadow, HarperCollins, London, 2003
17. Tolkien Christopher, The Road Goes Ever On, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
18. Tolkien Christopher, Sauron Defeated, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
19. Tolkien Christopher, The Silmarillion, George Allen and Unwin, London, 2003.
20. Tolkien Christopher, The War of the Ring, Unwin Hyman, London, 2003.
21. Tolkien Christopher, The War of Jewels: The Later Silmarillion, Part Two, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
22. Tolkien Christopher, Unfinished Tales, HarperCollins, London, 2003.
23. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel, The Lord Of The Rings, George Allen and Unwin, London, 2003.
24. Verlyn Flieger, Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World, Grand Rapids, USA, Michigan, 2002.
25. Parma Erdalamberon.
26. Vinyar Tengwar.
27. Quenya-English and English-Quenya Dictionary, 2009.
28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvish_languages
29. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tengwar.htm
30. http://www.tolkiensociety.org
31. http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/namarie.htm
32. http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/markirya.htm
33. http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/the_lords_prayer.htm
34. http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/kings_letter.htm
35. http://romenquendion.narod.ru

 

 

Appendixes

Appendix 1

Example 1

R-plural-Cirya(ship) 
           Singular: nominative cirya "a ship", accusative ciryá , dative ciryan "for a ship", genitive ciryo "a ship's, of/from a ship", possessive ciryava "of a ship", locative ciryassë "on/in a ship", allative ciryanna "to a ship", ablative ciryallo "from a ship", instrumental ciryanen "with/by a ship", respective ciryas (meaning unknown).

Plural: nominative ciryar "ships", accusative ciryai, dative ciryain, genitive ciryaron, possessive ciryaiva, locative ciryassen, allative ciryannar, ablative ciryallon or ciryallor, instrumental ciryainen, respective ciryais.

Partitive plural: nominative and accusative ciryali "some ships", dative ciryalin, genitive ciryalion, possessive ciryalíva, locative ciryalissë or ciryalissen, allative ciryalinna or ciryalinnar, ablative ciryalillo or ciryalillon, instrumental ciryalínen, respective ciryalis.

Dual: Nominative ciryat "two ships, a couple of ships", dative ciryant, genitive ciryato, possessive ciryatwa, locative ciryatsë, allative ciryanta, ablative ciryalto, instrumental ciryanten, respective ciryates.

Example 2

I-plural-Lassё(leaf) 
Singular: Nominative. lassë "leaf", (acc. lassé,) dative lassen "for a leaf", genitive lassëo "a leaf's", possessive lasséva "of a leaf", locative lassessë "in/on a leaf", allative lassenna "to a leaf", ablative lassello "from a leaf", instrumental lassenen "with a leaf", respective lasses (meaning unknown).

Plural: Nom. lassi "leaves", (acc. lassí,) dat. lassin, gen. lassion, poss. *lassiva (not in Plotz), loc. lassessen, all. lassennar, abl. lassellon or lassellor, inst. lassinen, resp. lassis.

Partitive plural: Nom. lasseli (in "Book Quenya" lasselí both in nom. and acc.), gen. lasselion, poss. lasselíva, dat. lasselin, loc. lasselisse/lasselissen, all. lasselinna/lasselinnar, abl. lasselillo/lasselillon, instr. lasselínen, resp. lasselis.

Dual: Nom/acc lasset "a couple of leaves", dat. lassent, gen. lasseto, poss. lassetwa, loc. lassetsë, all. lassenta, abl. lasselto, inst. lassenten, resp. lassetes.

Example 3

Ending in a consonant – Nat (thing) 
Singular: Nominative nat "thing", dative *naten "for a thing", genitive *nato "a thing's", possessive *natwa "of a thing", locative *natessë "in/on a thing", allative *natenna "to a thing", ablative *natello "from a thing", instrumental *natenen "by/with a thing", respective *nates (meaning unknown).

Plural: Nom. *nati "things", (acc. *natí,) dat. *natin, gen. *nation, poss. *nativa, loc. *natissen, all. *natinnar, abl. *natillon or *natillor, inst. *natinen, resp. *natis.

Partitive plural: Nom. *nateli (in "Book Quenya" *natelí both in nom. and acc.), dat. *natelin, gen. *natelion, poss. *natelíva, loc. *natelisse/natelissen, all. *natelinna/natelinnar, abl. *natelillo/natelillon, instr. *natelínen, resp. *natelis.

Dual: Nom/acc *natu "a couple of things" (the ending -u being preferred since the stem ends in a t): dat. *natuen, gen. *natuo, poss. *natuva, loc. *natussë, all. *natunna, abl. *natullo, instr. *natunen, resp. natus. But a consonant stem not ending in -t or -d, like elen "star", would presumably go like this: Nom/acc. *elenet "a couple of stars", dat. *elenent, gen. *eleneto (*elento?), poss. *elenetwa, loc. *elenetsë, all. *elenenta (perhaps contracted to *elenta), abl. *elenelto, inst. *elenenten (perhaps contracted to *elenten), resp. *elenetes (*elentes?).

 

Appendix 2

 

In the following table we’ve tried to present  all the known mutations of Sindarin consonants:

Basic	Soft	Nasal I	Nasal II	Mixed	Stop	Liquid
b...	i v...	i m...	am m...	e-b...	e b...	or v...
bl...	i vl...	i ml...	a ml...	e-ml...	e bl...	or vl...
br...	i vr...	i mr...	a mr...	e-mr...	e br...	or vr...
c...	i g....	i ch...	a ch...	e-g...	e ch...	or ch...
cl...	i gl...	i chl...	a chl...	e-gl...	e chl...	or chl...
cr...	i gr...	i chr...	a chr...	e-gr...	e chr...	or chr...
d...	i dh....	i n...	an n...	e-d...	e d...	or dh...
dr...	i dhr...	in dr...	an dr...	en-dr...	e dr...	or dhr...
f...	i f...	i f...	af f...	en-f...	ef f...	or f...
g...	i '....	i ng...	an ng...	e-g...	e g...	or '...
gl...	i 'l...	in gl...	an gl...	en-gl...	e gl...	or 'l...
gr...	i 'r...	in gr...	an gr...	en-gr...	e gr...	or 'r...
gw...	i 'w....	in gw...	an gw...	en-gw...	e gw...	or 'w...
h...	i ch...	i ch...	a ch...	e-h...	e ch...	or ch...
hw...	i chw...	i 'w...	a 'w...	e-'w...	e w...	or chw...
l...	i l....	i l...	al l...	e-l...	ed l...	or l...
lh...	i thl...	i 'l...	al 'l...	e-'l...	e thl...	or 'l...
m...	i v...	i m...	am m...	e-m...	e m...	or v...
n...	i n....	i n...	an n...	en-n...	e n...	or n...
p...	i b...	i ph...	a ph...	e-b...	e ph...	or ph...
pr...	i br...	i phr...	a phr...	e-mr...	e phr...	or phr...
r...	i r....	idh r...	adh r...	edh-r...	ed r...	or r...
rh...	i thr...	idh 'r...	adh 'r...	e-'r...	e thr...	or 'r...
s...	i h...	i s...	as s...	e-h...	es s...	or s...
t...	i d....	i th...	a th...	e-d...	e th...	or th...
th...	i th...	i th...	ath th...	e-th...	eth th...	or th...
tr...	i dr...	i thr...	a thr...	en-dr...	e thr...	or thr...

 

Also there is a certain group of special consonants that were derived from primitive nasalized stops: b (from mb), d (from nd) and g (from ñg).

Basic	Soft	Nasal I	Nasal II	Mixed	Stop	Liquid
b...	i m...	i mb...	am mb...	e-mb...	e mb...	or b...
d...	i n...	i nd...	an nd...	e-nd...	e nd...	or d...
g...	i ng...	in g...	an g...	en-g...	en g...	or g...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix 3

 

Samples of Quenya from LotR:

1) The text of Namariё with translation  

          Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen, 
          Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, 
          yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron! 
          long years numberless as the wings of trees! 
          Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier 
          The long years have passed like swift draughts 
          mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva 
          of the sweet mead in lofty halls 
          Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar 
          beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda 
          nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni 
          wherein the stars tremble 
          ómaryo airetári-lírinen. 
          in the voice of her song, holy and queenly.         

 Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? 
          Who now shall refill the cup for me?         

 An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo 
          For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars, 
          ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë 
          from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds 
          ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë 
          and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;  
          ar sindanóriello caita mornië  
          and out of a grey country darkness lies

 
          i falmalinnar imbë met, 
          on the foaming waves between us, 
          ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë. 
          and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever. 
          Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar! 
          Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar! 
          Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar! 
          Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar! 
          Nai elyë hiruva! Namárië! 
          Maybe even thou shalt find it! Farewell!

2. The text of Markiriya Poem with translation:

 Men cenuva fánë cirya

Who shall see a white ship

 métima hrestallo círa,

leave the last shore,

 i fairi nécë

the pale phantoms

 ringa súmaryassë

in her cold bosom

ve maiwi yaimië?

like gulls wailing?

Man tiruva fána cirya,

Who shall heed a white ship,

 wilwarin wilwa,

vague as a butterfly,

 ëar-celumessen

in the flowing sea

 rámainen elvië

on wings like stars,

 ëar falastala,

the sea surging,

 winga hlápula

the foam blowing,

 rámar sisílala,

the wings shining,

 cálë fifírula?

the light fading?

Man hlaruva rávëa súrë

Who shall hear the wind roaring

 ve tauri lillassië,

like leaves of forests;

 ninqui carcar yarra

the white rocks snarling