Sindarin

Sindarin (also called Grey Elven) is an artificial language created by the British writer and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien that appears in his stories about the world of Arda, and which is the most widely spoken elven language in Middle-earth. Sindarin is, along with Quenya, one of Tolkien's two ideolanguages developed enough for long texts to be written in them. Sindarin scripts normally use tengwar, although cirth runes may also be used. The name Sindarin is actually a dative in Quenya, meaning 'to the Sindar'. The native name of the language would be edhellen ('elvish').

Inside Story

Originally Tolkien envisioned that the language that would become Sindarin was that spoken by the Noldor, the second clan of the elves. Thus, the language is called "Noldorin" in texts prior to The Lord of the Rings, such as The Etymologies. However, Tolkien ultimately decided that it was the language of the Sindar, the third clan of the elves. When Noldorin became Sindarin, it also took on some hitherto unrelated features of the Ilkorin language. Tolkien based the sound and some of the grammar of his Noldorin/Sindarin on Welsh, which is why Sindarin shows many mutations characteristic of Celtic languages.

In this way, Sindarin became the language of the Sindar, the group of Teleri elves who preferred to stay behind during the Great Elven March, thus Sindarin was descended from the common Telerin language. When the Noldor returned to Middle-earth from Aman, they used their native language, Quenya, as they found it more beautiful, although they began to learn Sindarin. However, the Noldor had to speak Sindarin exclusively after Thingol's ban on Quenya due to the Massacre of Alqualondë, although it was preserved as the language of knowledge, like Latin.

Several dialects of Sindarin existed during the First Age:

• Doriathrin, or Doriath's tongue, a variant that preserves many arcaisms.
• Falathrin, or the Falathrim language of the Falas, later also spoken in Nargothrond.
• North Sindarin, dialects originally spoken in Hithlum and Dorthonion by the syndar. These dialects possessed many own words and were not completely intelligible with the Beleriand sindarin.

With the exception of Doriathrin, all the dialects evolved under the influence of Quenya and adopted many of its features, as well as many phonetic changes created by the Noldor, who were fond of playing with languages. The different dialects disappeared after the Noldor and Sindar dispersed after the battles of Beleriand. In the havens of the Isle of Balar and the mouths of Sirion a new dialect appeared among the refugees, relying mainly on Falathrin.

During the Second Age, before the Fall of Númenor, most men on the isle also spoke Sindarin in addition to Adunaic, the language of the men descended from the three houses of the Edain. In this way, Sindarin became a lingua franca for all elves and their supporters, until the time came when elves were shunned except by the Faithful. After the fall, knowledge of the language was maintained in the exiled kingdoms of Númenor, founded by the Faithful in Arnor and Gondor, until it gradually ceded its status as a common language to Westron throughout of the Third Age, and was only studied by rulers and educated people.

Grammar

The grammar of this language is mainly analytical, with certain particular features introduced by its creator. Sindarin plurals are characterized by an "i affection", as Tolkien used to call it. The Sindarin word for it is prestanneth ('disturb', 'affection') and is equivalent to the German umlaut. The process is summarized in that the plural is formed by modifying the vowel in the word, as in English man/men or goose/ geese, or in German Haus/Häuser or Mann/Männer. For example, the plural of the Sindarin word adan (human being) is edain. The origin of this change is the old plural ending -ī which has affected the vowels of the word, bringing them closer to their own sound. After the modification, the ending itself disappeared (all final vowels have been lost). Thus, Sindarin plurals are no longer word-final -ī, but still hold evidence of the earlier presence of that vowel.

Sindarin has a number of consonantal mutations. These occur when an associated particle (such as an article or a preposition) is added in front of a word, mutating it by modifying the first consonant; often the preposition also changes. Mutation occurs in many other situations, for example, in compounds like elvellyn (el 'elf' + mellyn, 'friends'), or direct objects.

Some words beginning with "b", "d", and "g" can come from a root with mb-, nd-, and ng- respectively, so the mutation will be special:

Sindarin verbs are also quite complex. There are “strong” and “weak” verbs, also called root in -i and root in -a. As with the strong and weak verbs in English and German, the strong are more irregular than the weak. Sindarin also has a large number of irregular verbs.

Phonetics

Sindarin was designed in such a way that its phonetics were similar to Welsh, presenting many similarities in their phonemes. A tilde means the lengthening of a vowel (á, é, etc). In monosyllabic words a circumflex is used (â, ê, etc). However, for practical reasons, users of ISO Latin-1 characters often substitute ý for ŷ.

Among the existing diphthongs we have ai, ei and au, which are pronounced as in Spanish, and other diphthongs such as ui, ae and oe; Tolkien suggested that ai could be substituted for oi if one is not too intransigent about details. German speakers have a certain advantage since the diphthongs ae and oe are pronounced like the German ei/ai and eu/äu.

In Primitive Sindarin there was a German-like vowel ö ([œ]< /span>), which Tolkien used to transcribe as œ, and not as oe, which is how it usually appears in publications such as The Silmarillion, for example Nírnaeth Arnoediad (read Nírnaeth Arnœdiad) or Goelydh (read: Gœlydh). Over time, this vowel began to be pronounced as [ɛ] and to be transcribed in this way (Gelydh).

Archaic Sindarin also had an aspirated m or a nasal v ([ɱ]), which was transcribed as mh, and which came to be pronounced as [v] in Late Sindarin.