1. THE ARTICLES
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 theElf-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 theNightingale', 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 triggerslenition 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.
Lesson 03: The Noun; Lesson 04: Plural Nouns; Lesson 05: The Plural Nouns; Lesson 06: Aorist Tense; Lesson 07: Nouns with Adjectives; Lesson 08: The Noun with 'Of' Lesson 09: The Copula; Lesson 10: Helping Verbs; Lesson 11: Words with Conjunctions; Lesson 12: Imperative Verbs; Lesson 13: Class Plural -ath; Lesson 14: Past Tense A-verbs; Lesson.
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 Firnis plural; the reading Dor Gyrth i chuinar from a very late letter (1972) is to be preferred).
- Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. Tolkien, and used in his fictional universe, often called Middle-earth. Here are presented a resume of the grammatical rules of late Quenya as established from Tolkien's writings c. It is almost impossible to extrapolate the morphological rules of the Quenya tongue from published data because Quenya is a fictional irregular.
- Thank you for all the supportive messages. I felt like making a video today, the sun was out and everyone has been so great so I thought I'd tre.
- Lesson 19 - Verbs (Past tense) Parts 5-7 This lesson first looks at the endings you need to use with A-stem verbs when the verb you are using has an intransitive meaning, then moves on to some irregular endings you need to be aware of.
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.
IMPORTANT LINK YOU WILL NEED FOR THIS PLURAL LESSON:
Most Sindarin plurals are formed by vowel changes. These changes are called “umlaut” in English …. “prestanneth” (‘affection’ of vowels) in Sindarin. Some examples of this in English would be: goose > geese, mouse > mice.
Below is a smaller version of the Mutations Chart showing the plural changes in yellow for NON-FINAL and FINAL (or monosyllabic words) syllables. Keeping the larger form of this chart at your computer will put the information quickly at your fingertips for this plural lesson and all the mutation lessons combined.
NOTE that not all of the vowels and diphthongs in a word change.
The exceptions for NON-final vowels are: E, I, Y, EI, UI, AI, AE.
The exceptions for FINAL vowels are: I, Y, Ý, AE, AI, EI, UI.
With your chart at the computer, there is no pressure to memorize these …. they will become habit with time.
The exceptions for NON-final vowels are: E, I, Y, EI, UI, AI, AE.
The exceptions for FINAL vowels are: I, Y, Ý, AE, AI, EI, UI.
With your chart at the computer, there is no pressure to memorize these …. they will become habit with time.
Below are some examples of NON-FINAL syllable vowel changes, shown with capital letters. The final (and monosyllabic) changes are also shown, but not capitalized. They are highlighted in the next set of examples.
a > e … AdAnAdar > EdEnEdair
e > e … Edhel > Edhil
i > i … Ithron > Ithryn
o > e … Onod > Enyd
ó > ó … gÓdhel > gÓdhil
u > y … tUlus > tYlys
y > y … Ylfdan > Ylfdain
au > oe … tAUron > tOEryn
ae > ae … hAEred > hAErid
ai > ai … ———--
ei > ei … EIthel > EIthil
ui > ui … cUInar > cUInair
a > e … AdAnAdar > EdEnEdair
e > e … Edhel > Edhil
i > i … Ithron > Ithryn
o > e … Onod > Enyd
ó > ó … gÓdhel > gÓdhil
u > y … tUlus > tYlys
y > y … Ylfdan > Ylfdain
au > oe … tAUron > tOEryn
ae > ae … hAEred > hAErid
ai > ai … ———--
ei > ei … EIthel > EIthil
ui > ui … cUInar > cUInair
Below are some examples of FINAL vowel or MONOSYLLABIC (word only has one syllable) changes:
a (with 1 consonant following it) > ai … dAm > dAIm
~~ REMEMBER that dh, th, ch are single consonants when considering which “A” rule to apply ~~
a (with 2 or more consonants following it) > e … nArn > nErn
e > i … edhEl > edhIl
é/ê > í/ î … tÊw > tÎw
ie > i … minIEl > mínIl
i > i … sigIl > sigIl
o > y … Orch > Yrch
ó/ô > ý … bÔr > bÝr
io > y … thalIOn > thelYn
u > y … tulUs > tylYs
ú/û > ui … lhÛg > lhUIg
y > y … Ylf > Ylf
ý > ý … mÝl > mÝl
au > oe … nAUg > nOEg
ae > ae … AEw > AEw
ai > ai … andAIth > endAIth
ei > ei … rEIn > rEIn
ui > ui … lUIn>lUIn
a (with 1 consonant following it) > ai … dAm > dAIm
~~ REMEMBER that dh, th, ch are single consonants when considering which “A” rule to apply ~~
a (with 2 or more consonants following it) > e … nArn > nErn
e > i … edhEl > edhIl
é/ê > í/ î … tÊw > tÎw
ie > i … minIEl > mínIl
i > i … sigIl > sigIl
o > y … Orch > Yrch
ó/ô > ý … bÔr > bÝr
io > y … thalIOn > thelYn
u > y … tulUs > tylYs
ú/û > ui … lhÛg > lhUIg
y > y … Ylf > Ylf
ý > ý … mÝl > mÝl
au > oe … nAUg > nOEg
ae > ae … AEw > AEw
ai > ai … andAIth > endAIth
ei > ei … rEIn > rEIn
ui > ui … lUIn>lUIn
Let’s go back and look at the word aran “king” for a second. Because A becomes E in the initial syllable, and because A becomes AI in the final syllable you end up with erain “kings”.
Let’s look at some more examples:
Aran – non final syllable: Ar (a>e) final syllable: an (a>ai) = Erain
Edhel – non final syllable: Edh (e>e) , el (e>i) = Edhil
Naug – one syllable: Naug (au>oe) = Noeg
Orch – one syllable Orch (o>y) = Yrch
Gwachaedir – non final syllable: Gwa (a>e) non final syllable: chae (ae>ae) Final syllable: dir (i>i) = Gwechaedir
Edhel – non final syllable: Edh (e>e) , el (e>i) = Edhil
Naug – one syllable: Naug (au>oe) = Noeg
Orch – one syllable Orch (o>y) = Yrch
Gwachaedir – non final syllable: Gwa (a>e) non final syllable: chae (ae>ae) Final syllable: dir (i>i) = Gwechaedir
How To Speak Sindarin Elvish
Plurals that look the same as Singulars
Sindarin Translator
Some Sindarin words look the same in the singular and plural. In these cases, context (the way a word is used in a sentence) dictates which form is intended by the author.
Examples:
aew > bird, aew > birds
sigil > dagger, sigil > daggers
Examples:
aew > bird, aew > birds
sigil > dagger, sigil > daggers