First off, there are no indefinite articles (words for "a" or "an"), because indefiniteness isn't marked in Sindarin.
The first thing you are going to learn is one of the more simple but deceptively difficult things in Indo-European languages, which Tolkien took a look at and said, "Why not make this even harder?" So he did.
In Sindarin, there are singular and plural words for "the." They are:
Singular "the" - i
Plural "the" - in
We'll cover how to use the plural "the" in the The Plural Nouns lesson, so ignore that for now.
What makes using "the" difficult is something that will be dogging your every step in Sindarin: Prestanneth, or in English: Mutation. Prestanneth changes the consonants at the beginnings and ends of words. There are many types of it, and I'll introduce you to them as they come up. Here's a link to a handy all-in-one prestanneth chart that you can print out and keep close to your side when translating.
Singular "the" causes Vocalic Mutation, which is also referred to as "Soft Mutation" or "Lenition." It only changes the beginnings of the words, and only if they are the following consonants. Consonants not on this list and vowels aren't changed.
| Letter | → | Result | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless Stops | |||
| C | → | G | cerin → i gerin the mound |
| P | → | B | perian → i berian the hobbit |
| T | → | D | talan → i dalan the tree-house |
| Voiced Stops | |||
| B | → | V | brith → i vrith the gravel |
| D | → | DH | dîn → i dhîn the silence |
| G | → | ' | glân → i 'lân the hem |
| Fricatives | |||
| H | → | CH | ham → i cham the chair |
| S | → | H | sigil → i higil the necklace |
| Nasal | |||
| M | → | V | mirian → i virian the silver coin |
| Voiceless Approximants | |||
| HW | → | CHW | hwand → i chwand the sponge |
| LH | → | THL | lhewig → i thlewig the ear |
| RH | → | THR | rhoss → i thross the whisper |
| Ancient Nasal-Stops | |||
| B | → | M | bauglir → i mauglir the tyrant |
| D | → | N | dîr → i nîr the man |
| G | → | Ñ | golovir → i ñolovir the Silmaril |
The section called "Ancient Nasal-Stops" is for words whose ancient roots began with MB, ND, or NG. The M and N has dropped out of these consonant clusters at the beginnings of words, but their effects are still felt in the language. When listed in word lists or dictionaries, they're often writen with a (m) or (n) before them.
Example
- (n)dî - woman
- dî - a woman
- i nî - the woman