The purpose of this series is to compile a list of Elvish (Quenya and Sindarin) words and expressions that can be a potential source of confusion and are often used incorrectly in Neo-Elvish writings. The abbreviations used here for sources are adopted from Eldamo : Reference Index. TEW 1 –
Articles
Articles about Tolkien’s languages and the research into them.
Sindarin Stress — A muta cum liquida rule?
In Appendix E, Tolkien described Sindarin (and Quenya) stress as follows: In words of two syllables it falls in practically all cases on the first syllable. In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by
How to List the Children of Master Samwise Properly
A PDF version of the article can be found here. The King’s Letter from the omitted epilogue to The Lord of the Rings, written in the early 1950s, is one of the most significant Sindarin texts, and a long-known one. There are four versions of the letter, which were published at
Revisiting Old Ideas about Word Order in Sindarin Sentences
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
Conceptual History of Mae Govannen “Well Met”
The phrase mae govannen “well met” is the best known Sindarin greeting, used by Glorfindel when greeting Aragorn west of Rivendell. For the meaning of the elements of this name, see the discussion below. Conceptual Development: This phrase appeared in Lord of the Rings drafts as N. mai govannen “well
Challenges in Translating Names from Our World
Translating names from our world into Tolkien’s elven languages is difficult. It’s difficult for a lot of reasons, some that you probably didn’t realize. This is also why I deleted the “Names from Our World” namelist, and switched to handling the names on an individual basis. Names often have very