<commit_before># Nevedhellen: A New Sindarin Grammar

## Introduction

Most Tolkienists use the term _Neo-Sindarin_ to describe the language used in post-Tolkien "Sindarin" compositions, emphasizing that the living forms of the language are chimeras stitched together from ambiguous and often conflicting sources, and as such may not reflect Tolkien's intentions. Since this grammar is likewise a product of conjecture, compromise, and hand-waving, I considered the title _A Neo-Sindarin Grammar_, but that presents a problem. The term _Neo-Sindarin_ does not denote a single, consistent language, but rather a family of related hypotheses about how Sindarin worked at various stages of Tolkien's conception of it. We have, for example, at least two competing theories of how the past tense was formed in strong verbs, and even the number of consonant mutations that exist (and how the rarer ones operated, if they existed at all) is far from certain. Descriptions of Neo-Sindarin usually present several theories for the more dubious points, duly annotating them as uncertain, and leave it up to the reader to decide which they want to believe.

My aim, however, is different. I hope to present a comprehensive and unified account of *one* variety of Neo-Sindarin&mdash;not because I believe it is in any way authoritative, but to show how it could be done. Readers will no doubt disagree with some of my interpretations on scholarly or aesthetic grounds. I hope this grammar will provide a starting point for their many revisions.

Hence the unusual name for the language described in this grammar. I needed to give a name to this particular variety of Neo-Sindarin, and happily a fortuitous one presented itself.

The word _Nev-Sindarin_ (perhaps _Nev-edhellen_ would be better, though less recognizable to casual readers) is my own invention, a kind of cross-linguistic pun. _Nev_ is of course the Nevbosh word for "new" (and thus an echo of _neo-_), but it is also a possible spelling of the Sindarin element [.s nef/nev], meaning "hither, near" (as a prefix, according to Salo:276, c.f. _Nevrast_ in WJ:197). Nev-Sindarin is thus the New-Sindarin that is nearest my heart, and maybe as near as we (who are, as it were, _nef aearon_) can come to the language spoken by the Elves of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age.

In the first section of this book, I present a grammar and lexicon of Third-age Sindarin, the language used in _The Lord of the Rings_.

The second section comprises a diachronic overview of Sindarin, tracing its ancestry from Cuiviénen up to the fall of Sauron and beyond. The purpose of this section is to illustrate the changes that would produce the word-forms and grammar described in the first section. Possible grammars of Old and Middle Sindarin are briefly treated.

The third section is an in-depth analysis of the primary sources that are our best guide to Sindarin as Tolkien envisioned it. Here I discuss the evidence *against* my favored interpretation of the data, hopefully providing a guide to further study and future revisions.

## Acknowledgements

My own studies of Sindarin began with <NAME>'s essays and <NAME>'s _Pedin Edhellen_ textbook, and their scholarly analyses of the language have proven invaluable in the preparation of this text. My description of the sound changes producing Classical (Third Age) Sindarin is likewise based in David Salo's excellent analysis.

# Typographic Conventions

I use **boldface** for Sindarin words and phrases interspersed into the text and additionally **_italicize_** examples that are directly attested in Tolkien's writings. A **&dagger;** symbol marks attested forms found only in writings published after Tolkien's death.

When discussing a word or grammatical construction that Tolkien did not (as far as we know) actually write, I use the following symbols to indicate why mention of the form is justified:

* **!** Precedes an incorrect form, useful as an example of what _not_ to write.
* **&#42;** Marks a word that has been isolated from a compound, deduced from a mutated form, or reconstructed from an attested historical form.
* **&Dagger;** Like **&#42;**, marks a reconstructed form, but indicates that the attested form was published posthumously.
* **&#35;** Marks post-Tolkien coinages. These are always built from attested roots, which gives them a semblance of validity, but that does not mean that Tolkien would have used the word. I also use **&#35;** to mark grammatical constructions that are not Tolkien's own.
* **?** Marks a speculative translation. There are some words for which Tolkien never provided an explanation&mdash;one of the most notorious is [.s.post aen], found in the King's Letter.

Unattested phrases, if not otherwise marked, are my own compositions based on my understanding of Sindarin grammar.

# Citation Conventions

For the sake of brevity, I abbreviate the names of commonly-cited works as follows:

* LotR - _The Lord of the Rings_
* LR - _The Lost Road_
* Letters -
* GtS - _A Gateway to Sindarin_ (<NAME>)
* Ard - _Ardalambion_ (<NAME>'s site)

A slash separates the name of the work from a chapter or section identifier, webpage link, or issue number. A colon precedes page numbers. Thus, RotK/E:392 would indicate page 392 of _The Return of the King_, in Appendix E.

When citing the _Etymologies_, I identify the Eldarin root instead of the page number, since page numbers vary between editions and it's easy to look up roots. e.g. LR/Ety:KAL.

# A Note on Sindarin and Noldorin

The language called Sindarin in _The Lord of the Rings_ was originally called Noldorin, and occupied a different place in the history of Middle-earth. When Tolkien later decided that this language was actually spoken by the Sindar, he made systematic changes to the sounds of Noldorin, "updating" it into Sindarin. Much of the Sindarin vocabulary we use today was published after Tolkien's death, and comes from material that he worked on while the language was still called Noldorin. Therefore, while I believe that this vocabulary would still be valid in LotR-style Sindarin, it's hard to know for sure. Note that any Sindarin words cited as coming from "Ety" (the _Etymologies_) have been updated from their attested Noldorin forms.

All of this is done to aid readers who aim to understand which forms are relatively certain and which are not, and perhaps to draw their own conclusions that differ from my own. For those who simply want to learn the language, I've provided a way to hide the annotations in the HTML version of this text.

Glosses of attested words and phrases are Tolkien's own when he provides one. My own translations are marked with an asterisk.

# Lessons

## Lesson One: Pronunciation and Phrases



The vowels [.s a e i o u] are pronounced as in Italian, or as exemplified below:

* [.s a] as in [.en father]: [[.s.att aran] "lord"](^LotR Doors of Durin TODO)
* [.s e] as in [.en let]: [[.s.att Elbereth] "Star-queen (a name of the _vala_ Varda) (where translated?)"](^LotR TODO)
* [.s i] as in [.en machine]: [[.s.att silivren] "glittering (where translated?)"](^LotR TODO)
* [.s o] as in [.en for]: [[.s.att Orodruin] "Mountain of Fire (find translation - PM 366?)"](^LotR TODO)
* [.s u] as in [.en brute]: [[.s.post curu] "craft, skill"](^LR/Ety:TODO)

In addition to the five cardinal vowels, Sindarin has a sixth vowel [.s y].

* [.s y] is close to German [.de ü], or the [.fr u] in French [.fr lune]. Pronounce the [.en i] sound in [.en pit] with your lips rounded as if saying [.en oo].

Vowels that have an _acute accent_ above them ([.s á é í ó ú]) are held slightly longer than unaccented vowels. A circumflex ([.s â ê î ô û]) marks an even longer version of the vowel. Compare the vowel lengths in this greeting:

[.s Elen síla na lû govaded] "A star shines on the hour of meeting"

On a Mac with the default US keyboard layout, you can type the acute accent by pressing [.key option]+[.key e], and then typing the vowel. To type the circumflex, use [.key option]+[.key i]. On Windows, there are [a bunch of different options](http://superuser.com/questions/110605/how-do-i-type-accented-characters-in-windows).

In addition to the simple vowels Sindarin also has five [.term diphthongs], combinations of two vowels pronounced in a single syllable, with a smooth transition from one vowel to the other.

* [.s ai] is the sound of [.en y] in English [.en sky].
* [.s ae] has no counterpart in English; it is similar to Sindarin [.s ai] but ends with an [.s e] sound (as in [.en let]), instead of an [.s i] sound (as in [.en machine]).
* [.s au] has the sound of [.en ou] in [.en house]. At the end of a word it is spelled [.s aw]: [[.s.post caw] "top"](^Ety:402, entry KAS).
* [.s ei] is the sound of [.en ay] in English [.en say].
* [.s oe] has no counterpart in English; it is similar to the [.en oy] sound in [.en boy], but ends with the same [.s e] sound as Sindarin [.s ae].
* [.s ui] is the sound in English [.s ruin].

Consonants [.s b, d, m, p, t, v, w] are pronounced more or less as in English and need no further description.

* [.s c] is always hard, as in [.en cat]. [.s.attested Celeborn] is pronounced [.s.sound-spelling keleborn], not [.s.wrong.sound-spelling seleborn].
* [.s ch] is close to the raspy sound of Scottish [.gd loch] or German [.de Bach]. In Tolkien's own pronunciation, it was more or less like [.s h] with the tongue raised slightly toward the back of the mouth as if to pronounce [.s k].
* [.s dh] is the [.en th] sound in [.en this].
* [.s f] at the end of a word is pronounced [.s v], as in English [.en of].
* [.s g] is likewise always hard, as in [.en get]; never soft as in [.en gem].
* [.s h] is pronounced like English [.en h], except in the digraphs [.s th], [.s dh], [.s ch], [.s lh], [.s rh], [.s hw].
* [.s hw] is the sound heard in English [.en whale], in varieties of English that distinguish it from [.en wail].
* [.s l] is always the sound in [.en let], pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth or just behind them. English has another [.en l] sound used at the end of syllables, e.g. [.en tell], in which the tongue is bunched up at the back of the mouth and doesn't touch the teeth. This sound does not occur in Sindarin.
* [.s lh] is the [.cy ll] sound of Welsh [.cy Lloyd]. Put your tongue in a position to say [.en l] and gently exhale as if pronouncing [.en th].
* [.s n] is pronounced identically to English [.en n]. Before [.s c], [.s ch], [.s g], it is pronounced as in [.en think] - that is, like the [.en ng] sound in [.en thing].
* [.s ng] at the beginning or end of a word is pronounced as in [.en thing]. Between vowels, it is pronounced as the same sound plus [.s g], as in [.en finger].
* [.s ph] is as in English [.en phone]. Between vowels, it represents the same sound held for slightly longer, e.g. in [[.s.attested ephel] "outer fence"](^LotR/E:392).
* [.s r] is tapped, as in Spanish, or as in [Tolkien's own pronunciation of English](^http://www.jrrvf.com/~glaemscrafu/english/tolkienhimselflotrhob.html). It is never articulated in the back of the throat as in French or German - reportedly the Elves found this sound ["distasteful"](^RotK:392 Appendix E).
* [.s th] is always the sound in [.en thin], never the sound in [.en this], which is represented in Sindarin by [.s dh].
* [.s rh] is the [.cy rh] of Welsh [.cy Rhiannon]. Pronounce a Sindarin [.s r], but simultaneously exhale as if pronouncing [.s h].

Sindarin has certain sequences of sounds which are not found in English.

* [.s w] can occur at the end of a word: [.s.re têw] "letter", [[.s.att tîw] "letters"](^LotR/E:395), [[.s.post gwaew] "wind"](^LR/Ety:WĀ).
* [.s ng] can appear at the beginning of a word: [[.s.attested di-nguruthos]](^LotR:TODO) ["in the shadow of death"](^Letters:278).
* Clusters [.s mr], [.s ml] are possible at the beginning of a word: [.s am mrôg] "for a bear", [.s am mlabed] "for flapping"

## Phrasebook

* **_Mae govannen!_** -:- "Well met!"
* _Suilad_ -:- "Greetings"
* _Gîl síla nan govaded vín_ -:- "A star shines on our meeting"
* _Gîl síla na lû govaded vín_ -:- "A star shines on the hour of our meeting"
* _Elo!_ -:- "Wow!"
* _A tiro i ngîl!_ -:- "Look at the stars!"
* _Henach i ven?_ -:-
* _Na van bâd i ven hen?_
* _Calo Anor na men lín_ -:- "May the sun shine on your road"
* _Cuio vae!_ -:- "Farewell!"

## The Tengwar

The [.q tengwar] (Quenya for "signs") are the best-known elvish writing system. They are a versatile script, well-suited to elvish languages but also adaptable to other uses (the inscription on the One Ring used tengwar, but was in the Black Speech of Mordor). One effect of this versatility was that the elves developed multiple styles of writing Sindarin with tengwar. Three of these styles, called _modes_, are known: the **Mode of Beleriand**, the **Mode of Gondor**, and the **Consonantal Mode**. I will cover each of them in a later section.

First, however, I will discuss a very different adaptation of the elvish script: the use of tengwar to write in English. There are a few reasons why I think this is the best way to start learning the tengwar, the main one being that if you're reading the chapters of this book in order, you don't yet know any Sindarin words, so learning how to write Sindarin in tengwar at this stage is not very useful. Additionally, the tengwar are very different from our alphabet, not just in their shapes but in the way the whole writing system is organized, and learning how those differences apply to a familiar language like English will be much easier than trying to figure them out in a language you don't know yet. And finally, if you want to introduce your friends to tengwar-writing, they will probably not have the patience to learn Sindarin, but they might be interested having a secret code to write English.



Here are the main tengwar in their traditional arrangement.

[.figure-title The _Tengwar_]

<table class="tengwar-table">
  <tr>
    <td></td>
    <td colspan="5"><b><em>témar</em></b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="7"><b><em>[.vertical tyeller]&nbsp;</em></b></td><commit_msg>WIP English tengwar mode<commit_after># Nevedhellen: A New Sindarin Grammar

## Introduction

Most Tolkienists use the term _Neo-Sindarin_ to describe the language used in post-Tolkien "Sindarin" compositions, emphasizing that the living forms of the language are chimeras stitched together from ambiguous and often conflicting sources, and as such may not reflect Tolkien's intentions. Since this grammar is likewise a product of conjecture, compromise, and hand-waving, I considered the title _A Neo-Sindarin Grammar_, but that presents a problem. The term _Neo-Sindarin_ does not denote a single, consistent language, but rather a family of related hypotheses about how Sindarin worked at various stages of Tolkien's conception of it. We have, for example, at least two competing theories of how the past tense was formed in strong verbs, and even the number of consonant mutations that exist (and how the rarer ones operated, if they existed at all) is far from certain. Descriptions of Neo-Sindarin usually present several theories for the more dubious points, duly annotating them as uncertain, and leave it up to the reader to decide which they want to believe.

My aim, however, is different. I hope to present a comprehensive and unified account of *one* variety of Neo-Sindarin&mdash;not because I believe it is in any way authoritative, but to show how it could be done. Readers will no doubt disagree with some of my interpretations on scholarly or aesthetic grounds. I hope this grammar will provide a starting point for their many revisions.

Hence the unusual name for the language described in this grammar. I needed to give a name to this particular variety of Neo-Sindarin, and happily a fortuitous one presented itself.

The word _Nev-Sindarin_ (perhaps _Nev-edhellen_ would be better, though less recognizable to casual readers) is my own invention, a kind of cross-linguistic pun. _Nev_ is of course the Nevbosh word for "new" (and thus an echo of _neo-_), but it is also a possible spelling of the Sindarin element [.s nef/nev], meaning "hither, near" (as a prefix, according to Salo:276, c.f. _Nevrast_ in WJ:197). Nev-Sindarin is thus the New-Sindarin that is nearest my heart, and maybe as near as we (who are, as it were, _nef aearon_) can come to the language spoken by the Elves of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age.

In the first section of this book, I present a grammar and lexicon of Third-age Sindarin, the language used in _The Lord of the Rings_.

The second section comprises a diachronic overview of Sindarin, tracing its ancestry from Cuiviénen up to the fall of Sauron and beyond. The purpose of this section is to illustrate the changes that would produce the word-forms and grammar described in the first section. Possible grammars of Old and Middle Sindarin are briefly treated.

The third section is an in-depth analysis of the primary sources that are our best guide to Sindarin as Tolkien envisioned it. Here I discuss the evidence *against* my favored interpretation of the data, hopefully providing a guide to further study and future revisions.

## Acknowledgements

My own studies of Sindarin began with <NAME>'s essays and <NAME>'s _Pedin Edhellen_ textbook, and their scholarly analyses of the language have proven invaluable in the preparation of this text. My description of the sound changes producing Classical (Third Age) Sindarin is likewise based in David Salo's excellent analysis.

# Typographic Conventions

I use **boldface** for Sindarin words and phrases interspersed into the text and additionally **_italicize_** examples that are directly attested in Tolkien's writings. A **&dagger;** symbol marks attested forms found only in writings published after Tolkien's death.

When discussing a word or grammatical construction that Tolkien did not (as far as we know) actually write, I use the following symbols to indicate why mention of the form is justified:

* **!** Precedes an incorrect form, useful as an example of what _not_ to write.
* **&#42;** Marks a word that has been isolated from a compound, deduced from a mutated form, or reconstructed from an attested historical form.
* **&Dagger;** Like **&#42;**, marks a reconstructed form, but indicates that the attested form was published posthumously.
* **&#35;** Marks post-Tolkien coinages. These are always built from attested roots, which gives them a semblance of validity, but that does not mean that Tolkien would have used the word. I also use **&#35;** to mark grammatical constructions that are not Tolkien's own.
* **?** Marks a speculative translation. There are some words for which Tolkien never provided an explanation&mdash;one of the most notorious is [.s.post aen], found in the King's Letter.

Unattested phrases, if not otherwise marked, are my own compositions based on my understanding of Sindarin grammar.

# Citation Conventions

For the sake of brevity, I abbreviate the names of commonly-cited works as follows:

* LotR - _The Lord of the Rings_
* LR - _The Lost Road_
* Letters -
* GtS - _A Gateway to Sindarin_ (<NAME>)
* Ard - _Ardalambion_ (<NAME>'s site)

A slash separates the name of the work from a chapter or section identifier, webpage link, or issue number. A colon precedes page numbers. Thus, RotK/E:392 would indicate page 392 of _The Return of the King_, in Appendix E.

When citing the _Etymologies_, I identify the Eldarin root instead of the page number, since page numbers vary between editions and it's easy to look up roots. e.g. LR/Ety:KAL.

# A Note on Sindarin and Noldorin

The language called Sindarin in _The Lord of the Rings_ was originally called Noldorin, and occupied a different place in the history of Middle-earth. When Tolkien later decided that this language was actually spoken by the Sindar, he made systematic changes to the sounds of Noldorin, "updating" it into Sindarin. Much of the Sindarin vocabulary we use today was published after Tolkien's death, and comes from material that he worked on while the language was still called Noldorin. Therefore, while I believe that this vocabulary would still be valid in LotR-style Sindarin, it's hard to know for sure. Note that any Sindarin words cited as coming from "Ety" (the _Etymologies_) have been updated from their attested Noldorin forms.

All of this is done to aid readers who aim to understand which forms are relatively certain and which are not, and perhaps to draw their own conclusions that differ from my own. For those who simply want to learn the language, I've provided a way to hide the annotations in the HTML version of this text.

Glosses of attested words and phrases are Tolkien's own when he provides one. My own translations are marked with an asterisk.

# Lessons

## Lesson One: Pronunciation and Phrases



The vowels [.s a e i o u] are pronounced as in Italian, or as exemplified below:

* [.s a] as in [.en father]: [[.s.att aran] "lord"](^LotR Doors of Durin TODO)
* [.s e] as in [.en let]: [[.s.att Elbereth] "Star-queen (a name of the _vala_ Varda) (where translated?)"](^LotR TODO)
* [.s i] as in [.en machine]: [[.s.att silivren] "glittering (where translated?)"](^LotR TODO)
* [.s o] as in [.en for]: [[.s.att Orodruin] "Mountain of Fire (find translation - PM 366?)"](^LotR TODO)
* [.s u] as in [.en brute]: [[.s.post curu] "craft, skill"](^LR/Ety:TODO)

In addition to the five cardinal vowels, Sindarin has a sixth vowel [.s y].

* [.s y] is close to German [.de ü], or the [.fr u] in French [.fr lune]. Pronounce the [.en i] sound in [.en pit] with your lips rounded as if saying [.en oo].

Vowels that have an _acute accent_ above them ([.s á é í ó ú]) are held slightly longer than unaccented vowels. A circumflex ([.s â ê î ô û]) marks an even longer version of the vowel. Compare the vowel lengths in this greeting:

[.s Elen síla na lû govaded] "A star shines on the hour of meeting"

On a Mac with the default US keyboard layout, you can type the acute accent by pressing [.key option]+[.key e], and then typing the vowel. To type the circumflex, use [.key option]+[.key i]. On Windows, there are [a bunch of different options](http://superuser.com/questions/110605/how-do-i-type-accented-characters-in-windows).

In addition to the simple vowels Sindarin also has five [.term diphthongs], combinations of two vowels pronounced in a single syllable, with a smooth transition from one vowel to the other.

* [.s ai] is the sound of [.en y] in English [.en sky].
* [.s ae] has no counterpart in English; it is similar to Sindarin [.s ai] but ends with an [.s e] sound (as in [.en let]), instead of an [.s i] sound (as in [.en machine]).
* [.s au] has the sound of [.en ou] in [.en house]. At the end of a word it is spelled [.s aw]: [[.s.post caw] "top"](^Ety:402, entry KAS).
* [.s ei] is the sound of [.en ay] in English [.en say].
* [.s oe] has no counterpart in English; it is similar to the [.en oy] sound in [.en boy], but ends with the same [.s e] sound as Sindarin [.s ae].
* [.s ui] is the sound in English [.s ruin].

Consonants [.s b, d, m, p, t, v, w] are pronounced more or less as in English and need no further description.

* [.s c] is always hard, as in [.en cat]. [.s.attested Celeborn] is pronounced [.s.sound-spelling keleborn], not [.s.wrong.sound-spelling seleborn].
* [.s ch] is close to the raspy sound of Scottish [.gd loch] or German [.de Bach]. In Tolkien's own pronunciation, it was more or less like [.s h] with the tongue raised slightly toward the back of the mouth as if to pronounce [.s k].
* [.s dh] is the [.en th] sound in [.en this].
* [.s f] at the end of a word is pronounced [.s v], as in English [.en of].
* [.s g] is likewise always hard, as in [.en get]; never soft as in [.en gem].
* [.s h] is pronounced like English [.en h], except in the digraphs [.s th], [.s dh], [.s ch], [.s lh], [.s rh], [.s hw].
* [.s hw] is the sound heard in English [.en whale], in varieties of English that distinguish it from [.en wail].
* [.s l] is always the sound in [.en let], pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth or just behind them. English has another [.en l] sound used at the end of syllables, e.g. [.en tell], in which the tongue is bunched up at the back of the mouth and doesn't touch the teeth. This sound does not occur in Sindarin.
* [.s lh] is the [.cy ll] sound of Welsh [.cy Lloyd]. Put your tongue in a position to say [.en l] and gently exhale as if pronouncing [.en th].
* [.s n] is pronounced identically to English [.en n]. Before [.s c], [.s ch], [.s g], it is pronounced as in [.en think] - that is, like the [.en ng] sound in [.en thing].
* [.s ng] at the beginning or end of a word is pronounced as in [.en thing]. Between vowels, it is pronounced as the same sound plus [.s g], as in [.en finger].
* [.s ph] is as in English [.en phone]. Between vowels, it represents the same sound held for slightly longer, e.g. in [[.s.attested ephel] "outer fence"](^LotR/E:392).
* [.s r] is tapped, as in Spanish, or as in [Tolkien's own pronunciation of English](^http://www.jrrvf.com/~glaemscrafu/english/tolkienhimselflotrhob.html). It is never articulated in the back of the throat as in French or German - reportedly the Elves found this sound ["distasteful"](^RotK:392 Appendix E).
* [.s th] is always the sound in [.en thin], never the sound in [.en this], which is represented in Sindarin by [.s dh].
* [.s rh] is the [.cy rh] of Welsh [.cy Rhiannon]. Pronounce a Sindarin [.s r], but simultaneously exhale as if pronouncing [.s h].

Sindarin has certain sequences of sounds which are not found in English.

* [.s w] can occur at the end of a word: [.s.re têw] "letter", [[.s.att tîw] "letters"](^LotR/E:395), [[.s.post gwaew] "wind"](^LR/Ety:WĀ).
* [.s ng] can appear at the beginning of a word: [[.s.attested di-nguruthos]](^LotR:TODO) ["in the shadow of death"](^Letters:278).
* Clusters [.s mr], [.s ml] are possible at the beginning of a word: [.s am mrôg] "for a bear", [.s am mlabed] "for flapping"

## Phrasebook

* **_Mae govannen!_** -:- "Well met!"
* _Suilad_ -:- "Greetings"
* _Gîl síla nan govaded vín_ -:- "A star shines on our meeting"
* _Gîl síla na lû govaded vín_ -:- "A star shines on the hour of our meeting"
* _Elo!_ -:- "Wow!"
* _A tiro i ngîl!_ -:- "Look at the stars!"
* _Henach i ven?_ -:-
* _Na van bâd i ven hen?_
* _Calo Anor na men lín_ -:- "May the sun shine on your road"
* _Cuio vae!_ -:- "Farewell!"

## The Tengwar

The [.q tengwar] (Quenya for "signs") are the best-known elvish writing system. They are a versatile script, well-suited to elvish languages but also adaptable to other uses (the inscription on the One Ring used tengwar, but was in the Black Speech of Mordor). One effect of this versatility was that the elves developed multiple styles of writing Sindarin with tengwar. Three of these styles, called _modes_, are known: the **Mode of Beleriand**, the **Mode of Gondor**, and the **Consonantal Mode**. I will cover each of them in a later section.

First, however, I will discuss a very different adaptation of the elvish script: the use of tengwar to write in English. There are a few reasons why I think this is the best way to start learning the tengwar, the main one being that if you're reading the chapters of this book in order, you don't yet know any Sindarin words, so learning how to write Sindarin in tengwar at this stage is not very useful. Additionally, the tengwar are very different from our alphabet, not just in their shapes but in the way the whole writing system is organized, and learning how those differences apply to a familiar language like English will be much easier than trying to figure them out in a language you don't know yet. And finally, if you want to introduce your friends to tengwar-writing, they will probably not have the patience to learn Sindarin, but they might be interested having a secret code to write English.

### The English Mode



<table class="tengwar-table">
  <tr>
    <td>[.en a]</td>
    <td>[.en b]</td>
    <td>[.en c/k]</td>
    <td>[.en ch]</td>
    <td>[.en d]</td>
    <td>[.en e]</td>
    <td>[.en f/ph]</td>
    <td>[.en g]</td>
    <td>[.en h]</td>
    <td>[.en hw]</td>
    <td>[.en i]</td>
    <td>[.en j]</td>
    <td>[.en l]</td>
    <td>[.en m]</td>
    <td>[.en n]</td>
    <td>[.en ng]</td>
    <td>[.en o]</td>
    <td>[.en p]</td>
    <td>[.en qu]</td>
    <td>[.en r]</td>
    <td>[.en s], or [.en c] as in [.en cell]</td>
    <td>[.en sh]</td>
    <td>[.en t]</td>
    <td>[.en th] as in [.en thing]</td>
    <td>[.en th] as in [.en this]</td>
    <td>[.en u]</td>
    <td>[.en v]</td>
    <td>[.en w]</td>
    <td>[.en x/ks]</td>
    <td>[.en y]</td>
    <td>[.en z], or [.en s] as in [.en dogs]</td>
  </tr>
</table>

With the help of the list above, you can try deciphering this text:

[.t.text.center 4l 7l1.75 hr 4l z&#96;Bb = w~B f=7=7= 1hjz&#96;Bl5 - wl`Bb 4l 3&#96;B72 q&#93;71 hr 4l jh72 hr 4l 7&#96;Bb,]

As you work on that, you'll probably see some differences between tengwar and our alphabet:

* A single [.q tengwa] often corresponds to two letters in English: [.t b] is used for [.en ng].
* Which tengwa is used for a particular letter depends on the sound of that letter. There is no single tengwa for [.en c] - you have to use [.t z] or [.t i], depending on whether the [.en c] sounds like [.en k] or [.en s].
* Similar sounds have similar tengwar - the signs for [.en s] and [.en sh] are rotated versions of each other; [.en th] is formed from [.en t] by extending the stem of the [.q tengwa] up rather than down. Doubling the curved bow of a letter adds vibration of the vocal cords to the sound (in linguistic terms, adding _voice_), turning [.en t] into [.en d], [.en ch] into [.en j], and [.en s] into [.en z].

These correspondences between the shape of the letters and their sound are central to the tengwar writing system. The traditional arrangement of the tengwar, shown below, highlights this by grouping the letters together by sound. The four vertical columns, called [.q témar] in Quenya, are named, from left to right, [.q tincotéma] (T-series), [.q parmatéma] (P-series), [.q calmatéma] (K-series), and [.q quessetéma] (Q-series).

[.figure-title The _Tengwar_]

<table class="tengwar-table">
  <tr>
    <td></td>
    <td colspan="5"><b><em>témar</em></b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td rowspan="7"><b><em>[.vertical tyeller]&nbsp;</em></b></td>
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