<commit_before># Concerning Stress Placement In Sindarin

In Appendix E of _The Lord of the Rings_, Tolkien gives the following description of stress in Eldarin languages:

> In words of two syllables [the stress] falls in practically all cases on the first syllable. In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two (or more) consonants. Where the last syllable but one contains (as often) a short vowel followed by only one (or no) consonant, the stress falls on the syllable before it, the third from the end.

An elegant system, to be sure! But Tolkien himself seems to have contradicted this description in a few places, and therefore I think the subject of stress in elvish languages merits closer study than the Appendices will support.

The contradictory examples are the Sindarin place-names _Imladris_, that is Rivendell, and _Nargothrond_, the stronghold of Finrod. If the Appendices are taken at their word, these should be stressed _imlAdris_, _nargOthrond_, since the next-to-last syllable has two following consonants. However, these names are found in verses whose meter makes it clear that they are stressed on the *initial* syllable:

Boromir's poem at the Council of Elrond:

> Seek for the Sword that was broken:
> In Imladris it dwells[...]
> <cite>(_The Fellowship of the Ring_, p. 259)</cite>

Gimli's song in Moria:

> The world was fair, the mountains tall,
> In Elder Days before the fall
> Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
> And Gondolin, who now beyond
> The Western Seas have passed away:
> The world was fair in Durin's Day.
> <cite>(_The Fellowship of the Ring_, p. 330)</cite>

A recording of Tolkien reading a fragment of the latter poem confirms the stress placement beyond doubt; that recording can be found [here](http://www.jrrvf.com/~glaemscrafu/english/tolkienhimselflotrhob.html) (click on "Nargothrond" in the list). The metrical evidence for initial stress in _Imladris_ may be strengthened by the observation that Tolkien could have substituted _Rivendell_ for _Imladris_ without marring the meaning of the poem, if he found the stress of the Sindarin word unsuited.

If we accept that _Imladris_ and _Nargothrond_ are counterexamples to the stress rules in Appendix E, we are left with the question of _why_ their stress is exceptional. Fortunately, a theory is ready at hand.

## Analogy with Latin

Latin was one of Tolkien's favorite languages, and it seems to have inspired the stress rule common to Sindarin and Quenya. In fact, Latin stress patterns follow the rule in Appendix E almost exactly, with one important exception: the _muta cum liquida_ rule.

This phrase is Latin for "stop with liquid", referring to consonant clusters formed of a _stop_ (T, P, K, D, B, or G) and a _liquid_ (L or R) in that order. When one of these clusters followed the second-to-last vowel in a word, the stress did not normally fall on that vowel. There is a deeper underlying reason for this pattern, whose explanation requires a slight digression.

### The Latin _Muta cum Liquida_ Rule

To understand the Latin stress rule, we first need to understand how words are divided into syllables. The general rule for finding syllable breaks in Latin is that consonant clusters should be broken up. Where this causes a syllable to end in a consonant, that syllable becomes "long by position" (as opposed to "long by nature", i.e. having a long vowel or diphthong). The second-to-last syllable is stressed if it is long, whether by position or by nature.

Here's the catch: _muta cum liquida_ clusters are not broken up into separate syllables, so they don't lengthen the preceding syllable. A word like _tenebrae_ would thus be syllabified and stressed _[.hi te]&middot;ne&middot;brae_.

The further underlying reason for this is that stop+liquid clusters can begin a syllable in Latin (as evidenced by the many words that begin with such clusters), while other clusters cannot. Thus, these other clusters must be broken up, while stop+liquid clusters can remain.

There's one more layer of complication: in poetry, stop+liquid clusters *can* make the previous syllable long to fit the meter of the poem.

### Applying the Rule to Sindarin

Now let's see how we can apply the logic behind the Latin _muta cum liquida_ rule to Sindarin. The first thing to note is that the Sindarin equivalent of the rule need not apply strictly to stop+liquid clusters, since Sindarin syllables can also begin with fricative+liquid clusters like _thr_: e.g. _Thranduil_. Thus, _Nargothrond_ could be syllabified and stressed _[.hi Nar]&middot;go&middot;thrond_. _Imladris_ has a stop+liquid cluster _dr_: _[.hi Im]&middot;la&middot;dris_.

As in Latin, the Sindarin _muta cum liquida_ rule must be somewhat flexible (if it in fact exists). Some words like _silivren_ (in the Hymn to Elbereth) and _Thangorodrim_ show penultimate stress.

## Proving the Rule

Here I use "proof" not in its formal mathematical sense, but in its everyday sense. Just as a thing is _bulletproof_ if it can withstand gunfire, the proof of the _muta cum liquida_ theory must be in its ability to survive the consideration of new evidence.

Of course, this type of "proof" is not absolute. There is always the possibility that new evidence could come to light that would *disprove* a theory, no matter how much evidence has been amassed that agrees with it. This particular theory might be disproved if:

- A Tolkien manuscript comes to light explaining the abnormal stress of _Nargothrond_ and _Imladris_ without referring to a _muta cum liquida_ rule.
- A large body of Tolkien poetry is found in which many polysyllabic words with no _muta cum liquida_ cluster are stressed abnormally. This would show that Tolkien often bent his own stress rules regardless of the shape of the word, weakening the case for a specific _muta cum liquida_ rule.
- A Tolkien manuscript surfaces stating explicitly that Sindarin has no _muta cum liquida_ rule and that the stress rules in Appendix E are absolute. This would be the least satisfying of the possible refutations, since it would mean that we would either have to disobey the new edict when reading Tolkien's poems, or else stumble over awkwardly-stressed words.

So far, though, the evidence from outside _LotR_ seems to support the _muta cum liquida_ theory. After writing the first draft of this essay, I discovered that there were more _muta cum liquida_ examples in _The Lay of Leithian_, among them many more occurrences of _Nargothrond_ with initial stress, as well as new examples: _Menegroth_ and possibly _Orodreth_. The evidence from the _Lay_ is analyzed [here](https://mildred-of-midgard.dreamwidth.org/158375.html) by people more knowledgeable than I in these matters, so I won't attempt to redo their work.

The sequence of events leading to this essay was fortunate. If I had seen the evidence from the _Lay_ before theorizing a Sindarin _muta cum liquida_ rule, I would not be as confident in the theory. But now I know that the _muta cum liquida_ rule can be inferred from only part of the existing evidence, which means the totality of the evidence is more than the minimum necessary to inspire the theory. Thus we can be confident that the theory does not overfit the data. It has the power to explain evidence that was not involved in its construction.

## Other possibilities

Nevertheless, we must consider the possibility that when _The Return of the King_ was published, Tolkien had no _muta cum liquida_ rule in mind for Sindarin. For the fact remains that the description of Eldarin stress in the Appendices does not mention such a rule.

It may be significant that all of the evidence for _muta cum liquida_ is drawn from the earliest parts of _The Lord of the Rings_ and from the _Lay of Leithian_ which predated it. Tolkien was constantly revising his thoughts on the languages, and it may be that in writing the Appendices he overlooked the _muta cum liquida_ examples in the poems he'd written years earlier. The _Lay of Leithian_ wasn't published during Tolkien's lifetime, so he probably wouldn't have considered it when deciding which stress rules to immortalize in print.

If anyone had called attention to the discrepancy between the Appendices and the poems in _The Fellowship of the Ring_, there are three fairly obvious ways Tolkien could have resolved it:

- He could provide a historical reason for why _Imladris_ and _Nargothrond_ show abnormal stress. _Nargothrond_ would be easier to explain because it is not pure Classical Sindarin. Tolkien lists it among "ancient names derived from an older period" (Appendix E) to explain why it doesn't show the usual change of final _nd_ to _n_. It would be a natural extension of this to exempt it from the normal stress patterns.
- He could revise the stress rule in Appendix E to include a _muta cum liquida_ clause.
- He could say that Sindarin names used in English poems do not have to follow the normal stress rules of Sindarin. However, I think this the least likely possibility. _The Lord of the Rings_ is itself an English text peppered with Sindarin names, and these names are not anglicized in any way. The inclusion of the pronunciation rules in Appendix E seems rather to indicate that Tolkien wanted to keep these names distinctly Elvish and to contrast them with the surrounding English text.

There's no way to tell for sure which of these approaches Tolkien would have preferred. Since he knew Latin, he must have at least considered a _muta cum liquida_ rule for Sindarin, so maybe he'd lean toward that option. On the other hand, he might have preferred to keep the published stress rule and simply make an exception for the two words that contradict it.

## Conclusions?
<commit_msg>Clarify wording<commit_after># Concerning Stress Placement In Sindarin

In Appendix E of _The Lord of the Rings_, Tolkien gives the following description of stress in Eldarin languages:

> In words of two syllables [the stress] falls in practically all cases on the first syllable. In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two (or more) consonants. Where the last syllable but one contains (as often) a short vowel followed by only one (or no) consonant, the stress falls on the syllable before it, the third from the end.

An elegant system, to be sure! But Tolkien himself seems to have contradicted this description in a few places, and therefore I think the subject of stress in elvish languages merits closer study than the Appendices will support.

The contradictory examples are the Sindarin place-names _Imladris_, that is Rivendell, and _Nargothrond_, the stronghold of Finrod. If the Appendices are taken at their word, these should be stressed _imlAdris_, _nargOthrond_, since the next-to-last syllable has two following consonants. However, these names are found in verses whose meter makes it clear that they are stressed on the *initial* syllable:

Boromir's poem at the Council of Elrond:

> Seek for the Sword that was broken:
> In Imladris it dwells[...]
> <cite>(_The Fellowship of the Ring_, p. 259)</cite>

Gimli's song in Moria:

> The world was fair, the mountains tall,
> In Elder Days before the fall
> Of mighty kings in Nargothrond
> And Gondolin, who now beyond
> The Western Seas have passed away:
> The world was fair in Durin's Day.
> <cite>(_The Fellowship of the Ring_, p. 330)</cite>

A recording of Tolkien reading a fragment of the latter poem confirms the stress placement beyond doubt; that recording can be found [here](http://www.jrrvf.com/~glaemscrafu/english/tolkienhimselflotrhob.html) (click on "Nargothrond" in the list). The metrical evidence for initial stress in _Imladris_ may be strengthened by the observation that Tolkien could have substituted _Rivendell_ for _Imladris_ without marring the meaning of the poem, if he found the stress of the Sindarin word unsuited.

If we accept that _Imladris_ and _Nargothrond_ are counterexamples to the stress rules in Appendix E, we are left with the question of _why_ their stress is exceptional. Fortunately, a theory is ready at hand.

## Analogy with Latin

Latin was one of Tolkien's favorite languages, and it seems to have inspired the stress rule common to Sindarin and Quenya. In fact, Latin stress patterns follow the rule in Appendix E almost exactly, with one important exception: the _muta cum liquida_ rule.

This phrase is Latin for "stop with liquid", referring to consonant clusters formed of a _stop_ (T, P, K, D, B, or G) and a _liquid_ (L or R) in that order. When one of these clusters followed the second-to-last vowel in a word, the stress did not normally fall on that vowel. There is a deeper underlying reason for this pattern, whose explanation requires a slight digression.

### The Latin _Muta cum Liquida_ Rule

To understand the Latin stress rule, we first need to understand how words are divided into syllables. The general rule for finding syllable breaks in Latin is that consonant clusters should be broken up. Where this causes a syllable to end in a consonant, that syllable becomes "long by position" (as opposed to "long by nature", i.e. having a long vowel or diphthong). The second-to-last syllable is stressed if it is long, whether by position or by nature.

Here's the catch: _muta cum liquida_ clusters are not broken up into separate syllables, so they don't lengthen the preceding syllable. A word like _tenebrae_ would thus be syllabified and stressed _[.hi te]&middot;ne&middot;brae_.

The further underlying reason for this is that stop+liquid clusters can begin a syllable in Latin (as evidenced by the many words that begin with such clusters), while other clusters cannot. Thus, these other clusters must be broken up, while stop+liquid clusters can remain.

There's one more layer of complication: in poetry, stop+liquid clusters *can* make the previous syllable long to fit the meter of the poem.

### Applying the Rule to Sindarin

Now let's see how we can apply the logic behind the Latin _muta cum liquida_ rule to Sindarin. The first thing to note is that the Sindarin equivalent of the rule need not apply strictly to stop+liquid clusters, since Sindarin syllables can also begin with fricative+liquid clusters like _thr_: e.g. _Thranduil_. Thus, _Nargothrond_ could be syllabified and stressed _[.hi Nar]&middot;go&middot;thrond_. _Imladris_ has a stop+liquid cluster _dr_: _[.hi Im]&middot;la&middot;dris_.

As in Latin, the Sindarin _muta cum liquida_ rule must be somewhat flexible (if it in fact exists). Some words like _silivren_ (in the Hymn to Elbereth) and _Thangorodrim_ show penultimate stress.

## Proving the Rule

Here I use "proof" not in its formal mathematical sense, but in its everyday sense. Just as a thing is _bulletproof_ if it can withstand gunfire, the proof of the _muta cum liquida_ theory must be in its ability to survive the consideration of new evidence.

Of course, this type of "proof" is not absolute. There is always the possibility that new evidence could come to light that would *disprove* a theory, no matter how much evidence has been amassed that agrees with it. This particular theory might be disproved if:

- A Tolkien manuscript comes to light explaining the abnormal stress of _Nargothrond_ and _Imladris_ without referring to a _muta cum liquida_ rule.
- A large body of Tolkien poetry is found in which many polysyllabic words with no _muta cum liquida_ cluster are stressed abnormally. This would show that Tolkien often bent his own stress rules regardless of the shape of the word, weakening the case for a specific _muta cum liquida_ rule.
- A Tolkien manuscript surfaces stating explicitly that Sindarin has no _muta cum liquida_ rule and that the stress rules in Appendix E are absolute. This would be the least satisfying of the possible refutations, since it would mean that we would either have to disobey the new edict when reading Tolkien's poems, or else stumble over awkwardly-stressed words.

So far, though, the evidence from outside _LotR_ seems to support the _muta cum liquida_ theory. After writing the first draft of this essay, I discovered that there were more _muta cum liquida_ examples in _The Lay of Leithian_, among them many more occurrences of _Nargothrond_ with initial stress, as well as new examples: _Menegroth_ and possibly _Orodreth_. The evidence from the _Lay_ is analyzed [here](https://mildred-of-midgard.dreamwidth.org/158375.html) by people more knowledgeable than I in matters of poetry, so I won't attempt to redo their work.

The sequence of events leading to this essay was fortunate. If I had seen the evidence from the _Lay_ before theorizing a Sindarin _muta cum liquida_ rule, I would not be as confident in the theory. But now I know that the _muta cum liquida_ rule can be inferred from only part of the existing evidence, which means the totality of the evidence is more than the minimum necessary to inspire the theory. Thus we can be confident that the theory does not overfit the data. It has the power to explain evidence that was not involved in its construction.

## Other possibilities

Nevertheless, we must consider the possibility that when _The Return of the King_ was published, Tolkien had no _muta cum liquida_ rule in mind for Sindarin. For the fact remains that the description of Eldarin stress in the Appendices does not mention such a rule.

It may be significant that all of the evidence for _muta cum liquida_ is drawn from the earliest parts of _The Lord of the Rings_ and from the _Lay of Leithian_ which predated it. Tolkien was constantly revising his thoughts on the languages, and it may be that in writing the Appendices he overlooked the _muta cum liquida_ examples in the poems he'd written years earlier. The _Lay of Leithian_ wasn't published during Tolkien's lifetime, so he probably wouldn't have considered it when deciding which stress rules to immortalize in print.

If anyone had called attention to the discrepancy between the Appendices and the poems in _The Fellowship of the Ring_, there are three fairly obvious ways Tolkien could have resolved it:

- He could provide a historical reason for why _Imladris_ and _Nargothrond_ show abnormal stress. _Nargothrond_ would be easier to explain because it is not pure Classical Sindarin. Tolkien lists it among "ancient names derived from an older period" (Appendix E) to explain why it doesn't show the usual change of final _nd_ to _n_. It would be a natural extension of this to exempt it from the normal stress patterns.
- He could revise the stress rule in Appendix E to include a _muta cum liquida_ clause.
- He could say that Sindarin names used in English poems do not have to follow the normal stress rules of Sindarin. However, I think this the least likely possibility. _The Lord of the Rings_ is itself an English text peppered with Sindarin names, and these names are not anglicized in any way. The inclusion of the pronunciation rules in Appendix E seems rather to indicate that Tolkien wanted to keep these names distinctly Elvish and to contrast them with the surrounding English text.

There's no way to tell for sure which of these approaches Tolkien would have preferred. Since he knew Latin, he must have at least considered a _muta cum liquida_ rule for Sindarin, so maybe he'd lean toward that option. On the other hand, he might have preferred to keep the published stress rule and simply make an exception for the two words that contradict it.

## Conclusions?

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