APPENDIX E IIIS and represents a sound like that often heard in English hew, huge; h in Quenya eht, tht had the same sound. The sound of English sh, which was common in Westron, was often substituted by speakers of that language. Cf. TY above. HY was usually derived from sy- and khy-; in both cases related Sindarin words show initial h, as in Q. Hyarmen ‘south’, S. Harad. Note that consonants written twice, as zt, l/l, ss, nn, represent long, ‘double’ consonants. At the end of words of more than one syllable these were usually shortened: as in Rohan from Rochann (archaic Rochand). In Sindarin the combinations ng, nd, mb, which were specially favoured in the Eldarin languages at an earlier stage, suffered various changes. mb became m in all cases, but still counted as a long consonant for purposes of stress (see below), and is thus written mm in cases where otherwise the stress might be in doubt.' ng remained unchanged except initially and finally where it became the simple nasal (as in English sing). nd became nn usually, as Ennor ‘Middle-earth’, Q. Endore; but remained nd at the end of fully accented monosyllables such as thond ‘root’ (cf. Morthond ‘Blackroot’), and also before r, as Andros ‘long-foam’. This vd is also seen in some ancient names derived from an older period, such as Nargothrond, Gondolin, Beleriand. In the Third Age final nd in long words had become 7 from mn, as in Ithilien, Rohan, Anorien. VOWELS For vowels the letters 7, e, a, 0, u are used, and (in Sindarin only) y. As far as can be determined the sounds represented by these letters (other than y) were of normal kind, though doubtless many local varieties escape detection.” That is, the sounds were approximately those represented by 1, e, a, 0, u in English machine, were, father, for, brute, irrespective of quantity. In Sindarin long e, a, o had the same quality as the short vowels, being derived in comparatively recent times from them (older é, ad, 6 had been changed). In Quenya long é and 6 were, when correctly? pronounced, as by the Eldar, tenser and ‘closer’ than the short vowels. Sindarin alone among contemporary languages possessed the ‘modified’ or fronted u, more or less as u in French June. It was partly a modification of o and u, partly derived from older diphthongs ew, iu. For this sound y has been used (as in ancient English): as in lpg ‘snake’, Q. leuca, or emyn pl. of amon ‘hill’. In Gondor this y was usually pronounced like 7. * * * ' As in galadhremmin ennorath (p. 238) ‘tree-woven lands of Middle-earth’. Remmirath (p. 81) contains rem ‘mesh’, Q. rembe, + mir ‘jewel’. ? A fairly widespread pronunciation of long é and 6 as ei and ou, more or less as in English say no, both in Westron and in the renderings of Quenya names by Westron speakers, is shown by spellings such as e7, ou (or their equivalents in contemporary scripts). But such pronunciations were regarded as incorrect or rustic. They were naturally usual in the Shire. Those therefore who pronounce yéni unotime ‘long-years innumerable’, as is natural in English (sc. more or less as yainy oonoatimy) will err little more than Bilbo, Meriadoc, or Peregrin. Frodo is said to have shown great ‘skill with foreign sounds’.
III6 THE LORD OF THE RINGS Long vowels are usually marked with the ‘acute accent’, as in some varieties of Féanorian script. In Sindarin long vowels in stressed monosyllables are marked with the circumflex, since they tended in such cases to be specially prolonged;' so in din compared with Diuimadan. The use of the circumflex in other languages such as Adtnaic or Dwarvish has no special significance, and is used merely to mark these out as alien tongues (as with the use of k). Final e is never mute or a mere sign of length as in English. To mark this final e it is often (but not consistently) written é. The groups er, ir, ur (finally or before a consonant) are not intended to be pronounced as in English fern, fir, fur, but rather as English air, eer, oor. In Quenya wi, 01, ai and iu, eu, au are diphthongs (that is, pronounced in one syllable). All other pairs of vowels are dissyllabic. This is often dictated by writing ga (Ea), éo, o€. In Sindarin the diphthongs are written ae, at, ei, oe, ui, and au. Other combinations are not diphthongal. The writing of final au as aw is in accordance with English custom, but is actually not uncommon in Féanorian spellings. All these diphthongs’ were ‘falling’ diphthongs, that is stressed on the first element, and composed of the simple vowels run together. Thus az, e7, ol, ut are intended to be pronounced respectively as the vowels in English rye (not ray), grey, boy, ruin; and au (aw) as in loud, how and not as in laud, haw. There is nothing in English closely corresponding to ae, oe, eu; ae and oe may be pronounced as at, o1. STRESS The position of the ‘accent’ or stress is not marked, since in the Eldarin languages concerned its place is determined by the form of the word. 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 two (or more) consonants. Where the last syllable but one contains (as often) a short vowel followed by only one (or no) consonant, the stress falls on the syllable before it, the third from the end. Words of the last form are favoured in the Eldarin languages, especially Quenya. In the following examples the stressed vowel is marked by a capital letter: isIldur, Orome, erEsséa, fEanor, ancAlima, elentAri, dEnethor, pertAnnath, ecthElion, pelArgir, sillvren. Words of the type elentAri ‘star-queen’ seldom occur in Quenya where the vowel is é, a, 6, unless (as in this case) they are compounds; they are commoner with the vowels {, 1, as andUne ‘sunset, west’. 1 So also in Anniin ‘sunset’, Amriin ‘sunrise’, under the influence of the related din ‘west’, and rhiin ‘east’. ? Originally. But iv in Quenya was in the Third Age usually pronounced as a rising diphthong as yu in English yule.
APPENDIX E III7 They do not occur in Sindarin except in compounds. Note that Sindarin dh, th, ch are single consonants and represent single letters in the original scripts. NOTE In names drawn from other languages than Eldarin the same values for the letters are intended, where not specially described above, except in the case of Dwarvish. In Dwarvish, which did not possess the sounds represented above by th and ch (kh), th and kh are aspirates, that is ¢ or k followed by an h, more or less as in backhand, outhouse. Where z occurs the sound intended is that of English z. gh in the Black Speech and Orkish represents a ‘back spirant’ (related to g as dh to d): as in ghash and agh. The ‘outer’ or Mannish names of the Dwarves have been given Northern forms, but the letter-values are those described. So also in the case of the personal and place-names of Rohan (where they have not been modernized), except that here éa and éo are diphthongs, which may be represented by the ea of English bear, and the eo of Theobald; y is the modified u. The modernized forms are easily recognized and are intended to be pronounced as in English. They are mostly place-names: as Dunharrow (for Dunharg), except Shadowfax and Wormtongue. II WRITING The scripts and letters used in the Third Age were all ultimately of Eldarin origin, and already at that time of great antiquity. They had reached the stage of full alphabetic development, but older modes in which only the consonants were denoted by full letters were still in use. The alphabets were of two main, and in origin independent, kinds: the Tengwar or Tiw, here translated as ‘letters’; and the Certar or Cirth, translated as ‘runes’. The Tengwar were devised for writing with brush or pen, and the squared forms of inscriptions were in their case derivative from the written forms. The Certar were devised and mostly used only for scratched or incised inscriptions. The Tengwar were the more ancient; for they had been developed by the Noldor, the kindred of the Eldar most skilled in such matters, long before their exile. The oldest Eldarin letters, the Tengwar of Rumil, were not used in Middle-earth. The later letters, the Tengwar of Féanor, were largely a new invention, though they owed something to the letters of Rumil. They were brought to Middle-earth by the exiled Noldor, and so became known to the Edain and Numenoreans. In the Third Age their use had spread over much the same area as that in which the Common Speech was known. The Cirth were devised first in Beleriand by the Sindar, and were long used only for inscribing names and brief memorials upon wood or stone. To that origin they owe their angular shapes, very similar to the runes of our times, though they differed from these in details and were wholly different in arrangement. The Cirth in their older and simpler form spread eastward
1118 THE LORD OF THE RINGS in the Second Age, and became known to many peoples, to Men and Dwarves, and even to Orcs, all of whom altered them to suit their purposes and according to their skill or lack of it. One such simple form was still used by the Men of Dale, and a similar one by the Rohirrim. But in Beleriand, before the end of the First Age, the Cirth, partly under the influence of the Tengwar of the Noldor, were rearranged and further developed. Their richest and most ordered form was known as the Alphabet of Daeron, since in Elvish tradition it was said to have been devised by Daeron, the minstrel and loremaster of King Thingol of Doriath. Among the Eldar the Alphabet of Daeron did not develop true cursive forms, since for writing the Elves adopted the Féanorian letters. The Elves of the West indeed for the most part gave up the use of runes altogether. In the country of Eregion, however, the Alphabet of Daeron was maintained in use and passed thence to Moria, where it became the alphabet most favoured by the Dwarves. It remained ever after in use among them and passed with them to the North. Hence in later times it was often called Angerthas Moria or the Long Rune-rows of Moria. As with their speech the Dwarves made use of such scripts as were current and many wrote the Féanorian letters skilfully; but for their own tongue they adhered to the Cirth, and developed written pen-forms from them. @ THE FEANORIAN LETTERS The table shows, in formal book-hand shape, all the letters that were commonly used in the West-lands in the Third Age. The arrangement is the one most usual at the time, and the one in which the letters were then usually recited by name. This script was not in origin an ‘alphabet’: that is, a haphazard series of letters, each with an independent value of its own, recited in a traditional order that has no reference either to their shapes or to their functions.’ It was, rather, a system of consonantal signs, of similar shapes and style, which could be adapted at choice or convenience to represent the consonants of languages observed (or devised) by the Eldar. None of the letters had in itself a fixed value; but certain relations between them were gradually recognized. The system contained twenty-four primary letters, 1-24, arranged in four témar (series), each of which had six tyeller (grades). There were also ‘additional letters’, of which 25—36 are examples. Of these 27 and 29 are the only strictly independent letters; the remainder are modifications of other letters. There was also a number of tehtar (signs) of varied uses. These do not appear in the table.” The primary letters were each formed of a telco (stem) and a luva (bow). ' The only relation in our alphabet that would have appeared intelligible to the Eldar is that between P and B; and their separation from one another, and from F, M, V, would have seemed to them absurd. ? Many of them appear in the examples on the title-page, and in the inscription on p. 50, transcribed on p. 254. They were mainly used to express vowel-sounds, in Quenya usually regarded as modifications of the accompanying consonant; or to express more briefly some of the most frequent consonant combinations.
IIIQ APPENDIX E THE TENGWAR ad 8 @ & 8 ala o vT it So a a Tr nm
II20 THE LORD OF THE RINGS The forms seen in I—4 were regarded as normal. The stem could be raised, as in 9-16; or reduced, as in 17-24. The bow could be open, as in Series I and III; or closed, as in IJ and IV; and in either case it could be doubled, as e.g. in 5-8. The theoretic freedom of application had in the Third Age been modified by custom to this extent that Series I was generally applied to the dental or t-series (tincotéma), and II to the labials or p-series (parmatéma). The application of Series III and IV varied according to the requirements of different languages. In languages like the Westron, which made much use of consonants! such as our ch, j, sh, Series III was usually applied to these; in which case Series IV was applied to the normal k-series (calmatéma). In Quenya, which possessed besides the calmatéma both a palatal series (tyelpetéma) and a labialized series (quessetéma), the palatals were represented by a Féanorian diacritic denoting ‘following y’ (usually two underposed dots), while Series IV was a kw-series. Within these general applications the following relations were also commonly observed. The normal letters, Grade I, were applied to the ‘voiceless stops’: t, p, k, etc. The doubling of the bow indicated the addition of ‘voice’: thus if 1, 2, 3, 4=2, p, ch, k (or t, p, k, Rw) then 5, 6, 7, 8=d, b, j, g (or d, b, g, gw). The raising of the stem indicated the opening of the consonant to a ‘spirant’: thus assuming the above values for Grade 1, Grade 3 (9—12)=th, fs sh, ch (or th, f, kh, khw/hw), and Grade 4 (13-16)=dh, v, zh, gh (or dh, v, gh, ghw/w). The original Féanorian system also possessed a grade with extended stems, both above and below the line. These usually represented aspirated consonants (e.g. tth, pth, kth), but might represent other consonantal variations required. They were not needed in the languages of the Third Age that used this script; but the extended forms were much used as variants (more clearly distinguished from Grade 1) of Grades 3 and 4. Grade 5 (17-20) was usually applied to the nasal consonants: thus 17 and I8 were the most common signs for m and m. According to the principle observed above, Grade 6 should then have represented the voiceless nasals; but since such sounds (exemplified by Welsh mh or ancient English hn) were of very rare occurrence in the languages concerned, Grade 6 (21-24) was most often used for the weakest or ‘semi-vocalic’ consonants of each series. It consisted of the smallest and simplest shapes among the primary letters. Thus 21 was often used for a weak (untrilled) r, originally occurring in Quenya and regarded in the system of that language as the weakest consonant of the tincotéma; 22 was widely used for w; where Series III was used as a palatal series 23 was commonly used as consonantal y.” Since some of the consonants of Grade 4 tended to become weaker in | The representation of the sounds here is the same as that employed in transcription and described above, except that here ch represents the ch in English church; j represents the sound of English j, and zh the sound heard in azure and occasion. ? The inscription on the West-gate of Moria gives an example of a mode, used for the spelling of Sindarin, in which Grade 6 represented the simple nasals, but Grade 5 represented the double or long nasals much used in Sindarin: 17=nn, but 21=n.