This word analysis focuses on two opposing concepts: “before” and “after”. These saw numerous vacillations over Tolkien’s life, making it difficult to incorporate them into a coherent paradigm. In English and many other languages, these relationships can be used both temporally and spatially. Temporally, they refer to a sequence of
Update to the FAQs
I’ve added a section to the FAQs called “How do I get the most out of the Neo-Elvish courses?” covering how to teach yourself a language. This is information I’ve gathered from years of learning languages and teaching them, mainly, a lesson that I wish that someone had told me
Teacher-Led Sindarin Course Begins Again!
This has to do with a slow change that I’ve been trying to implement over the past few years. I want to have the beginners’ grammar course be automated, so that this website can serve the more casual interest in Sindarin as well. Then, have the intense paid course focus
Elvish Roots – Approaches to Neo-Elvish
I’ve discussed in other posts how Neo-Elvish reconstructions (Neo-Quenya and Neo-Sindarin) are useful tools for learning and using Tolkien’s languages. Many such reconstruction are widely accepted and not especially controversial. For example, we know there is a Quenya verb har- “to sit, stay” (PE17/162; UT/305). We don’t know its past
Elvish Roots – What is Neo-Elvish and Is It Good or Bad?
This is a repost of an article I put up on the Aglardh site. I am putting a copy here as well because I want to talk about related topics in my next post. Many modern books and web sites that examine Tolkien’s Elvish languages take care to distinguish between
Elvish Roots – Negations
This is a repost of an article I originally published on (soon-to-be defunct) Google+. This word analysis has to do with negations. It is a problem that has been discussed repeatedly. Bill Welden’s wrote up a thorough analysis of the conceptual development of negations in Tolkien’s Elvish languages in VT42,
Elvish Roots – In Defense of Hannon Le
This article is a bit of a departure from my usual writings in this series. It explores a single concept: the basis for “thank you” in Quenya and Sindarin, but veers off into a general discussion on the overall viability of words within Neo-Quenya and Neo-Sindarin. This article only reflects
Elvish Roots – Letters and Writing
Another exploration of words, this time “letter, line, write”. This is a bit different from my previous examinations, since the most of the words in question are not in dispute, but their etymologies underwent quite a few changes. The Eldarin words for “letter” are Q. tengwa and S. têw (WJ/396,
Theme Updated
I finally freshened up the theme and menus! Hopefully everything will be easier to find now. This new theme allows me to have multiple menues, which allows for a much more organized appearance. I’d been planning on making this update for months now, but the holidays happened and I managed
Lesson 22 Quiz is up!
The lesson #22 quiz for Gelio Edhellen! 100 is up and running, and ready for beta testing. As usual, let me know if you find any problems with the quizzes! Elaran, Paul, and I had a lengthy discussion about the words that end in A that came from G, which