When it comes to Sindarin syntax, very little is stated in Tolkien’s writings about sentence-wide structure. Tolkien went into depth on the structures of noun phrases, on the mutations that mark phrases, and so on. But sentence syntax? That’s always been a bit of a mystery.

We’ve always known that Sindarin sentence syntax must be stricter than Quenya’s, since noun cases are often unmarked or invisible. And there seems to be patterns, so there must be a guiding idea at work. But there are all these exceptions – or what appear to be exceptions.

With the publication of Parma Eldalamberon #22 pages 81-83, we may finally have that glimpse beyond the curtain.

And, of course, it’s not about Sindarin, but the language Sindarin descends from: Common Eldarin. In its context, this tidbit was added in red pen to a text Tolkien was working on: Quenya Verb Structure.

The normal order in Eldarin was with pronouns as with nouns… subject : indirect object : object. “give the man a book” : “give him it.” The subject usually preceded the verb, so that the normal order of a simple sentence was The man / he, (to) him, gives it.
-J. R. R. Tolkien, Parma Eldalamberon #22 page 82

Then, another note written in a margin with red ink speaks on how the subject pronoun ended up suffixed onto a verb, when it used to precede it.

It seems fairly clear that in a normal simple sentence the verbal form was placed as near the beginning as possible, though particles, prefixes or simple adverbal forms that qualified the verbal notions could proceed it. The Subject normally followed, but if it was displaced and put earlier for special emphasis the appropriate pronominal element was often (not always) placed next [?] after the verb, so that the normal order of a simple sentence was: Gives man it me or Man gives he it me.
-J. R. R. Tolkien, Parma Eldalamberon #22 page 82

The examples here contradict what he’d said before, meaning that he was still forming his ideas on this topic, and they needed some refinement. So, he came up with an explanation.

The indirect object, contrary to modern English use, usually followed the direct object, though this order appears not to have been rigidly fixed, and where the indirect object was personal (or ‘animate’) and the direct was ‘inanimate’, the personal or animate noun could come first.
-J. R. R. Tolkien, Parma Eldalamberon #22 page 82

And no, we don’t get anything further on this topic because it’s unfinished. Remember, Tolkien was doing this for his own enjoyment, not for our consumption. If there’s more to this, it’s either not published yet, in a lost note, or vanished with Tolkien’s passing.

Let’s make this into a more visual format so you can more easily see what’s going on.

The verb is floating around the sentence, but there’s a preference for putting it at the beginning of the sentence. Where it is is connected to what you’re trying to emphasize. Thus, the order of the subject, object, and indirect object is more important.

Subject : Object : Indirect Object.

Then, whether or not the objects are animate (something capable of moving itself and acting on other things, like a person) or inanimate (something incapable of doing anything, only being acted upon, like a book) affects the word order as well, making it freer. After all, a person can’t be given to a book.

Subject : Animate Indirect Object : Inanimate Object.

Let’s look at a bunch of Sindarin sentences and see how they compare, also taking note of when there is a dative case marker on the indirect object and where the verb is. I’ve selected only sentences that have objects and/or indirect objects.

I dropped the adverbal phrases that aren’t relevant to the structure that we’re studying to save space. This means that the mutations won’t make any sense, so bear with me. The dataset of Sindarin phrases and sentences comes from Paul Strack’s Eldamo. Go there to see the full versions of the sentences.

Verb First:

“give to us the bread…”

“do it…”

“forgive for us the sins…”

“open for us”

“they do sins to us”

“we forgive they who…”

“I gave the Hope to Man”

“say friend”

“Said Rían to Túor: What …”

“Guard me.”

“I didn’t keep Hope for myself.”

When the verb is at the beginning of the sentence, the only time the indirect object doesn’t have a case marker is when it is placed last, in “Ónen i·Estel Edain.” Pronouns always have case markers following a verb – mutation, oblique case where it applies, and the dative preposition “an.”

Verb Middle:

“Aragorn will approach the Brandywine River”

“Celebrimbor wrote the letters”

“He wants to greet friends”

“He wants to see the Mayor”

“My heart says to me…”

“to you I cry: Oh…”

“Fire [is] for saving for us”

When singing or crying out to the Valar, the “to you” is emphasized and placed before the verb without any case markers, (that we can see – L doesn’t lenite) while the more neutral-emphasis on “to me” or “to Túor” is after the verb and also has case markers.

Verb Last:

“they ?should? call Fullwise”

“Narvi shaped those”

“to you I will sing”

“to you I sing”

“what have we done?

The verb floats around the sentence based on what is being emphasized, so I’ve put all of the places that the verb can go in (parentheses). If the subject isn’t a suffixed pronoun and there’s an object, the word order is almost always:

(Verb) : Subject : (Verb) : Object : (Verb)

If both object and indirect object have the same level of animacy or inanimacy, the order is:

(Verb) : Subject : (Verb) : Direct Object : Indirect Object (Verb)

With an animate indirect object and inanimate direct object, the word order is this:

(Verb) : Subject : (Verb) : Animate Indirect Object : (Verb) Inanimate Direct Object (Verb).

If the sentence contains a quotation, the quotation always goes last.

(Verb) : Subject : (Verb) : Indirect Object : (Verb) : Quotation.

Conclusions:

These statements about Common Eldarin sentence structure still apply to Sindarin. And, prior to previous conclusions of mine, independent pronouns aren’t treated differently from nouns.

The only thing different about pronouns is that they have an extra form that the nouns don’t: oblique forms. What was a dative marker in Common Eldarin became an oblique marker in pronouns – the Sindarin family of languages preferring cases to be marked with prepositions instead of suffixes.

But, this idea of oblique forms doesn’t seem entirely fixed. Let’s look at “Gúren bêd enni” a moment. This is a phrase designed to have been said in one way, then chipped away at until its current form. In Common Eldarin, it could have looked like this:

* Gōrē-niyā kweti an-ni…

Or like this:

*Gōrē-niyā kweti nin…

The first became the phrase in Sindarin, the second in Quenya.

In Sindarin’s history, the oblique form was added later on, marking just how ancient the phrase is.

But what about the “le”s in “le nallon,” “le linnon,” and “le linnathon”? Are they in the older root form, or in the oblique form? The answer is, in Common Eldarin this word was probably in the dative case, looking something like:

Ni den lindā.

It’s possible that the -n was reanalyzed as marking object pronouns, hence “tiro nin” and “caro den.”

That naked -N probably caused mutation. But, it’d be invisible in the attested phrases, which have verbs starting in L and N.

That covers the unmarked dative pronouns before the verbs, what about the accusative pronouns before the verbs, “Man agorech” and “hain echant”? We’re out of luck – they’re before verbs starting in vowels, so we can’t tell if there’d be any mutation.

While we’re talking about mutation – what about mutating the verb when it directly follows its noun or independent pronoun subject? I recall this being in Thorsten Renk’s course, though our only example is “Guren bêd enni.” I could see this both ways, actually, based on the fact there’s actually no evidence to make this decision. Our only examples of a subject directly before a verb “Guren bêd” and “e aníra” are useless. The first is supposed to be an ancient phrase worn down by time and “gōrēniyā” definitely ends in a vowel which would have triggered vocalic mutation whether or not a new rule emerged linking subjects and verbs with lenition. And “e aníra” has the verb starting in a vowel.

But, the idea does make a certain amount of sense. Lenition no longer marks only the accusative case, but links parts of phrases together, letting you know that the lenited word is part of the same phrase that the word immediately preceding it is. Looking at it like that… it’s definitely a Sindarin-sort of thing to do, isn’t it? But that’s not enough to make such a decision.

For now, I’m going to go with a new set of recommendations for my fellow Neo-Sindarinists.

When in doubt, it’s probably mutated.

If a noun or independent pronoun directly precedes the verb – lenite the verb. If there’s an adjective or possessive pronoun or adverb or prepositional phrase or anything between them – the subject doesn’t cause mutation.

Examples:
Celebrimbor deithant i thîw hin.
Celebrimbor istui teithant i thîw hin.
Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thîw hin.
Ni deithant i thîw hin.

If an oblique pronoun is placed directly before a verb for emphasis, it will cause nasal mutation thanks to the -N on it.

Examples:
Celebrimbor hi theithant.
Celebrimbor deithant hin.
Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant hin.
Celebrimbor o Eregion hi theithant.

Only the direct object can move about the sentence always lenited. Unless it’s being extra emphasized like in “MAN agorech?” (WHAT have we done?)

The verb floats around the sentence based on what you want to emphasize. A neutral order would probably be “Subject Verb Object Indirect Object,” with the verb moving around to change the emphasis, not the nouns, unless it’s the animate/inanimate order switching, which always has both with their case markers.

Anyways. I have some rewriting of almost my entire phrasebook to do. And the syntax chapters of A Fan’s Guide to Neo-Sindarin. And Gelio Edhellen. (Don’t let the tone fool you, I’m actually really excited about this, and I spent the rest of the day editing my phrasebook databases in preparation for re-uploading them when the Gelio Edhellen! edits come out. Just gotta test drive this fancy new grammar I’ve got here.)

Edited to Add

There’s some archives of forum posts I thought long lost going over several of these topics.

Lenite the verb after the subject:

Re: [elfling] Lenition of verb following subject by Helge K. Fauskanger Sat, 27 Oct 2001

Re: [elfling] Sindarin Primer sentences by Thorsten Renk Sun, 22 Feb 2004

About Oblique case on Dative Pronouns before the verb:

Post by Александр Запрягаев Jul 31, 2016

Post by Александр Запрягаев Jul 28, 2018 

Also, for the a section on how mutations act on the sentences – I completely forgot to factor in intransitive verbs. Consider the stuff about mutation up in the air – but the word order when dealing with indirect and direct objects – that still stands.