When speaking of "of," I'm talking about the possessive "of," not "from," "about," or "concerning."
In Sindarin, there's no word that means just "of." Instead, this is conveyed by word order. We actually do something similar in English sometimes. When we take "of" out of a phrase in English, we switch the order of the nouns.
a cushion of a chair → a chair cushion
In Sindarin, the word order doesn't switch. The second word isn't lenited.
ivor hîr - a crystal of a lord
When dealing with "the" and "of"-phrases or possessives, take into account what "the" is pointing to. Let's look at two phrases, "The king's crystal" and "Reinor's crystal." At first glance, you might think that "the" isn't needed or that it is modifying "king's," but think about how the possessive is constructed in Sindarin. Turn it into an "of"-phrase.
I ivor en-aran - The crystal of the king
I ivor Reinor - The crystal of Reinor
You'll notice en meaning "of the" in that example. This special little preposition is used only in "of the"-phrases, when en goes between the two nouns it is linking. It uses Mixed Mutation. It is often distinguished from similar prepositions by a dash between it and the following word, or sometimes dashes on either side to show the way it links the nouns together.
| EN | → | Result | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless Stops | |||
| EN+C | → | E-G | cerin mound → e-gerin of the mound |
| EN+P | → | E-B | perian hobbit → e-berian of the hobbit |
| EN+T | → | E-D | talath tree-house → e-dalath of the tree-house |
| EN+TR | → | EN-DR | trann Shire → en-drann of the Shire |
| Voiced Stops | |||
| EN+B | → | E-B | bôr vassal → e-bôr of the vassal |
| EN+D | → | E-D | dath abyss → e-dath of the abyss |
| EN+DR | → | EN-DR | draug wolf → en-draug of the wolf |
| EN+G | → | E-G | galadh galadh → e-galadh of the tree |
| EN+GL | → | EÑ-GL | glân hem → eñ-glân of the hem |
| EN+GR | → | EÑ-GR | graw bear → eñ-graw of the bear |
| EN+GW | → | EÑ-GW | gwaun goose → eñ-gwaun of the goose |
| Fricatives | |||
| EN+H | → | E-CH | habar shoe → e-chabar of the shoe |
| EN+S | → | E-H | sigil necklace → e-higil of the necklace |
| EN+TH | → | E-TH | tham hall → e-tham of the hall |
| Nasal | |||
| EN+M | → | E-M | mirian silver coin → e-mirian of the silver coin |
| Voiceless Approximants | |||
| EN+HW | → | E-'W | hwand sponge → e-'wand of the sponge |
| EN+LH | → | E-'L | lhewig ear → e-'lewig of the ear |
| EN+RH | → | E-'R | rhoss whisper → e-'ross of the whisper |
| Voiced Approximants | |||
| EN+L | → | E-L | lass leaf → e-lass of the leaf |
| EN+R | → | EDH-R | raef net → edh-raef of the net |
| Ancient Nasal-Stops | |||
| EN+B | → | E-MB | (m)bauglir tyrant → e-mbauglir of the tyrant |
| EN+D | → | E-ND | (n)dîr man → e-ndîr of the man |
| EN+G | → | E-ÑG | (n)golovir Silmaril → e-ñgolovir of the Silmaril |
The plural of en is in, the exact same as plural "the," and it also uses nasal mutation.
I barth-in-Erais - The Field of the Deer (plural)
I chabad garan eñ-gwend - The maiden's red shoe