Le Sindarin
était la langue principale en Terre-du-Milieu, la langue vernaculaire
vivante des Elfes Gris ou Sindar. C'était le descendant prédominant du
Télérin Commun, lui-même issu de l'Eldarin Commun, l'ancêtre du Quenya,
du Télérin, du Sindarin et du Nandorin. " Le Gris Elfique était à l'origine
semblable en Quenya, " explique Tolkien, " parce qu'il était le langage
de ces Eldar qui, en venant vers les côtes de la Terre-du-Milieu, n'ont
pas traversé la Mer mais ont traîné sur les côtes de la contrée de Bélériand.
Thingol Manteau Gris de Doriath était leur roi, et dans le long crépuscule
de leur langue… est devenu très étranger au langage des Eldar d'au-delà
de la Mer " (SdA Appendice F). Bien que le Sindarin soit censé être la
mieux préservée des langues Eldarin de la Terre-du-Milieu (PM :305), il
est cependant le langage Elfique le plus radicalement changé dont nous
ayons une connaissance extensive : " Le langages des Sindar a beaucoup
changé, mais petit à petit comme un arbre peut changer imperceptiblement
de forme: autant peut-être qu'une langue mortelle non écrite puisse changer
en cinq cents ans ou plus. Il était déjà avant que le Lever du Soleil
un langage grandement différent du [Quenya], et après ce Lever tout changement
fut rapide, pour un instant dans le second Printemps d'Arda très rapide
en fait " (WJ.20). Le développement de l'Eldarin Commun en Sindarin implique
beaucoup plus de changements radicaux que le développement du EC en Quenya,
ou en Télérin d'Aman. Tolkien suggéra que le Sindarin " a changé avec
le changement des terres mortelles " (SdA Appendice F). Ceci ne veut pas
dire que les changements furent chaotiques et non systématiques ; ils
furent sans aucun doute réguliers - mais ils changèrent dramatiquement
le son général et la " musique " du langage. Quelques changement importants
incluent l'abandon des voyelles finales, les "occlusives muettes p, t,
k devenant sonores b, d, g en suivant une voyelle, les occlusives sonores
devenant des spirantes dans la même position (excepté le g, qui disparaît
complètement) et beaucoup de voyelles étant altérées, souvent par assimilation
à d'autres voyelles. Selon PM :401, " le développement du Sindarin était
devenu, longtemps avant l'arrivée des exilés Ñoldorin, le produit principal
de changements imperceptibles commes les langues des Hommes ". En commentant
les grands changements, PM :78 remarque que " c'était toujours une belle
langue, qui convenait bien aux forêts, aux collines, et aux côtes desquelles
elle avait tiré sa forme ".
Au
fil du temps, les Noldor retournèrent en Terre-du-Milieu, près de trois
millénaires et demi après leur séparation d'avec les Sindar, le langage
Sindarin classique était pleinement développé. (En fait il semble être
entré dans une phase plus stable, malgré l'affirmation de Tolkien que
ce changement fut rapide après le lever du Soleil : les changements qui
apparurent durant les sept mille ans qui suivirent, jusqu'à l'époque de
Frodon, furent petits en fait, comparé au développement rapide des trois
mille ans précédants.) Au Premier Age, il y avait divers dialectes de
Sindarin - le langage archaïque de Doriath, le dialecte occidental des
Falathrim ou "peuple de la Côte" et le dialecte du nord des Mithrim. On
ne sait pas avec certitude lequel de ces langages fut la base du Sindarin
parlé dans les Ages suivant, mais la langue des Falathrim semble la meilleure
candidate, puisque Doriath fut détruite et le peu que nous savons sur
le Sindarin du Nord suggère qu'il diffère du Sindarin de l'époque de Frodon.
(Le nom Hithlum est en Sindarin du Nord; voir WJ:400.)
Les
Noldor et les Sindar n'étaient pas capable à première vue de se comprendre,
leurs langages ayant trop divergé durant leur longue séparation. Les Noldor
apprirent rapidement le Sindarin et commencèrent même à traduire leur
nom Quenya en Gris Elfique, parce qu' " ils trouvaient absurde et de mauvais
goût d'appeler des personnes vivantes qui parlaient le Sindarin dans la
vie de tous les jours par des noms dans un mode linguistique assez différent
" (PM :341) Quelques fois les noms furenr adaptés avec grand soin, comme
Altariel doit avoir été retransformé en sa forme (hypothétique) Eldarin
Commun *Ñalatârigellê; et en commençant cette " reconstruction " les Noldor
dérivèrent ensuite la forme Sindarin qui serait apparue en Sindarin s'il
y avait réellement eu un ancien nom Ñalatârigellê: Galadriel. Les noms
ne furent pas toujours convertis avec autant de soin. Le nom important
Fëanor est en fait un compromis entre le pur Quenya Fëanáro et la forme
Sindarin " correcte " Faenor ("correcte" dans le sens que c'est ce que
le mot primitif *Phayanâro serait devenu en Sindarin, si ce nom avait
réellement existé en Eldarin Commun des anciens temps). Quelques noms,
comme Turukáno ou Aikanáro, furent simplement Sindarisés phonétiquement,
d'où les formes résultantes Turgon et Aegnor qui n'avaient pas de sens
que Gris Elfique (PM :345). Beaucoup de traductions de noms eurent lieu
très tôt, avant que les Noldor aient maîtrisé toutes les subtilités du
Sindarin - d'où des noms qui en résultèrent " furent souvent inappropriés
: c'est-à-dire que le sens ne correspondait pas précisément ; ainsi que
les éléments Sindarin n'étaient pas toujours comparables aux formes les
plus proches des éléments Quenya " (PM :342).
Mais les Noldor,
toujours enclins aux langues, eurent bientôt la maîtrise complète du langage
Sindarin et déterminèrent sa relation précise avec le Quenya. Vingt ans
après la venue des Noldor en Terre-du-Milieu, durant le Mereth Aderthad
ou Fête de la Réunion, " la langue des Elfes Gris fut plus parlée par
les Noldor parce qu'ils apprirent rapidement la langue de Bélériand, alors
que les Sindari étaient lents à maîtriser la langue de Valinor " (Silmarillion
ch. 13). Le Quenya comme langue parlée fut finalement abolie par Thingol
quand il apprit que les Noldor avaient tué beaucoup de Téléri et volé
leurs bateaux pour retourner en Terre-du-Milieu : " Plus jamais mes oreilles
n'entendront la langue de ceux qui tuèrent mes parents à Alqualondë !
Ni dans mon royaume elle ne sera parlée ouvertement. " En conséquence
" les Exilés " prirent la langue Sindarin pour leur usage quotidien "
(Silm. ch. 15). Il semble que l'édit de Thongol accéléra le processus
; comme dit plus haut, beaucoup de Noldor parlaient déjà le Sindarin.
Plus tard,
des Hommes mortels apparurent à Bélériand. L'Appendice F du SdA (et UT
:216) nous informe que " les Dúnedain seule parmi toutes les races d'Hommes
connaissaient et parlaient la langue Elfique ; parce que leurs ancêtres
avaient appris la langue Sindarin, et l'avaient transmise à leurs enfants
comme une matière du savoir, la changeant peu au travers des années ".
Peut-être que ce sont les Dúnedain qui stabilisèrent le langage Sindarin,
au moins tel qu'utilisé entre eux (UT:216 établit que le Sindarin parlé
par les Hommes mortels autrement "tendait à devenir divergent et dialectal").
Quelque soit le standard du Sindarin Humain puisse avoir été dans les
derniers âges, en revenant au Premier Age " la majorité des [Edain] apprit
rapidement la langue Gris-Elfique, à la fois comme un langage commun entre
eux et parce que beaucoup étaient enthousiastes pour apprendre le savoir
des Elfes " (Silmarillion ch. 17). Peut-être que quelques Hommes savaient
et parlaient le Sindarin aussi bien que les Elfes. Le fameux lai Narn
i Chîn Húrin (comme il est proprement écrit) fut composé par un poète
Humain sous le nom de Dírhavel, " mais il fut primé par les Eldar, parce
que Dírhavel, utilisa la langue Gris-Elfique, dans laquelle il avait une
grande habileté " (UT :146) D'un autre côté, le peuptple de Haleth n'apprit
pas bien le Sindarin ou avec enthousiasme ; voir UT :378). Túriin apprit
le Sindarin à Doriath ; un Nellas " lui enseigna à parler la langue Sindarin
à la manière de l'ancien royaume, plus ancien et plus courtois, et plus
riche de beaux mots " (UT :76).
Les Elfes
eux-mêmes continuèrent à utiliser le Sindarin au cours du Premier Age.
Dans une colonie Noldo comme Gondolin on aurait pu penser que les Noldor
aurait ravivé le Quenya comme langage parlé, mais cela ne semble pas avoir
été le cas, excepté dans la maison royale : " Pour la majorité du peuple
de Gondolin, [le Quenya] était devenu le langage des livres, et comme
les autres Noldor, ils utilisèrent le Sindarin comme langage courant "
(UT :55). Tuor entendit le Garde de Gondolin parler d'abord en Quenya
et puis " dans une langue de Bélériand [Sindarin], bien que d'une manière
quelque peu étrange à ses oreilles, comme un peuple longtemps séparé des
leurs " (UT :44). Même le nom Quenya de la cité, Ondolindë, apparaît toujours
dans sa forme Sindarisée Gondolin (bien que ce soit une adaptation approximative
et par " réellement " Sindarin ; le *Gondolindê primitif aurait produit
**Gonglin, si ce mot avait été hérité).
Beaucoup de
ceux qui parlaient le Sindarin périrent dans les guerres de Bélériand,
mais par l'intervention des Valar, Morgoth fut finalement détrôné dans
la Guerre de la Colère. Beaucoup d'Elfes allèrent à Eressëa quand le Premier
Age prit fin, et alors le Sindarin devint évidemment un langage parlé
au Royaume Béni comme en Terre-du-Milieu (un passage dans l' Akallabêth,
cité ci-dessous, indique que les Númenoréens tenaient conversation avec
les Eresséens en Sindarin). Les Valar voulaient récompenser les Edain
pour leur souffrances dans la guerre contre Morgoth et élevèrent une île
hors de la Mer, et les Hommes, en suivant l'Etoile d'Eärendil vers leur
nouvelle demeure, fondèrent le royaume de Númenor.
Le Sindarin
était largement utilisé à Númenor : " Bien que ce peuple utilise toujours
son propre langage, leurs rois et seigneurs connaissaient et parlaient
aussi la langue Elfique, qu'ils avaient appris dans les jours de leur
alliance, et donc pouvaient toujours soutenir une conversation avec les
Eldar, soit d'Eressëa ou des terres de l'ouest de la Terre-du-Milieu "
(Akallabêth). Les descendants du peuple de Bëor utilisaient même le Sindarin
comme langage courant (UT :215). Bien que l'Adûnaic fut le langage vernaculaire
pour la plupart de la population Núménoréenne, le Sindarin était " connu
à divers degrés par presque tous " (UT :216). Mais les temps changèrent.
Les Númenoréens commencèrent à envier l'immortalité des Elfes, et se détournèrent
de leur ancienne amitié avec Aman et les Valar. Quand Ar-Gimilzôr "interdit
complètement l'usage des langues Eldarines" en 3100 du second Age, nous
devons supposer que les Bëanoriens abandonnèrent le Sindarin pour l'Adûnaic
(UT :223). L'histoire de la folie d' Ar-Pharazôn, la " rédition " trompeuse
de Sauron, la corruption totales des Númenoréens et la Chute de Númenor
est bien connue de l' Akallabêth. Après la Chute, les amis des Elfes survivants
fondèrent les Royaumes en Exil, Arnor et Gondor, en Terre-du-Milieu. PM
:315 établit que : " Les Fidèles [après la Chute]… utilisaient le Sindarin,
et dans cette langue rebaptisèrent tous les noms d'endroits en Terre-du-Milieu.
L'Adûnaic fut abandonné aux changements et à la corruption du langage
de tous les jours, et ne fut plus que la langue des illettrés. Tous les
hommes de haute lignée et ceux qui étaient instruits pour lire et écrire
utilisaient le Sindarin, même comme langage courant entre eux. Dans quelques
familles, il est dit que le Sindarin devint leur langue maternelle, et
la langue vulgaire Adûnaic était seulement apprises occasionnellement
si besoin. Le Sindarin n'était pas enseigné aux étrangers, à la fois parce
qu'il portait la marque de la descendants Núménoréens et parce qu'il s'avère
difficile à acquérir - bien plus que la 'langue vulgaire' ". Suite à cela,
le Sindarin était destiné à être " le langage parlé normal du peuple d'Elendil
" (UT :282)
Parmi les
Elfes eux-mêmes, le Sindarin se répandit vers l'est durant le Second et
le Troisième Age et remplaça peut-être certaines langues Silvanes (Nandorin,
Danian). " A la fin du Troisième Age, les langues Silvanes avaient probablement
cessé d'être parlées dans les deux régions qui avaient de l'importance
au temps de la Guerre de l'Anneau ; la Lórien et le royaume dej Thranduil
au nord de Mirkwood " (UT :257). Le Silvan avait disparu, le Sindarin
était apparu. Nous avons vraiment l'impression dans le SdA1/II ch.6 que
le langage utilisé en Lórien était une langue d'Elfes des Bois quelque
peu étrange, mais Frodon, l'auteur du Livre Rouge avait tort. Une note
de bas de page dans les SdA Appendice F explique qu'à l'époque de Frodon,
le Sindarin était en fait parlé en Lórien, " bien qu'avec un 'accent',
puisque la majorité de son peuple était d'origine Silvane. " Cet 'accent'
et sa propre connaissance limitée du Sindarin induisit Frodon en erreur
(comme cela a été mis en évidence dans le The Thain's Book par un commentateur
du Gondor) ". UT :257 élabore sur ceci : " En Lórien, il y avait beaucoup
de gens qui étaient Sindar d'origine, ou Noldor, survivants d'Eregion,
le Sindarin était devenu le langage de tout le peuple. En cela leur Sindarin
différait des formes de Bélériand - voir [SdA1] II 6, où Frodon rapporte
que le langage du Peuple Silvan qu'ils utilisaient entre eux n'était pas
le même que celui de l'Ouest - est n'est bien sûr connu maintenant. Il
différait probablement très peu de ce que nous appellerions maintenant
populairement 'accent' : principalement des différences dans les sons
des voyelles et des intonations suffisantes pour induire en erreur quelqu'un
qui, comme Frodon, ne connaissait par bien le Sindarin pur. Il pourrait
y avoir eu bien sûr quelques mots locaux et d'autres caractéristiques
finalement dûes à l'influence dûe à l'ancienne langue Silvane. " Le Sindarin
sttandard, sans " accent ", était évidemment parlé à Fondcombe et parmi
le peuple de Círdan aux Havres.
A
la fin du Troisième Age, les Elfes disparurent de la Terre-du-Milieu,
quelque soit la langue qu'ils parlaient. Le règne des Hommes Mortels,
les Second-Nés d'Ilúvatar était sur le point de commencer. Tolkien note
qu'à la fin du Troisième Age il y avait plus d'Hommes qui parlaient le
Sindarin ou connaissaient le Quenya qu'il n'y avait d'Elfes pour le faire
(Letters:425). Quand Frodon et Sam rencontrèrent les hommes de Faramir
en Ithilien, ils les entendirent parler d'abord en Langue Commune (Westron),
puis après ils changèrent pour un autre langage personnel. A son grand
étonnement, comme il écoutait, Frodon de rendit compte qu'ils parlaient
une langue Elfique, ou une langue très approchante. ; et il les regarda
avec émerveillement parce qu'il savait qu'ils devaient être des Dúnedain
du Sud, des hommes de la lignée des Seigneurs de Westernesse " (SDA2/IV
ch 4). En Gondor, " le Sindarin était un langage aquis de politesse et
utilisés par ceux de pure descendance Núménoréenne " (Letters :425). Le
bavard maître des herbes de la Maison de Guérison se référait au Sindarin
comme à " la langue Noble " (SDA3/V ch.8 : " Votre Seigneurie demandait
la feuille des rois, comme les paysans la nomme, ou athelas dans la langue
noble, ou pour ceux qui connaissent quelque chose du Valinoréen [=Quenya¡…
").
Nous ne saurons
jamais ce qu'il advint du Sindarin au Quatrième Age. Comme le Quenya,
on a dû s'en souvenir tant que le royaume du Gondor perdura..
Le "Sindarin"
est le nom Quenya de ce langage, déricé des Sindar *"les Gris" = Les Elfes
Gris; il pourrait (et est) traduit Gris-Elfique. Comment le Sindarin était
appelé selon leurs propres termes n'est pas connu avec certitude. On dit
que les Elfes de Bélériand que " leur propre langage était le seul qu'ils
aient jamais entendu ; et qu'ils n'avaient pas besoin de mot pour le distinguer
" (WJ :376). Les Sindar se réfèrent probablement à leur propre langue
simplement comme Edhellen, "Elfique". Comme noté ci-dessus, le maître
des herbes de la Maison de Guérison se réfère au Sindaron comme à " la
Langue Noble " (alors que la " plus noble des langues du monde " reste
le Quenya, UT :218). Tout au long du SdA, le terme habituellement employé
est simplement " la langue des Elfes ", puisque le Sindarin était le langage
vernaculaire des Elfes.
Sindarin phonology is less restrictive than that of Quenya. Many consonant
clusters are allowed in all positions, while initial and final clusters
are virtually absent in Quenya. The sounds ch (German ach-Laut,
NOT "tsh" as in English church) and th, dh ("th"
as in think and this, respectively) are frequent. Tolkien
sometimes used the special letter eth (ð) to spell dh,
and occasionally we also see the letter thorn (þ)
instead of th. However, we will here use the digraphs, as in LotR.
The unvoiced plosives p, t, c never occur following
a vowel, but are lenited (see below) to b, d, g.
Note that as in Quenya, c is always pronounced k (standard
example: Celeborn = "Keleborn", not "Seleborn"). At the end of
words, f is pronounced v, as in English of. (In Tengwar
spelling, a word like nef is actually spelt nev.) R
should be trilled, as in Spanish, Russian etc. The digraphs rh
and lh represent unvoiced r and l (but sometimes
these combinations may actually mean r + h or l +
h, as in Edhelharn - not surprisingly, our alphabet cannot
represent Sindarin quite adequately).
Sindarin has six vowels, a, e, i, o, u
and y, the last of which corresponds to German ü or
French u as in Lune (pronounce ee as in English see
with rounded lips as when you pronounce oo, and you've got it).
Long vowels are marked with an accent (á, é
etc.), but in the case of stressed monosyllables the vowels tended to
become especially long and are marked with a circumflex: â,
ê etc. In HTML one unfortunately cannot place a circumflex
above the vowel y. To avoid ugly spellings like my^l ("gulls",
WJ:418), we here use an accent instead (the relevant words occurring in
this article are býr, thýn, fýr,
rýn, mrýg, mýl, 'lýg
and hýn - ideally these should have had a circumflex instead).
This is not very critical: In Tengwar writing, no distinction is made
between long and super-long vowels; the use of circumflexes instead of
accents in monosyllables is merely an extra complication Tolkien introduced
in his Roman orthography for Sindarin (evidently to make it abundantly
clear how the words are to be pronounced).
The Sindarin diphthongs
include ai (as in English aisle, NOT as in mail),
ei, ui (as "ooy" in too young) and au (as
in German Haus, or as "ow" in English cow). At the end of
words, au is spelt aw. There are also the diphthongs ae
and oe, with no English counterparts; Tolkien actually suggests
substituting ai and oi if you don't care about such details
(indeed he sometimes anglicized Maedhros as "Maidros", but anyone
reading this document probably does care about the details). Ae
and oe are simply the vowels a, o pronounced in one
syllable with the vowel e (as in English pet), just like
ai and oi are a and o pronounced together
with i. Somewhat confusingly, in Tolkien's writings the digraph
oe is sometimes also used to signify umlauted o, apparently
the same sound as German ö (actually we often prefer the spelling
ö in this article, to avoid confusion). By the end of the
Third Age, ö had merged with e (that's why the Grey
Mountains appear as Ered Mithrin and not Öröd Mithrin
on the Map to LotR!), but we still need to refer to this sound when discussing
archaic Sindarin.
Important samples of Sindarin in LotR include:
Glorfindel's greeting to Aragorn: Ai na vedui Dúnadan! Mae
govannen! (LotR1/I ch. 12). The first words are not translated, but
probably mean *"Ah, at last, Westman!" Mae govannen means "well
met" (Letters:308).
Glorfindel's cry to his horse: Noro lim, noro lim, Asfaloth!
(same chapter). Untranslated; evidently meaning *"run fast, run fast,
Asfaloth!" (Variants of this line have been transferred to Arwen in the
Peter Jackson movie, since the movie-makers dropped the Glorfindel character.)
The name of the horse cannot be interpreted, but seems to include loth
"flower".
Gandalf's fire-spell: Naur an edraith ammen! Naur dan i ngaurhoth!
The first part literally means, according to TI:175, "fire be for saving
of us". (Actually there seems to be no word meaning "be".) The second
part must mean *"fire against the werewolf-host!" (Cf. Gandalf's remark
the morning after the wolf-attack: "It is as I feared. These were no ordinary
wolves.") (LotR1/II ch. 4)
Gandalf's invocation before the Moria Gate: Annon edhellen, edro
hi ammen! Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen! "Elvish gate open now
for us; doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the word of my tongue" (LotR1/II
ch. 4, translated in RS:463). An earlier variant of the invocation is
found in RS:451.
The inscription on the Moria Gate itself: Ennyn Durin Aran Moria:
pedo mellon a minno. Im Narvi hain echant: Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant
i thiw hin. "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and
enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin [Eregion] drew these
signs."
The song A Elbereth Gilthoniel / silivren penna míriel
/ o menel aglar elenath! / Na-chaered palan-díriel
/ o galadhremmin ennorath, / Fanuilos le linnathon / nef
aear, sí nef aearon (LotR1/II ch. 1). It is translated in RGEO:72
and means roughly, "O Elbereth Starkindler, white-glittering, sparkling
like jewels, the glory of the starry host slants down. Having gazed far
away from the tree-woven lands of Middle-earth, to thee, Everwhite, I
will sing, on this side of the Sea, here on this side of the Ocean" (my
translation based on Tolkien's interlinear rendering). An earlier variant
of the song is found in RS:394. (The hymn is quite similar to Lúthien's
Song [untranslated] in The Lays of Beleriand p. 354: Ir
Ithil ammen Eruchîn / menel-vîr síla díriel
/ si loth a galadh lasto dîn! / A Hîr Annûn
gilthoniel, le linnon im Tinúviel.)
Sam's "inspired" cry in Cirith Ungol: A Elbereth Gilthoniel o menel
palan-diriel, le nallon sí di-nguruthos! A tiro nin, Fanuilos!
"O Elbereth Star-kindler, from heaven gazing afar, to thee I cry now in
[lit. beneath] the shadow of death. O look towards me, Everwhite!"
(translated in Letters:278 and RGEO:72).
The praise received by the Ringbearers on the Fields of Cormallen (LotR3/VI
ch. 4): Cuio i Pheriain anann! Aglar'ni Pheriannath! ... Daur a Berhael,
Conin en Annûn, eglerio! ... Eglerio! This is translated in
Letters:308 and means "may the Halflings live long, glory to the Halflings...
Frodo and Sam, princes of the west, glorify (them)! ... Glorify (them)!"
Gilraen's linnod to Aragorn in LotR Appendix A: Ónen
i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim, translated "I gave Hope
to the Dúnedain; I have kept no hope for myself".
Outside LotR, the most important source - indeed the longest Sindarin
text we have, and the longest prose text in any Elvish tongue - is the
King's Letter, a part of the Epilogue to LotR, that Tolkien later
dropped. It was finally published in SD:128-9: Elessar Telcontar:
Aragorn Arathornion Edhelharn, aran Gondor ar Hîr i Mbair Annui,
anglennatha i Varanduiniant erin dolothen Ethuil, egor ben genediad
Drannail erin Gwirith edwen. Ar e aníra ennas suilannad mhellyn
în phain: edregol e aníra tírad i Cherdir
Perhael (i sennui Panthael estathar aen) Condir i Drann,
ar Meril bess dîn; ar Elanor, Meril, Glorfinniel,
ar Eirien sellath dîn; ar Iorhael, Gelir,
Cordof, ar Baravorn, ionnath dîn. A Pherhael
ar am Meril suilad uin aran o Minas Tirith nelchaenen uin Echuir.
(The names Elessar Telcontar are Quenya; the Sindarin translation
of Elessar, Edhelharn [Elfstone], occurs in the text.) This translation
is given in SD:128: "Aragorn Strider the Elfstone [but the Elvish
text reads "Elessar Telcontar: Aragorn Arathornson Elfstone"], King
of Gondor and Lord of the Westlands, will approach the Bridge of Baranduin
on the eighth day of Spring, or in the Shire-reckoning the second day
of April. And he desires to greet there all his friends. In especial
he desires to see Master Samwise (who ought to be called Fullwise),
Mayor of the Shire, and Rose his wife; and Elanor, Rose,
Goldilocks, and Daisy his daughters; and Frodo,
Merry, Pippin and Hamfast, his sons. To Samwise
and Rose the King's greeting from Minas Tirith, the thirty-first day
of the Stirring [not in the Elvish text:], being the twenty-third
of February in their reckoning." The words in the parenthesis ("who
ought to...") are omitted from the translation in SD:128, but cf. SD:126.
Other samples of Sindarin include:
Voronwë's uttering when he saw the Encircling Mountains around
the realm of Turgon: Alae! Ered en Echoriath, ered e·mbar nín!
"Alae [= ?behold]! [The] mountains of Echoriath, [the] mountains
of my home!" (UT:40, translated in UT:54 note 19.)
Gurth an Glamhoth!, "death to [the] din-horde", Tuor cursing
the Orcs in UT:39 (cf. UT:54).
The battle-cry of the Edain of the North, given in UT:65: Lacho
calad! Drego morn! "Flame Light! Flee Night!"
An exclamation of Húrin's: Tôl acharn, "Vengeance
comes", also in the form Tûl acharn (WJ:254, 301).
The Sindarin names of the certain Great Tales in the Silmarillion,
the Nern in Edenedair or *"Tales of the Fathers of Men", given
in MR:373: 1) Narn Beren ion Barahir, "Tale of Beren son
of Barahir", also called Narn e·Dinúviel, "Tale of
the Nightingale". 2) Narn e·mbar Hador *"Tale of the
house of Hador" including Narn i·Chîn Hurin "Tale of
the Children of Hurin" (also called Narn e·'Rach Morgoth "Tale
of the Curse of Morgoth") and Narn en·Êl "Tale of the
Star" (or Narn e·Dant Gondolin ar Orthad en·Êl,
*"Tale of the Fall of Gondolin and the Rising of the Star").
A sentence published in VT41:11: Guren bêd enni "my heart
(inner mind) tells me".
An incomplete translation of the Lord's Prayer, published in VT44:21,
22: Ae Adar nín i vi Menel / no aer i eneth lín / tolo
i arnad lín / caro den i innas lin / bo Ceven sui vi Menel. / Anno
ammen sír i mbas ilaurui vín / ar díheno ammen i
úgerth vin / sui mín i gohenam di ai gerir úgerth
ammen. In a more-or-less literal translation, this is apparently:
"O my [sic!] father who [is] in heaven, / be holy your name / let your
kingdom come / make ?it [happen,] your will / on Earth as in Heaven. /
Give to us today our daily bread / and forgive us our wrong-doing / like
us who forgive those who do wrong-doing to us."
A sentence from the so-called "Túrin Wrapper": Arphent Rían
Tuorna, Man agorech?, probably meaning *"And Rían said to Tuor,
What did you do?" (Compare agor "did" in WJ:415. The full contents
of the Túrin Wrapper will "soon" be published and discussed in
Vinyar Tengwar...or so Carl F. Hostetter wrote in TolkLang message
21.09 back in 1996.)
The most distinctive feature of Sindarin as a language is probably
the complex phonology, Grey-elven often relying on phonological features
such as umlauts and mutations instead of affixes to express various grammatical
ideas. We shall have to touch on such matters quite often in our attempt
to survey the structure of Sindarin.
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". These examples might just as well
be Quenya. In an untranslated text in The Lays of Beleriand p.
354 we find the phrase ir Ithil. If this means *"the moon", it
would seem to indicate that the article takes the form ir before
a word in i- (to avoid two identical vowels in hiatus). However,
since this theory was first advanced a new relevant example has been
published. The Sindarin Lord's Prayer includes the phrase i innas
lin "your will" or literally *"the will of yours". Here we do have
i, not ir, even though the next word begins in i-.
Moreover, the word for "Moon", Ithil, seems to count as a proper
name in Sindarin, so we would not expect it to take any article at all.
Some therefore think the ir of the phrase ir Ithil is
not a variant of the definite article "the", but has another meaning.
Unlike Quenya (and English), Sindarin has a special plural
form of the article, in. "Kings" is erain (formed from
aran by vocalic umlauts, see below); "the kings" is in erain.
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". Ben
"in the" or more literally *"according to the", a word occurring in
the King's Letter, seems to be a preposition be "according to"
- not attested by itself - with the suffix -n for "the". (This
be would be the Sindarin cognate of Quenya ve "like, as".)
The preposition nu (or no) "under" becomes nuin
"under the" (as in Dagor-nuin-Giliath "Battle under the Stars",
a name occurring in the Silmarillion, chapter 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 (via ö;
"on the" must have been örin at an earlier stage). The preposition
o "from, of" appears as uin when the article is suffixed,
since in Sindarin earlier oi becomes ui (cf. Uilos
as the cognate of Quenya Oiolossë). One might think that
the ending -in added to prepositions corresponded to the independent
article in for plural "the", so that words like erin
or uin would be used in conjunction with plural words only. But
the King's Letter demonstrates that this is not the case; here we find
these words used together with singulars: erin dolothen Ethuil
"on the eighth [day] of Spring", uin Echuir "of the Stirring"
(month-name). 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:
cf. naur dan i ngaurhoth *"fire against the werewolf-host" in
one of Gandalf's firespells. Dan i "against the" is not replaced
by a single word, sc. some form of dan "against" with the article
suffixed. Perhaps some prepositions just can't receive a suffixed article,
or perhaps it is optional whether one wants to say nan or na
i(n) for "to the", erin or or i(n) for "on/over the",
uin or o i(n) for "of/from the". We don't know.
The genitival article: 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" (Silmarillion ch. 21), Cabed-en-Aras
"Deer's Leap", *"Leap of the Deer" (UT:140), Methed-en-Glad
"End of the Wood" (UT:153) or the phrase orthad en·Êl
"Rising of the Star" in MR:373. Cf. also Frodo and Sam being
called Conin en Annûn "princes of the West"
on the Field of Cormallen. (This genitival article sometimes takes the
shorter form e; cf. Narn e·Dinúviel
"Tale of the Nightingale", MR:373. See below, in the section
about consonant mutations, concerning the various incarnations of this
article and the environments in which they occur.) Only infrequently
does the normal sg. article i replace e(n)- in genitival
phrases, but in the King's Letter we have Condir i Drann for
"Mayor of the Shire". But in the plural, the normal pl. article
in is normally used even in a genitival construction, cf. Annon-in-Gelydh
"Gate (of) the Noldor" (UT:18), Aerlinn in Edhil
*"Hymn (of) the Elves" (RGEO:70, in Tengwar writing). However,
there are examples of the explicitly genitival article en being
used in the plural as well: Bar-en-Nibin-Noeg, "Home of
the Petty-dwarves" (UT:100), Haudh-en-Ndengin "Hill
of Slain", or *"of the Slain Ones" (Silmarillion ch. 20).
This seems to be less usual, though.
In many cases, the articles cause the initial consonant of the following
word to change. These phonological intricacies are described below,
in the section about consonant mutations. The article i triggers
lenition or soft mutation of the following
noun; see below. The final n of the article in is often
swallowed up in a process called nasal mutation;
the n disappears and the initial consonant of the noun is changed
instead. On the other hand, the nasal of the suffix -n or -in,
"the" appended to prepositions, apparently persists - though it seems
to trigger what we tentatively call mixed mutation
in the following word.
The articles are also used as relative pronouns; cf. 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" (Letters:417 - this represents *Dor
Gyrth in cuinar, an example of nasal mutation. Dor Firn i Guinar
in the Silmarillion ch. 20 employs singular i as a relative
pronoun even though Firn is plural; the reading Dor Gyrth
i chuinar from a very late letter (1972) is to be preferred).
It will be noted that Tolkien sometimes, but not always, connects
the Sindarin articles to the next word by means of a hyphen or a dot.
This is apparently optional. In this work, when not quoting the sources
directly, we connect the genitival article e, en "of the"
to the next word by means of a hyphen (since it would otherwise often
be hard to tell apart from the preposition ed, e "out
of"), but we do not hyphenate the other articles.
In the fictional timeline, the Sindarin noun originally had three
numbers: singular, plural and dual. However, we are told that the dual
form early became obsolete except in written works (Letters:427). On
the other hand, a so-called class plural developed, coexisting
with the "normal" plural; see below.
As in most languages, the singular is the basic, uninflected form
of the noun. Tolkien noted that the Sindarin plurals "were mostly
made with vowel-changes" (RGEO:74). For instance, amon "hill"
becomes emyn "hills"; aran "king" becomes erain
"kings". The consonants remain the same, but the vowels change. There
are a few English nouns that form their plurals in a similar way: man
pl. men, woman pl. women (pronounced "wimen"),
goose pl. geese, mouse pl. mice etc. Yet
English usually relies on the plural ending -s. In Sindarin,
the situation is the opposite: the trick of changing the vowels is the
usual way of forming the plurals, and only a few words display some
kind of ending in the plural. The rules for these vowel-changes are
the same for both nouns and adjectives (the latter agree in number),
so we will also quote adjectives among the examples as we explore the
Sindarin plural patterns. Ultimately, the vowel-changes go back on so-called
umlaut phenomena. Umlaut (in origin a German term literally meaning
something like "changed sound") is an important feature of Sindarin
phonology; the Sindarin term for this phenomenon is prestanneth,
meaning disturbance or affection. It has to do with one vowel "affecting"
another vowel in the same word, making it more like itself, in linguistic
terms assimilating it. The umlaut relevant for the plural formation
Tolkien referred to as "i-affection" (WJ:376), since it was a
vowel i that originally triggered it. Tolkien imagined that the
primitive Elvish language had a plural ending *-î, still
present in Quenya as -i (as in Quendi, Atani, Teleri
etc). This ending as such did not survive into Sindarin, but
there are clear traces of its former presence, and these "traces" have
themselves become the indicator of plurality in Grey-elven. When the
plural form of, say, fang "beard" (as in Fangorn "Treebeard")
is feng, this is because the a was affected by the old
plural ending *-î, -i while the latter was still
present. In the most primitive form of Elvish, the word for "beard"
appeared as spangâ, plural spangâi; by the
stage we call Old Sindarin, this had become sphanga pl. sphangi.
The former yielded "Classical" Sindarin fang, but the plural
sphangi became feng, the original vowel a drifting
towards the quality of the plural ending -i before the ending
was lost - and so in the later plural form feng we have e
as a kind of compromise between (the original vowel) a and (the
lost ending) i. (It may be that there was an intermediate stage
that had ei, hence ?feing.)
When "affected" or "umlauted", the various vowels and diphthongs undergo
different changes. The precise environment and the phonological history
must sometimes be taken into account to determine how the word would appear
in the plural. We will list the vowels by their "normal" or unaffected
forms.
The vowel A: An a occurring in the
final syllable of a word usually turns into ai in the plural.
This also applies when the final syllable is also the only syllable, sc.
the word is monosyllabic (in such words we often see long â).
The example we used above, fang pl. feng instead of **faing,
is somewhat atypical (see below); otherwise this pattern is relatively
well attested:
tâl "foot", pl. tail (singular
in LR:390 s.v. TAL; the plural tail is attested in lenited
form -dail in the compound tad-dail "bipeds" in
WJ:388)
cant "shape", pl. caint (singular
in LR:362 s.v. KAT; for the pl. form cf. morchaint = "dark
shapes, shadows" in the Silmarillion Appendix [entry gwath,
wath]; this is mor "dark" + caint "shapes", c
here becoming ch for phonological reasons)
rach "wagon, wain", pl. raich
(cf. Imrath Gondraich "Stonewain Valley" in UT:465)
barad "tower", pl. beraid
(Silmarillion Appendix, entry barad)
lavan "animal", pl. levain
(WJ:416)
aran "king", pl. erain (LR:360
s.v. 3AR)
NOTE: In the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies, a in
a final syllable often comes out as ei instead. Hence we have adar
"father" pl. edeir (entry ATA), Balan "Vala" pl.
Belein (BAL), habad "shore" pl. hebeid (SKYAP),
nawag "dwarf" pl. neweig (NAUK), talaf "ground,
floor" pl. teleif (TAL). Same thing in monosyllables: Dân
"Nandorin elf", pl. Dein (NDAN), mâl "pollen"
pl. meil (SMAL), pân "plank" pl. pein
(PAN), tâl "foot" pl. teil (TAL). But
as demonstrated above, the plural form of tâl had become
tail in Tolkien's later Sindarin (lenited form -dail in
tad-dail in WJ:388). Likewise, the Sindarin plural of adar
is seen to be, not edeir as in the Etymologies, but edair
(as in Edenedair "Fathers of Men", MR:373 - this is a post-LotR
source). The Silmarillion Appendix, entry val-, also confirms
that in Sindarin the plural form of Balan "Vala" is Belain,
not Belein as in the Etymologies. It seems that in all the
examples just listed, we should read Sindarin ai for "Noldorin"
ei in the plural forms. In one case at least, evidence from the
Etymologies agrees with the patterns observed in later Sindarin:
the already-quoted example aran "king" pl. erain (not *erein)
in the entry 3AR. (For erain as the Sindarin plural, compare
the name Fornost Erain "Norbury of the Kings" occurring in LotR3/VI
ch. 7.) Interestingly, Christopher Tolkien notes that in the Etymologies,
the group of entries that 3AR belongs to was "struck out and replaced
more legibly" (LR:360). Perhaps this was after his father had revised
the plural patterns that otherwise persist in Etym. PM:31, reproducing
a draft for a LotR Appendix, shows Tolkien changing the plural of Dúnadan
from Dúnedein to Dúnedain. It seems that the
older "Noldorin" plurals in ei are not conceptually obsolete;
they may be seen as archaic Sindarin: In certain environments, the change
ei > ai occurred also within the imagined history, so
Dúnedain could indeed have been Dúnedein at
an earlier stage. It seems that Tolkien decided that ei in the
final syllable of a word (this also goes for monosyllables) became
ai, but otherwise remained ei. Hence we have teithant
for "drew" (or *"wrote") in the Moria Gate inscription, and this teith-
is related to the second element -deith of the word andeith
"longmark" (a symbol used to mark long vowels in writing, LR:391 s.v.
TEK). Yet the word andeith from the Etymologies instead
appears as andaith in LotR Appendix E, since ei was here
in a final syllable. Teithant could not become **taithant
because ei here is not in a final syllable. Other words
confirm this pattern. As indicated above, the normal plural of aran
is erain, but erein- is seen in the name Ereinion
"Scion of Kings" (a name of Gil-galad, PM:347/UT:436). Evidently the plural
form was erein in archaic Sindarin, later becoming erain
because ei changed to ai in final syllables, but in a compound
like Ereinion the diphthong ei was not in a final syllable
and therefore remained unchanged.
In words of a particular shape, a in the final (or only) syllable
becomes e instead of ai. In the plural forms, a
may first have become ei as usual, but then the final element
of the diphthong was evidently lost (before ei turned into ai)
leaving only e that simply remained unchanged later. MR:373 indicates
that the plural form of narn "tale" is nern,
not **nairn or **neirn, though the latter
may have occurred at an earlier stage. It seems that we have e
rather than ei/ai before ng as well; the Etymologies
provides the example Anfang pl. Enfeng (not
**Enfaing) for "Longbeards", one of the tribes of the
Dwarves (LR:387 s.v. SPÁNAG). WJ:10, reproducing a post-LotR
source, confirms that the plural Enfeng was still valid in Tolkien's
later Sindarin. Following the example of fang "beard" pl. feng
it would seem that the plural of words like lang "cutlass, sword"
(for "Noldorin" lhang, LR:367), tang "bowstring" or thang
"need" should be leng, teng, theng.
NOTE: In the Etymologies, there are further examples
of "Noldorin" plurals where a in a final syllable becomes e
instead of ai or ei. We have adab "construction,
building" pl. edeb (TAK), adar "father"
pl. eder besides edeir (ATA), Balan
"Vala" pl. Belen besides Belein (BAL),
falas "beach, shore" pl. feles (PHAL/PHALAS),
nawag "dwarf" pl. neweg besides neweig
(NAUK), rhofal "pinion" pl. rhofel
(RAM) and salab "herb" pl. seleb
(SALÂK-WÊ). However, in the case of these words there
seems to be little reason to believe that the e-plurals would
still be valid in Tolkien's later Sindarin. At least two of these "Noldorin"
plurals - eder and Belen - clash with the attested Sindarin
plurals edair and Belain. It seems, then, that we can
feel free to replace also edeb, feles, neweg, rhofel,
seleb with Sindarin edaib, felais, newaig,
rovail, selaib, though the latter forms are not directly
attested (notice that "Noldorin" rhofal "pinion", pl. rhofel,
must become roval pl. rovail if we introduce Sindarin
phonology and spelling). - Another "Noldorin" case of an a >
e plural is rhanc "arm" pl. rhenc (RAK).
The singular must become ranc if we update it to LotR-style Sindarin,
but should the plural be renc or rainc? The Sindarin example
cant "shape" pl. caint (see above) seems to indicate that
a before a cluster consisting of n + an unvoiced stop
becomes ai in the plural; hence "arms" should probably be rainc
in Sindarin.
In one word at least, earlier ei stays unchanged and does not
turn into ai even though it occurs in a final syllable. According
to UT:265, the plural form of alph "swan" is eilph; it
would seem that ei is unchanged before a consonant cluster beginning
in l. (Earlier, in the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies,
the word for "swan" was spelt alf, and its plural was given as
elf: LR:348 s.v. ÁLAK; for the plural form, cf.
hobas in Elf *"Haven of Swans" in LR:364 s.v. KHOP.) In
accordance with the example eilph, the Sindarin plural of lalf
"elm-tree" should probably be leilf, though the "Noldorin" plural
listed in the Etymologies was lelf (LR:348 s.v. ÁLAM).
In a non-final syllable, a becomes e in plural
forms, as is seen in some of the examples already quoted: aran
"king", pl. erain; amon "hill", pl. emyn;
lavan "animal", pl. levain. This does not
only go for the vowel in a second-to-last syllable as in these examples;
it can be carried through a longer word as well, a in any
non-final syllable turning into e. This goes even if a
occurs several times: According to WJ:387, the word Aphadon
"Follower" becomes Ephedyn in the plural. LR:391
s.v. TÁWAR indicates that the adjective tawaren
"wooden" has the plural form tewerin. In MR:373
we have Edenedair for "Fathers of Men",
the plural of a compound Adanadar "Man-father"
(adan "man" + adar "father"). Here we see a in
the final syllable becoming ai, but in all three non-final syllables,
a becomes e. Of course, the plural of adan would
be edain (well attested) if the word occurred by itself, since
the second a would then be in the final syllable. But in the
compound Adanadar it is not, and so we see Eden- in the
plural.
The vowel E: Concerning this vowel, there
happily seems to be agreement between Tolkien's mature Sindarin and most
of the earlier material from the Etymologies. The behavior of this
vowel is quite simple. In the final syllable of a word, e turns
into i:
edhel "Elf", pl. edhil (WJ:364,
377; cf. "Noldorin" eledh pl. elidh in LR:356
s.v. ELED)
ereg "holly-tree", pl. erig
(LR:356 s.v. ERÉK)
Laegel "Green-elf", pl. Laegil
(WJ:385)
lalven "elm-tree", pl. lelvin
(LR:348 s.v. ÁLAM)
malen "yellow", pl. melin
(LR:386 s.v. SMAL)
This also goes for monosyllables, where the final syllable is also the
only syllable:
certh "rune", pl. cirth (WJ:396)
telch "stem", pl. tilch (LR:391
s.v. TÉLEK)
In the case of long ê, we also find long î in
the plural:
hên "child", pl. hîn
(WJ:403)
têw "letter", pl. tîw
(WJ:396)
LR:363 s.v. KEM lists a word cef "soil", pl. ceif;
both forms are somewhat weird. If we regularize this from "Noldorin" to
Sindarin it would probably be best to read cêf (with a long
vowel), pl. cîf.
If there is another i immediately before the e in the
final syllable, this group ie simply becomes i in the
plural:
Miniel "Minya" (Elf of the First Clan), pl.
Mínil (WJ:383 - perhaps the i in
the first syllable is lengthened to í to somehow compensate
for the fact that the word is reduced from three to two syllables in
the plural? This does not happen in comparable cases in the "Noldorin"
of the Etymologies, though - e.g. Mirion "Silmaril" pl.
Miruin, not ?Míruin, in LR:373 s.v. MIR)
In non-final syllables, e is unchanged in the plural, as
can be seen from the examples eledh pl. elidh
and ereg pl. erig quoted above.
The vowel I: There is only one thing to
say about this vowel: in the plural it does not change at all, whether
it occurs in a final or a non-final syllable. (For examples of the latter,
cf. Ithron "Wizard" pl. Ithryn in UT:388,
390, or Glinnel "Elf of the Third Clan" pl. Glinnil
in WJ:378.) After all, the vowel-shifts seen in Sindarin plurals are ultimately
due to i-umlaut, the Old Sindarin plural ending -i making
the vowels of the noun it was added to more like itself before the ending
was lost. But where one of the vowels of such a word is i, it obviously
cannot become more like the -i that constituted the plural ending
simply because it was 100 % i to begin with. The Sindarin form
of Silmaril, Silevril, is seen to cover both singular and
plural: The singular is listed in LR:383 s.v. RIL, but in LR:202
and MR:200 we have Pennas Silevril as the equivalent of Quenya
Quenta Silmarillion, the History of the Silmarils (plural!) Another
apparent example of a word that is unchanged in the plural is found in
WJ:149, where we have Amon Ethir for "Hill of Spies". The word
ethir "spies" is undoubtedly derived from the stem TIR-
"watch" (LR:394, though this word as such is not mentioned there). We
can be quite certain that the singular "spy" is also ethir. Only
the context can determine whether this word is singular or plural, as
would also be the case with a number of other Sindarin words (e.g. dîs
"bride" or sigil "dagger"). However, since Sindarin possesses distinct
singular and plural definite articles, you can tell (for instance) "the
spy" apart from "the spies" - evidently i ethir vs. in ethir.
Furthermore, you can add the collective plural ending -ath to any
noun, and it would perhaps be used more frequently in the case of words
that otherwise would not have distinct plural forms.
The vowel O: In the final syllable of a
word (whether or not that is also the only syllable), o becomes
y in the plural; long ó likewise become long ý:
orch "orc, goblin" pl. yrch (LR:379
s.v. ÓROK)
toll "island" pl. tyll (LR:394
s.v. TOL2)
bór "trusty man" pl. býr
(so in LR:353 s.v. BOR; according to LotR-style spelling,
the accent should rather be a circumflex in both sg. and pl., since
these words are monosyllabic)
amon "hill" pl. emyn (LR:348
s.v. AM1)
annon "great gate" pl. ennyn
(LR:348 s.v. AD)
In the case of amon, the Etymologies also lists emuin
as a possible plural form; we are evidently to assume that this is an
older form, the diphthong ui turning into y at a later stage.
(We can also conclude that when LR:152 mentions "Peringiul" as the pl.
of Peringol "half-Gnome", this is certainly a misreading for Peringuil
- Christopher Tolkien describes the passage in question as "hastily pencilled",
prone to be misread. The later form, not attested, would be Peringyl.)
If there is an i before the o in the final syllable,
what would be "iy" in the plural is simplified to y: hence we
have thelyn as the pl. of thalion "hero" (LR:388 s.v.
STÁLAG). Miruin as the pl. of Mirion "Silmaril"
(LR:373 s.v. MIR) must be seen as an archaic form. We may assume
that thelyn was at an earlier stage theluin and that Miruin
later became Miryn; the y-plurals are to be preferred
in LotR-style Sindarin.
NOTE: All the examples above are excerpted from the Etymologies,
but the plurals yrch, emyn, ennyn are also attested
in LotR. For a thoroughly Sindarin example, cf. ithron
"wizard" pl. ithryn (UT:388, 390, reproducing a post-LotR
source). However, in the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies, there
are also examples of o in a final syllable behaving in a quite
different manner, namely becoming öi (in Etym spelt "oei")
in the plural. This öi in turn became ei when all
ö's turned into e's. Hence in the entry ÑGOL
the pl. of golodh "Noldo" is listed as both gölöidh
("goeloeidh") and geleidh - evidently intended as an earlier
and a later form. In other cases only the later form in ei is
listed: gwador "sworn brother" pl. gwedeir (TOR),
orod "mountain" pl. ereid (ÓROT), thoron
"eagle" pl. therein (THOR/THORON). However, there seems
to be little reason to assume that these forms would be valid in LotR-style
Sindarin: In two of these cases, ereid and gölöidh/geleidh,
the corresponding Sindarin plurals are attested, showing y instead
of ei: namely eryd "mountains" and gelydh "Noldor"
(cf. Eryd Engrin "Iron Mountains" in WJ:6 and Annon-in-Gelydh
"Gate of the Noldor" in the Silmarillion Index, entry Golodhrim
- in WJ:364 the pl. of Golodh is given as "Goelydh" = Gölydh,
but this is merely an archaic form of Gelydh). In light of these
examples, we can feel free to update the "Noldorin" plurals gwedeir
"brothers" and therein "eagles" to Sindarin gwedyr, theryn
(archaic thöryn). In the Etymologies there are also
two examples of o in the final syllable of words becoming e
rather than y in the plural: doron "oak" pl. deren
(DÓRON) and orod "mountain" pl. ered besides
ereid (ÓROT). The plural ered is still valid
in later Sindarin, competing with eryd (see the many variants
listed in the index to The War of the Jewels, e.g. Eryd Engrin
besides Ered Engrin, WJ:440). It seems that ered is not
normally used as an independent word for "mountains" - that should probably
be eryd only - but ered may be used when the word
is the first element in a name of several parts, hence Ered Engrin
is a valid alternative to Eryd Engrin. In Letters:224, Tolkien
gives enyd as the pl. of onod "Ent", but also notices
that ened might be a form used in Gondor. Perhaps, then, the
Gondorians would also tend to use ered rather than eryd
as the pl. of orod, but there can be no doubt that eryd
is the regular Sindarin form. Deren as the pl. of doron
"oak" may be seen in the same light; though the regular Sindarin plural
deryn is not attested, it is perhaps to be preferred.
In a non-final syllable, the vowel o normally becomes e
in the plural: Alchoron "Ilkorin Elf", pl. Elcheryn
(LR:367 s.v. LA). Such an e was in archaic Sindarin ö
instead (e.g. Golodh "Noldo", pl. Gelydh for earlier Gölydh;
see references in the note above). Another example is nogoth
"dwarf"; in WJ:388 the plural is given as nögyth ("noegyth"),
but in WJ:338 we have Athrad-i-Negyth for "Ford of the Dwarves".
There is no real discrepancy; nögyth is simply the archaic
form that later became negyth. In LotR-style Sindarin, we would
prefer the plurals negyth and Gelydh; cf. also Tolkien
mentioning Enyd as the plural of Onod "Ent"
in Letters:224. (The archaic plural, nowhere mentioned, would be Önyd.)
There are, however, a few words where o or ó
in a non-final syllable does not become (ö >)
e in the plural forms. This is when o represents earlier
A; the development is roughly â > au >
o. One example is Rodon "Vala" pl. Rodyn instead
of **Rödyn > **Redin (MR:200 has Dor-Rodyn
for Quenya Valinor = "Land of the Valar"; it would seem that
Rodyn is an alternative to Belain as the Sindarin word
for "Valar"; it has even been suggested that Rodyn replaced Belain
in Tolkien's conception). The first syllable of Rodyn evidently
has the same origin as the middle syllable -rat- in Aratar,
the Quenya term for some of the supreme Valar. An o representing
earlier A is not subject to i-umlaut. Compare Ódhel
"Elf that departed from Middle-earth" pl. Ódhil in WJ:364,
this long ó representing earlier aw (the primitive
form of Ódhel is quoted as aw(a)delo, literally
"away-goer"). The later form Gódhel (influenced by Golodh
"Noldo") likewise had the plural form Gódhil: despite
the influence from Golodh pl. Gelydh, no form **Gédhil
arose. These examples come from post-LotR Sindarin, but the same thing
is found already in the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies. The example
rhofal "pinion" pl. rhofel in the entry RAM (LR:382),
where the primitive sg. form is given as râmalê,
confirms that o from â (via au) is not subject
to i-umlaut. As mentioned above, "Noldorin" rhofal pl.
rhofel must become Sindarin roval pl. rovail if
we update the forms to LotR-style spelling and phonology - roval
is actually attested in LotR as part of the eagle-name Landroval
- but this o still should not become e in the plural (**revail
being impossible because of the phonological history).
The vowel U: Short u, whether in a
final or a non-final syllable, in the plural becomes y, as indicated
by the example tulus "poplar", pl. tylys (LR:395 s.v. TYUL).
However, long û in a final syllable (or in a monosyllable)
becomes ui instead; hence the adjective dûr "dark"
(as in Barad-dûr "Dark Tower") appears as duir when
modifying a plural word in a phrase like Emyn Duir "Dark Mountains"
(UT:434).
NOTE: The plural of the word cû "bow" would probably
be cui, apparently in accordance with the pattern sketched above.
But actually cui would represent the older plural ku3i
(or kuhi), since the stem is KU3 (LR:365). The primitive
sound Tolkien variously reconstructed as h or 3 (the latter
= spirant g) had disappeared in Classical Sindarin, so older
uhi would become ui.
The vowel Y: As far as we can imagine, this
vowel (long or short) cannot change in the plural. A word like ylf
"drinking-vessel" (WJ:416) in all likelihood covers plural "drinking-vessels"
as well; there simply isn't anything the umlaut can "do" with such a vowel,
just like it cannot change the vowel i. We lack any explicit example
of a word with the vowel y occurring both in the singular and the
plural, but in WJ:418 we find Bar-i(n)-Mýl
for "Home of the Gulls". Likely the word for "gull" is mýl
in the singular as well (this would be the case if it is derived from
the stem MIW "whine" in LR:373, though a quite different "Noldorin"
word for "gull" is there given - quite different because the forms listed
there, Quenya maiwë and "Noldorin" maew, clearly reflect
an a-infixed stem *MAIW-).
The diphthong AU: In the "Noldorin" of
the Etymologies, words containing this diphthong are seen to have
plural forms in ui:
gwaun "goose", pl. guin (LR:397 s.v. WA-N)
naw "idea", pl. nui (LR:378 s.v. NOWO)
rhaw "lion", pl. rhui (LR:383 s.v. RAW)
saw "juice", pl. sui (LR:385 s.v. SAB)
thaun "pine-tree", pl. thuin (LR:392 s.v. THÔN)
However, it seems that this is one feature of "Noldorin" that did not
survive into Tolkien's later Sindarin: In UT:148 we have Nibin-noeg
as a name of the Petty-dwarves, and the final element is obviously a plural
form of naug (cf. Naugrim as a name of the Dwarvish race,
found in the Silmarillion). So in Sindarin, au turns into
oe in the plural. In the plural forms of the "Noldorin" words listed
above, we should apparently read oe instead of ui if we
update them to later Sindarin. ("Noldorin" rhaw pl. rhui
would become Sindarin raw pl. roe, but thaun "pine-tree"
Tolkien apparently changed to Sindarin thôn; cf. Treebeard
singing about Dorthonion and Orod-na-Thôn in LotR2/III
ch. 4; the Silmarillion Index explains that Dorthonion means
"Land of Pines". In the Etymologies, thôn had been
an "Ilkorin" word. The pl. of thôn as a Sindarin word is
presumably thýn.)
NOTE: The diphthong au, when occurring in an unstressed
syllable in the second element of a compound, is often reduced to o,
but presumably it would still become oe in the plural. Hence
the plural form of a word like balrog "demon of might" (where
the -rog part represents raug "demon") is presumably belroeg
- unless analogy prevailed to produce ?belryg.
Other diphthongs: For the most part
we lack wholly good examples, but if our understanding of general Sindarin
phonology holds water, the diphthongs ae, ai, ei,
ui do not normally change in the plural (except that ai
in one special category of words normally becomes plural î;
see below). As in the case of the vowels i and y, there
just isn't much the umlaut can "do" to these diphthongs, so a word like
aew "bird" probably covers "birds" as well. For the diphthong ui,
at least, we have attested examples: The adjective "blue" is seen to be
luin both in the singular and the plural (see note below). The
numerous adjectives in -ui also seem to be unchanged in the plural;
in the King's Letter we have i Mbair Annui for "the Westlands"
or literally *"the Lands Western", where the adjective annui "western"
must be plural to agree with "lands". Unfortunately this adjective is
not otherwise attested, but there is no reason whatsoever for believing
that its singular form would be any different (compare annûn
"west" - and as noted above, there are many other adjectives in -ui).
NOTE: In a phrase like Ithryn Luin "Blue Wizards" (UT:390)
the adjective luin "blue" must be plural to agree with "wizards".
It might be thought that luin is the plural form of lûn,
which is what we would get if we were to make a Sindarin update of the
"Noldorin" word for "blue", namely lhûn (LR:370 s.v. LUG2).
As indicated above, long û in a final syllable becomes
ui in the plural, so everything seems to fit: luin could
be the plural form of lûn. What kills this seductively
promising theory is the name of the mountain Mindolluin, "Towering
Blue-head" (translated in the Silmarillion Index). Here, there
is no reason for the adjective "blue" to be plural, so luin has
to be the singular/basic form as well. There is also Luindirien
"Blue Towers" in WJ:193; at the beginning of a compound, the word for
"blue" would be expected to appear in its more or less basic form, not
inflected for plural. It should also be noted that the same entry in
the Etymologies that gives "Noldorin" lhûn (>
Sindarin ?lûn) as the word for "blue", also gives lúne
as the corresponding Quenya word. In Namárië in LotR,
the adjective "blue" is luini instead (this is a plural form,
from the phrase "blue vaults"; the singular is probably luinë).
So while in the Etymologies the words for "blue" had been derived
from a primitive form lugni (stem LUG2, LR:370)
producing Quenya lúne and "Noldorin" lhûn,
Tolkien must later have decided that the primitive form was something
like *luini yielding Quenya luinë and Sindarin luin.
Bottom line is that luin "blue" seems to cover both singular
and plural, indicating that the diphthong ui undergoes no change
in the plural. The fact that the adjective annui "western" is
both sg. and pl. points in the same direction.
Special ai-plurals
As indicated above, it seems that the diphthong ai is normally
unchanged in the plural. However, in one small group of words, ai
becomes either i (usually long î) or more rarely
ý in the plural. For instance, the plural form of the
noun fair "mortal man" is given as fîr (WJ:387,
where the sg. fair is quoted in archaic form feir). The
plural forms in î (i) occur where ai in the
singular forms ultimately arises from i or e being influenced
by y later in the word. The example just quoted, fair
or archaic feir, comes from an Old Sindarin form similar to the
Quenya cognate firya (in late OS perhaps firia; see skhalia-
in the wordlist appended to the Old Sindarin article). We must assume
that other words sharing a similar phonological history would form their
plurals in a similar way, though in most cases these plurals are not
explicitly mentioned in Tolkien's published material. The nouns and
adjectives in question are cai "fence" (pl. cî),
cair "ship" (pl. cîr), fair "mortal man"
(pl. fîr), gwain "new" (pl. gwîn),
lhain "lean, thin, meager" (pl. lhîn), mail
"dear" (pl. mîl) and paich "juice, syrup" (pl. pich,
notice short i). The "Noldorin" word sein "new" pl. sîn
(LR:385 s.v. SI) could become Sindarin sain pl. sîn,
but it seems that Tolkien changed the Sindarin word for "new" to gwain
pl. gwîn as just listed (notice that the same entry in
the Etymologies that provides Noldorin sein also gives
sinya as the corresponding Quenya word for "new", but in later
sources, the Quenya adjective "new" is vinya - apparently the
cognate of gwain).
NOTE: In "Noldorin", lhain pl. lhîn appeared
as thlein pl. thlîn, the primitive (sg.) form being
quoted as slinyâ (LR:386 s.v. SLIN). One revision
separating "Noldorin" from Sindarin is that while primitive initial
sl- became thl- in N, it becomes lh- in S. We alter
the word in accordance with Tolkien's revised phonology. Thlein
can be more directly adapted as lhein, but such a form would
be archaic in Frodo's day, the current form being lhain instead.
Similarly, paich "juice, syrup" actually appears as peich
in the Etymologies (LR: 382 s.v. PIS); this "Noldorin"
form is not conceptually obsolete, but can be seen as archaic Sindarin.
This is also the case with ceir "ship" (LR:365 s.v. KIR);
the form cair in LotR-style Sindarin is attested (cf. the footnote
in LotR Appendix A explaining that Cair Andros means "Ship of
Longfoam"; see also PM:371). - The word cair provides an example
of another peculiar property of this group of words: when they occur
as the first element in compounds, ai is reduced to í-,
as in the name Círdan "Shipwright". However, ai
remains unchanged if such a word is the final element of a compound;
hence gwain "new" appears as -wain in the Sindarin name
of the month of January, Narwain (evidently meaning "New Sun"
or "New Fire"; compare Quenya Narvinyë).
In three words, where ai represents ei from even older
öi (spelt "oei" by Tolkien), the plural forms should probably
show the vowel y, ý, though we lack explicit confirmation
in Tolkien's published papers. This theory is based on the fact that
the first part of the archaic diphthong öi represents o
or u in the original stem, and the umlaut product of these vowels
is y, just as in cases where the older vowel-sound still survives
in Sindarin (as in orch "Orc" pl. yrch). The words in
question are 1) fair adj. "right" or noun "right hand" (pl. fýr,
stem PHOR, cf. Quenya forya), 2) rain "slot, spoor,
tract, footprint" (pl. rýn, stem RUN, cf. Quenya
runya) and 3) the related word tellain "sole of foot"
(pl. tellyn, since the final element -lain is actually
assimilated from rain < runya, cf. the archaic form
talrunya quoted in LR:390 s.v. TAL, TALAM). In
the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies, these words appear as feir
(the older form "foeir" = föir is also mentioned), rein
(older röin) and tellein (older form tellöin
not mentioned but clearly intended). Notice that while fair can
mean both "right (hand)" and "mortal man", the different derivations
make for distinct plurals: fýr in the former case and
fîr in the latter.
Monosyllables later becoming polysyllables
(but perhaps still behaving as monosyllables for the purpose
of plural formation)
This is something that is not directly addressed in Tolkien's
published writings, but then almost nothing of his grammatical writings
is available to us. However, our general understanding of the evolution
of Grey-elven seems to strongly suggest that certain groups of nouns
would behave in somewhat unexpected ways in the plural - though this
is perfectly justified when the underlying phonological history is taken
into account.
One important change that occurred in the evolution of Sindarin was
that final vowels were lost. Hence an old word like ndakro "battle"
later became ndakr. In early Sindarin, this word appeared as
dagr. Another example is makla "sword" later appearing
as makl, early Sindarin magl. We must assume that the
plural of words like dagr, magl was formed after the same
pattern as other monosyllables of comparable shape, like alph
"swan", pl. eilph. So the plurals "battles" and "swords" would
presumably be deigr, meigl (this would be before ei
in a final syllable normally become ai).
What complicates matters is that words like dagr and magl
were eventually changed. The final r, l came to constitute
a separate syllable, so that for instance magl was pronounced
mag-l just like English "eagle" is pronounced eeg-l. Later,
these syllabic consonants turned into full-fledged normal syllables
as a vowel o developed before them: Dagr (dag-r)
turned into dagor and magl (mag-l) became magol.
(Incidentally, the latter word was apparently often replaced by megil,
which must be an adapted form of the Quenya word for "sword", namely
macil.) The plurals deigr, meigl would presumably
undergo the same process to become deigor, meigol (and
the late change ei > ai in final syllables would never
occur simply because ei was no longer in the final syllable).
From a synchronic point of view, this results in what looks like irregularities:
Normally, singular words like dagor and magol would be
expected to have plural forms degyr, megyl, since o
in the final syllable normally becomes y in the plural (e.g.
amon "hill" vs. emyn "hills"). But in cases like dagor
or magol, the o intruded relatively late and seems to
be younger than the umlaut o > y; hence such newly
developed o's would - presumably - remain untouched by the umlaut.
If Tolkien did not imagine that analogical leveling bulldozed these
"irregularities" out of existence, all two-syllable words where the
second syllable contains a secondarily developed o must still
be treated as monosyllables as far as plural formation is concerned.
The o must be left alone and the vowel in the "second-to-last"
syllable must be treated as if it were the vowel in the final
syllable, which is precisely what it used to be.
The adjectives and nouns in question are: badhor "judge" (pl.
beidhor if the theory holds - otherwise it would be analogical
bedhyr), bragol "sudden, violent" (pl. breigol;
this adjective also appears as bregol, pl. presumably brigol),
dagor "battle" (pl. deigor), glamor "echo" (pl.
gleimor), hador "thrower, hurler" (pl. heidor),
hathol "axe" (pl. heithol), idhor "thoughtfulness"
(unchanged in the pl.; luckily a noun with this meaning normally will
not require a pl. form), ivor ?"crystal" (unchanged in the pl.),
lagor "swift" (pl. leigor), maethor "warrior" (unchanged
in the pl.), magol "sword" (pl. meigol), magor
"swordsman" (pl. meigor), nadhor "pasture" (pl. neidhor),
nagol "tooth" (pl. neigol), naugol "dwarf" (pl.
noegol), tadol "double" (pl. teidol), tathor
"willow" (pl. teithor), tavor "knocker, woodpecker" (pl.
teivor), tegol "pen" (pl. tigol). Perhaps gollor
"magician" also belongs on this list (pl. gyllor rather than
?gellyr).
NOTE: Some other peculiarities about this group of words may
also be noted here. In (older?) compounds, the newly-developed o
does not appear, and the final vowel that has otherwise disappeared,
is sometimes preserved. Hence magol, that descends from primitive
makla, may appear as magla- in a compound. LR:371 s.v.
MAK lists Magladhûr for "Black Sword" (magol
"sword" + dûr [lenited dhûr] "black, dark").
If one of these words is prefixed to an element beginning in a vowel,
the original final vowel does not reappear, but the newly-developed
o is not found: LR:398 s.v. TAM indicates that tavr
(also spelt tafr) "woodpecker" retains that form in the compound
Tavr-obel, Tavrobel *"Woodpecker-town" - though tavr
became tavor as an independent word. Similarly, LR:361 s.v. ID
indicates that the word "idher" (misreading for idhor?) "thoughtfulness"
appears as idhr- in the name Idhril. - It is possible
that in late Sindarin, analogy to some extent prevailed, this group
of words being treated like any other. Before the collective plural
ending -ath (see below), we would not expect to see the subsequently
developed vowel o. For instance, we would expect the collective
plural of dagr "battle" to be dagrath (not attested),
unaffected by the fact that dagr had later become dagor
when it occurred as a simplex (by itself). Yet in UT:395, 396 we find,
not dagrath, but dagorath, though there can be little
doubt that the latter is a historically unjustified form: R was
not final or syllabic in dagrath, so no o would develop
in front of it, and dagorath must be formed on analogy with the
simplex dagor. This is all the more surprising when another attested
form, the collective plural of nagol "tooth", is what we would
expect: Naglath (WR:122). A form ?nagolath paralleling
dagorath is not found. (The simplex nagol is not attested,
but Tolkien undoubtedly imagined a primitive word *nakla "instrument
for biting" = "tooth" [cf. the stem NAK "bite", LR:374], this
*nakla becoming *nakl and then *nagl > *nagol
in Sindarin.) There is also Eglath "The Forsaken" as the name
of the Sindar, this collective plural reflecting the primitive (singular)
form hekla or heklô (WJ:361; we don't know whether
this also yielded an independent sg. form in Sindarin; if so it would
be egol for earlier egl, the normal pl. being igl
and later igol). A form ?Egolath nowhere occurs (and would
be just as surprising as if the attested compound Eglamar "Land
of the Forsaken Elves" suddenly were to appear as *Egolmar instead).
Are we to assume, then, that Tolkien forgot his own rules when he (twice)
wrote dagorath instead of dagrath in UT:395, 396? Rather
we may imagine that there were several variants of Sindarin around.
In a "purer" or more "classical" style, the collective plurals of words
like dagor, nagol would perhaps be the historically correct
forms dagrath, naglath, but in a more "colloquial" or
"informal" style, forms like dagorath, nagolath may have
come into use by analogy. We may speculate that in the form of Sindarin
that preferred dagorath to dagrath, the historically justified
plural deigor would also be altered to degyr, the umlauts
following the more normal pattern. Interestingly, the name Dagorlad
"Battle Plain" occurring in LotR gives away that dagor does not
become ?dagro- as the first part of a compound, reflecting the
earlier form ndakro (contrast examples quoted above: magol
"sword" becoming magla- reflecting primitive makla in
the compound Magladhûr, and tavor "wood-pecker"
occurring in archaic form tavr in the compound Tavrobel).
So again, analogy with the simplex form is at work. Perhaps Dagorlad
would have been ?Dagrolad if the compound had been older, coined
already in the really good old days when the Elves still said something
like *Ndakro-lata (final vowel uncertain). Instead Dagorlad
was clearly pieced together from dagor "battle" and -lad
"plain" later. A late compound "Sword-Black" would presumably be, not
Magladhûr, but simply Magoldhûr, and "Woodpecker-village"
as a late compound could well be Tavorobel rather than the attested
form Tavrobel.
Certain other cases of monosyllables turning into polysyllables involves,
not a new vowel intruding before a consonant as in dagr >
dagor, but a consonant turning into a vowel. Most of the
examples involve older -w becoming -u. Before the stage
where the final vowels were lost, some words ended in -wa (typically
adjectives) or -we (typically abstracts). When the final vowels
disappeared, only -w was left of these endings. For instance,
the word for "craft" or "skill" that appears in Quenya as kurwe
(curwë), which would also be the Old Sindarin form of the
word, came out as curw in early Sindarin. We must assume that
in the plural this would become cyrw, a perfectly regular form
according to the rules set out above. But as indicated in LR:366 s.v.
KUR, curw later became curu: Final -w following
another consonant turned into a vowel -u, the semi-vowel becoming
a full vowel. Presented with a noun like curu, it would be tempting
to let it go like tulus "poplar-tree", pl. tylys - hence
curu pl. cyry. In an older version of this article, I
noted: "But the latter, if it occurred at all, would be an analogical
form. The historically justified plural of curu can only be cyru,
the older pl. cyrw turning into cyru just like the older
sg. curw turned into curu." However, it now turns out
that the analogical plural form cyry was indeed listed by Tolkien
in the Etymologies (VT45:24), though it was omitted from the
entry KUR as printed in LR.
The attested example cyry may indicate that Tolkien meant the
analogical plural forms to have superseded the historically justified
ones, at least in the class of nouns with final -u derived from
earlier -w. Here are the words that are affected; we will indicate
what both the historically justified plural and the analogical alternative
would be: anu "a male" (historically justified plural form einu,
but analogically eny), celu "spring, source" (hist. pl.
cilu, analog. cily), coru adj. "cunning, wily"
(hist. pl. cyru, analog. cery), curu "skill, cunning
device, craft" (hist. pl. cyru, attested analogical pl. cyry),
galu "good fortune" (hist. pl. geilu, analog. gely),
gwanu "death, act of dying" (hist. pl. gweinu, analog.
gweny), haru "wound" (hist. pl. heiru, analog.
hery), hethu "foggy, obscure, vague" (hist. pl. hithu,
analog. hethy), hithu "fog" (unchanged as a hist. pl.,
whereas the analogical pl. form would be distinct: hithy), inu
"a female" (again the historically justified pl. would be unchanged,
whereas the analogical pl. would be iny), malu "fallow,
pale" (hist. pl. meilu, analog. mely), naru "red"
(hist. pl. neiru, analog. nery), nedhu "bolster,
cushion" (hist. pl. nidhu, analog. nedhy), pathu
"level space, sward" (hist. pl. peithu, analog. pethy),
talu "flat" (hist. pl. teilu, analog. tely), tinu
"spark, small star" (the hist. pl. would be unchanged, the analogical
pl. would be tiny). In the historically justified forms, we let
words with the stem-vowel a have plural forms in ei rather
than ai, again assuming that these words became disyllabic before
ei turned into ai in final syllables (that is, when this
change occurred, the syllable in which ei was found was no longer
final because -w had already become -u, constituting a
new final syllable). Hence anu : einu, gwanu :
gweinu etc. However, if Tolkien had decided to go for the simpler
analogical forms, these extra complications are transcended.
NOTE: In the Etymologies, the later stage where final
-w became -u is often not explicitly recorded. There is
curu besides older curw (entry KUR) and naru
besides older narw (NAR1), but otherwise only
the older forms where -w still persists are listed: Thus we find
anw (3AN), celw (KEL), corw (KUR),
galw (GALA), gwanw (WAN), harw (SKAR),
hethw / hithw (KHITH), inw (INI),
malw (SMAL), nedhw (NID), pathw (PATH)
and tinw (TIN) instead of anu, celu, coru
etc. as above. These later forms are not directly attested in Tolkien's
papers. It may be that as far as the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies
is concerned, Tolkien still had not decided once and for all that -w
in this position did become -u; this idea just pops up
in a couple of places. Yet we needn't hesitate to introduce the later
forms in -u if we are aiming for the kind of Sindarin exemplified
in LotR and the Silmarillion. Notice that in Etym, it is said
that the "Noldorin" form of the Quenya name Elwë would have
been *Elw, marked with an asterisk since it was not actually
used in "Exilic" in this form (LR:398 s.v. WEG). However, in
Chapter 4 of the published Silmarillion the scenario is another.
"Noldorin" has now become Sindarin, and not only is there a Sindarin
form of Elwë, but it is also Elu rather than "Elw"
as in the Etymologies: "Elwë's folk who sought him found
him not... In after days he became a king renowned... King Greymantle
was he, Elu Thingol in the tongue of that land [Beleriand]." Here we
are clearly to assume a development Elwë > Elw
> Elu. It seems wholly justified, then, to alter (say) celw
"spring, source" to its later form celu (to go with Elu),
even though the form celu as such is not explicitly attested.
A parallel case is provided by the name Finwë; again the
Etymologies states that the "Noldorin" form would be *Finw,
but that no such form was in use (LR:398 s.v. WEG). A much later,
post-LotR source agrees that there was no Sindarin form of Finwë,
but if this name "had been treated as a word of this form would have
been, had it occurred anciently in Sindarin, it would have been [not
Finw, but] Finu" (PM:344). If "Noldorin" Finw would
have corresponded to Sindarin Finu, we can also conclude that
"Noldorin" gwanw would correspond to Sindarin gwanu. -
The word talu "flat" listed above actually appears as dalw
(not **talw) in the Etymologies, but listed immediately
after dalw is dalath "flat surface, plane, plain" (LR:353
s.v. DAL), occurring in the name Dalath Dirnen "Guarded
Plain" (LR:394 s.v. TIR). However, Tolkien later changed dalath
to talath; in the published Silmarillion, the "Guarded
Plain" in Beleriand is called Talath Dirnen instead. In accordance
with this revision, we also alter the related "Noldorin" word dalw
"flat" to Sindarin talw > talu. We may still accept
(dalw >) dalu - and for that matter dalath -
as valid side-forms.
There are also a few cases of final -gh (spirant g)
turning into a vowel. One example is provided by LR:381 s.v. PHÉLEG,
where a word fela "cave" is derived from Old Sindarin (or "Old
Noldorin") phelga. Since final vowels were lost following the
Old Sindarin stage, fela is not a case of an original
final -a surviving into later Sindarin. What Tolkien imagined
seems to be this: Old Sindarin phelga naturally became phelg
when the final vowels went. Then stops turned into spirants following
the liquids l, r (UT:265), so that phelg became
phelgh (or felgh, since the shift ph > f
occurred at about the same stage). However, gh in no case survived
into the Sindarin of Frodo's day; initially it was lost with no trace,
but in this position it was vocalized: Felgh turned into fela.
The plural of felgh had evidently been filgh formed according
to the normal rules (cf. e.g. telch "stem", pl. tilch
- LR:391 s.v. TÉLEK). The plural form filgh then
became fili, the vocalization of earlier gh here being
i rather than a (perhaps g > gh was somehow
palatalized by the lost Old Sindarin plural ending -i that also
caused the umlaut, biasing the subsequent vocalization towards i).
It matters little precisely how we imagine the development: in any case,
the end result is the peculiar pair fela pl. fili, for
older felgh pl. filgh.
Fela pl. fili is the only known case of Tolkien explicitly
mentioning both the singular and the plural of such a pair. There are,
however, two or three other words that share a similar phonological
development. The word thela "point (of spear)" derives from a
stem STELEG (LR:388), and while Tolkien lists no primitive forms,
we are probably to assume a Primitive Elvish form stelgâ
(final vowel uncertain) turning into Old Sindarin sthelga and
later (s)thelgh, the plural form of which would be (s)thilgh.
The singular then yields the attested Sindarin form thela (wholly
parallel to fela); the unattested plural "spear-points" must
be thili (to go with the attested plural fili).
There are also a very few adjectives. An adjective thala "stalwart,
steady, firm" is in LR:388 s.v. STÁLAG is derived from
Old Sindarin/"Noldorin" sthalga. The unattested intermediate
form would be (s)thalgh pl. (s)theilgh, following the
normal pattern of (say) alph "swan", pl. eilph. We must
assume that the plural form of thala is theili. A similar
case would be tara "tough, still", stated to represent Old "Noldorin"/Sindarin
targa (LR:390); again the unattested intermediate form would
be targh. The plural form of this adjective could be teirgh,
which would presumably produce Sindarin teiri. There is one other
possibility: As already mentioned, it seems that ei was at one
stage simplified to e before a consonant cluster beginning in
r (hence we have nern rather than neirn > nairn
as the plural form of narn "tale"). If this happened before the
final gh of the plural adjective teirgh became a vowel
so that the cluster disappeared, the form would turn into tergh,
in later Sindarin teri. Presently we cannot say for sure whether
teri or teiri is the best plural form of tara,
since we do not know in what exact sequence Tolkien imagined the sound-shifts
involved to have taken place; I would probably use teiri.
Expanded plurals
This is a group of words that seem to be longer in the plural than in
the singular. Historically speaking it would be more accurate to turn
the perspective around and speak of "reduced singulars", for in this
case, the shape of the word that underlies the plural form gives a better
impression of the primitive word than the current singular form does.
In WJ:363, êl is said to be an (archaic) Sindarin word
for "star". According to the rules set out above, based on patterns
like hên "child" pl. hîn (WJ:403),
we would expect the plural form to be **îl. However, WJ:363
also informs us that the actual plural of êl is elin.
Here it might seem that a plural ending -in is present. This,
however, is not really the case. By comparing these words to their Quenya
cognates elen pl. eleni one may begin to suspect what
is really going on. Eleni would also be the plural form used
in Old Sindarin, eventually yielding Sindarin elin: the plural
ending being lost like all final vowels, but leaving its mark on the
word by umlauting the second e to i. But one thing that
occasionally happened in Old Sindarin was that consonants at the end
of words might drop out. The n of the plural form eleni
was "safe" because it was shielded by the plural ending following it,
but the singular form elen was apparently reduced to ele,
though this form is not explicitly mentioned by Tolkien. Later, final
vowels were lost, leaving just el, and later still, the vowel
of a monosyllable of this shape was lengthened, producing Sindarin êl.
Hence we are left with the curious couple êl pl. elin
in Third Age Sindarin. In the case of another, similar couple, nêl
"tooth" pl. nelig, the Etymologies lists the Old "Noldorin"/Sindarin
forms nele pl. neleki, confirming that the explanation
sketched above is correct: By comparing the singular nele to
the stem NÉL-EK (LR:376) we understand that the final
consonant has dropped out. (In Common Eldarin, nele had evidently