Elvish languages (Middle-earth)

For Elvish languages in general, see Elvish languages.

J. R. R. Tolkien constructed many Elvish languages. These were the languages spoken by the tribes of his Elves. Tolkien was a philologist by profession, and spent much time on his constructed languages. The Elvish languages were the first thing he imagined for his secondary world. Tolkien said that his stories grew out of his languages. Tolkien also created scripts for his Elvish languages, of which the best known are the Sarati, the Tengwar, and the Cirth.

External history

J. R. R. Tolkien began to construct his first Elvin tongue c. 1910–1911 while he was at the King Edward's School, Birmingham and which he later named Quenya (c. 1915). At that time, Tolkien was already familiar with Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and several ancient Germanic languages, Gothic, Old Norse and Old English. He had invented several cryptographic codes (one called Animalic), and two or three constructed languages (one called Naffarin). He then discovered Finnish, which he described many years later as "like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."^[1] He had started his study of the Finnish language to be able to read the Kalevala epic.

The ingredients in Quenya are various, but worked out into a self-consistent character not precisely like any language that I know. Finnish, which I came across when I first begun to construct a 'mythology' was a dominant influence, but that has been much reduced [now in late Quenya]. It survives in some features: such as the absence of any consonant combinations initially, the absence of the voiced stops b, d, g (except in mb, nd, ng, ld, rd, which are favoured) and the fondness for the ending -inen, -ainen, -oinen, also in some points of grammar, such as the inflexional endings -sse (rest at or in), -nna (movement to, towards), and -llo (movement from); the personal possessives are also expressed by suffixes; there is no gender.^[2]

Tolkien with his Quenya pursued a double aesthetic goal: "classical and inflected".^[3] This urge, in fact, was the motivation for his creation of a 'mythology'. While the language developed, he needed speakers, history for the speakers and all real dynamics, like war and migration: "It was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of ‘history’ for Elvish tongues".^[4]

The Elvish languages underwent countless revisions in grammar, mostly in conjugation and the pronominal system. The Elven vocabulary was not subject to sudden or extreme change; except during the first conceptual stage c. 1910–c. 1920. Tolkien sometimes changed the "meaning" of an Elvish word, but he almost never disregarded it once invented, and he kept on refining its meaning, and countlessly forged new synonyms. Moreover, Elven etymology was in a constant flux. Tolkien delighted in inventing new etymons for his Elvish vocabulary.

From the onset, Tolkien used comparative philology and the tree model as his major tools in his constructed languages. He usually started with the phonological system of the proto-language and then proceeded in inventing for each daughter languages the many mechanisms of sound change needed.

I find the construction and the interrelation of the languages an aesthetic pleasure in itself, quite apart from The Lord of the Rings, of which it was/is in fact independent.^[5]

In the early 30s Tolkien decided that the proto-language of the Elves was Valarin, the tongue of the gods or Valar: "The language of the Elves derived in the beginning from the Valar, but they change it even in the learning, and moreover modified and enriched it constantly at all times by their own invention."^[6] In his Comparative Tables^[7] Tolkien describes the mechanisms of sound change in the following daughter languages: Qenya, Lindarin (a dialect of Qenya), Telerin, Old Noldorin (or Fëanorian), Noldorin (or Gondolinian), Ilkorin (esp. of Doriath), Danian of Ossiriand, East Danian, Taliska, West Lemberin, North Lemberin, and East Lemberin.

In his lifetime J.R.R. Tolkien never ceased to experiment on his constructed languages, and they were subjected to many revisions. They had many grammars with substantial differences between different stages of development. After the publication of The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), the grammar rules of his major Elvish languages Quenya, Telerin and Sindarin went through very few changes (this is late Elvish 1954–1973).

Publication of linguistic papers

Two magazines (Vinyar Tengwar, from issue 39 in July 1998, and Parma Eldalamberon, from issue 11 in 1995) are exclusively devoted to the editing and publishing of J.R.R. Tolkien's gigantic mass of previously unpublished linguistic papers (even those not published by Christopher Tolkien in "The History of Middle-earth"). Almost each year, new Elvish words are published and the grammar rules of the Elvish languages are disclosed. Access to the unpublished documents is severely limited, and the editors have yet not published a comprehensive catalogue of the unpublished linguistic papers they are working on.

Internal history

Internal history of elvish languages.

The Elvish languages are a family of several related languages and dialects. Here is set briefly the story of the Elvish languages as conceived by Tolkien c. 1965. They all originated from:

• Primitive Quendian, also called Quenderin, the proto-language of all the Elves who awoke together in the Far-East of Middle-earth, Cuiviénen, and began "naturally" to make a language.

All the Elvish languages are presumed to be descendants of this common ancestor.

Tolkien invented two subfamilies (subgroups) of the Elvish languages. "The language of the Quendelie (Elves) was thus very early sundered into the branches Eldarin and Avarin".^[8]

• Avarin is the language of various Elves of the Second and Third Clans, who refused to come to Valinor.
  • Avarin developed into at least six Avarin languages.
• Common Eldarin is the language of the three clans of the Eldar during the Great March to Valinor. It developed into:
  • Quenya, the language of the Elves in Eldamar beyond the Sea; it divided into:
    • Vanyarin Quenya (also Quendya), colloquial speech of the Vanyar, the Elves of the First Clan;
    • Noldorin Quenya (and later Exilic Quenya), colloquial speech of the Noldor, the Elves of the Second Clan.
  • Common Telerin, the early language of all the Teleri
    • Telerin, the language of the Teleri, Elves of the Third Clan, living in Tol Eressëa and Alqualondë.
    • Nandorin, the language of the Nandor, a branch of the Third Clan.
      • Nandorin developed into various Nandorin and Silvan languages.
    • Sindarin is the language of the Sindar, a branch of the Third Clan, who dwelt in Beleriand. Its dialects include:
      • Doriathrin, in Doriath;
      • Falathrin, in the Falas of Beleriand;
      • North Sindarin, in Dorthonion and Hithlum;
      • Noldorin Sindarin, spoken by the Exiled Noldor.

The acute accent (á, é, í, ó, ú) or circumflex accent (â, ê, î, ô, û, ŷ) marks long vowels in the Elvish languages. When writing Common Eldarin forms, Tolkien often used the macron to indicate long vowels. The diaeresis (ä, ë, ö) is normally used to show that a short vowel is to be separately pronounced, that it is not silent or part of a diphthong. For example, the last four letters of Ainulindalë represent two syllables, rather than the English word dale, and the first three letters of Eärendil represent two syllables rather than the English word ear.

Internal development of the Elvish word for "Elves"

Below is a family tree of the Elvish languages, showing how the Primitive Quendian word kwendī "people" (later meaning "Elves") was altered in the descendant languages.^[9]

Fictional philology

There is a tradition of philological study of Elvish languages within the fiction. Elven philologists are referred to by the Quenya term Lambengolmor. In Quenya, lambe means spoken language or verbal communication.

The older stages of Quenya were, and doubtless still are, known to the loremasters of the Eldar. It appears from these notices that besides certain ancient songs and compilations of lore that were orally preserved, there existed also some books and many ancient inscriptions.^[13]

Known members of the Lambengolmor were Rúmil, who invented the first Elvish script (the Sarati), Fëanor who later enhanced and further developed this script into his Tengwar, which later was spread to Middle-earth by the Exiled Noldor and remained in use ever after, and Pengolodh, who is credited with many works, including the Osanwe-kenta and the Lhammas or "The 'Account of Tongues' which Pengolodh of Gondolin wrote in later days in Tol-eressëa".^[14]

Independently of the Lambengolmor, Daeron of Doriath invented the Cirth or Elvish-runes. These were mostly used for inscriptions, and later were replaced by the Tengwar, except among the Dwarves.

Pronunciation of Quenya and Sindarin

Sindarin and Quenya have a very similar pronunciation. The following table gives pronunciation for each letter or cluster in international phonetic script and examples:

Vowels

Consonants (differing from English)

• The letter c always denotes [k], even before i and e; for instance, Celeborn is pronounced Keleborn, and Cirth is pronounced Kirth; thus, it never denotes the soft c [*s] in cent.
• The letter g always denotes the hard [ɡ], as in give, rather than the soft form [*d͡ʒ], as in gem.
• The letter r denotes an alveolar trill [r], similar to Spanish rr.
• The digraph dh, as in Caradhras, denotes [ð] as in English this.
• The digraph ch, as in Orch, denotes [x] as in German ach, and never like the ch [*t͡ʃ] in English chair.
• The digraph lh denotes [ɬ] as in Welsh ll, a cross between "h" and "l".

Elvish scripts

Most samples of the Elvish language done by Tolkien were written out with the Latin alphabet, but within the fiction Tolkien imagined many writing systems for his Elves. The best-known are the "tengwar of Fëanor", but the first system he created, c. 1919, is the "tengwar of Rúmil", also called the sarati.

List of known Elvish scripts devised by Tolkien

In chronological order :

1. Tengwar of Rúmil or Sarati
2. Gondolinic Runes (Runes used in the city of Gondolin)
3. Valmaric script
4. Andyoqenya
5. Qenyatic
6. Tengwar of Fëanor
7. The Cirth of Daeron

Internal history of the scripts

Prior to their exile, the Elves of the Second Clan (the Noldor) used first the sarati of Rúmil to record their tongue, Quenya. In Middle-earth, Sindarin was first recorded using the "Elvish runes" or cirth, named later certar in Quenya. A runic inscription in Quenya was engraved on the sword of Aragorn (II), Andúril.

See also

• Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien
• A Elbereth Gilthoniel
• Entish
• Namárië
• Oromëan

References

External links

• Elvish.org FAQ – Article by Carl F. Hostetter. Succinct citations of Tolkien's own views of the purpose, completeness and usability of his languages.
• "Elvish as She Is Spoke" – Article by Carl F. Hostetter. A thorough examination of Tolkien's purposes in inventing his Elvish languages and his practices in describing them, their consequent nature, and the inherent pitfalls in any attempt to "speak Elvish". Republished with permission from The Lord of the Rings 1954–2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder (Marquette, 2006), ed. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull.
• So You Want to Learn Elvish? – discussion on problems with Tolkienian Elvish
• The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship: Publishes the journals Parma Eldalamberon, Tengwestië, and Vinyar Tengwar
• Learn Tengwar and Sarati
• Elvish fonts for T_EX
• Elvish fonts for Windows