Sindarin is an artificial language (or conlang) developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. In Tolkien's mythos, it was the Elvish language most commonly spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age. It was the language of the Sindar, those Teleri which had been left behind on the Great Journey of the Elves. It was derived from an earlier language called Common Telerin. When the �oldor came back to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language, although they believed their native Quenya more beautiful. Before the downfall, most of the Men of N�menor also spoke the language. Knowledge of it was kept in the N�menorean realm in exile Gondor, especially amongst the learned. Sindarin is the language referred to as the Elven-tongue in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien originally imagined that the language which would become Sindarin was spoken by the �oldor (second clan of Elves). However, Tolkien later decided that it was the language of the Sindar. For this reason it is called Noldorin in the older material, such as the Etymologies. When Noldorin became Sindarin, it also adopted some features of the originally unrelated language Ilkorin. Tolkien based the sound and some of the grammar of his Noldorin/Sindarin on Welsh, and Sindarin displays of the consonant mutations that characterise the Celtic (especially Brythanic) languages.

The written script alphabet of the Elven languages is typically Tengwar, although Cirth can also be used.

Contents

1 Grammar 1.1 Nouns 1.1.1 Pluralization 1.1.2 Class Plural 1.2 Mutation 1.3 Pronouns 1.4 Verbs 1.4.1 Basic Verbs 2 Dialects 3 Reference 4 See also 5 External links

Grammar

Sindarin is mainly analytic, though traits of its highly inflected progenitor can still be seen.

Nouns

Pluralization

Sindarin plurals are characterised by i-affection, or umlaut. The Sindarin term for this is prestanneth (disturbance, affection). Almost all Sindarin words form their plurals like English man/men and goose/geese — by changing the vowels in the word. The plural patterns are:

• In non-final syllables:
  • a > e — adan > edain
  • e > e — nelthil > nelthil
  • i > i — dineth > dinith
  • o > e — gowest > gewist
  • u > y — tulus > tylys
  • y > y — (no example available)
• In final syllables:
  • a > ai — anar > enair
  • e > i — henneth > hennith
  • i > i — perin > perin
  • o > y — nogoth > negyth
  • u > y — urug > yryg
  • y > y — ylf > ylf
  • au > oe — naug > noeg

The reason for this is that the primitive plural ending -î (still present in Quenya as -i) affected the vowels in the word by making them higher and fronter. After this sound change occurred, the suffix -î disappeared when all final vowels were lost.

Class Plural

Sindarin also has several suffixes which denote a so-called class plural. For example, -ath indicates a group of something, e. g. elenath from elen (an archaic form of êl), meaning star and -ath. It means a group of stars or all the stars in the sky. Another ending, -rim, is used to indicate a race, e. g. nogothrim from nogoth — dwarf and -rim, meaning the race of dwarves. The ending -hoth is generally used in an unfriendly sense, e. g. gaurhoth from gaur — werewolf and -hoth, meaning werewolf-host.

Mutation

Sindarin has a complex series of mutations. There are five different types of mutations: soft mutation, nasal mutation, mixed mutation, stop mutation, and liquid mutation.

The following table outlines how different consonants are affected by the different mutations.

Basic	Soft	Nasal	Mixed	Stop	Liquid
b	v	m	b	b	v
c	g	ch	g	ch	ch
d	dh	n	d	d	dh
g	'	ng	g	g	'
h	ch	ch	h	ch	ch
lh	thl	'l	'l	thl	'l
m	v	m	m	m	v
p	b	ph	b	b	ph
rh	thr	'r	'r	thr	'r
s	s	s	h	s	s
t	d	th	d	th	th

Here the apostrophe indicates elision.

Words beginning in b-, d-, or g- which descend from older mb-, nd-, or ng- are affected differently by the mutations:

Basic	Soft	Nasal	Mixed	Stop	Liquid
b	m	mb	mb	mb	b
d	n	nd	nd	nd	d
g	ng	g	g	g	g

Take, for example, the article i, which triggers soft mutation. When added to a word like tâl, it becomes i dâl. In Sindarin's phonological history, t became d in the middle of a word. Because i tâl at the time was considered one word, the t became d, and thus i dâl. However, without the article the word is still tâl.

Mutation is triggered in various ways:

• Soft mutation, the most widely occuring mutation, is triggered by the singular article i, the prefixes athra-, ath-, go-, gwa-, ú-, and u-, as well as the prepositions ab, am, adel, be, dad, di, na, nu, and î, and after avo. It also affects the second element in a compound, an adjective following a noun, and the object of a verb.

• Nasal mutation is triggered by the plural article in, and the prepositions an, dan, and plural 'nin.

• Mixed mutation is triggered by the genitive article en, and the prepositions ben, erin, nan, 'nin, and uin.

• Stop mutation is triggered by the prepositions ed, ned, and o.

• Liquid mutation is triggered by the preposition or.

Pronouns

Pronouns are perhaps the most poorly attested feature of Sindarin. What has been reconstructed by the comparative method is largely conjectural and is not agreed upon, and therefore will not be addressed in this article.

Sindarin pronouns, like those in English, still maintain some case distinction. Sindarin pronouns have nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative forms.

	First Person		Second Person		Third Person
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	im				e
Accusative	nin	men			den	hain
Genitive		mín		lín	dîn
Dative	anim, enni	ammen
Enclitic	-n	-m	-ch		—	-r

Verbs

Sindarin verbs are also quite complex. The number of attested verbs in Sindarin is small, so the Sindarin verb system is imperfectly known; no verb has a full paradigm of forms available. There are two main types of verbs: basic and derived. Basic verbs have stems which end in a consonant, and derived verbs have stems which incorporate some sort derivational morpheme (such as a causative ending) which ends in -a.

Basic Verbs

Basic verbs, though smaller in number than derived verbs, have a very complex conjugation which arises from Sindarin's phonological history.

Basic verbs form the infinitve by adding -i: giri from gir-. This ending causes an a or o in the stem to umlaut to e: blebi from blab-. Sindarin does not use infinitive forms very often, and rather uses the gerund to achieve the same meaning.

For all persons except the third person singular, the present tense is formed by the insertion of -i, and the proper enclitic pronomial ending: girin, girim, girir. As with the infinitive, -i causes an a or o in the stem to umlaut to e: pedin, pedim, pedir, from pad-. The third person singular, because it has a zero-ending, does not require the insertion of -i. This leaves the bare stem, which, because of Sindarin's phonological history, causes the vowel of the stem to become long: gîr, blâb, pâd.

The past tense of basic verbs is very complicated. It is formed by -n: darn. However, the only time this -n actually remains is after a stem in -r. After a stem ending in -l, -n becomes -ll: toll. After -b, -d, -g, -v, or -dh, it is metathesized and then assimilated to the same place of articulation as the consonant it now follows. The consonant then experiences what could be called a "backwards mutation": -b, -d, and -g become -p, -b, and -c, and -v and -dh become -m and -d. The matter is complicated even further when pronomial endings are added. Because -mp, -mb, -nt, -nd, and -nc did not survive medially, they become -mm-, -mm-, -nn-, -nn-, and -ng. In addition, past tense stems in -m would have -mm- before any pronomial endings. Because this all may seem rather overwhelming, look at these examples which show step-by-step transformations:

• cab- > **cabn > **canb > **camb > camp, becoming camm- with any pronomial endings.
• ped- > **pedn > **pend > pent, becoming penn- with any pronomial endings.
• dag- > **dagn > **dang (n pronounced as in men) > **dang (n pronounced as in sing) > danc, becoming dang- with any pronomial endings.
• lav- > **lavn > **lanv > **lanm > **lamm > lam, becoming lamm- before any pronomial endings.
• redh- > **redhn > **rendh > **rend > rend, becoming renn- before any pronomial endings.

The future tense is formed by the addition of -tha. An -i is also inserted between the stem and -tha, which again causes a and o to umlaut to e. Endings for all persons except for the first person singular can be added without any further modification: giritham, blebithar. The first person singular ending -n causes the -a in -tha to become -o: girithon, blebithon, pedithon.

The imperative is formed with the addition of -o to the stem: giro!, pado!, blabo!.

Dialects

During the First Age there were several dialects of Sindarin:

• Doriathrin or the language of Doriath, a form of the language which preserved many archaic forms;
• Falathrin or the language of the Falas, later also spoken in Nargothrond;
• North Sindarin, the dialects originally spoken in Dorthonion and Hithlum by the Sindar, these dialects contained many unique words and were not fully intelligible with the Sindarin of Beleriand proper.

With the exception of Doriathrin, the dialects were changed under �oldorin influence, and adopted many Quenya features, as well as unique sound changes devised by the �oldor (who loved changing languages). The distinct dialects disappeared after the �oldor and Sindar were dispersed during the later Battles of Beleriand. In the refuges on the Isle of Balar and the Mouths of Sirion a new dialect arose under the refugees, which mainly took after Falathrin. During the Second Age and Third Age Sindarin was a lingua franca for all Elves and their friends, until it was displaced as the Common tongue by Westron, a descendant of Ad�naic which was heavily influenced by Sindarin.

Sindarin is actually a Quenya term. The Sindarin word was perhaps Edhellen ("Elvish").

Reference

• The original version (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Sindarin&oldid=60522) of this article was written for Everything2.

See also

Languages of Middle-earth, Quenya, Middle-earth

External links

• Ardalambion, a site dedicated to the languages of Middle-earth (http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/)
  • Helge Fauskanger's Sindarin article (http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/sindarin.htm)
• Didier Willis' online Sindarin dictionary (http://www.jrrvf.com/hisweloke/sindar/)
• I Lam Arth - The Noble Tongue (http://sindarin.weet.us/)
• Tol Elenath School of Sindarin (http://www.tolelenath.com/)
• Eternal Sailorpig (Chinese Traditional) (http://home.kimo.com.tw/michiru_benson/)

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