亦可稱為: 灰精靈語(Grey-elven)、 貝爾蘭語(the tongue of Beleriand)、 高貴的語言(the noble tongue); 在《魔戒》中,經常被簡單地稱為「精靈語(the Elven-tongue)」。托爾金在他寫「魔戒」前的文獻中稱其為「諾多林語(Noldorin)」,但依他的成稿或「正版」語言史來看,這種說法是錯的。(這些內容可以在《魔戒》附錄和後來的資料中找到)。
辛達語是中土世界艾爾達族,也就是土生土長的灰精靈,或稱辛達語精靈(Sindar)的主要語言。辛達語是帖勒瑞林通用語(Common Telerin)最傑出的衍生體,而帖勒瑞林通用語是昆雅語、帖勒瑞林語、辛達語及南多林語(Nandorin)的原型艾爾達通用語的分支。「灰精靈語的源頭與昆雅語十分類似,」托爾金解釋,「它是那些來到海岸邊,但卻流連於的貝爾蘭,沒有渡海的精靈們所使用的語言。灰袍庭葛在那裡建立了多瑞亞斯,在這段遠古的歷史中,他們的語言……已經和海外艾達族的語言反而漸行漸遠。」(《魔戒》附錄F)。雖然據說辛達語是保留艾爾達語最完整的中土語言(《中土世界民族錄》:305),其在我們的瞭解範圍內還是變化最大的精靈語:「辛達語精靈語有很多改變,就像是一棵樹,我們雖然察覺不到它的成長,但它仍會慢慢地改變其外貌;改變的程度大概就像是不成文的人類語言在五百年,甚至更長的期間內的改變。在太陽第一次升起之前,它已經與昆雅語出現了巨大的差別,而在日出之後,所有的變化都更加迅速,在阿爾(Arda)達第二個春天的一段時間裡,它改變得更快。」(《珠寶之戰》:20)。從艾爾達通用語到辛達語的發展過程中出現的劇烈變化,比從艾爾達通用語(Common Eldarin)到阿門洲的昆雅語或帖勒瑞林語的過程還劇烈。托爾金認為,辛達語「感染了凡間易變化的特質。」(《魔戒》附錄F)。這並不是說這些變化是混亂而沒有系統的;它們完全有跡可循--只是它們戲劇性地改變了語言中一般的發音及「樂音」。有一些顯著的改變,包括棄用母音結尾,清音「p」、「t」、「k」變成濁音「b」、「d」、「g」再加一個母音,同樣情況下的濁音也變為摩擦音(除了「g」,它完全消失了),有許多母音發生了改變,一般是與其他母音同化。根據《中土世界民族錄》:401,「遠在諾多流放者到來之前,辛達語的發展,如同人類語言的改變一樣,其改變都被忽視。」在對這些大變革的評論中,《中土世界民族錄》:78強調「它仍然是一種美好的語言,完美地契合在塑造它的森林、山巒和海岸之間。」
等到諾多精靈在與辛達語精靈分離了三千五百年後回歸中土時,正統辛達語已經得到全面發展。(儘管托爾金認為其在太陽升起之後開始急速改變,它看起來已經進入了更穩定的時期:在後七千年中,一直到佛羅多的時代為止,所發生的改變實際上要小於其在前三千年的改變。)在第一紀元,辛達語林發展出各種方言─古老的多瑞亞斯方言、西方的法拉斯瑞姆(Falathrim,或稱「海岸民族」)方言和北方的米斯林(Mithrim)方言。這其中的哪一個是後世辛達語的基礎,我們並不很清楚,但看起來法拉斯瑞姆的可能性最大,因為多瑞亞斯(Doriath)被摧毀了,而我們對於北辛達語知之甚少,其中所知的部份與佛羅多時代的辛達語又有所不同的。例如希斯隆(Hithlum)一詞就屬於北辛達語,見《珠寶之戰》:400。
諾多精靈和辛達語精靈最初根本無法互相瞭解,因為他們的語言經過長期獨立發展之後,差別已經太大了。諾多精靈很快地學會了辛達語,並開始將他們的昆雅語名翻譯為灰精靈語,因為他們覺得「在日常生活中使用完全不同的語言,來稱呼那些說辛達語的精靈,是一種非常荒謬且讓人反感的事。」(《中土世界民族錄》:341)。有時,改變名字與稱呼的過程會非常謹慎,例如Altariel,就必須先追溯到它的(假定是)艾爾達通用語語形Ñalatârigellê;在「重建」的過程中,發現其為真實存在的古名,諾多精靈即推論出可能存在於辛達語中的同義名稱:Ntilde;alatârigellê:亦即「凱蘭崔爾(Galadriel)」。但並非所有名字都經過如此精密地轉換。聞名天下的名字費諾(Fëanor)實際上就是純昆雅語名Fëanáro和「正宗」辛達語名Faenor的折衷產物(「正宗」的意思是指原本*Phayanâro這個單字若古時候真的曾出現在艾爾達通用語中的話,則轉換成辛達語後應該會變成的語形)。有一些名字,比如Turukáno和Aikanáro,只是由發音轉換為辛達語,但轉換的結果「特剛(Turgon)」和艾格諾爾(Aegnor)在灰精靈語中沒有任何意思(《中土世界民族錄》:345)。有許多名字很久前就被轉換,遠早於諾多精靈整理出所有辛達語的細微差別以前--因此這些名字「經常不太精確:也就是說,它們並不完全符合正確的意思;其相對的語性也並不完全是最接近昆雅語語性的辛達語形式。」(《中土世界民族錄》:342)
但永遠的語言學家諾多精靈很快就完全掌控了辛達語,並整理出其與昆雅語明確的關係。諾多精靈到達中土的二十年之後,在雅爾薩德宴會(Mereth Aderthad,團圓宴)時,「甚至連諾多精靈大部分時間說的都是灰精靈語,因為他們很快就學會了貝爾蘭的語言,而辛達語精靈要精通維林諾(Valinor)的語言卻要慢得多」(《精靈寶鑽》第十三章)。當他得知諾多精靈殺死了許多帖勒瑞精靈,並偷了他們的船才回到中土世界時,將昆雅語當作交談語言的日子終於被庭葛所終止:「永遠不要再讓我聽到那些在澳闊隆迪(Alqualondë!)殺死我同胞的人所說的語言!禁止在我的王國中使用它。」因此,「流亡者們開始以辛達語作為日常交談的語言。」(《精靈寶鑽》第十五章)。庭葛的命令似乎只是加速了整個過程;如同在之前提到的,早就已經有不少諾多精靈開始使用辛達語了。
後來,凡人出現在貝爾蘭。《魔戒》附錄F(和《未完成的故事》:216)告訴我們,「登丹人(Dúnedain)是所有人類中唯一會使用精靈語的民族,因為他們的祖先從精靈口中學會了辛達語。而這就被當做歷史傳承了下來,經過許多年依舊沒有改變。」也許就是登丹人穩固了辛達語,至少是穩固了他們使用的那一部分(《未完成的故事》:261註明:被人類使用的辛達語此外「有產生分歧和方言化的傾向」)。無論人類化的辛達語的標準在後世會是什麼樣子,回溯到第一紀元時,「大部份的伊甸人很快就開始學習灰精靈語,將其作為日常交流用語和學習精靈知識的工具。」(《精靈寶鑽》第十七章)。最後,一些人類對辛達語的了解及使用已經可以和精靈媲美了。名曲「胡林子女的故事(Narn i Chîn Húrin)」(原名即為如此拼法)就是由名為迪哈維爾(Dírhavel)的人類詩人所寫,「但艾爾達族非常欣賞它,因為迪哈維爾使用的是灰精靈語,而他的的技巧已經達到爐火純青的地步。」(《未完成的故事》:146。另一方面,哈麗絲的百姓(the people of Haleth)並沒有學好辛達語,也沒有熱情去學,見《未完成的故事》:378)。圖林(Túrin)在多瑞亞斯學習辛達語,一位導師奈勒斯(Nellas)「教導他古老國度的辛達語,它更具歷史、有禮,並擁有更多美麗的詞彙。」(《未完成的故事》:76)。
精靈們本身在整個第一紀元都持續使用辛達語。雖然理論上在像貢多林這樣的僑居地中,諾多精靈似乎應該恢復以昆雅語作為交談用語;但除了王室以外,這種情況並未發生:「對於大部分貢多林的居民來說,【昆雅語】已成為一種典籍用語,而其他諾多精靈的日常用語則是辛達語。」(《未完成的故事》:55)。圖爾聽見貢多林衛兵先用昆雅語交談,然後「用貝爾蘭的語言【辛達語】,但他覺得聽起來有一點奇怪,仿佛是一個與同胞長期分開的人。」(《未完成的故事》:44)。連這座城市的昆雅語名Ondolindë也一直是以辛達語的形式貢多林(Gondolin)出現(雖然這只是一種改編,而不是「真正」的辛達語;原來的*Gondolindê這個詞嚴格來說,如果傳承下來的話,應該轉變為**Gonglin)。
有許多辛達語的使用者殞命於貝爾蘭之戰,但隨著主神的介入,魔苟斯最終在憤怒之戰中被擊敗。第一紀元結束時,有許多精靈前往伊拉西亞,而自此開始,辛達語在海外仙境和在中土世界一樣,也成為一種交談用語(以下一段文字源自《努曼諾爾人淪亡史》,指出努曼諾爾人用辛達語與伊拉西亞精靈交談。)。主神為了回報伊甸人在對抗魔苟斯的戰鬥中所承受的苦難,從海洋中升起一座島,而人類跟隨埃蘭迪爾之星,來到他們新的家園,建立了努曼諾爾王國。
在努曼諾爾,辛達語被廣為使用:「雖然人類仍然使用自己的語言,但他們的國王及領主都懂得並使用精靈語,他們在與精靈結盟的日子裡學會了這些語言,並以其與伊拉西亞或中土世界西方的艾爾達族繼續保持交流。」(《努曼諾爾人淪亡史》)。比歐(Bëor)的後代甚至以辛達語作為他們的日常用語(《未完成的故事》:215)。雖然阿登奈克語是大多數努曼諾爾人使用的語言,但辛達語「在某種程度上可以說人盡皆知。」(《未完成的故事》:216,譯者注:大概相當於咱們身邊的英語吧。)但這種時光後來有了變化。努曼諾爾人開始嫉妒精靈的永生,最後,他們切斷了與阿門洲和主神之間淵遠流長的友誼。當亞爾-金密索爾在第二紀元3100年「全面禁止艾爾達語的使用」時,我們會認為就連比歐的後代都放棄了辛達語,轉而使用阿登奈克語(《未完成的故事》:223)。亞爾-法拉松的愚蠢事蹟、索倫的詐降、努曼諾爾人的墮落和努曼諾爾陸沉等事件一一被記錄在《努曼諾爾人淪亡史》之中。在陸沉之後,倖存的精靈之友在中土世界建立了流亡者之國亞爾諾和剛鐸。《中土世界民族錄》:315中寫道:「那些意志堅定的人們【在陸沉之後】……使用辛達語,並用這種語言替中土世界的各個地方重新命名。阿登奈克語被遺棄,在日常用語中逐漸凋零,成為唯一的無字體語言。所有高等血統的人,以及學習過讀寫辛達語人,都將其視為日常用語。據說在某些家族中,辛達語已經成為母語,通俗的阿登奈克語則是因為需要,才會被隨便學一學。但辛達語並沒有被教授給外國人,因為它是努曼諾爾血統的象徵之一,而且也難以學成--比『通俗語』要難的多。」依此,辛達語被指定為「伊蘭迪爾的人民的通用語言。」(《未完成的故事》:282)。
在精靈中,辛達語在第二和第三紀元向東流通,最後取代了一些西爾凡精靈(Silvan)--又被稱為南多林語(Nandorin)或丹恩語(Danian)--的語言。「到了第三紀元結束時,西爾凡精靈語在兩個於魔戒聖戰時佔有重要地位的地區消失了:羅瑞安(Lórien0和北方幽暗密林中傳督爾(Thranduil)的王國。」(《未完成的故事》:257)。西爾凡出局,辛達語林入場。確實,我們從《魔戒首部曲》第二章第六節中得到了一個概念,認為在羅瑞安裡使用的語言是一種奇怪的木精靈語,但西境紅皮書的作者佛羅多弄錯了這一點。《魔戒》附錄F中的一個註腳解釋說:在佛羅多的時代,羅瑞安裡所使用的確實是辛達語,「不過,由於這裡大部分的居民是西爾凡精靈,所以,此地辛達語擁有一些『口音』。這個『口音』和佛羅多對於辛達語的有限瞭解誤導了他(正如《領主之書》中一位剛鐸註釋者指出的那樣)」。《未完成的故事》:257對此作了詳細的描述:「在羅瑞安,有許多精靈是原本是辛達語精靈或伊瑞詹的生還者諾多精靈,所以辛達語已經成為全體精靈的語言。他們的辛達語與貝爾蘭的是哪裡不同--見【《魔戒首部曲》】第二章第六節,佛羅多於此記載西爾凡精靈使用的語言和西方精靈的不同─我們現在當然不知道。它們之間的差異也許不只是所謂的『口音』問題:母音和音調的差異,已經足以誤導像佛羅多這樣並不很瞭解純辛達語的人了。當然可能會有一些地方性的單字,及其受到前西爾凡語影響的特點。」沒有「口音」的正統辛達語,顯然可以在瑞文戴爾和灰港口瑟丹(Círdan)的精靈那裡聽到。
但是到了第三紀元結束時,精靈逐漸淡出中土,更別說他們的語言。至上神的萬物庶傳之子,凡人的統治就要開始了。托爾金指出,在第三紀元結束時,中土世界有更多使用辛達語或懂昆雅語的人,甚至比精靈存在時還要多(《托爾金書信集》:425)。當佛羅多和山姆在伊西利安遇到法拉墨的下屬時,哈比人們聽見他們先說出通用語(西方語),但那時他們又換成「自己的語言。佛羅多隨即驚訝地發現,他們所用的竟然是精靈語,只不過其中稍稍有差別;這下子,他開始更仔細地打量著對方,因為他到現在才確定他們是西方皇族在南方的後裔,也是登丹人的一支。」(《魔戒二部曲》第四章第四節)。在剛鐸,「辛達語是一種必備的上流社會語言,一般為更純粹的努曼諾爾後代使用。」(《托爾金書信集》:425)。醫院中健談的草藥師把辛達語稱做「貴族語」(《魔戒三部曲》第五章第八節:「大人,你要找的是王之劍,這是鄉里愚民們所使用的稱呼,貴族們則是稱它阿夕拉斯,對於那些懂維林諾語【昆雅語】的人來說……」)。
辛達語在第四紀元情況如何,我們不得而知。但就像昆雅語一樣,只要剛鐸存在,它就一定會被傳誦下去。
「辛達林(Sindarin)」是這個語言的昆雅語名稱,源自於Sindar*「灰人」=灰精靈;它可以(也的確有)被翻譯成灰精靈語。辛達林語中對其本身的稱謂則沒人能確定。據貝爾蘭的精靈說,「他們自己的語言是他們唯一聽過的一個;所以他們不需要用文字去分辨它」(《珠寶之戰》:376)。辛達精靈大概單純地就用Edhellen,「精靈語」來代表他們的語言。就像上面所述的一樣,醫院的草藥師把辛達林語稱做「貴族的語言」(但「世界上最高貴的語言」仍然是昆雅語,《未完成的故事》:218)。在整個《魔戒》中,這個常常被使用的詞彙單純地就是指「精靈的語言」,因為辛達林語是精靈中現存的方言。
在一九五四年,於《托爾金書信集》:176中,托爾金說明「西方精靈現存的語言(辛達林語或灰精靈語)是常〔在《魔戒》中〕出現的那種,特別是在名字裡。這是源自於它和昆雅語的一個共通起源,但那些改變很謹慎地被修正了,以賦予它一種非常類似於不列顛-威爾斯(但並不完全一樣)的語言特性:因為在某些語言學的語氣中,我發現那種特性是很吸引人的;而且因為它似乎很適合那種由講述者所述的『克爾特』風格的傳說及故事。」後來,他發現了「故事中的這種元素,大概比其中的其他任何東西給了更多讀者更多的樂趣。」(《怪獸與評論家,與其他論文》:197)
一個聽起來像威爾斯語或克爾特語的語言在一開始就呈現在托爾金的神話中了。這種語言原本被稱為侏儒語或I·Lam na·Ngoldathon,「侏儒(諾多精靈)的語言」。托爾金原本的侏儒語辭典可追溯回到大約一九一七年,出版於<Parma Eldalamberon>第十一期,而且證明了它是一個非常廣泛的文件,擁有上千個單字。許多侏儒語單字也可以在《亡佚故事集1、2》的附錄中被找到。<Parma>也出版了(一直不完整的)侏儒語文法。但是雖然托爾金在這個語言中投入了很多心力,它事實上後來被捨棄了。於《中土世界民族錄》:379中,在一個晚期的文件內,托爾金將侏儒語稱為「最後變成了被稱為辛達林語的精靈語」並且指出它「是處於一種粗糙而且雜亂的狀態」。某些侏儒語文法的中心概念,特別是某些子音變化,後來於辛達林語中被再利用了。一些侏儒語的字彙也在辛達林語中生存了下來,不管是沒有被改變或者是可以認得出來的形式。即便如此,侏儒語確實是一個完全不同的語言,雖然它和辛達林語的語音風格有點相似(好多的ch和th,還有大多數的單字都以子音結尾!)一個重要的辛達林語特徵,母音的變化或影響,據說最早出現在托爾金於二十多歲時所寫的文法中。可是在他三十多歲,隨著<詞源學>的出現,一個真正接近《魔戒》風格的辛達林語的語言才出現在托爾金的註釋中。然而它是被稱為「諾多林語」,因為就像它的前身侏儒語一樣,它被構想成是諾多精靈的語言,而不是辛達精靈的--在維林諾形成。在這個階段,昆雅語被認為是「林達」(後來的:凡雅)精靈獨有的語言。不過一直遲至托爾金寫到《魔戒》的附錄中,他才放棄了這個想法,並將諾多林語轉變成辛達林語。昆雅語現在變成了凡雅精靈及諾多精靈最初的語言--後者在抵達中土世界後單純地採用了辛達林語。「結果」那個在托爾金的神話中聽起來像克爾特語的語言畢竟不是他們自己的語言(但在中土世界的歷史中,他們確實變成了其最重要的使用者)。它不是源自於維林諾的Blessed Realm,但是是中土世界固有的語言。
在之前的設想中,貝爾蘭本地的精靈說的是一個叫做愛克林語的語言,而辛達林語實際上在托爾金做出修訂時才取代了它(艾德華•克洛可茲科(Edward Kloczko)曾經爭論過某些愛克林語的語素被保留下來成為了辛達林語的北方方言;他的文章附加在我自己關於愛克林語的論文中)。托爾金決定對他的神話中聽起來像克爾特語的語言的歷史做出根本上的修改,這可能是個皆大歡喜的決定,讓語言的發展更真實:當然,要想像在凡雅精靈和諾多精靈於維林諾當鄰居時,還能夠發展出兩種就像昆雅語和「諾多林語」一樣差別極為明顯的語言,是很困難的一件事。將「諾多林語」轉變為辛達林語解決了那個問題;現在兩條精靈語分支可以在他們的使用者於漫長的年代中完全分開居住的期間,完全獨立地發展。
<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」不全然於《魔戒》中的辛達林語相同,因為托爾金不停地琢磨和改變他創出的語言。但是許多區分了「諾多林語」和《魔戒》風格的辛達林語的差異很幸運地都很正常,是托爾金調整了某些古昆雅語進化的細節。因此,大多數的「諾多林語」資料都可以很輕易地更新以配合《魔戒》的語言發展。某些單字必須要很微妙地轉換過來;例如,「諾多林語」的雙元音oe在辛達林語中卻是ae。一個例子是大海的名字Belegoer(《失落之道及其他故事》:349, 352);托爾金後來將這個形式改成了Belegaer--在已出版的《精靈寶鑽》中的地圖上也是。另一個改變則與子音lh-及rh-有關;它們在「諾多林語」中出現的許多例子都顯示辛達林語中應該是採用較簡單的l-和r-。因此,我們可以推論像是rhoeg (「錯誤的」,《失落之道及其他故事》:383)這樣的「諾多林語」單字在辛達林語中應該是raeg--雖然後者的形式沒有被明確地證實。據說<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」與其各種的特性,是等於諾多精靈在貢多林所說的某種「有點奇怪」的辛達林語方言(《未完成的故事》:44)。我們甚至可以用這種方式解釋它是被稱為諾多林語而不是辛達林語。然而,也有可能是托爾金完全淘汰了「諾多林語」,以致於它和他後來對於辛達林語的願景不一樣。
辛達林語最特殊的特色可能就是那複雜的語音體系,灰精靈語常常會倚賴像是母音變化或元音變化的語音特徵,而不是字綴,來表達各種文法的概念。我們將在我們嘗試去研究辛達林語的結構時經常接觸到這個主題。
辛達林語的語音體系沒有昆雅語的那麼嚴格。許多子音群集都被允許出現在所有的位置,而字首或字尾的群集事實上在昆雅語中根本不存在。ch(德語的ach-Laut,不是英文的church中的「tsh」)及th、dh(分別像是think和this中的「th」)的音很常見。托爾金有時候會用特殊的字母eth(ð)來拼寫dh,而有時候我們也會看到字母thorn(þ)而不是th。然而,我們在此會用二合字母,像是《魔戒》中的一樣。清音的破裂音p、t、c從不出現在母音後面,而是被弱音化(見下文)為b、d、g。要注意就像是在昆雅語中一樣,c永遠發k的音(標準的例子:Celeborn=「Keleborn」,不是「Seleborn」)。在單字的結尾中,f的發音是v,像是英文中的of。(在談格瓦的拼寫中,像是nef這樣的字事實上是拼為nev。)R應該要用顫音發聲,像是在西班牙語、俄語等等之中。二合字母rh及lh代表了清音的r及l(但有時候這些結合體可能真的是代表r+h或l+h,像是在dhelharn中--不太讓人意外的是,我們的字母無法很適當地表達出辛達林語)。
辛達林語有六個母音,a、e、i、o、u和y,最後的一個相當於德於中的ü或像是法語中Lune的u(在英語中發著像是see一樣的ee音,再加上像是當你發oo音的圓形嘴唇,這樣你就知道了)。長音母音會用重音符號標示(á、é等等),但是在重音的單音節詞的案例中,母音傾向於拉得特別長,而且會以抑揚符號標示出來:â、ê等等。在HTML語言中很可惜的是,人們無法在母音y上面加一個抑揚符號。為了要避免出現很難看的拼寫,像是my^l(「海鷗」,《珠寶之戰》:418),我們在這裡會用重音符號代替(在這篇文章中出現的相關單字是býr、thýn、fýr、rýn、mrýg、mýl、'lýg和hýn--在理想的狀況下這應該要有個抑揚符號才對)。這不重要:在談格瓦的寫作中,長音和超長音母音之間沒有分別;在單音節詞中使用抑揚符號而不是重音符號,於托爾金的羅馬拼字法的辛達林語裡,只是另一個他傳入的糾紛而已(顯然是要讓單字如何發音變得非常清楚)。
辛達林語的雙元音包括了ai(像是英語的aisle中的一樣,不是mail中的那樣),ei、ui(像是too
young中的「ooy」)還有au(像是德語Haus,或是英語中cow的「ow」)。在字的結尾處,au是拼為aw。另有雙元音ae及oe,這沒有英語的對應字;托爾金事實上建議用ai和oi去代替,如果你不太在乎這種細節的話(當然他有時候會把Maedhros英語化成「Maidros」,但任何正在讀這篇文章的人大概也不會介意這種細節)。Ae和oe純綷就是母音a、o再加上母音e(如英文pet中的)以單音節發音e,就像是ai和oi是a及o跟著i一起發音。有點令人不解的是,在托爾金的寫作中二合字母oe有時候也會代表曲音的o,顯然是跟德語的ö發同樣的音(事實上在本篇文章中我們通常寧願拼寫成ö,以避免混淆)。在第三紀元結束時,ö跟e融合了(這就是為什麼在《魔戒》中的地圖上灰色山脈是以Ered
Mithrin出現的,而不是Öröd
Mithrin!),但我們在討論古體的辛達林語時仍需提及這個音。
就像昆雅語一樣,辛達林語中沒有像是英文中的「一個」那樣的不定冠詞;缺少了定冠詞就代表那個動詞是不定形的:Edhel=「精靈」或「一個精靈」。
定冠詞「那個」在單數形中是i:aran「國王」、i aran「那個國王」。這些例子可能正好也是昆雅語的。在《The Lays of Beleriand》第354頁的一個未被翻譯的文件中,我們發現了詞組ir Ithil。如果這個的意思是*「那個月亮」,那這可能是暗示在一個以i-開頭的單字的前方冠詞會採用ir的形式(避免隔空出現兩個相同的母音)。然而,這個理論被提出來以後有一個相關的新例子被公開了。辛達精靈的上帝之禱文包含了詞組i innas lin「你的意志」或著照字面解為*「那個意志屬於你」。在此我們用的是i,而不是ir,即便是下一個單字是以i-開頭的。此外,代表「月亮」的單字,Ithil,在辛達林語中似乎是算作專有名詞,所以我們不會期待它會採用任何的冠詞。因此有些人認為詞組中ir Ithil的ir並不是定冠詞「那個」的變體,而是有另一個意義。
與昆雅語(和英語)不同的是,辛達林語中有一個很特殊的冠詞複數形,in。「國王(複數形)」是erain(由aran按照母音變化形成,見下文);「那些國王」是in erain。
在單數形及複數形中,冠詞可能會以字尾加在介系詞後面的形式出現。這個字尾的形式是-n或-in。因此介系詞na「到」會變成nan「到那個」。Ben「那個中」或者照字面解是*「根據那個」,為一個出現於King's Letter的單字,似乎是介系詞be「根據」--本身未被證實--加上字尾-n代表「那個」。(這個be是昆雅語的ve「像是、如同」的辛達林語同源詞。)介系詞nu(或no)「在……之下」變成了nuin「在那個……之下」(如在Dagor-nuin-Giliath「在那些星辰之下的戰役」中,一個出現於《精靈寶鑽》第十三章的名字)。當這個冠詞是以-in的形式出現時,它可能會在它添加上的單字引起語音的改變。Or「越過、在……之上」轉變為erin「在那個……之上」,母音i將o變化為e(藉由ö;「在那個……之上」在更早的階段時一定是örin)。介系詞o「從、屬於」在冠詞已加上字尾時會以uin的形式出現,因為在辛達林語中早期的oi變成了ui(參見昆雅語Oiolossë的同源詞Uilos)。人們可能會認為字尾-in加到介系詞後面,就相當於代表複數形的「那個」的獨立冠詞in,所以像是erin或uin的單字只能用在複數形單字的連接詞而已。但是King's Letter證明了這並不是事實;在此我們發現了這些單字都跟著單數形一起用:erin dolothen Ethuil「在春天的那第八個〔日子〕」、uin Echuir「那個Stirring的」(母授之名)。據推測字尾-n、-in加上介系詞是代表冠詞的間接形式,可以用在單數形和複數形。--在某些案例中,標準的獨立冠詞是緊連著一個獨立的介系詞使用,就像是英文中一樣:參見naur dan i ngaurhoth*「火焰對抗那些狼人大隊」,出現於甘道夫的火焰咒語。Dan i「對抗那些」沒有被單一個單字取代,也就是某個dan「對抗」的形式加上有字尾的冠詞。或許某些介系詞就是沒辦法接受加字尾的冠詞,或者或許是人們要說nan或na i(n)來代表「到那個……」、erin或or i(n)來代表「在那個……之上/越過那個……」、uin或o i(n)來代表「那個……的/來自那個………」是可以任君挑選的。我們不知道。
屬格冠詞:辛達林語通常都只由單字的順序表達屬格的關係,像是在摩瑞亞的大門的銘文中Ennyn Durin「都靈(的)門」及Aran Moria「摩瑞亞(的)王」。然而,如果句法結構的第二個單字是一個普通的名詞,而不是如這些例子中的名字的話,如果名詞是限定的,那麼就會用屬格冠詞en「那個……的」。參見名字,像是Haudh-en-Elleth「那些精靈少女之丘」(《精靈寶鑽》第二十一章)、Cabed-en-Aras「鹿之躍」、*「那些鹿的跳躍」(《未完成的故事》:140)、Methed-en-Glad「那些樹林的盡頭」(《未完成的故事》:153),或者《魔茍斯之戒》:373中的詞組orthad en·Êl「那顆星星的升起」。亦可參見佛羅多和山姆在可麥倫平原上被稱為Conin en Annûn「那個西方的王子」。(這個所有格冠詞有是候是用較短的形式e;參見Narn e·Dinúviel「那族夜鶯的故事」,《魔茍斯之戒》:373。見下文,於子音變化的部分中,關於這個冠詞的各種化身及它們出現的狀況。)不過較少出現標準的單數形冠詞i會取代e(n)--這是在屬格的詞組中,但在King's Letter中我們有Condir i Drann,代表「那個夏爾的市長」。但是在複數形裡,標準的複數形冠詞in即使在屬格的句法結構中通常也會使用到,參見Annon-in-Gelydh「那些諾多精靈(的)大門」(《未完成的故事》:18)、Aerlinn in Edhil*「那些精靈(的)聖歌」(《大路長呀長》:70,在談格瓦文字的拼寫中)。然而,也是有明確地在複數形中使用屬格冠詞en的例子:Bar-en-Nibin-Noeg、「那些小矮人的家」(《未完成的故事》:100)、Haudh-en-Ndengin「被殺者之丘」,或*「那些被殺者的」(《精靈寶鑽》第二十章)。但這似乎比較不常見。
在許多的案例中,冠詞會讓緊跟著的單字的開頭子音產生變化。這些語音體系的紛亂會在下文中敘述,在關於子音變化的部分中。冠詞i會引發緊跟著的名詞的弱音化或軟性變化;見下文。冠詞in的結尾n通常會被一個稱做鼻音變化的過程給併吞掉;n消失了而名詞字首的子音卻被改掉了。另一方面,字尾的鼻音-n或-in,「那個」,添加到了介系詞中,這顯然還存在著--但這似乎會在緊跟著的單字中引發我們暫且稱為混合變化的變化。
冠詞也會用作為關係代名詞;參見在King’s Letter中的Perhael(i sennui Panthael estathar aen)「山姆衛斯(他應該被稱為Panthael)」,或者是名字Dor Gyrth i chuinar「那些活著的死者之地」(《托爾金書信集》:417--這相當於*Dor Gyrth in cuinar,一個鼻音變化的例子。《精靈寶鑽》第二十章中的Dor Firn i Guinar使用了單數形的i當作關係代名詞,雖然Firn是複數形;來自於一個非常晚期的信(1972)中的拼寫Dor Gyrth i chuinar比較合適)。
要注意到的是托爾金有時候,但不是每一次,會以連字號或一個點的方式將辛達林語的冠詞跟下一個單字連在一起。這顯然是非必要的。在這個文件中,當並非是直接引用資料時,我們會將屬格冠詞e、en「那個……的」和下一個單字以連字號連在一起(因為否則就通常會很難去和介系詞ed、e「出」分辨),但我們不會在其他的冠詞使用連字號。
在小說的時間線中,辛達林語的名詞原本有三個單複數形:單數形、複數形和雙數形。然而,我們被告知雙數形早先時除了在書面成以外都已經被廢除了(《托爾金書信集》:427)。另一方面,一個所謂的種類複數形發展了出來,與「正常」的複數形共存;見下文。
就像是在大多數的語言中的一檥,單數形是名詞基本的、沒有變化過的形式。托爾金提到辛達林語的複數形「主要是以母音的變化形成」(《大路長呀長》:74)。例如,amon「丘陵」變成了emyn「丘陵(複數形)」;aran「國王」變成了erain「國王(複數形)」。子音保持不變,但母音變了。有一些英語的名詞是以類似的方法構成其複數形:man複數形men、woman複數形women(發音為「wimen」)、goose複數形geese、mouse複數形mice等等。但英語通常會依靠複數形字尾-s。在辛達林語中,情況正好相反:改變母音的手法是一般構成複數形的方法,而只有一些單字會在複數形中顯示出某種字尾。這些母音變化的規則在名詞和形容詞中都是一樣的(後者大多數都符合),所以我們也會在我們探究辛達林語的複數形形態時的舉例中引用形容詞。最後,母音變化回到了所謂的曲音現象。曲音(起源是一個德國的專有名詞,字面解釋類似於「改變聲音」)是個辛達林語重要的特色;辛達林語中代表這個現象的專有名詞就是prestanneth,意為擾亂或影響。這和同一個單字中一個母音「影響」另一個母音有關係,讓它更像其本身,在語言學的術語中就是同化它。有關於複數形曲音的組成托爾金稱之為「i影響」(《珠寶之戰》:376),因為最初引起這個的就是母音i。托爾金推測原本的精靈語擁有複數形字尾*-î,在昆雅語中仍然以-i的形式出現(像是於Quendi、Atani、Teleri等等)。這個字尾就其本身而論沒有倖存在辛達林語中,但還是有其在從前時存在的痕跡,而這些「痕跡」將自己本身在灰精靈語中變成了複數形的指示物。當某單字的複數形,例如說,fang「鬚」(像是於Fangorn「樹鬚」)是feng時,這是因為a被古老的複數形字尾*-î、-i影響到了,而後者現在仍存在著。在精靈語的最古老的形式中,代表「鬚」的單字是以spangâ、複數形spangâi出現的;在我們稱為古辛達林語的階段,這變成了sphanga、複數形sphangi。從前者產生了「古典的」辛達林語fang,但是複數形sphangi變成了feng,原本的母音a在字尾-i消失之前漸漸趨近了字尾的實質作用--因此在晚期的複數形feng我們就有e來當作某種在(原本的母音)a及(消失的字尾)i之間的折衷物。(也有可能是有一個過渡期是用ei,因此就是?feing。)
當「被影響」或「母音被變化」時,各種母音及雙元音會經歷各種不同的變化。精確的狀況以及語音體系的歷史有時候必須被考慮進去以決定單字在複數形中會是什麼樣子。我們將按照母音「標準」或未受影響的形式列出。
tâl「腳」,複數形tail(單數形出現於《失落之道及其他故事》:390項目TAL之下;複數形tail證實於《珠寶之戰》:388中複合字tad-dail「兩足動物」弱音化的形式-dail)
cant「形狀」,複數形caint(單數形出現於《失落之道及其他故事》:362項目KAT之下;而複數形參見《精靈寶鑽》附錄〔項目gwath、wath〕中的morchaint=「黑暗的形狀、影子」;這個是mor「黑暗」+caint「形狀」,c在此因為語音體系的理由變成了ch)
rach「推車、運貨馬車」、複數形raich(參見《未完成的故事》:465中的Imrath Gondraich「石頭運貨馬車之谷」)
barad「塔」、複數形beraid(《精靈寶鑽》附錄,項目barad)
lavan「動物」、複數形levain(《珠寶之戰》:416)
aran 國王」、複數形erain(《失落之道及其他故事》:360項目3AR之下)
註:在<詞源學>中的諾多林語中,最終音節裡的a通常結果是反而變成ei 。因此我們就會有adar「父親」複數形edeir(項目ATA)、Balan「維拉」複數形Belein(BAL)、habad「岸」複數形hebeid(SKYAP)、nawag「矮人」複數形neweig(NAUK)、talaf「地面、地板」複數形teleif(TAL)。同樣的事也發生在單音節詞:Dân「南多精靈」複數形Dein(NDAN)、mâl「花粉」複數形meil(SMAL)、pân「厚板」複數形pein(PAN)、tâl「腳」複數形teil(TAL)。但就像上文所證明的那樣,tâl的複數形已在托爾金晚期的辛達林語中已經變成了tail(弱音化的形式-dail出現於《珠寶之戰》:388中的tad-dail)。同樣的,辛達林語adar的複數形被看過並不是<詞源學>中的edeir,而是edair(像是於Edenedair「人類之父」、《魔茍斯之戒》:373 --這是個《魔戒》出版後的資料)。《精靈寶鑽》附錄,項目val-也證實了在辛達林語中Balan「維拉」的複數形是Belain,不是<詞源學>中的Belein。看來在所有剛剛列出的例子中,在複數形裡我們應該要用辛達林語的ai來代替「諾多林語」的ei。至少在一個案例中,來自<詞源學>的證據與後來的辛達林語中觀察到的模式是吻合的:先前被引用的例子aran「國王」在項目3AR中複數形是erain(而不是*erein)。(關於以erain當作辛達林語的複數形,可與出現在《魔戒三部曲》第六章第七節的名字Fornost Erain「Norbury of the Kings」比較)有趣的是,克里斯多福•托爾金在<詞源學>中提到,3AR歸屬的項目群組被「刪去並用更容易讀的來代替」(《失落之道及其他故事》:360)。或許這是在他父親修改了在<詞>中存在著的複數形模式之後的事。《中土世界民族錄》:31複製了一篇關於《魔戒》附錄的草稿,顯示出托爾金將Dúnadan的複數形從Dúnedein改為Dúnedain。看來以前的「諾多林語」複數形ei在概念上沒有被淘汰掉;它們可以被視為古體的辛達林語:在某些狀況下,ei>ai的改變也出現在這個虛構的歷史中,所以Dúnedain在某個早期的階段可能確實曾經是Dúnedein。看來托爾金決定一個單字裡最終音節中的ei(這也適用於單音節詞)要變成ai,但除此之外就維持為ei。因此我們在摩瑞亞大門上的銘文上就有teithant來代表「曾畫」(或是「曾寫」),而這個teith-與單字andeith「長音記號」(一個在寫作中用來標示出長母音的符號,《失落之道及其他故事》:391項目TEK)的第二個語素-deith有關。但是<詞源學>中的單字andeith在《魔戒》附錄E中反而是andaith,因為在這裡ei是在最終音節中。Teithant不能變成**taithant因為ei不是在最終音節中。其他的單字證實了這個模式。正如同上文所指出的,aran正常的複數形是erain,但是在名字Ereinion「國王的後裔」(吉爾加拉德的一個名字,《中土世界民族錄》:347/《未完成的故事》:436)中看到的是erein-。顯然在古體的辛達林語中複數形是erein,後來變成了erain因為在最終音節中ei變成了ai,但在像是Ereinion的複合字中雙元音ei不是在最終音節,因而維持不變。
在某種特定形式的單字中,於最終(或是唯一的)音節中的a會變成e而不是ai。在複數形中,a一開始可能會跟平常一樣變成ei,但接著雙元音的最後一個語素顯然不見了(在ei變成ai之前)只留下在後來單純地維持不變的e。《魔茍斯之戒》:373指出narn「故事」的複數形是nern,不是**nairn或**neirn,雖然後者可能在某個早期的階段中出現過。看來在ng的前面的我們有的也是e而不是ei/ai;<詞源學>提供了例子Anfang複數形Enfeng(不是**Enfaing),代表「長鬚族」,其中一個矮人的部族(《失落之道及其他故事》:387 項目SPÁNAG)。《珠寶之戰》:10複製了一個《魔戒》出版後的資料,證實了複數形Enfeng在托爾金的晚期的辛達林語中仍在使用。仿效fang「鬚」複數形feng的例子,看來像是lang「短彎刀、劍」(代表「諾多林語」的lhang,《失落之道及其他故事》:367)、tang「弓弦」或thang「需要」這些單字的複數形應該會是leng、teng、theng。
註:在<詞源學>中,還有更多「諾多林」複數形的例子,是最終音節的a變成了e而不是ai或ei。我們有adab「建造、建築物」複數形edeb(TAK)、adar「父親」複數形eder而不是edeir(ATA)、Balan「維拉」複數形Belen而不是Belein(BAL)、falas「海灘、岸」複數形feles(PHAL/PHALAS)、nawag「矮人」複數形neweg而不是neweig(NAUK)、rhofal「翼梢」複數形rhofel(RAM以及salab「藥草」複數形seleb (SALÂK-WÊ)。然而,在這些單字的案例中似乎沒什麼理由可以去相信e形複數形在托爾金晚期的辛達林語中依然有在使用。這些「諾多林語」的複數形中至少有兩個--eder和Belen--和已證實的辛達林語語複數形edair和Belain前後矛盾。那麼,看來我們也可以任意用辛達林語的edaib、felais、newaig、rovail,、selaib來代替edeb、feles、neweg、rhofel、seleb,但前者的形式沒有被直接證實出來(要注意到「諾多林語」的rhofal「翼稍」複數形rhofel會變成roval複數形rovail,如果我們引用辛達林語的語音體系和拼寫的話)。另一個「諾多林語」的a>e複數形案例就是rhanc「手臂」複數形rhenc(RAK)。這個單數形必須變成ranc,如果我們把它更新到《魔戒》風格的辛達林語的話,但是複數形應該是renc還是rainc?辛達林語的例子cant「形狀」複數形caint(見下文)似乎暗示了在由n+清音的塞音組成的字串的前方的a在複數形中會變成ai;因此「手臂(複數形)」在辛達林語中大概是rainc。
至少在一個單字中,早期的ei是維持不變的,而且即使出現在最終音節中也沒有變成ai。根據《未完成的故事》:265,alph「天鵝」的複數形是eilph;看來ei在以l開頭的子音字串前方是維持不變的。(早先,在<詞源學>的「諾多林語」中,代表「天鵝」的單字被拼為alf,而其複數形給的則是elf:《失落之道及其他故事》:348項目ÁLAK;關於複數形,參見《失落之道及其他故事》:364項目KHOP中的hobas in Elf*「天鵝避風港」。)依照eilph的例子,lalf「榆樹」的辛達林語複數形應該就是leilf,雖然列在<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」複數形是lelf(《失落之道及其他故事》:348項目ÁLAM)。
在非最終音節裡,a於複數形時變成了e,就像在已經引用過的一些例子中那樣:aran「國王」,複數形erain;amon「山丘」複數形emyn;lavan「動物」,複數形levain。這不僅適用於像是這些例子中的倒數第二個音節中的母音;這也可以應用在更長的單字中,在任何的非最終音節裡a就會變成e。就算a出現好幾次這也行得通:根據《珠寶之戰》:387,單字Aphadon「追隨者」在複數形裡變成了Ephedyn。《失落之道及其他故事》:391項目TÁWAR指出了形容詞tawaren 「木頭的」擁有複數形tewerin。在《魔茍斯之戒》:373中我們有Edenedair代表「人類之父」,是複合字Adanadar「人父」的複數形(adan「人類」+adar「父親」)。在此我們看到了最終音節中的a變成了ai,但在所有的三個非最終音節裡,a變成了e。當然adan的複數形會是edain(徹底的被證實了),如果單字是單獨出現的話,因為第二個a那時就會在最終音節了。但在複合字Adanadar它就不是,所以我們在複數形中看到的是Eden-。
edhel「精靈」,複數形edhil(《珠寶之戰》:364、377;參見《失落之道及其他故事》:356項目ELED中「諾多林語」的eledh複數形elidh)
ereg「冬青樹」,複數形erig(《失落之道及其他故事》:356項目ERÉK)
Laegel「綠精靈」,複數形Laegil(《珠寶之戰》:385)
lalven「榆樹」,複數形lelvin(《失落之道及其他故事》:348項目ÁLAM)
malen「黃色」,複數形melin(《失落之道及其他故事》:386項目SMAL)
這也適用於單音節詞,在此最終音節就是唯一的音節:
certh「符文」,複數形cirth(《珠寶之戰》:396)
telch「莖」,複數形tilch(《失落之道及其他故事》:391項目TÉLEK)
在長音的ê的案例中,我們在複數形裡也找到了長音的î:
hên「小孩」,複數形hîn(《珠寶之戰》:403)
têw「信、文字」,複數形tîw(《珠寶之戰》:396)
《失落之道及其他故事》:363項目KEM之下列出一個單字cef「泥土」,複數形ceif;兩個形式都有點怪。如果我們把這個從「諾多林語」調整成辛達林語的話它大概要寫成cêf(有長音的母音)、複數形cîf是最恰當的。
如果在最終音節裡有另一個i 直接接在e的前面,這個ie字組在複數形中單純地就變成i:
Miniel「Minya」(第一部落的精靈),複數形Mínil(《珠寶之戰》:383--或許在第一音節的i被拉長為í 是在某種程度上補償這個單字於複數形中從三個音節被減為兩個的事實吧?但是這在<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」內沒有發生可比較的案例--例如Mirion「精靈寶鑽」複數形是Miruin,而不是?Míruin,出現於《失落之道及其他故事》:373項目MIR)
在非最終音節裡,e於複數形中是不會改變的,就像是上面所引用的例子eledh複數形elidh及ereg複數形erig可以看到的那樣。
orch「半獸人、地精」複數形yrch(《失落之道及其他故事》:379項目ÓROK)
toll「島」複數形tyll(《失落之道及其他故事》:394項目TOL2)
bór「可靠的男人」býr(在《失落之道及其他故事》:353 項目BOR中是這樣子的;根據《魔戒》風格的拼法,在單數形和複數形裡重音符號都應該用抑揚符號來取代,因為這些單字都是單音節的)
amon「山丘」複數形emyn(《失落之道及其他故事》:348項目AM1)
annon「巨大的門」複數形ennyn (《失落之道及其他故事》:348項目AD)
在amon的案例中,<詞源學>裡也列出了一個可能的複數形emuin;我們顯然假設這是個較古老的形式,雙元音ui在後來的階段裡變成了y。(我們也可以推斷出當《失落之道及其他故事》:152提到「Peringiul」是Peringol「半侏儒」的複數形時,這一定是Peringuil被寫錯了--克里斯多福•托爾金敘述這個被討論的段落是「倉促用鉛筆寫下的」,傾向於是筆誤。後者的形式沒有被證實,應該是Peringyl。)
如果在最終音節中有個i在o的前面,在複數形中會變成「iy」的東西被簡化成y了:因此我們有thelyn作為thalio「英雄」的複數形(《失落之道及其他故事》:388 項目STÁLAG)。Miruin作為Mirion「精靈寶鑽」的複數形(《失落之道及其他故事》:373項目MIR)一定是被視為古體。我們可以假設thelyn在稍早的階段是theluin而Miruin後來變成了Miryn;y型複數形在《魔戒》風格的辛達林語比較常用。
註:以上的所有例子都是摘自<詞源學>,但是複數形yrch、emyn、ennyn在《魔戒》中也被證實了。關於更徹底的辛達林語例子,參見ithron「巫師」複數形ithryn(《未完成的故事》:388、390,複製於一個《魔戒》出版後的資料)。然而,在<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」中,還有例子是最終音節中的o是以一種完全不同的方法表現的,也就是說在複數形中變成了öi(在<詞>中是拼為「oei」)。這個öi在所有的ö變成了e時轉變為ei。因此在項目ÑGOL中golodh「諾多精靈」的複數形被列為gölöidh(「goeloeidh」)和geleidh--顯然是意在當作早期和晚期的形式。在其他的案例中則只有例出後者的形式ei:gwador「結拜兄弟」複數形gwedeir(TOR)、orod「山」複數形ereid(ÓROT)、thoron「鷹」複數形therein(THOR/THORON)。然而,看來要去假設這些形式在《魔戒》風格的辛達林語時還會被使用是沒什麼道理的:在這些之中的兩個案例裡,ereid和gölöidh/geleidh,對應的辛達林語複數形都被證實了,出現的是y而不是ei:也就是eryd「山」和gelydh「諾多精靈」(參見《珠寶之戰》:6中的Eryd Engrin「鋼鐵山脈」和《精靈寶鑽》附錄中,項目Golodhrim下的Annon-in-Gelydh「諾多精靈之門」--在《珠寶之戰》:364中Golodh的複數形給的是「Goelydh」=Gölydh,但這只是Gelydh的一個古體而已)。按照這些例子,我們就可以隨意地把「諾多林語」的複數形gwedeir「兄弟」和therein「鷹」更新為辛達林語的gwedyr、theryn(古體的thöryn)。在<詞源學>中也有兩個例子是單字中最終音節裡的o於複數形中變成了e而不是y:doron「橡樹」複數形deren(DÓRON)和orod「山」複數形ered而不是ereid(ÓROT)。複數形ered在晚期的辛達林語中仍然被使用,與eryd作競爭(參見許多列在《珠寶之戰》索引的變體,例如Eryd Engrin而不是Ered Engrin,《珠寶之戰》:440)。看來ered通常不是用來代表「山」的獨立單字--那大概應該只能是eryd--但ered可能在單字是某些部分的名字的第一個語素時被使用,因此Ered Engrin是Eryd Engrin的有效的別名。在《托爾金書信集》:224中,托爾金給了enyd作為onod「樹人」的複數形,但也提到ened可能是一個在剛鐸使用的形式。那麼,或許剛鐸人會傾向於用ered而不是eryd來當做orod的複數形,但無庸置疑的是eryd就是辛達林語的單數形。Deren作為doron「橡樹」的複數形或許是同理可證;雖然正規的辛達林語複數形deryn沒有被證實,但它可能是比較常用的。
在非最終音節中,母音o通常在複數形裡會變成e:Alchoron「愛克林精靈」、複數形Elcheryn(《失落之道及其他故事》:367項目LA)。這樣的e在古辛達林語中卻是ö(例如Golodh「諾多精靈」,複數形Gelydh代替了早期的Gölydh;參見上文的註)。另一個例子是nogoth「矮人」;在《珠寶之戰》:388中給的複數形是nögyth(「noegyth」),但在《珠寶之戰》:338中我們有的是Athrad-i-Negyth代表「矮人們的淺灘」。事實上沒有前後矛盾;nögyth就是古體而已,後來變成了negyth。在《魔戒》式的辛達林語中,我們較喜歡用negyth和Gelydh的複數形;亦可參見托爾金在《托爾金書信集》:224中提到了Enyd是Onod「樹人」的複數形(古體的複數形會是Önyd,但在任何地方都沒有被提到。)
然而,有一些單字裡最終音節的o或ó於複數形中沒有變成(ö>)e。這是當o 代表了早期的A時;發展大致上是â>au>o。一個例子是Rodon「維拉」複數形Rodyn而不是**Rödyn>**Redin(《魔茍斯之戒》:200有Dor-Rodyn代表昆雅語的Valinor=「維拉之地」;看來Rodyn是辛達林語單字Belain「維拉」的別名;甚至有人暗示在托爾金的想法中Rodyn取代了Belain)。Rodyn的第一個音節顯然與Aratar裡中間的音節-rat-同源,那是代表某些至上的維拉的昆雅語專有名詞。代表早期的A的o不受i型母音變化的管制。與《珠寶之戰》:364中的Ódhel「從中土世界離開的精靈」複數形Ódhil相比,這個長音的ó代表了早期的aw(Ódhel的原始形式被引證為aw(a)delo,字面解釋就是「離去者」)。後來的形式Gódhel(被Golodh「諾多精靈」影響了)同樣地擁有複數形Gódhil:儘管有著Golodh複數形Gelydh的影響,但沒有出現**Gédhil。這些例子是來自於《魔戒》出版後的辛達林語,但同樣的事也早就在<詞源學>裡的「諾多林語」中被發現了。在項目RAM(《失落之道及其他故事》:382)中的例子rhofal「翼稍」複數形rhofel原本的單數形給的是râmalê,證實了來自於â(經由au)的o不受I型母音變化的管制。如同上文所提到的,「諾多林語」的rhofal複數形rhofel一定是轉變成辛達林語的roval複數形rovail,如果我們將這些形式更新為《魔戒》式的拼寫及語音體系的話--roval實際上在《魔戒》中有被證實,是老鷹的名字Landroval的一部分--但這個o在複數形內仍然不應該變成e(**revail是不可能的,原因在於語音體系的歷史)。
註:單字cû「弓」的複數形有可能是cui,顯然是依照著上文所敘的模式。但事實上cui是代表了早期的複數形ku3i(或是kuhi),因為詞幹是KU3(《失落之道及其他故事》:365)。托爾金分別重建成h和3(後者=磨擦音g)的原始音在古典辛達林語中消失了,所有古時候的uhi會變成ui。
gwaun「鵝」,複數形guin(《失落之道及其他故事》:397項目WA-N)
naw「主意」,複數形nui(《失落之道及其他故事》:378項目NOWO)
rhaw「獅」,複數形rhui(《失落之道及其他故事》:383項目RAW)
saw「果汁」,複數形sui(《失落之道及其他故事》:385項目SAB)
thaun「松樹」,複數形thuin(《失落之道及其他故事》:392項目THÔN)
然而,看來這一個「諾多林語」的特色在托爾金後來的辛達林語中並沒有存活下來:在《未完成的故事》:148中我們有Nibin-noeg,是代表小矮人的一個名稱,而最終的語素顯然是naug(參見Naugrim,代表矮人族的一個名稱,可在《精靈寶鑽》中找到)的一個複數形。所以在辛達林語中,au於複數形裡變成了oe。在以上所列的「諾多林語」的單字的複數形中,我們顯然應該要寫oe而不是ui,如果我們要把它們更新為後來的辛達林語的話。(「諾多林語」的rhaw複數形rhui會變成辛達林語的raw複數形roe,但是在thaun「松樹」的方面托爾金顯然改成了辛達林語的thôn;參見《魔戒二部曲》第三章第四節中樹鬚關於Dorthonion和Orod-na-Thôn的歌;《精靈寶鑽》索引解釋Dorthonion意為「松樹之地」。在<詞源學>中,thôn曾經是一個「愛克林語」的單字。辛達林語thôn的複數形大概是thýn。)
註:雙元音au在出現於複合字第二個語素中非重音的音節時,通常都會被縮減為o,但它在複形裡面大概還是變成oe。因此像是balrog「力量之惡魔」(在此-rog的部分代表raug「惡魔」這樣子的單字的複數形大概就是belroeg--除非類推作用勝過了創作?belryg。
註:在像是Ithryn Luin「藍巫師」(《未完成的故事》:390)的詞組中形容詞luin「藍色的」一定得是複數形來配合「巫師(複數形)」。有人可能會認為luin是lûn的複數形,這就是如果我們要把「諾多林語」的「藍色的」,也就是lhûn(《失落之道及其他故事》:370 s.v. LUG2),更新為辛達林語後的結果。正如上文所指出的,最終音節中的長音û在複數形中會變成ui,所以一切看起來都很恰當:luin可以是lûn的複數形。將這個大有希望的誘人理論給抹殺掉的就是山脈的名字Mindolluin,「高聳的藍色頭頂」(翻譯於《精靈寶鑽》附錄)。在此,沒有任何理由要讓形容詞「藍色的」變成複數形,所以luin一定得身兼單數形/基本形。在《珠寶之戰》:193中還有Luindirien「藍色高塔」;在複合字的的開頭部分,代表「藍色的」的單字會被預期大概要以其基本形出現,沒有複數形的字尾變化。還要注意到的是<詞源學>裡提供了「諾多林語」lhûn(>辛達林語的?lûn)代表「藍色的」的同一個項目中,也提供了lúne作為其對應的昆雅語單字。在《魔戒》裡的<凱蘭崔爾的輓詩>中,形容詞「藍色的」卻是luini(這是個複數形,來自於詞組「藍色蒼穹」;單數形大概是luinë)。所以雖然在<詞源學>中代表「藍色的」的單字是源自於原始的形式lugni(詞幹LUG2,《失落之道及其他故事》:370),發展出了昆雅語的lúne和「諾多林語」的lhûn,但托爾金後來一定決定了原始的形式是比較像*luini,發展出了昆雅語的luinë和辛達林語的luin。結論是luin「藍色的」似乎是涵蓋了單數形和複數形,暗示了雙元音ui在複數形中不會有任何變化。形容詞annui「西方的」是單數形和複數形的事實也指向了相同的方向。
特殊ai複詞
正如上文所示,看來雙元音ai通常在複數形裡都維持不變。然而,在某一小類的單字中,ai在複數形裡不是變成i(通常是長音的î)就是變成更少見的ý。例如,名字fair「凡人」的複數形給的是fîr(《珠寶之戰》:387,在此單數形fair引述為古體的feir)。以î(i)結尾的複數形是在單字的單數形中由後面的y影響到i或e所造成的ai裡出現的。剛剛才引用的例子,fair或者是古體feir,是來自於一個古辛達林語的形式,類似於昆雅語的同源詞firya(在晚期的古辛達林語中可能是firia;見<古辛達林語>的文章中附加的字詞例表裡的skhalia-)。我們必須假設其他共同擁有類似語音體系歷史的單字都會以相似的方式構成複數形,但在大多數的案例中這些複數形都沒有在托爾金己發行的資料內被明確的提起過。在議題中的名詞和形容詞是cai「柵欄」(複數形cî)、cair「船」(
cîr)、fair「凡人」(複數形fîr)、gwain「新的」(複數形gwîn)、lhain「貧乏的、細的、瘦的」(複數形lhîn)、mail「親愛的」(複數形mîl)和paich「果汁、糖漿」(複數形pich,要注意是短音的i)。「諾多林語」的單字sein「新的」複數形sîn(《失落之道及其他故事》:385項目SI)在辛達林語中可能會變成sain複數形sîn,但是看來托爾金將辛達林語中代表「新的」的單字改成了gwain複數形gwîn,正如剛剛所列出的(要注意到<詞源學>裡在提出了諾多林語sein的同一個項目中也給了sinya當做「新的」的對應昆雅語單字,但在後來的資料中,昆雅語的形容詞「新的」是vinya--顯然是gwain的同源詞)。
註:在「諾多林語」中,lhain複數形lhîn是以thlein複數形thlîn出現的,是被引述為slinyâ 的原始(單數形)形態(《失落之道及其他故事》:386項目SLIN)。其中一項區隔了「諾多林語」和辛達林語的修正就是雖然原始的字首sl-在諾多林語中變成了thl-,它在辛達林語中卻是變成lh-。我們改變了這個字以配合托爾金修正過的語音體系。Thlein可以更直接地被改編成lhein,但這種形式在佛羅多的日子裡就會是古體,現實的形式反而是lhain。同樣的,paich「果汁、糖漿」事實上在<詞源學>中是以peich出現的(《失落之道及其他故事》:382項目PIS);這個「諾多林語」的形式在概念上沒有被淘汰,而是可以被視為古體的辛達林語。這在ceir「船」的案例中也一樣(《失落之道及其他故事》:365 s.v. KIR);《魔戒》型的辛達林語形式的cair已被證實(參見《魔戒》附錄A中解釋Cair Andros意為「浪花中的船」的註腳;亦可參見《中土世界民族錄》:371)。--單字cair提供了一個關於這一類的單字另一項罕見特性的例子:當它們出現在複合字的第一個語素中時,ai會被縮減為í-,正如同名字Círdan「造船者」。然而,如果這種單字是複合字的最終語素時ai就會維持不變;因此gwain「新的」在辛達林語的「一月」的名字,Narwain中是以-wain出現的(顯然意為「新日」或「新火」;可與昆雅語的Narvinyë比較)。
在三個單字裡,ai代表了ei但又源自於更古老的öi(被托爾金拼為「oei」),在此複數形大概應該要顯示為母音y、ý,雖然我們缺少了在托爾金己出版的資料中明確的確認。這項理論是奠基於古體的雙元音öi的第一個部分在原本的詞幹中代表了o或u的事實,而這些母音的變化結果就是y,正如同那些古時候的母音仍存在於辛達林語中的案例一樣(像是出現於orch「半獸人」複數形yrch)。在議題中的單字是1)fair形容詞「右方」或名詞「右手」(複數形fýr,詞幹PHOR,參見昆雅語的forya)、2)rain「狹縫、痕跡、道(譯註:如呼吸道)、足跡」(複數形rýn,詞幹RUN,參見昆雅語的runya)以及3)相關的單字tellain「腳底」(複數形tellyn,因為最終的語素-lain事實上是同化自rain<runya,參見《失落之道及其他故事》:390項目TAL、TALAM中引用的古體talrunya)。在<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」裡,這些單字會以feir(較古老的形式「foeir」=föir也有被提及)、rein(古時候為röin)以及tellein(較古老的形式tellöin沒有被提到但很明顯地有這個意思)出現。要注意到雖然fair可以代表「右方(的手)」和「凡人」,但不同的起源造成了不同的複數形:前者是fýr而後者是fîr。
單音節變為多音節
(但或許因為複數形結構的問題而仍然以單音節的方式在使用)
這是一個在托爾金己出版的文件中沒有被直接提到的東西,但話說回來他有關於文法的文件我們幾乎都弄不到。然而,我們對於灰精靈語的演化的大概的理解似乎強烈地暗示某些類的名詞在複數形中會以有一點意想不到的方式運作--但這在考慮到基本的語音體系歷史時就會被完美地證實出來了。
出現在辛達林語的演化中的一項重要改變就是字尾的母音不見了。因此像是ndakro「戰役」這樣的一個古字後來就變成了ndakr。在早期的辛達林語中,這個單字是以dagr出現的。另一個例子是makla「劍」後來以makl出現,早期的辛達林語則是magl。我們必須假定像是dagr、magl這樣的單字的複數形是依照其他可供比較的單音節詞的相同模式所構成的,像是alph「天鵝」、複數形eilph。所以複數形的「戰役」和「劍」或許是deigr、meigl(這是在最終音節裡的ei照慣例變成ai之前)。
把事情搞複雜的就是像是dagr和magl這樣的單字最後都改變了。字尾的r、l結果構成了一個分開的音節,以至於例如magl就要讀成mag-l,正如英語中的「eagle」要讀成eeg-l。後來,這些構成音節的子音在母音o於它們的前面發展出來時就轉變為成熟的標準子音音節了:Dagr(dag-r)變成了dagor而magl(mag-l)變成了magol。(順帶一提,後者顯然通常都被megil取代了,一定是改編自昆雅語中代表「劍」的單字,也就是macil。)複數形deigr、meigl可能經歷了同樣的過程而變成了deigor、meigol(而後來最終音節裡的ei>ai的改變永遠都不會發生了,就因為ei不再是在最終音節內了)。從不考慮歷史變化的觀點來看,這造成了看起來像是不規則體的東西:通常,像是dagor和magol的單數形單字會被預期擁有複數形degyr、megyl,因為最終音節的o通常在複數形裡會變成y(例如amon「丘」與emyn「丘(複數形)」)。但是在dagor或magol的案例中,o相對來講加入得比較晚而看起來比母音變化o>y年輕;因此這種新出現的o會--有可能--在母音變化中維持不變。如果托爾金沒有設想出類似的修正將這些「怪東西」清除掉的話,那麼所有第二音節包含了一個後來發展出的o的雙音節單字就複數形的構成而言仍都必須被視為單音節詞。O必須被放著不管而「倒數第二個」音節中的母音必須被看作是它是最終音節中的母音,而這完全就是它曾經是的東西。
在議題中的形容詞和名詞是:badhor「法官」(複數形beidhor,如果這個理論有效的話--否則它會是類推出來的bedhyr)、bragol「突然的、激烈的」(複數形breigol;這個形容詞也以bregol出現,複數形大概是brigol)、dagor「戰役」(複數形deigor)、glamor「回音」(複數形gleimor)、hador「丟出者、投擲者」(複數形heidor)、hathol「斧」(複數形heithol)、idhor「深思」(複數形不變;幸好有這種意義的名詞通常都不需要複數形)、ivor?「水晶」(複數形不變)、lagor「迅捷的」(複數形leigor)、maethor「戰士」(複數形不變)、magol「劍」(複數形meigol)、magor「劍士」(複數形meigor)、nadhor「牧草地」(複數形neidhor)、nagol「牙齒」(複數形neigol)、naugol「矮人」(複數形noegol)、tadol「雙重的」(複數形teidol)、tathor「柳樹」(複數形teithor)、tavor「敲擊者、啄木鳥」(複數形teivor)、tegol「筆」(複數形tigol)。或許gollor「魔法師」也屬於這張列表(複數形gyllor而不是?gellyr)。
註:關於這一類單字的某些其他特性在此也要注意到。在(更古老的?)複合字中,新近被發展出來的o沒有出現,而在其他地方消失的最終母音,有時候卻被保留下來了。因此起源於原始的makla的magol,在複合字中可能會以magla-出現。《失落之道及其他故事》:371項目MAK列出了Magladhûr代表「黑劍」(magol「劍」+dûr〔弱音化的dhûr〕「黑色的、暗的」)。如果這些單字中的其中一個被加在一個以母音開頭的語素前面,那原本的最終母音不會再出現,但也找不到新出現的o了:《失落之道及其他故事》:398項目TAM指出了tavr(亦可拼為tafr)「啄木鳥」在複合字Tavr-obel、Tavrobel*「啄木鳥鎮」中保留了那個形式--但獨立的單字tavr會變成tavor。同樣的,《失落之道及其他故事》:361項目ID指出了單字「idher」(寫錯了的idhor?)「深思」在名字Idhril中是以idhr-出現的。--是有可能在晚期的辛達林語中,在某種普遍的類推作用之下,這一類的單字是被看作是和其他的都一樣。在集合的複數形字尾-ath(見下文)的前方,我們不會預期看到後來才發展出來的o。例如,我們會認為dagr「戰役」的集合複數形會是dagrath(未被證實),沒有被dagr後來當其以單字(本身)的形式出現時變成dagor的事實影響。但是在《未完成的故事》:395、396中我們找到的,不是dagrath,而是dagorath,雖然無疑的後者是一個在歷史上的非正當形式:R並不是dagrath的字尾或音節,所以在其前方不會發展出o,而dagorath一定是以單字dagor類推而形成的。這在另一個已證實的形式,nagol「牙齒」的雙合複數形,是以我們預期的樣子:Naglath(《魔戒聖戰》:122)出現時就更另人驚訝了。一個類似於dagorath的形式?nagolath沒有被找到。(單字nagol沒有被證實,但托爾金無疑地設想出了一個原始的單字*nakla「用來咬的器具」=「牙齒」〔參見詞幹NAK「咬」,《失落之道及其他故事》:374〕,這個*nakla變成了*nakl然後在辛達林語中*nagl>*nagol。)還有Eglath「The Forsaken」是辛達精靈的名字,這個集合複數形反映了原始的(單數形)的形式hekla或heklô(《珠寶之戰》:361;我們不知道這是否也能用在辛達林語中的獨立的單數形;如果是這樣的話它就會是egol代表早期的egl,標準的複數形是igl而後來是igol)。一個?Egolath 的形式則是到處都沒有出現(而且也很令人驚訝,就像是假如已證實的複合字Eglamar「forsaken精靈之地」卻是以*Egolmar出現的那樣的驚訝)。那麼,我們是不是要假設,托爾金在《未完成的故事》:395、396中寫了dagorath而不是dagrath(兩次)時,他是忘了他自己的規則呢?我們倒不如設想大概在辛達林語中有幾種變體。在一個「更純綷」或更「古典」的風格中,像是dagor、nagol的單字的集合複數形或許會是在歷史上的正確形式dagrath、naglath,但在一個更「口語」或「非正式」的風格中,像是dagorath、nagolath的形式可能會藉由類推作用而開始被使用。我們可以推測在比較常用dagorath而不是dagrath的辛達林語的形式中,在歷史上正當的複數形deigor也會變成degyr,母音變化會依照更標準的模式。有趣的是,出現在《魔戒》中的名字Dagorlad「戰役平原」洩露出了dagor在複合字開頭的部分中並沒有變成?dagro-,沒有反映出早期的形式ndakro(對比的例子在上文已被引用:magol「劍」Magladhûr在複合字變成magla-反映了原始的makla,而tavor「啄木鳥」在複合字Tavrobel 中是以tavr出現的)。所以又一次的,單字形的類推又派上用場了。或許Dagorlad會是?Dagrolad,如果那個複合字更為古老,在很久很久以前當精靈仍然會說*Ndakro-lata(最後的母音不明)時就已經被創造出來的話。Dagorlad反而很明確地是由後來的dagor「戰役」和-lad「平原」拼湊出來的。一個晚期的複合字「劍黑」可能不是Magladhûr,而單純的就只是Magoldhûr,而「啄木鳥村」的晚期的複合字很可能是Tavorobel而不是已被證實的形式Tavrobel。
某些其他單音節詞轉變成多音節詞的案例,並沒有像是dagr>dagor那樣牽涉到一個新的母音擠入一個子音的前面,而是有一個子音變成了母音。大多數的例子都涉及原來的-w變成-u。在字尾母音消失的那個時期之前,有些單字是以-wa(通常是形容詞)或-we(通常是抽象名詞)結尾的。當字尾的母音消失時,這些字尾就只剩-w了。例如,代表「手藝」或「技巧」的單字在昆雅語中是以kurwe(curwë)出現,這也是此單字的古辛達林語形式,在早期的辛達林語中結果是curw。我們必須假設在複數形中這會變成cyrw,一個符合上文中訂立的規則的完美標準形。但正如同《失落之道及其他故事》:366項目KUR中指出的,curw後來變成了curu:緊連著另一個子音的字尾-w變成了母音-u,半母音變成了全母音。又一次的,一個新母音的出現可能會造成明顯的不規則體:提出一個像是curu的單字,這實在會讓人想要就說它是類似於tulus「白楊樹」、複數形tylys--因此curu複數形?cyry。但是後者,如果它真的有出現的話,就會是一個類推出來的形式。Curu在歷史上的正當複數形只能是cyru,以前的複數形cyrw轉變成cyru就像是以前的單數形curw轉變成curu那樣。
在此就是受到影響的單字,以及建議使用的複數形:anu「一位男性」(複數形einu)、celu「源泉、根源」(複數形cilu)、coru形容詞「奸詐的、狡猾的」(複數形cyru)、curu「技巧、精巧的設備、手藝」(複數形又是cyru)、galu「好運」(複數形geilu)、gwanu「死、正在死亡的行為」(複數形gweinu)、haru「傷口」(複數形heiru)、hethu「多霧的、矇矓的、模糊的」(複數形hithu)、hithu「霧」(在複數形中維持不變,還有切勿與形容詞hethu的複數形搞混)、inu「一位女性」(在複數形中不變)、malu「休耕地、闈場」(複數形meilu)、naru「紅色的」(複數形neiru)、nedhu「長枕、墊子」(複數形nidhu)、pathu「水平的空地、草地」(複數形peithu)、talu「平的」(複數形teilu)、tinu「火花、小星星」(在複數形中不變)我們讓具有詞幹母音a的單字擁有ei的複數形而不是ai,也是假定這些單字在最終音節的ei變成ai之前就變成雙音節詞了(也就是,當這個改變發生時,可以在其中找到ei的音節再也不是結尾的了,因為-w早已變成-u,構成了一個新的最終音節)。因此anu:einu、gwanu:gweinu、haru:heiru、malu:meilu、naru:neiru、pathu:peithu、talu:teilu。如果最終音節裡的ei>ai的改變是在這些單字變成多音節詞之前,那麼在複數形裡我們就應該寫ai而不是ei--除了在haru和naru的案例中,如此其複數形就大概會是heru和neru,代表早期的herw、nerw。(參見narn「故事」的複數形是nern,可能是源自於早期的?neirn,ei在一個以r-開頭的子音字串的前面顯然被簡化成e。如果naru的複數形是neru,那麼這就意味著ei被簡化成了e,這還先於在早期的形式narw複數形?neirw不再是一個字串,因為最終的子音w變成一個母音了。否則,就像我們在上文所假設的那樣,ei在一個以r-開頭的子音字串的前面轉變為e的改變就無法適用:原本的字串反而已經轉變為單一個字串+一個母音。)
註:在<詞源學>中,後來最終的-w變成-u的階段通常沒有明確的記錄。除了古時候的curw(項目KUR)以外還有curu以及除了古時候的narw(NAR1)以外還有naru,但除此之外只列出了-w仍存在著的古體:如此我們找到了anw(3AN)、celw(KEL)、corw(KUR)、galw(GALA)、gwanw(WAN)、harw(SKAR)、hethw/hithw(KHITH)、inw(INI)、malw(SMAL)、nedhw(NID)、pathw(PATH)和tinw(TIN)而不是如同上例的anu、celu、coru等等。後面的這些形式沒有在托爾金的文件中直接被證實。可能是就<詞源學>的「諾多林語」而言,托爾金還沒完全確定在這個位置上的-w會變成-u;這個構想只是有在幾個地方冒出來而已。但我們對於引用後來-u的形式感到疑慮,如果我們是要針對例示在《魔戒》和《精靈寶鑽》中的那種辛達林語的話。要注意到在<詞>中,據說昆雅語名字Elwë的「諾多林語」形式會是*Elw,用星號標記是因為它事實上沒有以這種形式在「流放者」中被使用(《失落之道及其他故事》:398項目WEG)。然而,在已出版的《精靈寶鑽》的第四章裡面卻又是不同的局面了。「諾多林語」現在變成了辛達林語,而且不只是有一個辛達林語形式的Elwë,它還也是Elu而不是像<詞源學>中的「Elw」:「去尋找Elwë的族人沒有找到他……在後來的日子裡他變成了一位著名的國王……King Greymantle就是他,在那一塊土地〔貝爾蘭〕的語言中則是Elu Thingol。在此我們很顯然該假設有Elwë>Elw>Elu的發展。那麼,看來要把(例如說)celw「源泉、根源」改變成其後來的形式celu(以配合Elu)是完全合理的,即使這種celu的形式沒有被明確地被證實。一個相似的案似則是由名字Finwë所提供;又一次的<詞源學>指明「諾多林語」的形式會是*Finw,但是這種形式沒有人使用(《失落之道及其他故事》:398項目WEG)。一個更後期、《魔戒》出版後的資料同意Finwë沒有辛達林語的形式,但如果這個名字「被視為一個應該會有這種形式的單字,如果它很久以前曾出現辛達林語中的話,它應該〔不會是Finw,而〕會是Finu」(《中土世界民族錄》:344)。如果「諾多林語」的Finw相當於辛達林語的Finu,我們也就可以斷定「諾多林語」的gwanw會是相當於辛達林語的gwanu。--上文所列的單字talu「平的」事實上在<詞源學>中是以dalw(而不是**talw)出現的,緊接著列在dalw後面的是dalath「平地、平面、平原」(《失落之道及其他故事》:353項目 DAL),出現在名稱Dalath Dirnen「被守衛的平原」(《失落之道及其他故事》:394 s.v. TIR)。然而,托爾金後來把dalath改成了talath;在已出版的《精靈寶鑽》中,貝爾蘭中的「被守衛的平原」反而是被稱為Talath Dirnen。依照這個修訂,我們也把相關的「諾多林語」單字dalw「平的」改成talw>talu。我們仍然可以接受(dalw>)dalu--就此而言是dalath--作為仍在使用的次要形式。
還有幾個案例是字尾的-gh(摩擦音g)變成了一個母音。《失落之道及其他故事》:381項目PHÉLEG提供了一個例子,在此單字fela「山洞」是源自於古辛達林語(或「古諾多林語」)phelga。因為最終的母音在古辛達林語之後的階段就消失了,fela並不是一個原本的字尾-a存活到後來的辛達林語中的例子。托爾金想像出的大概是這樣:古辛達林語phelga在最終的母音跑掉後很自然地變成了phelg。在流音l、r後面的塞音變成了摩擦音,(《未完成的故事》:265),所以phelg變成了phelgh(或是felgh,因為ph>f的變化差不多在同一時期出現了)。然而,gh不可能還存留在佛羅多時期的辛達林語;一開始它船過水無痕地消失了,但在這個位置裡它被母音化了:Felgh變成fela。Felgh的複數形顯然是根據標準的規則而構成了filgh。(參見例如telch「莖」、複數形tilch--《失落之道及其他故事》:391項目TÉLEK)。複數形filgh然後變成了fili,早期的gh的母音化在此是i而不是a(或許g>gh不知怎麼的被也造成了母音變化的消失的古辛達林語複數形字尾給-i顎音化了,將後來的母音化推向了i)。我們要多麼精確地想像出這個發展是不太重要的:反正,最後的結果是奇怪的一對fela複數形fili,代表了古老的felgh複數形filgh。
Fela複數形fili是唯一已知托爾金明確地提到單數形和複數形這樣子的一對的案例。但是,還有兩個或三個其他的單字也共有相似的語音體系發展。單字thela「(矛的)尖端」源自於詞幹STELEG(《失落之道及其他故事》:388),而雖然托爾金沒有列出原始的形式,我們大概可以假設一個古精靈語形式stelgâ(最終的母音不明)轉變成了古辛達林語sthelga而後來是(s)thelgh,其複數形會是(s)thilgh。那麼單數形結果就成了已證實的辛達林語形式thela(完全與fela相似);未證實的複數形「矛尖」一定就是thili(以配合已證實的複數形fili)。
也還有極少數的形容詞。一個形容詞thala「健壯的、平穩的、牢固的」是出現在《失落之道及其他故事》:388項目STÁLAG,是源自於古辛達林語/「諾多林語」的sthalga。未證實的過渡時期形式大概是(s)thalgh複數形(s)theilgh,依照著(例如說)alph「天鵝」、複數形eilph的正常模式。我們必須假設thala的複數形是theili。一個相似的案例是tara「固執的、靜止的」,被說明是代表了古「諾多林語」/辛達林語的targa(《失落之道及其他故事》:390);再一次的未證實的過渡時期形式會是targh。這個形容詞的複數形可能是teirgh,這大概就產生了辛達林語的teiri。還有另一個可能性:正如曾經提到過的那樣,看來ei在某一個階段時於以r開頭的子音字串的前方被簡化成了e(因此我們有nern而不是neirn>nairn作為narn「故事」的複數形)。如果這是發生在複數形形容詞中最後的gh變成了母音而使字串消失之前,這個形式就會變成tergh,在後來的辛達林語是teri。目前我們不能確定是teri或teiri才是tara最好的複數,因為我們不知道托爾金想像出的與此相關的聲音改變是照著什麼順序發生的;我大概會用teiri。
延伸複詞
這一組的單字似乎在複數形中比在單數形中要來得長。從歷史的角度來說,將觀點反過來並說是「縮短的單數形」會更為精確,因為在本案例中,構成複數形基礎的單字的樣子用原始的單字會給予較佳的概念,比目前的單數形還好。
在《珠寶之戰》:363中,êl據說是代表「星星」的(古體)辛達林語單字。根據上文所訂的規刖,以像是hên「孩童」複數形hîn(《珠寶之戰》:403)的模式作為基礎,我們會預期複數形是**îl。然而,《珠寶之戰》:363也告訴了我們êl真正的複數形是elin。在此看來出現的是複數形字尾-in。然而,這並不是事實。在將這些字與它們的昆雅語同源詞elen複數形eleni比對後,人們可能會開始懷疑到底發生了什麼事。Eleni也在古辛達林語中被使用,最後產生了辛達林語的elin:複數形字尾像所有最後的母音一樣消失了,但藉著將第二個e變化成i而留下了其痕跡。但一件常常會發生在古辛達林語中的事就是單字結尾的子音可能會脫離。複數形eleni中的n很「安全」因為它被其後的複數形字尾擋住了,但是單數形elen顯然縮短成了ele,雖然這個形式沒有明確地被托爾金提出。稍後,結尾的母音消失了,只留下了el,而更晚之後,這樣子的單音節詞中的母音被拉長了,產生出了辛達林語的êl。因此我們在第三紀元的辛達林語中就只剩下奇怪的一對êl複數形elin。在另一個案例中,相似的一對nêl「牙齒」複數形nelig,<詞源學>列出了古「諾多林語」/辛達林語的形式nele複數形neleki,證實了上文所述的解釋是正確的:藉著將單數形nele與詞幹NÉL-EK(《失落之道及其他故事》:376)做比較,我們瞭解了結尾的子音已經脫離了。(在通用艾爾達語中,nele顯然然還是*nelek,這個形式直接構成了列在同一個地方的昆雅語nelet的基礎--高等精靈語語音體系不允許字尾-k出現,所以它反而變成了-t。)因此我們擁有單數形*nelek>nele>*nel>辛達林語nêl,但複數形neleki(仍在昆雅語中使用)>母音變化的*neliki>後來字尾母音消失的*nelik>辛達林語nelig。
其他的單字也是以相似的方式運作:
ael「水塘、池」、複數形aelin(更新自「諾多林語」的oel複數形oelin,《失落之道及其他故事》:349項目AY;在《精靈寶鑽》中我們有Aelin-Uial代表「微光之池」)
âr「國王」、複數形erain(但完整的單數形aran看起來比縮短的âr更常見)
bór(或者更好的是bôr)「堅定、值得信賴的人;忠實的下屬」、複數形beryn(《失落之道及其他故事》:353項目BOR,在此複數形是以「諾多林語」的berein、beren出現;我們將其更新為其可能的辛達林語形式了。參見「諾多林語」複數形geleidh「諾多精靈」相當於辛達林語的gelydh。--項目BOR指出了bór的複數形後來變成了býr,由縮短的單數形的類推形成;作家們應該要使用býr。)
fêr「山毛櫸樹」、複數形ferin(《失落之道及其他故事》:352項目BERÉTH,參見《失落之道及其他故事》:381項目PHER;後者的資料指出了這個代表了「山毛櫸樹」的單字後來被brethil取代了--而這個單字在在複數形中會維持不變。)
ôr「山」、複數形eryd或不規則的ered(但就如同上文âr的案例一樣,完整的單數形orod顯然比縮短的ôr更常見;《失落之道及其他故事》:379項目ÓROT列出了兩個「古諾多林語」的單數形,完整的oroto或縮寫的oro;在後來的語言中這些分別變成了orod或ôr,但事實上列出的單數形只有orod--源自於未縮減的oroto。)
tôr「兄弟」、複數形teryn(《失落之道及其他故事》:394項目TOR;我們是將複數形更新自「諾多林語」的terein。然而,在<詞源學>的同一個項目中指出了這個代表「兄弟」的單字通常是由muindor複數形muindyr取代,或是--當「兄弟」用在廣義的「男性夥伴」時--gwador,曾是gwedeir的「諾多林語」的複數形;在辛達林語中寫為gwedyr。)
thôr「鷹」、複數形theryn(《失落之道及其他故事》:392項目THOR;再一次地我們是將複複形更新自「諾多林語」的therein。--<詞源學>中的同一個項目指出了未被縮短的單數形thoron也仍在使用中。)
除了以上所述的之外,還有幾個單字也是屬於同一個類別的,即使複數形沒有字尾母音;pêl「被圍起來的田野」複數形peli、ôl「夢」複數形ely及thêl「姐妹」複數形theli。發生的事情就是原本的字尾子音h在古辛達林語的階段由s弱音化而來,而在複數形中脫離了:在<詞源學>中給的相關詞幹是PEL(ES)、ÓLOS和THELES。在這些項目的第一個之中,pêl「被圍起來的田野」被證明是來自於pele(《失落之道及其他故事》:380),這讓詞幹PEL(ES)被理解為*peles縮短的形式(參見昆雅語同源詞peler,顯然意為來自於*pelez<*peles)。古時候的形式pele的複數形給的是pelesi,而又更進一步地被指出這個變成了pelehi(在《失落之道及其他故事》:380中的「peleki」是對托爾金的原稿的明顯錯誤解釋;因為s如此變成了h,參見《失落之道及其他故事》:351項目BARÁS中的barasa>baraha)。以上所述的案例三例一體,neleki變成了nelig,複數形pelehi變成了*pelih--但在這個案例現在的字尾子音音太輕了,以至於它消失掉而產生了複數形peli,造成了辛達林語通常會採用類似於昆雅語的-i 的複數形字尾的錯誤印象。
註:幾個上文所引用的形式或多或少都被調整過了。Pêl「被圍起來的田野」事實上在《失落之道及其他故事》:380項目PEL(ES)中是以pel出現的;根據我們從許多其他例子重建出的語音體系,母音一定得是長音才行。在pel的形式中抑揚符號的省略一定只是個小錯誤,不是歸咎於托爾金自己就是抄寫員(或許是單數形跟複數形peli被搞混了,而這個形式中的e應該要是短音)。--ôl「夢」的複數形在《失落之道及其他故事》:379項目ÓLOS中給的是elei;在辛達林語中我們顯然應該寫為ely,如同上文所建議的。這個案例與「諾多林語」的geleidh對應了代表「諾多精靈」的辛達林語單字gelydh(單數形golodh)是完全相同的:在兩個案例中「諾多林語」的ei源自於單數形的o相當於辛達林語的y(亦可參見上文中建議的修正過/更新過的複數形:辛達林語beryn、teryn、theryn,而<詞源學>中的「諾多林語」事實上是berein、terein、therein)。--還有一個形式也被調整過了:在<詞源學>中,thêl的複數形不是上文所建議的theli,而是thelei(《失落之道及其他故事》:392項目THEL、THELES)。為什麼一個源自於詞幹THELES 的單字thêl會跟一個源自於詞幹PELES 的單字pêl在複數形中會有不同的運作,這實在讓人費解,所以如果後者的複數形是peli,我們就會自由地將thêl的複數形從thelei修正為theli。複數形theli與已證實的peli比較適用於一般的系統:複數形代表了完整的詞幹THELES和PELES,除了字尾的-s消失了(在變成了-h之後)的細節之外,而依照慣例,最終音節的e在複數形中變成了i(就像是在Edhel「精靈」複數形Edhil中那樣,《珠寶之戰》:377)。因此*peles的複數形應該是*pelis,而移去了消失的最終子音後我們就完成了已證實的複數形peli;按照這一點,*theles的複數形應該是*thelis>theli而不是「thelei」。如果我們要留下複數形thelei(在這個案例中我們就必須將peli改變成pelei以求前後一致),我們必須將托爾金的<詞源學>出版後最終音節中的ei結果會變成ai的發現納入考量之中,這會讓我們在第三紀元的辛達林語中出現了thelai、pelai,作為thêl、pêl有點異國風味的複數形。所以從各方面考慮過後,為了要配合已證實的例子peli而將thelei調整為theli而不是反過來進行,看來是比較適合的(在thelei/theli「姐妹」的案例中作家們可以快樂地避開這個問題;《失落之道及其他故事》:392項目THEL指出了代表「姐妹」比較標準的單字是muinthel複數形muinthil,或是--當「姐妹」用在比較廣義的「女性伙伴」時--gwathel複數形gwethil。)--另一個以-ei結尾的複數形是「諾多林語」的tele「末端、背面、最後面的部分」、複數形telei(《失落之道及其他故事》:392項目TELES)。就單數形而言,這個發展和從詞幹THELES產生出thêl的那個發展有點不太一樣;要注意到在tele中,TELES最後的母音仍然健在(這沒有變成和thêl相似的**têl)。Tele原始的形式給的是télesâ(重音符號只標示出了重音)。在「古諾多林語」中,這應該會變成telesa>teleha(沒有明確地出現在<詞>中但可對照barasâ「熱的、燃燒的」產生出了「古諾多林語」barasa>baraha,《失落之道及其他故事》:351項目BARÁS)。後來最終的母音不見了,因此teleha>teleh,但最後不重讀的結尾子音-h也脫離了,就只留下了tele(而新的結尾母音沒有消失;這種消失發生的階段早就過去了)。但複數形telei呢?要精確地分辨出托爾金想像出了哪種發展是很困難的一件事。Teleha的「古辛達林語」的複數形沒有被提過但應該會是telehi(參見例如poto「動物的腳」、複數形poti,《失落之道及其他故事》:384項目POTÔ)。後來,我們預期會見到結尾的i在倒數第二音節中變化為e,telehi變成telihi;然後最後的母音以及後來結尾的h都消失了,而這應該會留給我們teli作為複數形。所以托爾金怎麼反而想出了telei?我們是不是要假設在telehi的階段時,h脫離了所以母音e和i就直接接觸並形成了雙元音telei?但這就和上文論及的例子前後矛盾了:複數形pelehi變成了peli而不是**pelei。看來當將「諾多林語」的tele複數形telei更新成辛達林語時,最好還是寫為tele複數形teli。此外,複數形telei無論如何都不能全身而退,因為在辛達林語中最終音節的ei變成了ai。
字首或字尾複詞in
有幾個單字看起來顯示出了一個真正的複數形字尾-in,但這個字尾的起源則不為人知;可以想見的是托爾金是把它的創造想像成êl複數形elin的類推,而在此(如同上文所展示的)並沒有真正的字尾。
最好的例子則牽涉到了一個借來的單字,Drû「Wose」,Drúedain或「野人」中其中一人的名字;其辛達林語的單字是以其本土的單字Drughu為基礎的。根據《未完成的故事》:385,Drû的一個辛達林語複數形是Drúin。或許這個特別的複數形在某種程度上標出了這個單字是借來的;它沒有根據標準的模式做字尾變化(那樣的話就會給我們**Drui當複數形了)。
在可麥倫平原(《魔戒三部曲》第六章第四節)上時,魔戒攜帶者被致敬為Conin en Annûn,而根據《托爾金書信集》:308,這意為「西方的王子」。假設Conin「王子」包含了複數形字尾-in,它可能就是?caun的複數形(因為藉著加入-in,組成了一個新的音節,au在從而產生的多音節狀況中就變成了o)。這個?caun也可能是昆雅語cáno「指揮官」(《中土世界民族錄》:345)的一個辛達林語化的形式,而這樣子的話就會又是一個借來的單字而不是「天生的」辛達林語單字(《中土世界民族錄》:362提到了一個起源差滿多的單字caun,意為喊叫或吵鬧聲)。如果conin「王子」不是*caun的複數形,它可能是某個在其他方面都不為人知的單字*conen的複數形,但這看起來像是個形容詞而不是個名詞。
出現在《精靈寶鑽》中的名字Dor-Lómin在《失落之道及其他故事》:406中被翻為「回音之地」。《精靈寶鑽》附錄中列出了一個單字lóm「回音」,但沒有說這個應該是哪種語言。Lómin是lóm的複數形嗎?我們必須仔細分辨出托爾金的概念中各種不同的階段。<詞源學>中列出了一個單字lóm「回音」(《失落之道及其他故事》:367項目LAM),但這是多瑞亞林語,不是「諾多林語」>辛達林語。在多瑞亞林語(其中一個愛克林語的方言,而愛克林語的地位在神話中後來會被辛達林語篡位)中,確實有複數形字尾-in,所以lómin可以是多瑞亞林語的「回音」。但在<詞源學>相關的項目中,明顯地在《精靈寶鑽》裡是相當於Dor-Lómin的名字反而是以Dorlómen出現的。據說Dorlómen不是多瑞亞林語,而是一個真正的多瑞亞林語名字Lómendor「諾多林語化」後的形式。第一個語素根本不是個複數形,而是一個多瑞亞林語的形容詞lómen「發出回音的」。這大概可以提供一個關於托爾金後來會如何翻譯這個名字的線索。當他把辛達林語變成貝爾蘭的語言時,就拋棄了「愛克林語」,但他仍然做了奇怪的方言北辛達林語的註釋,而名字Dor-Lómin似乎很適用於大家知道的那小小的部分(m在一個母音後面不會引起mh>v;參見Oromë的北辛達林語名字是Arum而不是像在標準的辛達林語中的Araw〔代替*Arauv〕:《珠寶之戰》:400)。一個依照經驗的臆測就是可能在《魔戒》出版後的階段裡,托爾金將Dor-Lómin翻為字面意義的「發出回音的地」,lómin是源自於更古老的*lâmina的北辛達林語形容詞。在標準的辛達林語中,形容詞的字尾在單數形裡是-en而只有在複數形中會是-in,但這在這個語言的方言形式中可能不是正確的。如果lómin真的是個形容詞,去討論辛達林語的複數形形成就變得無關緊要了。
複詞演變成的單詞
在大多數的案例中,單數形必須被考慮為名詞的基本形,由此產生了複數形。然而,還是有幾個案例是複數形其實才是基本形,而單數形是由此衍生的。在歷史中,fileg「小鳥」、複數形filig,就是這種案例。詞幹PHILIK(《失落之道及其他故事》:381)在辛達林語中結果變成filig,但因為有太多在最終音節中擁有i的複數形是代表了單數形的e(例如Edhil是Edhel「精靈」的複數形),單字filig就被認為是這種複數形,然後一個單數形就按照標準的模式被創出:Fileg。因為詞幹是PHILIK,這種單數形在歷史的角度上完全沒有被修正;正如托爾金在<詞源學>中提到的一樣,這是只一個「類推的單數形」。Fileg複數形filig的這一對是本身徹底的適應了標準的模式,對於不考慮歷史上變化的辛達林語學習者來說當然不會造成額外的問題。但是<詞源學>指出了其單數形也可能是filigod,而在此字尾-od實際上是個「單數形字尾」,產生了最奇怪的一對filigod複數形filig。另一個類似的案例牽涉到了另一個「單數形字尾」,就是lhewig「耳朵」、複數形lhaw。(參見《魔戒》中的Amon
Lhaw,「聆聽之丘」或逐字解是*「耳朵之丘」,在首部曲的大河那一章中接近尾聲的地方被提到。)複數形lhaw被解釋為代表了一個古老的雙數形,意思是一對耳朵,或者就像托爾金寫的,「(一個人的)耳朵(複數形)」(《失落之道及其他故事》:368項目LAS2)。單數形lhewig「耳朵」是則源自於這個複數形或雙數形。一個以-ig結尾的類似的「來自雙數形的單數形」就是gwanunig「雙胞胎」,源自於gwanûn「一對雙胞胎」(《珠寶之戰》:367)。
註:用來從複數形形成單數形的字尾-od、-ig、-og也可以用來構成所謂的nomina unitatis,是代表某個很大的東西的一個特定部分的單字,或者是代表一個集團的單一實體的單字。當然這大概就是它們真正的功用。《珠寶之戰》:391提供了一個很好的例子。有一個辛達林語單字glam「喧鬧聲、搔動、野獸混亂的叫喊和怒吼聲」。因為一整團半獸人可以是非常吵的,所以單字glam「單獨就可以用來代表任何的半獸人,而一個單數形就由此誕生,glamog」。因此我們有glamog作為代表「半獸人」的單字,glam的單一個成員或當作一個集團的一群半獸人。在這種案例中一個人人不能就說glam真的就是glamog的複數形(這會像是聲稱「軍隊」是「騎兵」的複數形一樣);或許glamog本身可以是個複數形?glemyg的基礎。另一個類似的案例是單字linnod,在各處都沒有被明確地解釋過但在《魔戒》附錄A中被用到了:「〔吉爾蘭〕只回答了這個linnod:Onen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim〔我將希望給了登丹人,自己卻沒有留下任何的希望〕。」所以,說真的,linnod是什麼?知道了-od是個用來構成nomina unitatis的字尾,就像是上文中filigod從filig來的那樣,linnod可以被認作為這樣子的結構,顯然是基於lind「歌」(*lindod自然變成了linnod因為辛達林語的語音體系不容許母音間位的-nd-出現在單一的單字中;這個種類只能出現在複合字中,像是Gondor「岩石大地」)。所以一個linnod是歌曲裡面的某種單位,而提出的例子暗示了它代表一個詩行,一首歌裡的單一個句子。再一次的,要把linnod說成是lind的「單數形」是沒什麼道理的(就像是一定要把這個代表「歌」的單字當成複數形,就因為一首歌是由詩行組成的一樣)。我們倒應該把linnod看作一個衍生名詞,一個代表「詩行」的獨立單字,或許擁有其自己的複數形linnyd「詩行」。(在吉爾蘭的linnod的案例中很明顯地她特有的「詩行」似乎不是一首更長的歌的一部分;它只是一行詩或本身就是一首非常短的詩。)以-ig結尾的名詞似乎明確地代表了一對當中的一個,正如上文所引用的例子那樣:gwanunig「一位雙胞胎」來自於gwanûn「一對雙胞胎」,或者lhewig「一隻耳朵」和 lhaw「一對耳朵」。又一次地有人可能會討論gwanûn、lhaw是否真的是gwanunig、lhewig的複數形;後者的形式單純地只是代表一對中的一個。
一個上文所引用的例子,Edenedair「人類之父」或者照字面解是*「人父」(《魔茍斯之戒》:373)顯然是複合字Adanadar「人父」(adan+adar)的複數形。在此我們看見了母音變化傳遍了整個單字,所有在非最終音節裡的a都變成了e,彷彿這是單一的單字一樣。但是或許也是可以用複數形?Adanedair的,讓複合字的第一個語素不被影響到並只改變了adar「父親」(變成edair)。在《珠寶之戰》:376中,托爾金對於orodben「登山家」和rochben「騎馬者」(事實上是複合字orod-ben「山-人」和roch-ben「馬-人」)的複數形做出了註解。出現在複數形中的i變化原本是遍佈了整個字,產生了örödbin與röchbin的形式(在《珠寶之戰》:376中被拼為「oeroedbin」和「roechbin」;這在佛羅多的時代的辛達林語會變成eredbin和rechbin,但托爾金沒有提到這些後期的形式)。然而,托爾金還提到了「第一個語素的標準〔也就是尚未母音變化〕的形式在構詞的本質很明顯地殘留下了來時通常就會被恢復過來」;因此rochben的複數形也可以是rochbin,母音變化只影響了最終語素-ben「人」的母音,而roch「馬」則變持不變。(這意味著orodben「登山家」的複數形可以同樣的是擁有標準形orod「山」的orodbin,但orodbin的形式沒有在《珠寶之戰》:376中被提到。)在複合字Edenedair中的第一個語素沒有被恢復過來,但正如方才所提過的,一個?Adanedair的形式或許也是可以使用的。
除了正常的複數形外,辛達林語還有所謂的種類複數形,或者是集合複數形。在《大路長呀長》:74中,托爾金說明了「字尾-ath(原本是個集合名詞字尾)被用做群組複數形,包含了所有有相同名稱、或是在某種特殊安排或組織上有關聯的事物。所以elenath(êl的複數形,〔不規則的〕複數形elin)意為『群星』:也就是(所有)蒼天的(可見)星星。參見ennorath,中央大地的集群,組成了中土世界。還有Argonath,『那一對莊嚴的石塊』,位於剛鐸的入口;Periannath,「哈比人(作為種族使用)」,是perian、『半身人』的集合複數形(複數形periain)。」The King's Letter提供了更多的例子:sellath dîn「他的女兒們」和ionnath dîn「他的兒子們」,代表了山姆全部的兒子和女兒作為群體來看。在某些案例中,-ath似乎有個更長的形式-iath。《珠寶之戰》:387給了firiath作為feir「一個凡人」的種類複數形(標準的複數形為fîr);亦可參見《失落之道及其他故事》:358項目GIL中的「集合複數形」giliath「星星」(就像是在Osgiliath、「星辰要塞」中的那樣)。在本文早期的版本中,我們將這個加在-ath前面的i解釋為一個早先時保留於此處的y的遺跡(更早期是firya「凡人」、gilya「星星」)。這可能在單字firiath和giliath的案例中是正確的,但看起來更長的字尾-iath在每一次種類複數形字尾要被加到一個擁有詞幹母音i的單字時都會出現:這個母音會在字尾中重複。
如果字尾-ath被加到一個以-nc或–m結尾的名詞,它們會因為語音體系的理由而分別改為-ng-和重複的-mm-,而結尾的-nt和-nd都會變成-nn-:像是單字ranc「手臂」、lam「舌頭」、cant「形狀」和thond「根」的種類複數形顯然分別是rangath、lammath、cannath、thonnath。還要記得因為〔v〕音只有在結尾被拼為f,所以它會被拼為其發出的音--就是v--如果有任何字尾被添加的話。因此像是單字ylf「飲酒器皿」的種類複數形必須被寫為ylvath。
在某些案例中,除了-ath以外也會使用其他的字尾,像是-rim「人民」;在《珠寶之戰》:388中,Nogothrim據說是Nogoth「矮人」的種類複數形。還有一個字尾是-hoth「民族、群眾、人群」,參見Dornhoth「Thrawn民族」,另一個代表矮人的精靈語專有名詞。《精靈寶鑽》附錄(項目hoth)指出這個字尾「幾乎都是用於貶意」並提到了例子Glamhoth「吵雜的人群」,一個代表半獸人的精靈語隱喻。第一個把Forochel的雪人稱為Lossoth(代表*Loss-hoth,loss=「雪」)的人顯然不太喜歡他們。在《托爾金書信集》:178中,托爾金解釋了雖然orch「半獸人」標準的複數形是yrch,「作為一個種族來看、或者先前提過的一整團的半獸人則會是orchoth」(顯然代表*orch-hoth)。是可以去討論像是Nogothrim和Lossoth的形式是否真的是「複數形」或只是複合字而已:矮人-民族、雪人-人群。擁有「集合」字尾-ath的單字被見過採用了複數形冠詞in,所以它們顯然被認為是複數形。以-rim和-hoth結尾的單字似乎是以同樣的方式作;參見名字Tol-in-Gaurhoth「那些狼人(之)島」(《精靈寶鑽》第十八章,在些這個名字單純地被翻為「狼人之島」)。在《托爾金書信集》:178中,托爾金確實指出了「一般的複數形〔斜體〕很常由把某些代表『部族、民族、群眾、人群』的單字加進一個名字(或地名)而形成」--也就是我們在此討論的字尾。所以看來從文法的觀點來看,採用這些字尾的形式事實上要被看作是複數形,不是複合字。
就我們從已經出版的東西所能辨別出來的,辛達林語的名詞在許多格中都沒有字尾變化,不像在昆雅語中一樣。昆雅語和辛達林語的共同古語顯然是一種格的語言,但在辛達林語中相關的字尾已經消失了(但它們的痕跡可以在某些單字中被找到--例如,ennas「那裡」一定曾有類似於昆雅語的-ssë的位置格字尾)。灰精靈語是依賴介系詞而非格的字尾。然而,值得注意的是,辛達林語的名詞可以在不改變其形式下當作屬格使用。我們已經引用過摩瑞亞之門的銘文作為此類的例子了:Ennyn Durin Aran Moria、「都靈之門,摩瑞亞之王」,都靈和摩瑞亞的名字是以無字尾變化的屬格作用著:都靈的of Durin(或Durin's)、摩瑞亞的of Moria(或Moria's)。要說「Y的X(X of Y或Y's X)」你只要把單字排在一起就行了:X Y。King's Letter提供了更多的例子:Aran Gondor「剛鐸(之)王」、Hîr i Mbair Annui「西地(之)主」、Condir i Drann「夏爾(的)市長」。托爾金提到了這些無字尾變化的屬格大概是源自於「屈折變化形式」(《珠寶之戰》:370)。在早期的階段裡,辛達林語或許擁有像昆雅語裡一樣相同的屬格字尾-o,但它跟其他的字尾母音一起消失了。(多瑞安的辛達林語有時候會有個屬格字尾-a,像是在圖林的稱號Dagnir Glaurunga「Glaurung的剋星」;亦可參見《珠寶之戰》:230中Bar Bëora代表「比歐的家族」。這個字尾的起源不明,而且顯然沒有在標準的辛達林語中使用到。)
有時候屬格詞組中的一個或全部的兩個名詞會稍微被縮短:雙子音可能會被簡化;可將toll「島」與像是名字Tol Morwen「Morwen之島」(《珠寶之戰》:296)中的tol做比較。長音母音可能會被縮短;可將dôr「地」與Dor Caranthir「Caranthir之地」(《珠寶之戰》:183)中的dor做比較。但這樣子的縮短並不一定會誕生出確的辛達林語;參見King's Letter裡詞組Hîr i Mbair Annui「西地(之)王」中是Hîr而不是。
不只是屬格,與格也可以由一個完全沒有改變其形式的辛達林語名詞表達出來。這顯然是來自於《魔戒》附錄A中吉爾蘭的linnod的第一個部分:Onen i-Estel Edain,「我將希望給了〔登丹〕伊甸人(I gave Hope to the 〔Dún〕edain)」。間接受詞,或者是與格的受詞,顯然是Edain--但它沒有顯示出屈折變化的字尾,也沒有任何相當於托爾金的英文翻譯中介系詞「給」的東西。與格顯然只是由詞序來表達出來的。這個結構可以比作英文的「I gave the Edain Hope」,再一次地沒有介系詞或屈折變他的字尾--但雖然這種格中英文會在直接受詞的前方插入間接受詞,辛達林語是在直接受詞的後方加入間接受詞。
The Sindarin noun, as well as other parts of speech, is often subjected to certain regular changes of the initial consonants. To these we must now turn our attention.
In Sindarin, the initial consonant of words often undergo certain
changes, so that the same word may appear in different shapes (words
beginning in a vowel are unaffected). These changes are termed mutations,
with a series of subcategories (soft mutation, nasal mutation etc.) Consider two
completely distinct words like saew "poison" and haew "habit". One
mutation rule dictates that s in certain grammatical contexts becomes
h. The article i "the" is one of the triggers of this mutation, so
if we prefix it to saew to express "the poison", the result is not
**i saew. "The poison" must be i haew instead. Though haew
also means "habit", a competent user of Sindarin would not misunderstand i
haew (thinking it means "the habit" instead of "the poison"). For in the
same position where s becomes h, the mutation rule also dictates
that h becomes ch. So if we combine haew "habit" with the
article i, we would get i chaew for "the habit", the words still
being distinct. However, it is obvious that there is here considerable room for
confusion if one does not understand the Sindarin mutation system. It is all too
easy to imagine some naive student seeing the combination i haew in a
text and then looking up haew instead of saew in his wordlist -
wrongly concluding that i haew means "the habit" instead of "the poison",
since it does not occur to him that haew is merely the form the word
saew takes in this particular position. It is quite impossible to use a
Sindarin wordlist properly unless one understands the mutation system; in some
cases the wordlist would be downright
misleading.
We will
attempt to describe the various mutations, as well as they can be reconstructed.
The actual evidence being scanty, we must in many cases fall back on our general
understanding of Sindarin phonology to fill the gaps. What follows is based on a
thorough analysis (mainly conducted by eminent Sindarist David Salo), but future
publications may well prove it wrong in some respects. However, the most
frequent mutations (soft and nasal) are relatively well attested, so that we can
reconstruct the rules with some confidence.
I. SOFT MUTATION
The most frequent mutation, it is also known as
lenition (= "softening"). The name reflects the fact that by this
mutation, "hard" or unvoiced sounds like p or t become "softened"
(or lenited) to voiced b, d, while original b,
d are further "softened" to spirants: v, dh. We will
describe the effects of the soft mutation before discussing in detail where it
occurs, but it may be noted that lenition typically occurs after particles
ending in a vowel when such a particle immediately precedes a word and is
closely associated with it, such as the definite article i (singular
"the"). In Letters:279, Tolkien comments upon the lenition c >
g and notes that it is used "after closely connected particles (like the
article)". The phonological background for this phenomenon is not very difficult
to understand. In the evolution of Sindarin, many consonants changed following a
vowel; for instance, c became g and t became d
(compare Sindarin adar "father" with the primitive word atar,
still preserved in Quenya). What happened was that particles like prepositions
and articles immediately preceding a word became so closely associated with the
word itself that the whole phrase of particle + main word was perceived as a
kind of unity. Hence a word like tâl "foot", when occurring in a phrase
like i tâl "the foot", was subjected to the same rule that turned a
unified word like atar into adar: There is a vowel preceding the
t, so it has to turn into d - and while tâl remained as the
word for "foot", "the foot" is henceforth i dâl instead (see LR:298
concerning this example). See below concerning the various uses of the soft
mutation; while describing the mutations themselves, we will use the changes
occurring after the definite article i as examples.
The soft mutation turns the plosives p, t, c into voiced b, d, g; original b, d become v, dh, while g disappears altogether. (It should be noted that the mutations here described for b, d, g only apply when these sounds are derived from primitive b, d, g. Sindarin initial b, d, g may also derive from mb, nd, ñg, and in such cases, the lenited forms differ. See the section "The development of nasalized stops" below.)
pân "plank" > i bân "the plank"Note: G originally turned into the back spirant gh, but this sound later disappeared (i ghaw becoming i 'aw). To indicate that a g has been lenited to zero, one may use an apostrophe ' as in this example, but Tolkien's writings are inconsistent on this point. In UT:390 we have Curunír 'Lân for "Saruman the White", the apostrophe evidently indicating that the second word (the adjective "white") is glân when not mutated. Cf. also galadh "tree" > i 'aladh "the tree" in LR:298 (there spelt galað, i?alað). But in the Silmarillion we have names like Ered Wethrin "shadowy mountains", wethrin being a lenited form of gwethrin, the plural form of the adjective gwathren "shadowy" (compare gwath "shadow", LR:396 s.v. WATH). Perhaps a spelling equivalent of Ered 'Wethrin would actually be used in Tengwar writing, Tolkien sometimes dropping the apostrophe in names occurring in his narratives.
caw "top" > i gaw "the top"
tâl "foot" > i dâl "the foot"
bess "woman" > i vess "the woman"
daw "gloom" > i dhaw "the gloom"
gaw "void" > i 'aw "the void"
These consonants evidently undergo the same mutations if they form part of
clusters:
blabed "flapping" > i vlabed "the flapping"The consonants h, s and m are lenited to ch, h and v, respectively:
brôg "bear" > i vrôg "the bear"
claur "splendor" > i glaur "the splendor"
crist "cleaver" (sword) > i grist "the cleaver"
dring "hammer" > i dhring "the hammer"
gloss "snow" > i 'loss "the snow"
grond "club" > i 'rond "the club"
gwath "shadow" > i 'wath "the shadow"
prestanneth "affection" (disturbance) > i brestanneth "the affection"
trenarn "tale" > i drenarn "the tale"
hammad "clothing" > i chammad "the clothing"It will be noticed that b and m both become v when lenited. In a few cases, ambiguity may arise. Consider two adjectives like bell "strong" and mell "dear"; only context can decide whether i vess vell means "the strong woman" or "the dear woman". (In Sindarin, an adjective normally follows the noun it describes, and in this position, the adjective is lenited.) The mutation product of m is sometimes spelt mh instead (as in the King's Letter, SD:128-9: e aníra ennas suilannad mhellyn în, "he wishes there to great his friends"). It seems that in Third Age Sindarin, this mh was no longer pronounced any differently from v, though the distinction may have been upheld in Tengwar writing. Earlier, mh was evidently a distinctly nasal variant of v, that may also be termed "spirant m". Compare LotR Appendix E, in the discussion of the Runes: "For (archaic) Sindarin a sign for a spirant m (or nasal v) was required."
salph "soup" > i halph "the soup"
mellon "friend" > i vellon "the friend" (also spelt i mhellon)
The sound hw (unvoiced w, like English wh in dialects where it is still kept distinct from w) probably becomes chw in mutation position:
hwest "breeze" > i chwest "the breeze"(In the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies, this sound is chw in all positions, also where the word is not lenited, but it seems that Tolkien revised this.)
The unvoiced spirants f, th, the nasal n and the liquids r, l are unaffected by the soft mutation:
fend "threshold" > i fend "the threshold"The behavior of the unvoiced liquids rh, lh in mutation position is somewhat uncertain. The view presented in earlier versions of this article was that they turn into normal voiced r, l. This was based primarily on the example rhass "precipice", with article i rass (LR:363 s.v. KHARÁS). However, this is probably "Noldorin" rather than Sindarin. One of the revisions Tolkien did when he turned "Noldorin" into Sindarin affected the sounds rh, lh. In "Noldorin", they were descended from normal r, l in the primitive language, where these sounds occurred initially. However, Tolkien later decided that primitive initial r, l were unchanged in Sindarin, a primitive word like lambâ "tongue" yielding Sindarin lam (WJ:394; contrast earlier "Noldorin", where this word had been lham instead: LR:367 s.v. LAB). The sounds rh, lh still occur initially in Sindarin, but in this language they are derived from primitive initial sr-, sl- (e.g. srawê > Sindarin rhaw, MR:350), not simple r-, l-. This new derivation must be taken into consideration when we make our educated guess about how Sindarin rh, lh behave in mutation position. Basically, the soft mutation corresponds to how certain consonants develop following vowels. Medial primitive sr, sl became thr, thl, e.g. "Noldorin" lhathron "listener, eavesdropper" (Sindarin lathron?) from primitive la(n)sro-ndo (LR:368 s.v. LAS2). So perhaps this is also what the soft mutation of rh-, lh- would produce, though we lack examples:
thond "root" > i thond "the root"
nath "web" > i nath "the web"
rem "net" > i rem "the net"
lam "tongue" > i lam "the tongue"
rhaw "flesh" > i thraw "the flesh" (primitive *i srawê)The uses of the soft mutation: The soft mutation has a variety of uses. It occurs after a series of particles, prepositions and prefixes, the example we have used so far - the definite article i - being only one of these particles. Typically, we are talking about particles that either end in a vowel or did end in a vowel at an earlier stage. A preposition like na "to" triggers the same mutations as the article i, for instance na venn "to a man" (unmutated benn). In the hymn to Elbereth (A Elbereth Gilthoniel) we have the phrase na-chaered "to-remote distance" (see RGEO:72 for translation), haered "remote distance, the remote" undergoing soft mutation to become chaered. (For haered as the unmutated form, compare the name Haerast "Far Shore" mentioned in the Silmarillion Index; see the entry Nevrast.)
lhûg "dragon" > i thlûg "the dragon" (primitive *i slôkê)
We know or deduce that soft mutation occurs after the following particles and prefixes:
- the prefix and
preposition (?) ab "after, behind, following, later" (since this was
earlier apa, as in
Quenya)
- the
preposition adel "behind, in the rear (of)" (since this was probably
*atele in Old
Sindarin)
- the
preposition and prefix am "up, above, over" (cf. Quenya amba); the
soft mutation is attested in compounds like ambenn "uphill" (am +
a lenited form of pend, penn
"declivity")
- the
prefix ath- "on both sides, across" (older
*attha)
- the
prefix athra- "across" (cf. a word like athrabeth, "debate", the
second element being a lenited form of peth
"word")
- the
preposition be "according to" (perhaps also "as, like", since it must
correspond to Quenya
ve)
- the
adverb/prefix dad "down" (cf. dadbenn "downslope", which is
dad + a lenited form of pend, penn
"declivity")
- the
preposition di "under,
beneath"
- the prefix
go-, gwa- "together" (possibly also used as an independent
preposition "with")
-
the preposition na "to, towards; at; of; with,
by"
- the preposition
nu (no)
"under"
- the
preposition trî "through" and the corresponding prefix tre-
- the negative
element ú-, u- "not" or "without", used as a prefix, e.g.
ú-chebin *"I do not keep" in Gilraen's linnod (compare unmutated
hebin "I keep"). Cf. also such a word as ubed "denial" (u +
ped, the latter being the stem of the verb "say", hence ubed =
"no-saying").
The sentence guren bêd enni "my heart tells me" (VT41:11) incorporates a lenited form of the verb pêd "tells". This example seems to indicate that a verb immediately following its subject is lenited. This is not the case if the verb comes before the subject, as in the sentence tôl acharn "vengeance comes" or literally *"comes vengeance" (WJ:254; notice that tôl is not here lenited to dôl). Some are skeptical of the rule that a verb is lenited even where it does immediately follow its subject. We are told that in one version of the so-called Turin wrapper, the wording Rían pent *"Rían said" occurs; here the verb pent "said" is not lenited (to bent), even though it does immediately follow its subject. Tolkien surely experimented with different systems over the years, or there may be something special about the phrase guren bêd enni that causes pêd to appear in lenited form bêd here. At least it seems certain that a verb is not lenited where it does not immediately follow its subject, as is evident from the Moria Gate inscription: Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant [not: deithant] i thiw hin "Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs". Perhaps it makes some difference that the phrase o Eregion "of Hollin" here intrudes between the subject and the verb, perhaps not. It would be interesting to know whether "Celebrimbor drew" would translate as Celebrimbor deithant or Celebrimbor teithant - or maybe both are possible.
In Sindarin,
adjectives (including participles) following the noun they describe are
usually lenited. In Sindarin, an adjective normally does follow the noun it
describes; you say "isle green", Tol Galen, instead of "green isle".
Galen is here the lenited form of calen "green". Another example
of the same is the name Pinnath Gelin "Green Ridges" or literally "Ridges
Green", gelin being a lenited form of celin, in turn the plural
form of calen (plural to agree with "ridges"). The name Talath
Dirnen "Guarded Plain" ("Plain Guarded") contains a lenited form of the past
participle tirnen "watched, guarded" (cf. the verb tir- "watch,
guard"). Eryn "wood" + morn "dark" produces Eryn
Vorn "Dark Wood" (UT:436, 262). Dor Dhínen "Silent Land"
("Land Silent") includes the lenited form of dínen "silent" (WJ:333,
338). There are, however, quite a few attested cases where soft mutation fails
to take place in such combination. The name Dor Dhínen just mentioned
also appears as Dor Dínen in a number of texts (so in the published
Silmarillion). From LotR we also remember the Rath Dínen or
"Silent Street" in Minas Tirith; we might have expected *Rath Dhínen
instead. (However, the form Barad-dûr instead of *Barad-dhûr for
"Tower-Dark" may be explained by the fact that the words are here practically a
compound, as indicated by the dash - though the second element of compounds are
often lenited as well, see below.) Cases of d where we would expect
dh may in some instances be explained (away) as inaccurate transcription
on Tolkien's part, since he sometimes substituted d for dh simply
because he found the latter digraph "uncouth" (UT:267). However, we cannot
easily explain cases like Cú Beleg rather than *Cú Veleg for
"Great Bow" (beleg "great"; for "great bow" cf. the song Laer Cú
Beleg or "Song of the Great Bow" mentioned in the Silmarillion,
chapter 21). Another example is the name Nan Tathren, "Vale of Willows"
or literally "Vale Willowy"; we might have expected *Nan Dathren instead.
We probably have to assume that the discrepancies are simply due to the fact
that there were many variants or dialects of Sindarin; the rules for where soft
mutation occurs differed somewhat from dialect to dialect. (I would advise
people writing in Sindarin to let adjectives lenit in this position, though,
since this seems to be the main
rule.)
When a word is
used as the second element of a compound, it often undergoes changes
similar to the effects of the soft mutation. Tolkien stated (in Letters:279)
that "the initials of words in composition" are lenited (he used the example
Gil-galad, that represents *Gil-calad "Starlight"; cf. unlenited
calad "light" in UT:65 - another explanation of the element galad
is given in PM:347, though). In RGEO:73, Tolkien mentions the "the S[indarin]
change of medial t > d": in the hymn to Elbereth we have
palan-díriel for *palan-tíriel "far-seeing" (compare the verb
tir- "watch, see,
guard").
Other
examples include compounds like Calenhad "Green Space"
(calen "green" + sad "place, spot", UT:425),
Elvellyn "Elf-friends" (El = reduced form of the word for
"Elf" + mellyn "friends", WJ:412) or Nindalf
"Wetwang" (a compound of nîn "wet" and talf "flat field",
see A Tolkien Compass p. 195). The uninformed have sometimes assumed that
a name like Gildor means "Star-land", sc. that the final element is the
same as in country-names like Gondor, Mordor etc., but "Star-land"
does seem like a strange name for a person. The final element of Gildor
is actually taur "king, master", blended with an identical adjective
meaning "lofty, noble". In Gildor, t becomes d by lenition,
and unaccented au becomes o. The name is better interpreted
"Star-lord".
The
negative adverb avo, that is used with an imperative to express a
negative command, causes soft mutation of following verb: caro!
"do (it)!", but avo garo! "don't do (it)!" Avo may also be reduced
to a prefix av-, still followed by the same mutation: avgaro means
the same as avo garo. See
WJ:371.
A noun is also
lenited if it appears as the object of a verb, even if there is no
article preceding it. Hence, Sindarin has an "accusative" of sorts. Notice one
sentence from the King's Letter: ennas aníra i aran...suilannad
mhellyn în, "there the king wants...to greet his friends",
mhellyn being the lenited form of mellyn "friends" (and a variant
spelling of vellyn as in Elvellyn "Elf-friends" above). The word
"friends" is lenited as the object of the verb "greet". One wonders if the lack
of lenition was the reason why Gandalf misunderstood the inscription on the Gate
of Moria: Pedo mellon a minno, "say 'friend' and enter". Gandalf, as we
recall, at first thought it meant "speak, friend, and enter". Normally,
mellon should presumably have been lenited as the object of pedo
"speak" (*pedo vellon), but the ones who made the inscription had
evidently ignored the normal lenition rules and given the word mellon in
exactly the form it had to be spoken for the doors to open. (Of course, we don't
know exactly how the "magic" or para-technological mechanism behind the doors
worked, but it must have been some kind of artificial intelligence responding to
the sound-sequence M-E-L-L-O-N only.) Perhaps it was because of this Gandalf did
not at first understand that mellon was the object of pedo "say,
speak" and took it to be a vocative instead: "Speak, o friend!" It may be that
the form of Sindarin used in this inscription did not use the lenition of
m to mh/v at all, but actually there is a variant of the
Moria Gate inscription where the tengwar seem to read pedo mhellon
instead of pedo mellon. (See J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist &
Illustrator, p.
158.)
It was formerly
thought that the conjunction a "and" caused soft mutation (a view that
was also reflected in some of the earliest versions of this article). This was
because of the phrase Daur a Berhael "Frodo and Samwise" in LotR3/VI ch.
4: One correctly observed that Berhael "Samwise" is a lenited form of
Perhael and rashly concluded that it was the preceding conjunction
a that caused the mutation. However, the Moria Gate inscription has a
minno, not **a vinno, for "and enter". Since mellon "friend"
fails to lenit to vellon in the same inscription, one might think that
the inscription is in a form of Sindarin that does not use the lenition m
> v. However, as mentioned above, an alternative form of the
inscription occurs in J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator p. 158.
In this version, the word mellon is lenited
(mhellon/vellon) - but the word minno following the
conjunction still shows no lenition, once and for all burying the theory
that a "and" triggers the soft mutation. Why, then, is Perhael
lenited? The context must be taken into consideration. The whole sentence
goes: Daur a Berhael, Conin en Annûn, eglerio! According to Letters:308,
this means "Frodo and Sam, princes of the west, glorify (them)!" There is not
actually any final pronoun "them" in the Sindarin sentence, as indicated by the
parentheses. The object of the verb eglerio "glorify" is of course "Frodo
and Sam", and being objects, these names are lenited. The sentence is simply a
rearranged form of *eglerio Daur a Berhael, Conin en Annûn "glorify Frodo
and Sam, Heroes of the West". Hence, it is not only the name Perhael that
is lenited (to Berhael); we must assume that Daur is also a
lenited form, the unmutated version being Taur. (According to LR:389 s.v.
TÂ, TA3, "Noldorin"/Sindarin had an old adjective taur
"lofty, noble", used in "ancient titles"; this would be a fitting honorary
epithet for Frodo.) - As the example Daur a Berhael, Conin en Annûn
"Frodo and Sam, heroes of the West" indicates, lenition is not carried through
an entire phrase when the latter part merely stands in apposition to the first.
The main words, Taur and Perhael, are lenited - but the phrase
Conin en Annûn "heroes of the West", that merely stands in apposition
to Daur a Berhael, is not (hence no "Gonin en Annûn" instead). Cf. also
an example like i Cherdir Perhael, Condir "the Master Samwise,
Mayor" from the King's Letter: Herdir "master" is lenited because of the
article preceding it (actually it would have been lenited even without the
article, since this phrase is also the object of a verb), but here, the name
Perhael "Samwise" and his title Condir are not subjected to
soft mutation, since they stand in apposition to Herdir (hence no "i
Cherdir Berhael, Gondir"). So the rule is that when several words stand in
apposition, only the first of them undergoes mutation (and this probably
goes for all the mutations).
NOTE: Tolkien revised the lenition rules repeatedly. One
obsolete rule may be mentioned. As noted above, the genitive may be expressed by
word order alone in Sindarin: Ennyn Durin Aran Moria, "Doors (of) Durin
Lord (of) Moria". According to a rule that Tolkien later rejected, the second
noun of such a construction is lenited. Therefore, the first draft of the Moria
Gate inscription had the reading Ennyn Dhurin Aran Voria, with
Durin and Moria lenited. Compare some genitive phrases from the
Etymologies, LR:369: Ar Vanwë, Ar Velegol, Ar Uiar
for "Day of Manwë", "Day of Belegol (Aulë)", "Day of Guiar (Ulmo)" (b and
m leniting to v and g to zero). After the revision, the
forms would presumably be *Ar Manwë, *Ar Belegol, *Ar Guiar
instead.
II. NASAL MUTATION
While this may sound like something out of a
horror movie (or out of Pinocchio), it actually refers to another
important phenomenon in Sindarin phonology. Just like the article i for
singular "the" triggers soft mutation, the article in for plural
"the" triggers nasal mutation: Tolkien explicitly stated that "the nasal
mutation...appears after the plural article in: thîw, i
Pheriannath" (Letters:427 - it seems that Humphrey Carpenter editing this
letter thought that "in" is here the English preposition rather than the
Sindarin article in, since he does not use italics!) Other particles
triggering nasal mutation would be the preposition and prefix an "for,
to" and the preposition dan "against", also used as a prefix
"re-".
The examples
Tolkien used in Letters:427 quoted above, thîw and i Pheriannath,
come from the Moria Gate inscription and from the praise the Ringbearers
received on the fields of Cormallen. In the former we have i thiw hin for
"these signs", literally "the signs these". (The shortening of thîw to
thiw probably has something to do with the following hin "these"
and doesn't have to be considered here.) Frodo and Sam were praised with the
words aglar 'ni Pheriannath, "glory to the halflings" ('ni being
short for an i "to the"). But why is the article i seemingly used
in conjunction with these plural words, when we have already established that
the word for plural "the" is in instead? Another anomaly seems to
be that "letters" and "halflings" suddenly appear as thîw (thiw)
and Pheriannath instead of tîw and Periannath, though these
words are attested in LotR itself (Appendix B, the chronology of the Third Age,
entry for 1050: "The Periannath are first mentioned in records..." - while in
Appendix E reference is made to the "the Tengwar or Tîw, here
translated as 'letters' "). Both of these problems are solved when we take into
consideration the effects of nasal mutation: I thîw and i
Pheriannath actually represent in tîw, in Periannath. The
King's Letter has a Pherhael for "to Perhael (Samwise)"; this represents
an "for" + Perhael. If we wanted to say in cirth = "the
runes", this would manifest as i chirth. In terms of diachronic
phonology, this whole phenomenon is easily explained. In Old Sindarin, p,
t, k (c) following an n became aspirated, turning
into an aspirate ph, th, kh. Compare an Old Sindarin word
like thintha- "fade" (LR:392 s.v. THIN), undoubtedly representing
even older *thintâ- with the common verbal ending -tâ. Hence we
also had in tîw > i thîw (th here being aspirated
t rather than a spirant þ). Later, the aspirates turned into
spirants and the preceding nasal was assimilated to them, in effect disappearing
(in þîw > iþ þîw, i þîw, normally spelt i thîw in
Roman letters).
The
nasal mutations of the unvoiced stops p, t, c are thus
ph, th, ch. The initial clusters cl, cr,
tr, pr probably behave in the same way as the simple stops when
nasal mutation is due (so if we combine words like claur "splendor",
crûm "left hand", trenarn "account", prestanneth
"affection" with the preposition an "to, for", we might see a
chlaur, a chrûm, a threnarn, a
phrestanneth).
The
voiced stops b, d, g behave differently when
subjected to nasal mutation. They do not turn into spirants like the unvoiced
stops. There has, however, been some confusion regarding their behavior. Earlier
versions of this article presented the view that n + b, d,
g produces mb, nd, ng. There is little doubt that
this was indeed what Tolkien imagined at one stage. This is evident from the
example Cerch iMbelain "Sickle of the Valar" in LR:365 s.v. KIRIK,
clearly cerch "sickle" + in plural article "(of) the" +
Belain "Valar". However, one late example indicates that Tolkien
abandoned this "Noldorin" system in Sindarin. In WJ:185, we have
Taur-i-Melegyrn for "Forest of the Great Trees". This is clearly
taur "forest" + in plural article "(of) the" + beleg
"great" + yrn "trees". (The word beleg is listed in the
Silmarillion Appendix, there glossed "mighty".) Here, n + b
is seen to produce m; by the same system, "Sickle of the Valar" would of
course be Cerch i Melain (not, as before, Mbelain). By analogy, we
have to conclude that n + d produces simple n, while
n + g comes out as ng (a unitary sound as in English
sing, sometimes spelt ñ by Tolkien, not this unitary sound
followed by a distinct g, as in English finger):
in pl. "the" + Dúredhil "Dark Elves" = i Núredhil "the Dark Elves"Theoretically, we have long or double consonants here (innúredhil, iññelaidh, immeraid), though this is hardly reflected in pronunciation. But in the case of the prepositions an "to, for" and dan "against", that trigger similar mutations, it would be in keeping with Tolkien's general principles to mark this in spelling (though we lack exactly parallel examples):
in pl. "the" + gelaidh "trees" = i ngelaidh (sc. i ñelaidh) "the trees"
in pl. "the" + beraid "towers" = i meraid "the towers"
an + Dúredhel "Dark Elf" = an Núredhel (rather than simply a Núr...) "for a Dark Elf"It is desirable to keep the preposition an clearly separate from the conjunction a "and"; confusion could arise if we simply wrote a Núredhel, a marad (the first of which might be misinterpreted "and a Deep-elf").
an + galadh "tree" = an Ngaladh "for a tree" (provisory Roman spelling of añ Ñaladh, the equivalent of which would probably appear in Tengwar writing)
an + barad "tower" = am marad "for a tower"
Before some consonant clusters beginning in voiced stops, such as dr,
gl, gr, gw, it may seem that no particular mutation occurs.
In LotR Appendix A, we have Haudh in Gwanûr for "Mound of the Twins" (not
**Haudh i Ngwanûr); cf. also Bar-in-Gwael "Home of the Gulls" (?)
in WJ:418 (not **Bar-i-Ngwael). So combining an, dan,
in with words like draug "wolf", glân "border",
grond "club" or gwêdh "bond" may produce simply dan draug
"against a wolf", dan glân "against a border", dan grond "against
a club", dan gwêdh "against a bond" (definite plurals in droeg
"the wolves", in glain "the borders", in grynd "the clubs", in
gwîdh "the bonds"). Compare Tawar-in-Drúedain for "Forest of the
Drúedain (Woses)" in UT:319; the initial dr is not changed by any visible
nasal mutation, even though it follows the plural article in "(of) the".
Cf. also the exclamation gurth an Glamhoth "death to (the) Din-horde (=
Orcs)" in UT:39, 54, providing an attested example of an "to" followed by
a word in gl-. It is, however, probable that the final n of
dan, an, in would be pronounced "ng" (ñ) before
words beginning with a cluster in g-, and perhaps also so written in
Tengwar spelling.
The
clusters bl, br may become ml, mr when
subjected to nasal mutation, e.g. an "for" + brôg = a mrôg
(or am mrôg) "for a bear", definite plural i mrýg "the bears". We
have no examples, but general principles may suggest
this.
Before m,
the preposition an "to, for" appears as am; the King's Letter has
am Meril for "to Meril [Rose]". Dan "against" would surely become
dam in the same position (dam Meril "against Meril"). The plural
article in appears as i when followed by m; WJ:418 has
Bar-i-Mýl for "Home of the Gulls" (changed by Tolkien from
Bar-in-Mýl with the n intact). Cf. also a phrase like
Gwaith-i-Mírdain "People of the Jewel-Smiths", clearly representing
...in Mírdain. Before words in n, we would again see in
reduced to i (cf. i Negyth for in Negyth "the Dwarves",
WJ:338). The prepositions an, dan would be
unchanged.
Before
s, in is again reduced to i, as in Echad i Sedryn
"Camp of the Faithful" (UT:153). The prepositions an "to, for" and
dan "against" may appear as as, das before s- (e.g.
as Silevril "for a
Silmaril").
No
examples show what nasal mutation does to initial r-. In Third Age
Sindarin at least, n + r produced dhr (as in
Caradhras = caran "red" + ras(s) "horn"). So
perhaps, say, "against a horn", dan + rass, would produce dadh
rass??? Definite plural idh rais "the horns", for in rais? But
in First Age Sindarin, or at least in the Doriathrin dialect, we might see
simply dan rass, in rais (compare the name of Thingol's sword
Aranrúth "King's Ire", indicating that the change nr >
dhr still had not occurred in his
day).
Before l,
the final nasal of the plural article in disappear. Compare
Dantilais as a name of Autumn in PM:135; this is transparently Dant i
Lais "Fall of the Leaves" (for Dant in Lais) written in one word as a
pseudo-compound. The prepositions an, dan may appear as al,
dal before a word in l-.
The behavior of
unvoiced L and R, sc. lh, rh, can only be guesswork. An
"for" + lhûg "dragon" or rhavan "wild man" may produce al
'lûg "for a dragon", adh 'ravan "for a wild man" (or, with in
= plural "the", i 'lýg for il 'lýg "the dragons", but idh
'revain "the wild men"). The ' would indicate the loss of a
consonant, the s of the original clusters sl-, sr- that
yielded lh-, rh-. See under Mixed Mutation below concerning
the attested (?) example
e-'Rach.
Nasal
mutation turns h into ch, as in Narn i Chîn Húrin "Tale of
the Children of Húrin", i Chîn representing in Hîn (compare
hên "child", pl. hîn). It should be noted that the form Narn i
Hîn Húrin occurring in UT is wrong. In LR:322, Christopher Tolkien
confesses: "Narn i Chîn Húrin...is so spelt at all occurrences, but was
improperly changed by me to Narn i Hîn Húrin (because I did not want
Chîn to be pronounced like Modern English chin)." (Cf. MR:373.)
Before h > ch, the prepositions an, dan may
simply be spelt a, da (a chên "for a child", da chên
"against a child" - ach chên, dach chên would also be a
possibility, but no unmutated Sindarin word begins in ch, so there can be
no confusion with a hên "and a
child").
The nasal
mutation of hw may follow the same (hypothetical) pattern as lh,
rh, e.g. an "for" + hwest "breeze" > a 'west "for
a breeze".
The sounds
th, f seem immune to all sorts of mutations. In pl. "the" +
thynd "roots" would probably appear simply as i thynd; in the case
of an "for" and dan "against" we might see ath thond "for a
root", dath thond "against a root", or one might simply write a
thond (and risk confusion with "and a root"), da thond. Likewise
in > i before f (cf. i-Fennyr for
in-Fennyr in LR:387 s.v. SPAN). An, dan might come
out as af, daf before f; in this case, final f would
actually be pronounced [f] rather than [v], despite Tolkien's normal
orthographic conventions. Compare his use of ef as an assimilated form of
ed "out of" before words in f-; see the section about the Mixed
Mutation below.
III. MIXED MUTATION
"Mixed mutation" is not a Tolkien-made term;
we don't know what he called it. In the published material, this mutation is
nowhere explicitly referred to; we merely observe its effects in a some texts.
Sometimes it is similar to soft mutation, sometimes to nasal mutation, and
historically both mutations are probably involved - hence this mutation may be
called "mixed" (but sometimes it differs from both soft and nasal mutation!)
No less than three examples of mixed mutation are found in one sentence in
the King's Letter: erin dolothen Ethuil, egor ben genediad Drannail erin
Gwirith edwen "on the eighth [day] of Spring, or in the Shire-reckoning on
the second [day] of April". Here we have three examples of prepositions that
incorporate the definite article in the oblique form -(i)n: twice
erin "on the" (or "on" + in "the" > umlauted örin
> later erin), plus ben, here translated "in the", but more
literally "according to the" (be "according to" clearly being the cognate
of Quenya ve "like, as"; hence ben genediad Drannail "according to
the Shire reckoning"). Other prepositions incorporating the article in the form
-in or -n, such as nan "to the", uin "from the, of
the" and possibly 'nin "to/for the", would be followed by the same
mutations (at least in the singular - in the plural we may see nasal mutation
instead, cf. 'ni Pheriannath "to the halflings", for 'nin [= an in]
Periannath). But what kind of mutations are we talking
about?
Because of the
-n we might expect something similar to nasal mutation, but the sentence
from the King's Letter shows that this is not the case. Consider the phrases
erin dolothen "on the eighth", ben genediad "according to the
reckoning", erin Gwirith edwen "on April the second" (literally "on the
April second"). The unmutated form of dolothen "eighth" is clearly
tolothen (compare toloth "eight", LR:394 s.v.
TOL1-OTH/OT). Yet we see no nasal mutation
(**eri[n] tholothen), but rather a shift t >
d that is similar to a soft mutation. But soft mutation would also
lenit g to zero. Even so, genediad "reckoning" and Gwirith
"April" are unaffected when preceded by ben, erin. (We know that
the unmutated forms would also show g-; for genediad compare the
verb gonod- "reckon" in LR:378 s.v. NOT, while the month-name
Gwirith is mentioned in LotR Appendix D.) We do not see **erin
'enediad, **erin 'Wirith with regular soft mutation
here.
The singular
genitival article e, en "of the" is seen to trigger similar
mutations. Consider some of the names of various tales listed in MR:373. In
Narn e嵯inúviel, "Tale of the Nightingale", we see the same "soft mutation"
t > d as in erin dolothen for erin tolothen (for
the unmutated form of Dinúviel is of course Lúthien's well-known epithet
Tinúviel). But again we see that no such soft mutation affects voiced
plosives like b, d, g (cf. Gwirith, genediad
remaining unchanged): MR:373 also lists Narn e嵯ant Gondolin, "Tale of the
Fall of Gondolin", where dant "fall" undergoes no mutation (we know that
the unmutated form is also dant; compare Dantilais for *"Fall of
the Leaves = Autumn" in PM:135; the stem is DAT, DANT "fall down",
LR:354). We do not see **e嵯hant with soft
mutation.
The origin
of these "contradictory" mutations evidently have to do with soft and nasal
mutation operating on different stages in the evolution of Sindarin. We needn't
enter into the phonological intricacies here, but rather simply set out their
effects as far as they can be reconstructed - for to a large extent, we have to
rely on reconstruction.
The best-attested effects of the mixed mutation may be inferred from the examples given above. The unvoiced plosives p, t, c are voiced to b, d, g (pân "plank", caw "top", tâl "foot" > e-bân "of the plank", e-gaw "of the top", e-dâl "of the foot", and likewise erin bân, erin gaw, erin dâl for "on the plank/top/foot"). The voiced plosives b, d, g are unchanged (benn "man", daw "gloom", gass "hole" > e-benn "of the man", e-daw "of the gloom", e-gass "of the hole", and likewise erin benn "on the man" etc.) It is hardly necessary to point out that there is room for some confusion here, since the phonemic distinction between voiced and unvoiced plosives is neutralized in this position. Only the context can tell us whether, say, e-gost means "of the quarrel [cost]" or "of the dread [gost]".
Before the initial cluster tr-, we would probably see the full form of the genitival article (en), and the cluster tr itself would mutate to dr, e.g. trenarn "tale" > en-drenarn "of the tale". Original dr, as in draug "wolf", would behave in the same way, but here there is of course no visible mutation (en-draug "of the wolf"). The clusters pr and br may both come out as mr, and the article takes the short form e-: prestanneth "affection" > e-mrestanneth "of the affection", brôg "bear" > e-mrôg "of the bear". The cluster bl may likewise become ml-, as in blabed "flapping" > e-mlabed "of the flapping". Here the mixed mutation is similar to nasal mutation. The clusters cl-and cr- would behave more like tr-, being voiced (to gl-, gr-), but we would see only the short form of the article before them: claur "splendor" > e-glaur "of the splendor", crist "cleaver" (sword) > e-grist "of the cleaver". On the other hand, the long form en- is used before gl-, gr-, gw-, and these clusters undergo no change: gloss "snow" > en-gloss "of the snow" (compare Methed-en-glad "End of the Wood" in UT:153), grond "club" > en-grond "of the club", gwath "shade" > en-gwath "of the shade".
Before words in f-, the example Taur-en-Faroth would seem to indicate that the article appears in its full form en- (for this example, see the Silmarillion Appendix, entry faroth - Taur-en-Faroth does not seem to mean precisely "Hills of the Hunters", though). It is very uncertain how words in h-, l-, m-, th- would behave; possibly the genitival article would take the short form e-, and the initial consonant would undergo no change: e-hên "of the child", e-lam "of the tongue", e-mellon "of the friend", e-thond "of the root". Perhaps we would also have short e- before words in s-, but this consonant would probably become h-: salph "soup" > e-halph "of the soup". Before n- we have long en-; compare a name like Haudh-en-Nirnaeth "Mound of Tears", occurring in the Silmarillion. Before r- the genitival article may take the form edh- because of the dissimilation nr > dhr, e.g. edh-rem "of the net", but en-rem may also be permissible, at least in Doriathrin Sindarin.
This leaves only three initial sounds to be accounted for: all of them descended from clusters in s-, namely lh, rh, hw from primitive sl-, sr-, sw-. What effect does the mixed mutation have on unvoiced L, R, W? We have one possible attestation of such a mutation: The phrase Narn e?Rach Morgoth "Tale of the Curse of Morgoth" in MR:373. This example indicates that 'rach is what the word for "curse" turns into when subjected to the mixed mutation. Unfortunately, this word is not otherwise attested, so we don't know for sure what the unmutated form would be. It has generally been assumed that this is a lenited form of *grach. But if so, analogous examples suggest that "of the curse" would be *en-grach. It may be, then, that the unmutated form is actually *rhach, primitive *srakk-, the ' of e?rach marking the loss of this s (and/or the loss of its effect on the unmutated form, in which s, though no longer present as a distinct sound, has made the following r unvoiced: rh). If this is correct, we would expect the mixed mutation to have a similar effect on lh, hw, e.g. lhûg "dragon" > e-'lûg "of the dragon", hwest "breeze" > e-'west "of the breeze".
The prepositions that incorporate the article as -n or -in
would trigger mutations similar to those just described for the genitival
article en-, but there is apparently no variation between forms where
n is included and "short" forms where it is omitted, paralleling the
variation en/e: An n representing the article is always
present. (Contrast erin dolothen and e嵯ant; we don't see
**eri搞olothen paralleling e嵯ant or **en Dant paralleling
erin dolothen.)
IV. STOP MUTATION
The term "stop mutation" does not occur in
Tolkien's published writings on Sindarin, but a reference to this mutation (by
this name) does occur in one of the first entries of the "Gnomish Lexicon" of
1917 (see Parma Eldalamberon #11). In later material, there is one brief
reference to what could also be termed stop mutation. In WJ:366, we read: "As
the mutations following the preposition o ['from, of'] show, it must
prehistorically have ended in -t or -d." Unfortunately, the
Professor told us nothing more about these mutations. Our few examples of
o occurring in actual texts would seem to indicate that nothing happens
to an m or a g following this preposition (o menel "from
heaven" and o galadhremmin ennorath "from the tree-tangled lands of
Middle-earth" in the hymn to Elbereth, + o Minas Tirith "from Minas
Tirith" in the King's Letter), and o also has this form before vowels
(o Imladris "from/of Rivendell" in RGEO:70, in Tengwar writing; cf. also
Celebrimbor o Eregion "Celebrimbor of Hollin" in the Moria Gate
inscription). Tolkien further noted concerning the development of the primitive
preposition et "out, out of" in Sindarin: "[It] retains its consonant in
the form ed before vowels, but loses it before consonants, though
es, ef, eth are often found before s, f,
th." We will use ed to illustrate the mutations caused by the
final stop, as well as they can be reconstructed. Due to lack of examples, much
of what follows must remain hypothetical extrapolation.
Before a vowel, Tolkien informs us that we see the basic form
ed (e.g. ed Annûn "out of [the] West"). But before consonants,
ed appears as e, but the following consonant would often change.
If we can trust our understanding of the phonological evolution of Sindarin, the
unvoiced stops t-, p-, c- would turn into spirants
th-, ph-, ch- (the clusters tr-, pr-,
cl-, cr- likewise become thr-, phr-, chl-,
chr-):
pân "plank" > e phân "out of a plank"On the other hand, the voiced plosives b-, d-, g- (occurring alone or in clusters bl-, br-, dr-, gl-, gr-, gw-) would undergo no change: Compare o galadhremmin ennorath "from the tree-tangled lands of Middle-earth" in the hymn to Elbereth; the word galadh "tree" is unchanged.
caw "top" > e chaw "out of a top"
taur "forest" > e thaur "out of a forest"
claur "splendor" > e chlaur "out of splendor"
criss "cleft" > e chriss "out of a cleft"
prestanneth "affection" > e phrestanneth "out of affection"
trenarn "tale" > e threnarn "out of a tale"
barad "tower" > e barad "out of a tower"The system here sketched refers to "normal" b, d, g; notice that where these sounds come from primitive mb, nd, ñg, they behave differently. See "The development of nasalized stops" below.
daw "gloom" > e daw "out of gloom"
gass "hole" > e gass "out of a hole"
bronwe "endurance" > e bronwe "out of endurance"
blabed "flapping" > e blabed "out of flapping"
dring "hammer" > e dring "out of a hammer"
gloss "snow" > e gloss "out of snow"
groth "cave" > e groth "out of a cave"
gwath "shadow" > e gwath "out of shadow"
Words in m- and n- would not change, either:
môr "darkness" > e môr "out of darkness"
nath "web" > e nath "out of a web"
But h- and hw- may become ch- and w-,
respectively:
haust "bed" > e chaust "out of a bed"As for the form of ed before s-, f-, th-, we are told that "es, ef, eth are often found" (WJ:367) before these consonants:
hwest "breeze" > e west "out of a breeze"
sarch "grave" > es sarch "out of a grave"However, Tolkien's wording "often found" rather than "always found" indicates that e sarch, e falch, e thôl would be equally permissible. The preposition ned *"in", that probably behaves like ed "out of", should probably not be nef (but rather ne) before a word in f-, since the spelling nef would cause confusion with the distinct preposition nef "on this side of". (There would be no confusion if it had not been for Tolkien's idea that final [v] is to be spelt f in his Roman orthography for Sindarin; nef "on this side of" is pronounced [nev], but nef as a form of ned would be pronounced [nef]. Ef, nef as forms of ed, ned should strictly speaking have been spelt eph, neph according to Tolkien's orthographic system, since they are pronounced [ef], [nef] - but in WJ:367, Tolkien himself uses the spelling "ef"!)
falch "ravine" > ef falch "out of a ravine"
thôl "helm" > eth thôl "out of a helm"
The unvoiced liquids lh, rh may behave like we have assumed
that they do under the influence of soft mutation: turn into thl-,
thr-. (It must be emphasized that this is speculation and at best a
qualified guess, which goes for many of the possible effects of the stop
mutation presented here. Of all the unattested forms, only the behavior of the
unvoiced stops is relatively certain.)
lhewig "ear" > e thlewig "out of an ear"As for normal, voiced l, r, the general principles of Sindarin phonology (as far as they can be reconstructed) may suggest that "out of" would here appear in its full form ed, despite Tolkien's statement in WJ:367 that the final stop is lost before consonants:
Rhûn "East" > e Thrûn "out of (the) East"
lach "flame" > ed lach (e lach?) "out of a flame"This hopefully covers the mutations caused by ed "out of"; ned *"in" would behave in the same way. The preposition o "from, of" causes the same mutations, but here the preposition itself does not change its form (no variation corresponding to ed/e). Tolkien noted, however, that o occasionally appears in the form od before vowels (WJ:367). As mentioned above, Tolkien himself used o Eregion "of Hollin" in the Moria Gate inscription and o Imladris for "from/of Rivendell" in RGEO:70 (in Tengwar writing). Od Eregion and od Imladris would apparently have been possible, but not necessary. However, Tolkien noted that od was more usual before o- than before other vowels, so (say) "from/of an Orch" should perhaps be rendered od Orch rather than o Orch to avoid two identical vowels in hiatus.
rond "cave" > ed rond (e rond?) "out of a cave"
We know that following the liquids l, r, Sindarin at one point
changed plosives to spirants (UT:265, footnote); compare Telerin alpa
"swan" with Sindarin alph, or Quenya urco "Orc" with Sindarin
orch. This does not only happen in unitary words. The prefix or-
"over", clearly separable, is seen to cause a similar change in the verb
ortheri "master, conquer", literally *"over-power" (LR:395, where the
stem is given as TUR "power, control"). There is little reason to doubt
that or, also when appearing as an independent preposition "over, above,
on", would trigger similar changes in the word that follows: Stops become
spirants.
pân "plank" > or phân "above a plank"G originally turned into a spirant gh, but this sound later disappeared (marked by ' where it formerly occurred):
caw "top" > or chaw "above a top"
tâl "foot" > or thâl "above a foot"
benn "man" > or venn "above a man"
doron "oak" > or dhoron "above an oak"
galadh"tree" > or 'aladh "above a tree" (archaic or ghaladh)It does not matter whether the initial stop occurs by itself or as part of a cluster; it would still turn into a spirant under the influence of liquid mutation (tr- > thr-, pr- > phr, cl- > chl-, cr- > chr-, dr- > dhr-, bl- > vl-, br- > vr-, gl- > 'l, gr- > 'r, gw- > 'w).
M, like b, would probably turn into v when subjected to
liquid mutation. This change is seen in unitary words; cf. primitive
*gormê (Quenya ormë) "haste" yielding Sindarin gorf (LR:359
s.v. GOR; gorf is of course just Tolkien's way of spelling
gorv, since final [v] is represented by the letter f). Hence:
mîr "jewel" > or vîr "above a jewel" (archaic or mhîr, where mh = nasalized v)H- and hw- are probably strengthened to ch-, chw-, under the influence of liquid mutation:
habad "shore" > or chabad "above a shore"For the change h > ch, compare a word like hall "high" becoming -chal when or- is prefixed to produce a word for "superior, lofty, eminent" - orchal literally meaning over-high, super-high. ("Orchel" in LR:363 s.v. KHAL2 is a misreading; compare WJ:305.)
hwand "fungus" > or chwand "above a fungus"
The unvoiced liquids lh, rh may become 'l,
'r, as we surmised is the case of nasal and mixed mutation:
lhûg "dragon" > or 'lûg "above a dragon"The voiced liquids r, l would be unaffected by the liquid mutation:
Rhûn "East" > or 'Rûn "above (the) East"
rem "net" > or rem "above a net"The unvoiced spirants f, th, the nasal n and the sibilant s would not be affected, either:
lam "tongue" > or lam "above a tongue"
fend "threshold" > or fend "above a threshold"
thond "root" > or thond "above a root"
nath "web" > or nath "above a web"
sirith "stream" > or sirith "above a stream"
Already in Tolkien's earliest "Gnomish" language (ca. 1917), we find the idea that the original nasalized stops behave in a special way in mutation position. In the Gnomish Grammar of 1917 (published along with the Gnomish Lexicon in Parma Eldalamberon #11), the principle described is that the original nasalized stops were preserved when the article is prefixed. Hence we had for instance balrog "demon, balrog" > i mbalrog "the demon", dôr "land" > i ndôr "the land", Golda "Gnome, Noldo" > i Ngolda "the Gnome". Is this system still valid in Sindarin? In WJ:383, in an essay dating to ca. 1960, Tolkien indicated that the Sindarin word for Noldo was "Golodh (Ngolodh)". So the word Golodh sometimes appears as Ngolodh instead. In the essay in question, Tolkien did not clarify where the form Ngolodh would be used, but the variation Golodh/Ngolodh seemed to correspond to Gnomish Golda/Ngolda. Earlier versions of this article therefore presented the view that the soft mutation of b, d, g, where these sounds were nasalized in the primitive language, is mb, nd, and ng - the original nasalized stops being restored, or rather preserved, in this position.
However, a closer look at Sindarin phonology seems to indicate that it was
rash to conclude that the "Gnomish" system was still valid in later Grey-elven
(and demonstrates that Tolkien's early material must be treated with
considerable skepticism if one wants to learn LotR-style Elvish, despite certain
claims made by the editors that the publication of the Gnomish Grammar and
Lexicon would throw more light upon Sindarin). The soft mutation corresponds to
how certain consonants or consonant groups develop between vowels. It is
triggered, among other things, by the negative prefix ú-. So if we prefix
it to a verb like bartha- "doom", derived from the stem MBARAT,
what do we get? The related word úmarth "ill-fate", where the same prefix
occurs (though with a different shade of meaning), points unequivocally to
*ú-martha for "does not doom". The soft mutation of b, where it
represents primitive mb, is therefore m. The soft mutation of
d derived from primitive nd would then be n. This largely
corresponds to the development of the mb, nd medially, where they
become m(m), n(n) - e.g. amar "earth" as the
cognate of Quenya ambar, or annon "gate" corresponding to Quenya
andon. What, then, about the attested form Ngolodh - apparently
the soft mutation of Golodh? Is not the original initial cluster of
primitive ngolodô preserved here, just as in Gnomish? Probably not; we
are merely being confused by an unfortunate deficiency of the English alphabet,
the absence of a single letter for the sound that often spelt ng, as in
sing, thing. As already mentioned, Tolkien sometimes denoted this
sound as ñ. This single, unitary sound ñ must be distinguished
from ñ + g, which is what the spelling ng denotes in
finger. It seems that in Sindarin Ngolodh, the initial ng
is to be pronounced as in sing, sc. simple ñ with no audible
g - whereas in Gnomish Ngolda, the spelling ng indicates a
real cluster, pronounced as in English finger. Hence, the mutation
products of g from primitive ñg are not really the same in
Sindarin and Gnomish after all, and the treatment of b, d from
mb, nd also differs.
bâr "land, home" (stem MBAR) > i mâr "the land, the home" (not i mbâr as stated in earlier versions of this article)Update: Since I wrote the above, another relevant example has been published. Tolkien's incomplete Sindarin Lord's Prayer includes the words i mbas "the bread" (the unmutated word for "bread" being mas/mass, from a root MBAS). This kind of mutation is surprising in such a late text: For a moment at least, Tolkien seems to have revived the system he used in his very earliest "Gnomish" language. However, we have also had explicit confirmation of the system whereby b, d, g from primitive mb, nd, ñg are lenited to m, n, ñ (spelt ng), respectively: It turns out that such a system had come into place already in one variant of early "Noldorin"; see the table of mutations published in Parma Eldalamberon #13 p. 120. This table even provides explicit Tolkienian confirmation of one of the forms listed above, i mâr, still unattested when I originally wrote this article. This system does seem to fit the general phonology best. I would therefore write i mas, not i mbas, for "the bread" - irrespective of Tolkien's curious indecision in this matter.
dôl "head" (earlier ndolo) > i nôl "the head" (not i ndôl)
Golodh "Noldo" (primitive ngolodô) > i Ngolodh "the Noldo" (sc. i Ñolodh, not i Ñgolodh with a real consonant cluster)
Actual clusters, or nasalized stops, do arise when nasal mutation is
due. The plural of bâr "land, home", bair, occurs in the King's
Letter (SD:129), combined with the plural article in, and this
combination is seen to produce i Mbair "the lands". So when in =
plural "the" occurs before b or d representing mb,
nd, the final n of the particle is dropped, but the original
nasalized stop reappears. In the case of the other particles triggering nasal
mutation, namely an "for" and dan "against", it may be convenient
to let the final nasal of the particle remain in spelling; for instance, "for a
land" (an + bâr) may be represented as am mbâr (an
becoming am before m-), and likewise dam mbâr "against a
land" (dan + bâr). Similarly an ndôl "for a head" and
dan ndôl "against a head" (an/dan + dôl).
As for the nasal
mutation of g from primitive ng, this would on the same principle
be ng; so if we want to say "for a Noldo" (an + Golodh), we
would expect an Ngolodh (actually añ Ñgolodh, with ñg like
ng in English finger, with an audible g). This spelling,
however, would create a problem. The nasal-mutated form of normal g
(derived from primitive g, not ng) is also spelt ng (e.g.
an + galadh = an ngaladh [sc. añ ñaladh] "for a
tree"). Upholding the distinction between ñ and ñg is no problem
in Tengwar writing, but when using our normal alphabet to write Sindarin, we
have to use special solutions. The plural Gelydh, when combined with the
article in, might have produced i Ngelydh (sc. i(ñ) Ñgelydh
- the corresponding spelling would be used in Tengwar writing). But presumably
to make it clear that the intended pronunciation is indeed i Ñgelydh and
not i Ñelydh, Tolkien used the spelling in Gelydh instead (cf.
place-names like Annon-in-Gelydh "Gate of the Noldor" mentioned in the
Silmarillion). In this way - by keeping the n and the g
clearly separate when the intended pronunciation is ñg rather than
ñ - the distinction can be upheld. So "for a Noldo" or "against a Noldo"
would also be simply an Golodh, dan Golodh (as if there is no
mutation at all - but it should be realized that the proper or ideal spellings
would be a(ñ) Ñgolodh and da(ñ) Ñgolodh, and that the
corresponding spelling would be used in Tengwar writing). When in,
dan or an precedes a word in g-, remember that the final
n is pronounced ng as in sing.
NOTE: It is interesting to notice the different mutations affecting the collective plural gaurhoth = "werewolves" or "werewolf-host". Gaur "werewolf" comes from an ng-stem (ÑGAW "howl", LR:377). In the case of a collective plural like gaurhoth, it is optional whether one uses the singular article i or the plural article in. In one of Gandalf's fire-spells, naur dan i ngaurhoth! *"fire against the werewolves!", the singular article i is used, causing soft mutation: i ngaurhoth = i ñaurhoth. But in the Silmarillion, we find the place-name Tol-in-Gaurhoth "Isle of the Werewolves", where the plural article in is used in front of the same collective plural. The Roman spelling in-Gaurhoth here represents i Ñgaurhoth with nasal mutation triggered by the final nasal of in, exactly parallel to in-Gelydh = i Ñgelydh "the Noldor".
As for the mixed mutation of b, d, g from
mb, nd, ng, the example Narn e搶bar Hador *"Tale of
the house of Hador" indicates that it is similar to the nasal mutation,
mbar "house" exemplifying the mixed mutation of bar (bâr)
"house, home, land" (stem MBAR "dwell, inhabit", though this word is not
listed in Etym, LR:372). Hence b, d, g again "revert" to
original mb, nd, ng, and just like we have e-mbar
for "of the house", we would see for instance e-ndôl "of the head",
en-Golodh "of the Noldo" (provisory Roman spelling of e-Ñgolodh).
But spellings like en-ndôl may also be permissible; compare a name like
Haudh-en-Ndengin "Hill of Slain" occurring in the
Silmarillion.
When the article appears as -n or -in directly suffixed to a
preposition, as in nan "to the" (na "to" + -n "the"), this
final -n does not seem to be assimilated in any way (at least this is not
reflected even in Tengwar writing):
nan "to the" + bâr "house" = nan mbâr "to the house"The stop mutation following prepositions like o "from/of", ed "out of" and ned "in" would produce forms similar to the mixed mutation above. The prepositions ed, ned would appear in the short forms e, ne (but e ñg-, ne ñg- unfortunately have to be represented as en g-, nen g- in Roman spelling; morphologically speaking, the nasal has nothing to do where orthography forces us to place it):
nan "to the" + dôl "head" = nan ndôl "to the head"
nan "to the" + Golodh "Noldo" = nan Golodh (provisory and not wholly satisfactory Roman spelling for nan Ñgolodh) "to the Noldo"
bâr "house" > e mbâr "out of a house"The liquid mutation probably caused by the preposition or "over, above, on" would have no apparent effect on b-, d-, g- descended from primitive nasalized stops (while "normal" b-, d-, g- turn into spirants v-, dh-, '-):
dôr "land" > e ndôr "out of a land"
gorth "horror" > en gorth "out of horror" (provisory Roman spelling for what is properly e ñgorth - not to be confused with en-gorth "of horror")
bâr "house" > or bâr "above a house"The words involved: The words with initial b, d, g representing primitive nasalized stops must be memorized, and we will attempt to list most of them. As an example of an actual mutation we use lenition (soft mutation); the other mutations are described above. Where the word in question is a verb and not a noun, I list the form it would have following the particle i when used as a relative pronoun ("who, which") rather than as the article "the"; since this is merely a secondary use of the definite article (also found in German), the following mutations are the same. So from bartho "to doom" we have for instance i martha "who dooms" or "the [one who] dooms" (verbs with infinitives in -o forming their present tense in -a; see the section on verbs below). In the plural, the plural article in is used as a relative pronoun, triggering nasal mutation (hence "dead who live" is gyrth i chuinar = ...in cuinar), so "who doom" or "the [ones who] doom" must be i mbarthar.
dôr "land" > or dôr "above a land"
Golodh "Noldor" > or Golodh "above a Noldo"
1: Mutation of B from primitive MB
The "trade" words derived from the primitive stem MBAKH:
bachor "pedlar" > i machor "the pedlar"The "doom" pair from MBARAT:
bach "article (for exchange)" > i mach "the article"
barad "doomed" > i marad "the doomed [one]" (contrast the homophone barad "tower" > i varad "the tower")The "bread" pair from MBAS:
bartho "to doom" > i martha "the [one who] dooms"
bast "bread" > i mast "the bread"The "duress" group from MBAD and MBAW:
basgorn "loaf" > i masgorn "the loaf"
band "duress, prison" > i mand "the prison"
baug "tyrannous, cruel, oppressive" > i maug "the tyrannous (one)"
bauglo "to oppress" > i maugla "the [one who] oppresses"
bauglir "tyrant, oppressor" > i mauglir "the tyrant"
baur "need" > i maur "the need"
The "festive" group from MBER:
bereth "feast, festival" > i mereth "the feast" (but mereth > i vereth may be more usual, cf. Mereth Aderthad, not *Bereth Aderthad, for "Feast of Reunion" in the Silmarillion)
beren "festive, gay, joyous" > i meren "the festive [one]" (contrast the homophone beren "bold" > i veren "the bold [one]" - but since Tolkien evidently settled on mereth instead of bereth as the word for "feast", we should probably read meren instead of beren as the word for "festive")
And miscellaneous:
bâr "home, land" > i mâr "the home" (stem MBAR, but this word is not given in Etym)
both "puddle, small pool" > i moth "the puddle" (MBOTH)
bund "snout, nose, cape" > i mund "the snout" (MBUD)
2: Mutation of D from primitive ND
The "slaying"-group from NDAK:
daen "corpse" > i naen "the corpse"The "hammering" group from NDAM:
dangen "slain" > i nangen "the slain (one)"
dagor (older dagr) "battle" > i nagor (i nagr) "the battle"
daug "(Orkish) warrior" > i naug "the warrior"
dam "hammer" > i nam "the hammer"
damma- "hammer" as verb ("damna" in LR:375 must be a misreading) > i namma "the (one who) hammers"
The "head" pair from NDOL:
dôl "head" > i nôl "the head"(These may be somewhat uncertain; David Salo argues that dôl behaves like a normal word in D, hence *i dhol. Compare the name of the mountain Fanuidhol.)
dolt "round knob, boss" > i nolt "the round knob"
And miscellaneous:
dûn "west" > i nûn "the west" (NDÛ)3: Mutation of G from primitive ÑG
Dân "Nandorin Elf" > i Nân "the Nandorin Elf" (NDAN)
dangweth "answer" > i nangweth "the answer" (since the primitive form of the word is given as ndangwetha in PM:395; evidently the first element is to be equated with the stem NDAN)
daer "bridegroom" > i naer "the bridegroom" (NDER; the "Noldorin" form doer must be emended to daer in Sindarin.)
dess "young woman" > i ness "the young woman" (NDIS)
dôr "land" > i nôr "the land" (NDOR)
dortho "to stay" > i northa "the (one who) stays" (NDOR)
doll "dark" > i noll "the dark" (NDUL)
The "harping" pair from ÑGAN:
gannel "harp" > i ngannel "the harp"
ganno "to play a harp" > i nganna "the (one who) plays a harp"
The "wolf" group from ÑGAR(A)M and ÑGAW:
garaf "wolf" > i ngaraf "the wolf"The "wise" group from ÑGOL:
gaur "werewolf" > i ngaur "the werewolf" (cf. i ngaurhoth in one of Gandalf's fire spells).
gawad "howling" > i ngawad "the howling"
golu "lore" > i ngolu "the lore" (the "Noldorin" word golw must become golu in Sindarin)
golwen "wise" > i ngolwen "the wise (one)"
goll "wise" > i ngoll "the wise (one)"
gollor "magician" > i ngollor "the magician"
Golodh "Noldo" > i Ngolodh "the Noldo"
gûl "magic" > i ngûl "the magic"
Golovir "Silmaril, Noldo-jewel" > i Ngolovir "the Silmaril"
and finally the words for "death" and "horror":
gûr "death" > i ngûr "the death" (also guruth, i nguruth) (ÑGUR)
goroth "horror" > i ngoroth "the horror" (ÑGOROTH)
Basic |
Soft |
Nasal I |
Nasal II |
Mixed |
Stop |
Liquid |
b... |
i v... |
i m... |
am m... |
e-b... |
e b... |
or v... |
bl... |
i vl... |
i ml... |
a ml... |
e-ml... |
e bl... |
or vl... |
br... |
i vr... |
i mr... |
a mr... |
e-mr... |
e br... |
or vr... |
c... |
i g.... |
i ch... |
a ch... |
e-g... |
e ch... |
or ch... |
cl... |
i gl... |
i chl... |
a chl... |
e-gl... |
e chl... |
or chl... |
cr... |
i gr... |
i chr... |
a chr... |
e-gr... |
e chr... |
or chr... |
d... |
i dh.... |
i n... |
an n... |
e-d... |
e d... |
or dh... |
dr... |
i dhr... |
in dr... |
an dr... |
en-dr... |
e dr... |
or dhr... |
f... |
i f... |
i f... |
af f... |
en-f... |
ef f... |
or f... |
g... |
i '.... |
i ng... |
an ng... |
e-g... |
e g... |
or '... |
gl... |
i 'l... |
in gl... |
an gl... |
en-gl... |
e gl... |
or 'l... |
gr... |
i 'r... |
in gr... |
an gr... |
en-gr... |
e gr... |
or 'r... |
gw... |
i 'w.... |
in gw... |
an gw... |
en-gw... |
e gw... |
or 'w... |
h... |
i ch... |
i ch... |
a ch... |
e-h... |
e ch... |
or ch... |
hw... |
i chw... |
i 'w... |
a 'w... |
e-'w... |
e w... |
or chw... |
l... |
i l.... |
i l... |
al l... |
e-l... |
ed l... |
or l... |
lh... |
i thl... |
i 'l... |
al 'l... |
e-'l... |
e thl... |
or 'l... |
m... |
i v... |
i m... |
am m... |
e-m... |
e m... |
or v... |
n... |
i n.... |
i n... |
an n... |
en-n... |
e n... |
or n... |
p... |
i b... |
i ph... |
a ph... |
e-b... |
e ph... |
or ph... |
pr... |
i br... |
i phr... |
a phr... |
e-mr... |
e phr... |
or phr... |
r... |
i r.... |
idh r... |
adh r... |
edh-r... |
ed r... |
or r... |
rh... |
i thr... |
idh 'r... |
adh 'r... |
e-'r... |
e thr... |
or 'r... |
s... |
i h... |
i s... |
as s... |
e-h... |
es s... |
or s... |
t... |
i d.... |
i th... |
a th... |
e-d... |
e th... |
or th... |
th... |
i th... |
i th... |
ath th... |
e-th... |
eth th... |
or th... |
tr... |
i dr... |
i thr... |
a thr... |
en-dr... |
e thr... |
or thr... |
Special cases: b, d, g derived from primitive nasalized stops mb, nd, ñg:
Basic |
Soft |
Nasal I |
Nasal II |
Mixed |
Stop |
Liquid |
b... |
i m... |
i mb... |
am mb... |
e-mb... |
e mb... |
or b... |
d... |
i n... |
i nd... |
an nd... |
e-nd... |
e nd... |
or d... |
g... |
i ng... |
in g... |
an g... |
en-g... |
en g... |
or g... |
The mixed mutations described above follow the system seen in such phrases as e-mbar Hador "of the house of Hador" (MR:373) and possibly Taur e-Ndaedelos "Forest of the Great Fear" (mentioned in LotR Appendix F as a Sindarin name of Mirkwood). Bar-en-Danwedh "House of Ransom", a name mentioned in the Silmarillion and clearly incorporating a descendant of the stem NDAN, ought to be spelt Bar-e-Ndanwedh instead. Perhaps Tolkien thought this looked somewhat uncouth and used a spelling more palatable to his readers. The full form of the article en "of the" is seen in another name from the Silmarillion, Haudh-en-Ndengin "Hill of the Slain". Here, a descendant of the stem NDAK is present, and initial nd is restored following en "of the". According to the system sketched above, this ought to be spelt Haudh-e-Ndengin instead (cf. Taur e-Ndaedelos), while based on the example Bar-en-Danwedh, we ought to write Haudh-en-Dengin. We needn't be worried by this. If Sindarin had been an actual spoken language in a "medieval" age, just like Tolkien imagined, there is every reason to believe that such inconsistencies in spelling would be quite common - various scribes using their more or less "private" systems, there being no central authority or language academy that could establish a standardized spelling.
It is hardly necessary to reiterate that the system set out above varies from certain, attested forms to very tentative speculation and sheer guesses, with several shades of more or less plausible interpolation between these extremes. Complex as this system may seem, it may still be over-simplified. Some points may be commented on:
1) Thr,
thl as the soft mutations of rh, lh are phonetically sound,
but remain speculative. In one name mentioned in the Silmarillion,
Talath Rhúnen "East Vale", or literally and with Sindarin word order
"Plain Eastern", the adjective rhúnen "eastern" is not lenited in any
way, though adjectives in this position usually are. It would not be wrong,
then, to let adjectives in lh-, rh- remain unchanged when they
stand in apposition to a noun. By analogy, neither would it be a great sin to
let nouns in lh-, rh- remain unchanged when they stand as the
object of a verb, though "accusatives" are normally lenited. When a word
functions as the second element of a compound, the initial consonant usually
undergoes changes comparable to soft mutation, but lh, rh seem to
become l, r in this position. Compare Rhûn "East" with
-rûn in he longer word Amrûn of similar meaning. If thr,
thl do occur as mutations of lh, rh, they may most
typically appear following particles ending in a vowel, such as the definite
article i or the preposition na
"to".
2) We list
m, n, ng as the soft mutation of b, d,
g representing primitive mb, nd, ñg, but in some
cases it would seem that these sounds behave like "normal" b, d,
g, so that the lenited variants are v, dh, and zero,
respectively. One "Noldorin" example is Nann Orothvor "Vale of Black
Horror" (LR:355 s.v. DUN), where orothvor ("horror-black") is a
lenited form of gorothvor, the first element goroth "horror"
representing the stem ÑGOROTH of similar meaning (LR:377). It is
remarkable that even g representing primitive ñg lenits to zero in
Orothvor. In Sindarin as opposed to "Noldorin", a noun in genitive
position would not be lenited, so we would see Nan(n)
Gorothvor without any mutation. But in Sindarin, lenition does occur in
comparable positions, like when an adjective in apposition (following the noun)
undergoes soft mutation. We are left to wonder whether an adjective like
goll "wise" (< stem ÑGOL) would appear as 'oll or
ngoll in this position; maybe both would be permissible. Above, we have
listed nôl as the lenited form of dôl "head" (< stem
NDOL), but in the name of the mountain Fanuidhol "Cloudyhead"
(found in LotR itself and therefore decidedly Sindarin rather than "Noldorin"),
lenition d > dh is seen. Would it then be permissible to use
i dhôl rather than i nôl for "the head"? Had Tolkien decided that
the stem was DOL, not NDOL as it had been in the
Etymologies
(LR:376)?
3) The
lenition m > v is sometimes ignored. Contrast a name like
Eryn Vorn "Dark Wood" (UT:436, 262, cf. morn "dark") with Ered
Mithrin "Grey Mountains" on the Map to LotR, or Imloth Melui in
LotR3/V ch. 8 - not translated but evidently meaning "Lovely Flower-Vale". In
light of the example Eryn Vorn, we must assume that *Imloth Velui
and *Ered Vithrin would have been equally possible - and conversely, if
we can have Imloth Melui and Ered Mithrin, we can presumably have
*Eryn Morn as well. Above we noted that one has to rely on the context to
distinguish the lenited variants of two adjectives like bell "strong" and
mell "dear"; e.g. to decide whether i vess vell means "the strong
woman" or "the dear woman". But if the lenition m > v is
ignored, we can have the unambiguous phrase i vess mell for the latter
meaning.
Typical adjectival endings are -eb, -en and -ui: aglareb "glorious" (< aglar "glory"), brassen "white-hot" (< brass "white heat"), uanui "monstrous, hideous" (< úan "monster") (AKLA-R, BAN, BARÁS). However, many adjectives have no special endings, and the word-form as such sometimes belongs to more than one part of speech. Morn "dark" can be both adjective and noun, just like its English gloss.
Adjectives agree with their nouns in number. It seems that adjectives form their plurals following patterns similar to the noun plurals, e.g. malen "yellow", pl. melin (SMAL). Note that the initial consonant of adjectives following the noun they describe is lenited (see above).
In PM:358, Aran Einior is translated "the Elder King". Einior is our sole example of the comparative form of the adjective; the uninflected form is iaur (seen in the name Iant Iaur "the Old Brigde"). The prefix ein- seems to be related to the Quenya superlative prefix an-. The prefix may not have the form ein- prefixed to any adjective; it seems to be umlauted by the following i.
It so happens that we may also have the superlative form of iaur "old"; during the Council of Elrond, the Sindarin name of Tom Bombadil was given as Iarwain, meaning "Eldest". The ending -wain would seem to be the superlative suffix. Why not *Iorwain, with the normal monophthongization au > o? (David Salo answers, "Because you are looking at the direct descendant of a form like *Yarwanya (perhaps, I am not sure of the exact form of the final element) in which the vowel was in a closed syllable." I don't feel much wiser, but then I am not so deep into Eldarin phonology as David is.)
General: There seem to be two main categories of Sindarin verbs. As in
Quenya, we can speak of derived verbs and basic verbs. The first,
and larger, class consists of verbs that were originally formed by combining a
primitive stem with some ending, such as *-nâ (Sindarin -na),
*-jâ (Sindarin -ia), *-tâ (Sindarin
-da/-tha/-ta/-na, depending on the phonological
environment), *-râ (Sindarin -ra) or *-â (Sindarin
-a). Since all of these end in -a, this class can also be termed
the A-stems. The other, smaller class consists of verbs that come
directly from a primitive stem with no suffixes. For instance, nag-
"bite" is simply the naked stem NAK as it appears in Sindarin. Since this
category of verbs have present-tense stems in -i-, they may also be
termed I-stems.
Suffixes: In many forms, Sindarin verbs (derived or basic) take
endings for number and person. Sindarin, like Quenya, adds the ending
-r to verbs with a plural subject; cf. the phase gyrth i-chuinar
"dead that live" in Letters:417 (cuinar "live, are alive", here
incidentally in nasal-mutated form chuinar, being the plural of
cuina "lives, is alive"). Other endings denote various persons. Known
pronominal endings include -n for "I", -m for "we" and apparently
-ch or -g for "you". It is possible that the plural ending
-r can denote "they" as well as mere plurality. The verb cuina-
"live" can evidently have forms like cuinon "I live" (for
*cuinan), cuinam "we live", cuinach or cuinag "you
live" and cuinar "they live". The 3rd person singular does not seem to
have any ending by itself: cuina "(he, she, it) lives". The 3rd person
singular can in some cases be considered the basic form to which the various
endings are added to produce forms for other persons and numbers.
bronia- "endure" > bronio "to endure"
dagra- "make war" > dagro "to make war"
esta- "call, name" > esto "to call, to name"
ertha- "unite" > ertho "to unite"
lacha- "flame" > lacho "to flame"
linna- "sing" > linno "to sing"
harna- "wound" > harno "to wound"
bronia- "endure" > bronia "endures, is enduring"The plural or pronominal endings mentioned above are added to this form: broniar "(they) endure", broniam "we endure" etc. Notice that the ending -n for "I" causes the final -a to become -o instead: hence bronion "I endure", dagron "I make war" etc.
dagra- "make war" > dagra "makes war, is making war"
ertha- "unite" > ertha "unites, is uniting"
esta- "name" > esta "names, is naming"
lacha- "flame" > lacha "flames, is flaming"
linna- "sing" > linna "sings, is singing"
harna- "wound" > harna "wounds, is wounding"
bronia- "endure" > broniant "endured"Again, plural or pronominal endings may be added, just like in the present tense. If so, the suffix -nt becomes -nne- before the ending follows:
dagra- "make war" > dagrant "made war"
esta- "call, name" > estant "called, named"
ertha- "unite" > erthant "united"
lacha- "flame" > lachant "flamed"
linna- "sing" > linnant "sang"
harna- "wound" > harnant "wounded"
broniant "endured" > bronianner "they endured" (also plural, e.g. in Edhil bronianner "the Elves endured"), broniannen "I endured", broniannem "we endured" etc.For, say, "(they) sang" we would expect linnanner (since "sang" is linnant), but wherever "double nn" would occur, the verb is probably contracted: "(they) sang" may simply be linner.
bronia- "endure" > broniatha "will endure"Again, plural and pronominal endings can be added, following the same rules as in the present tense. As in the present tense, the ending -n for "I" causes the final -a to become -o instead: broniathon "I will endure" (linnathon for "I will sing" is actually attested in LotR). Otherwise, the final -a is unchanged: broniatham "we will endure", linnathar "they will sing" etc.
dagra- "make war" > dagratha "will make war"
esta- "call, name" > estatha "will call, will name"
ertha- "unite" > erthatha "will unite"
lacha- "flame" > lachatha "will flame"
linna- "sing" > linnatha "will sing"
harna- "wound" > harnatha "will wound"
bronia- "endure" > broniol "enduring"(The example glavrol is attested, LR:358 s.v. GLAM; cf. also chwiniol "whirling" from chwinio "to whirl", LR:388 s.v. SWIN. In mature Sindarin, as opposed to the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies, we should probably read hw- for chw-.) It seems that the adjectival participles so derived do not have an explicit plural form, as most other adjectives do.
glavra- "babble" > glavrol "babbling"
ertha- "unite" > erthol "uniting"
lacha- "flame" > lachol "flaming"
linna- "sing" > linnol "singing"
harna- "wound" > harnol "wounding"
esta- "call, name" > estiel "having named"In the case of the numerous verbs in -ia, parallel forms suggest that the stem-vowel should be lengthened, as in hwíniel from hwinia- above. (The verbs siria- "flow", thilia- "glister" and tiria- "watch" would presumably behave in the same way: síriel, thíliel, tíriel.) However, this has somewhat complicated consequences. If we dare to trust the phonological system we glimpse in Tolkien's works, we must often take into account what the original vowel in these verbs were.
hwinia- "whirl" > hwíniel "having whirled"
linna- "sing" > linniel "having sung"
Where the original, primitive root or stem had the vowel A, the
perfective participle would show ó (representing long á, since
earlier long á had become ó in Sindarin):
beria- "protect" (stem BAR) > bóriel "having protected"Notice especially egleria- "glorify" (related to aglar "glory"), that may have the perfective participle aglóriel "having glorified".
gweria- "betray, cheat" (stem WAR) > gwóriel "having cheated"
henia- "understand" (stem KHAN) > hóniel "having understood"
pelia- "spread" (stem PAL) > póliel "having spread"
penia- "fix, set" (stem PAN) > póniel "having fixed, having set"
renia- "stray" (stem RAN) > róniel "having strayed"
revia- "fly, sail" (stem RAM) > róviel "having flied, having sailed"
telia- "play" (stem TYAL) > tóliel "having played"
Where the original stem had the vowel O or U, the perfective
participle would show ú (representing long ó, since earlier long
ó had become ú in Sindarin):
delia- "hide, conceal" (stem DUL) > dúliel "having hidden, having concealed"(In archaic Sindarin, it was easier to keep this category apart from the one above, since these verbs earlier showed ö instead of e: dölia- etc. After ö became e, these verbs must be memorized.) The verb bronia- "endure" (stem BORÓN-) would likewise yield brúniel "having endured". Indeed it is a mystery why bronia- does not appear as *brenia-, archaic *brönia-; in all comparable cases, the ending -ia causes umlaut (cf. for instance delia-, older dölia-, from *duljâ- or later *dolja-).
elia- "rain" (stem ULU) > úliel "having rained"
eria- "raise" (stem ORO) > úriel "having raised"
heria- "begin suddenly" (stem KHOR) > húriel "having suddenly begun"
Other derived verbs than the ones in -ia may show simple umlaut
when the ending -iel is added (we cannot be sure of this). If so, the
vowels a and o both become e (again, o became
ö in archaic Sindarin, ö later merging with e):
awartha- "abandon" > ewerthiel "having abandoned"Verbal stem with the vowels e or i would not be affected by the umlaut:
banga- "trade" > bengiel "having traded"
dortha- "stay" > derthiel "having stayed" (archaic dörthiel)
edonna- "beget" > edenniel "having begotten" (archaic edönniel)
critha- "reap" > crithiel "having reaped"Verbs with a diphthong (ei, ui, ae, au etc.) would not change, either:
ertha- "unite" > erthiel "having united"
eitha- "insult" > pl. eithiel "having insulted"
gruitha- "terrify" > pl. gruithiel "having terrified"
maetha- "fight" > pl. maethiel "having fought"
baugla- "oppress" > pl. baugliel "having oppressed"
gosta- "fear exceedingly" > gostannen "feared, dreaded" (cf. gostant as the past tense of the verb)As the past participle of linna- "sing" we might expect linnannen ("sung"), but as in other cases where "double nn" would occur, the form is probably simply contracted: linnen.
egleria- "glorify, praise" > egleriannen "glorified"
eitha- "insult" > eithannen "insulted"
esta- "call, name" > estannen "called, named"
ertha- "unite" > erthannen "united"
gruitha- "terrify" > gruithannen "terrified"
harna- "wound" > harnannen "wounded"
maetha- "fight" > maethannen "fought"
baugla- "oppress" > bauglannen "oppressed"
In form, the past participles coincide with the 1st person past tense:
gostannen could also mean "I feared", egleriannen is also "I
glorified" etc. The context must decide how the form is to be understood.
In some cases, where the corresponding verb is intransitive (sc. when it
cannot normally take a direct object, e.g. "go"), the past participle may
describe the state that the one performing the verbal action is in having
completed it. For instance, one who goes will thereafter be gone
("gone" is the past participle of "go"). In a similar manner, the past
participle of an intransitive verb like lacha- "flame" (lachannen)
may perhaps be used to describe a fire having flamed. But in Sindarin, it
may be better to use the perfective active participle instead (like
lechiel in this case); see above.
Unlike the active participles (we think), the past or passive participle has
a distinct plural form (used when the participle describes a plural word). This
is formed by altering the ending -nnen to -nnin, combined with
I-umlaut throughout the word. As usual, the effect of this is that the vowels
a and o, where they occur, are altered to e (but again,
e from o was actually ö in archaic Sindarin):
harnannen "wounded" > pl. hernenninNotice that the ending -a in the verbal stem itself, here the final -a of harna and gosta-, is also umlauted to e: In the plural, -annen always becomes -ennin.
gostannen "feared, dreaded" > pl. gestennin (archaic göstennin)
The vowels e and i are not affected by the umlaut:
linnen "sung" > pl. linninAgain, neither are various diphthongs (ei, ae, ui, au etc.):
erthannen "united" > pl. erthennin
eithannen"insulted" > pl. eithennin
bronia- "endure" > broniad "enduring" (= the act of enduring, endurance)(Cf. the Mereth Aderthad, Feast of Reunion, mentioned in the Silmarillion.)
nara- "tell" > narad "telling" (as in "the telling of a tale")
ertha- "unite" > erthad "uniting" (= union, as abstract)
It seems that gerunds are often used where English would have an infinitive instead. In the King's Letter (SD:129), Aragorn writes that he aníra...suilannad mhellyn în = "wishes...to greet his friends", literally "wishes greeting (of) his friends". It is indeed possible that Tolkien had decided to drop the infinitives in -o and -i (see below concerning the latter), replacing them with gerunds. The infinitives in -o and -i are not attested in any sources later than the Etymologies. This may not mean much, since our post-Etym evidence is very scanty, but I would generally use gerunds for English infinitives when writing in Sindarin.
NOTE: As mentioned above, the object of a sentence undergoes lenition (soft mutation). It should be noted that in the phrase aníra...suilannad mhellyn în = "wishes...to greet his friends" or literally "wishes...greeting (of) his friends", the object from a grammatical point of view would undoubtedly be the suilannad or "greeting". However, the logical object is mellyn "friends", and this is the word that is lenited (to mhellyn). The gerund suilannad is not lenited (to *huilannad). This strongly suggests that the gerund is here perceived as an infinitive, not as a noun that could be lenited as the object of a sentence; the lenition affects the logical object "friends" instead.
fir- "fade, die" > firi "to fade, to die"This ending causes the vowels a and o to umlaut to e:
gir- "shudder" > giri "to shudder"
ped- "speak" > pedi "to speak"
pel- "wither" > peli "to wither"
redh- "sow" > redhi "to sow"
blab- "flap" > blebi "to flap"Some verbs inevitably coincide in the infinitive; for instance, can- "call, shout" and cen- "see" would both have the infinitive ceni. The context must decide which verb is intended. (But as suggested above, Sindarin would often use the gerund where English has an infinitive, and here the distinction is preserved: caned "shouting", but cened "seeing".)
dag- "slay" > degi "to slay"
dar- "stop, halt" > deri "to stop, to halt"
nor- "run" > neri "to run" (archaic nöri)
tol- "come" > teli "to come" (archaic töli)
tog- "lead" > tegi "to lead" (archaic tögi)
dar- "stop" > dâr "(he, she, it) stops"(These may also cover the English compound tenses: "is stopping", "is fading" etc., but we cannot be sure; see Note (i) below.) Attested examples include blâb as the present tense of blebi- "to flap" (LR:380 s.v. PALAP), and - with a clearer wording - the entry TUL- in LR:395, where tôl is translated "he comes", thus being clearly identified as the 3rd person singular of teli "to come". That the form itself is simply 3rd person and not necessarily "masculine" or even animate ("he comes") is apparent from another attestation, the sentence tôl acharn "vengeance comes" (WJ:254; according to WJ:301 Tolkien later wrote tûl acharn instead, but accepting this change would cause such an upheaval in the verbal system and the phonology that it is probably best ignored at this point). Acharn "vengeance" would not normally be referred to with the pronoun "he".
fir- "fade, die" > fîr "fades, dies"
ped- "speak" > pêd "speaks"
tol- "come" > tôl "comes"
NOTE (i): Pêd as the present tense "speaks" is also attested (incidentally in lenited form: bêd) in VT41:11, where it is seen to correspond to the Quenya aorist quete. Whether Sindarin has an aorist tense distinct from the present tense is unclear; if so, forms like pêd are probably aorists: "speaks" as opposed to present tense "is speaking".
NOTE (ii): When final, v is spelt f. Therefore, the 3rd person
singular present tense of lav- "lick" is lâf. In other forms,
where the v is not final, it would also be spelt v (e.g.
levin "I lick" - cf. below).
In the case of polysyllabic basic verbal stems (usually verbs with
some prepositional element prefixed), there is no lengthening of the vowel, and
the 3rd person singular present tense is identical to the verbal stem
itself:
osgar- "cut around, amputate" > osgar "cuts around, amputates" (this form is explicitly mentioned in LR:379 s.v. OS)In all present-tense forms except the 3rd person singular, some ending is required, as outlined initially. These endings are added to a form of the verb that is identical to the infinitive, hence with the ending -i and umlaut where the verbal stem has the vowel a or o (while i and e are not affected in any way):
dar- "stop, halt" > derin "I stop, halt", derir "(they) stop, halt" (with multiple subjects, e.g. in Edhil derir "the Elves halt"), derig/derich "you stop", derim "we stop"This form has long been thought of as the perfect tense, which was also the view presented in earlier versions of this article. This was primarily because of Gilraen's linnod in LotR Appendix A: Onen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim, translated in a footnote as "I gave Hope to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself" (emphasis added). However, in light of other examples, it may be best to see ú-chebin as a present-tense form (and translate "I do not keep [any] hope for myself"), assuming that Tolkien's perfect-tense translation "I have kept no hope for myself" is slightly free and makes a concession to natural English. (It used to be unclear what the basic form of ú-chebin is; removing the negative prefix ú- "not" and the soft mutation h > ch that it triggers, we are left with hebin "I keep". This could come from hab-, heb- or hob- "keep", the umlaut neutralizing the vowels in the form hebin. However, the stem KHEP "retain, keep" published in VT41:6 must be the root underlying this verb; hence the basic form is evidently heb-.)
fir- "fade, die" > firin "I die" etc. with the various endings
ped- "speak" > pedin "I speak" etc.
tol- "come" > telin "I come" etc.
osgar- "amputate" > esgerin "I amputate" etc.
In the case of basic verbs in -r, an -n is simply suffixed to
the stem (a remnant of a longer past tense ending -ne, still current in
Quenya):
dar- "stop, halt" > darn "stopped, halted"Verbal stems in -n probably behave in the same way (cen- "see" > cenn "saw"). As for verbs in -l, the ending -n is probably assimilated to it (pel- "wither" > pell "withered"). We lack examples, but extrapolations from Quenya would point in this direction.
gir- "shudder" > girn "shuddered"
nor- "run" > norn "ran"
When it comes to verbal stems ending in -b, -d, -g,
-v, -dh, the nasal element denoting past tense would manifest as
an infix instead of as a prefix. That is, it is not added to the final
consonant of the stem, but inserted before it. This has some consequences that
might surprise students not familiar with the evolution of Eldarin. In Sindarin,
b, d, g, v, dh following a vowel descend from
earlier p, t, c, b (or m) and d,
respectively. But where the nasal infix intruded between the vowel and the
consonant, this change could not take place: The infix "shielded" the consonant
from the vowel that would otherwise cause it to change. Hence b,
d, g seemingly reverts to p, t, c following
the infix. Actually they do not revert; they simply never changed:
had- "hurl" > pa.t. hant "hurled" (original stem KHAT; this past tense is actually listed in LR:363)(It will be observed that the nasal infix, that most often manifests as n, is assimilated to m before p.) Presumably dh from earlier d likewise reverts to its original quality:
cab- "jump" > pa.t. camp "jumped" (original stem KAP)
dag- "slay" > pa.t. danc "slew" (original stem NDAK; Sindarin c = k).
redh- "sow" > pa.t. rend "sowed" (stem RED)One attested case is gwend (or gwenn) as the past tense of a verb gwedhi "to bind" (LR:397 s.v. WED-, where the infinitive is given as "gwedi", but this is surely a misreading for gweði = gwedhi; compare the related word angweð = angwedh). However, Tolkien noted that gwend was later replaced by gwedhant (spelt gweðant in LR), as if this were a derived verb *gwedha-; perhaps the past tenses in -nd were somehow disliked by the Elves (/by Tolkien). It may be that the past tense rend "sowed" (not directly attested in Tolkien's papers) was likewise replaced by redhant in later Sindarin.
Verbs of more than one syllable would have past tenses in -nn instead
of -nd, if we dare to trust our reconstructed Sindarin phonology. There
are only two such verbs known: neledh- "go in, enter" (pa.t.
nelenn?) and edledh- "go into exile" (pa.t. edlenn?). The
latter verb is not directly attested, but is reconstructed from "Noldorin"
egledh- (LR:368 s.v. LED).
Verbs with final -v may also be slightly special. In most cases,
post-vocalic v would come from earlier b, so certainly these verbs
at one point ended in -mb (the nasal infix manifesting as m before
b, just as before p). But final mb became simple m
in Sindarin. (Cf. WJ:394, where Tolkien states that primitive *lambê
"tongue" became lam in Sindarin, surely representing earlier
*lamb. Compare the "Noldorin" form lham(b) in LR:367 s.v.
LAB, that would correspond to Sindarin lam(b).) Hence, basic verbs
in -v may have past tenses in -m, for -mb:
lav- "lick" > lam (for lamb) "licked" (the noun lam "tongue" is related and shares precisely the same phonological history)As mentioned above, the forms so far derived are 3rd person singulars. Other forms are quite easily derived from them by means of the same endings that were mentioned above: -n "I", -m "we", -r "they" or just plurality, etc. The question is, what connecting vowel do we add between the verb and the ending? In terms of phonological history, we would definitely expect e: The Sindarin form corresponding to Quenya quenten "I said" would be expected to be *pennen. However, our one-and-only example points in a different direction, and this is one of the cases where we must generalize from one single form, with great consequences for an entire class of verbs. I would have liked to have other (and in particular later) examples, to make sure that this was not just a passing whim in Tolkien's evolution of "Noldorin"/Sindarin, or indeed a misreading on Christopher Tolkien's part.
The example in question is found in the Etymologies, LR:363, stem
KHAT "hurl". Here we have a verb hedi, clearly the perfectly
regular infinitive of had-, but then two forms explicitly identified as
"pa.t." are listed: hennin and hant. The latter is transparently
the 3rd person singular, "(he/she/it) hurled", formed from had- with a
nasal infix according to the rules we have tried to sketch (indeed using this
example). But hennin, with the ending -n that is known to mean
"I", must be the 1st person past tense: "I hurled". The change nt >
intervocalic nn is what we would expect on phonological grounds, but it
is surprising that i is used as the connecting vowel before the
pronominal ending is added. It would be tempting to dismiss hennin as an
error for hannen, but the umlaut a > e is exactly what
we would expect when there is an i following in the next syllable. We do
know cases of confusion a/e and e/i in the texts
produced by various editors trying to decipher Tolkien's handwriting, but to
assume that Christopher Tolkien managed to misread two vowels in the same word,
and that the result just happened to beautifully comply with Sindarin phonology,
may be assuming too much. It may be that JRRT imagined that forms like
hannen had been reformed on analogy with the corresponding present-tense
forms (in this case hedin "I hurl"), the connecting vowel i and
therefore also umlaut being introduced in the past tense as well as the present:
hannen > hennin.
Accepting this example, we must formulate this rule: All past tense forms of
the basic verbs, except for the 3rd person singular, are formed by adding
-i- and the appropriate ending to the 3rd person singular itself:
gir- "shudder" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. girn "(he, she, it) shuddered" > girnin "I shuddered", girnim "we shuddered", girnig/girnich "you shuddered", girnir "(they) shuddered"As the example hant > hennin indicates, the connecting vowel i triggers the normal umlauts in the syllable before it, a and o both becoming e:cen- "see" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. cenn "(he, she, it) saw" > cennin "I saw" (etc. with the various endings)
dar- "stop, halt" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. darn "(he, she, it) halted" > dernin "I halted" (etc.)The example hant > hennin also illustrates another phenomenon: Not all the final consonant clusters occurring in the past tense can remain unchanged when they are no longer final at all, but have become intervocalic because an ending has been added. The clusters -nt, -nc, -mp become -nn-, -ng-, -mm- instead:
nor- "run" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. norn "(he, she, it) ran" > nernin (archaic nörnin) "I ran" (etc.)
ped- "speak" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. pent "(he, she, it) spoke" > pennin "I spoke" (etc.)The cluster nd, like nt, would become nn intervocalically:
dag- "slay" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. danc "(he, she, it) slew" > dengin "I slew" (etc.)
cab- "jump" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. camp "(he, she, it) jumped" > cemmin "I jump" (etc.)
gwedh- "bind" > 3 pers. pa.t. gwend "(he, she, it) bound" > gwennin "I bound" (etc.)Final m (usually representing mb) would become double -mm-:
lav- "lick" > 3 pers. pa.t. lam "(he, she, it) licked" > lemmin "I licked" (etc.)
dar- "halt" > inf. deri "to halt" > future deritha "will halt"These (3rd person singular) future-tense forms may then be further modified with the normal endings, just as in the case of the derived verbs: telithon "I will come", telitham "we will come", plural telithar "(they) will come" etc. (As usual, -a becomes -o before the ending -n for "I", hence telithon rather than **telithan.)
ped- "speak" > inf. pedi "to speak" > future peditha "will speak"
gir- "shudder" > inf. giri "to shudder" > future giritha "will shudder"
tol- "come" > inf. teli "to come" (archaic töli) > future telitha (archaic tölitha) "will come"
dar- "halt" > daro "halt!"Three of these are attested in LotR: An Elf halted the Fellowship with the command daro! when they were entering Lórien. Pedo "speak, say" is found in the Moria gate inscription (pedo mellon, which should be translated "say friend", though Gandalf at first took it to mean "speak, friend"). Sam speaking in tongues in Cirith Ungol used the phrase a tiro nin, Fanuilos! "o look towards me, Everwhite!" (a title of Varda); see Letters:278 or RGEO:72 for translation.
ped- "speak" > pedo "speak!"
tir- "watch, look" > tiro "watch! look!"
tol- "come" > tolo "come!"
dar- "halt" > darel "halting"However, where the stem vowel is i, this ending seems to be expanded to -iel:
ped- "speak" > pedel "speaking"
tol- "come" > tolel "coming"
fir- "die, fade" > firiel "dying, fading"
gir- "shudder" > giriel "shuddering"
glir- "sing" (also "recite poem") > gliriel "singing" (or, "reciting")
tir- "watch" > tiriel "watching" (the only attested example - see below)
fir- "fade, die" > fíriel "having died, having faded" (or simply "dead, faded")(It will be noticed that vowel-length alone distinguishes tiriel "watching" from tíriel "having watched". Compare RGEO:73, where Tolkien explains that while palan-diriel means "gazing far away", palan-díriel has a perfective meaning: "having gazed far away". In these words, -diriel/-díriel are simply lenited forms of -tiriel/-tíriel.)
glir- "sing" (/"recite") > glíriel "having sung" (/"having recited")
tir- "watch" > tíriel "having watched".
This lengthening of vowels probably occurred so early that the subsequent
changes affecting long vowels must also be taken into consideration. Earlier
é, á, ó would be expected to manifest as í,
ó, ú, respectively - reflecting a change that took place at the
Old Sindarin stage:
mad- "eat" > módiel (for mádiel) "having eaten"It seems that neither of the active participles so derived (in -el and -iel) have distinct plural forms.
ped- "speak" > pídiel (for pédiel) "having spoken"
nor- "run" > núriel (for nóriel) "having ran"
dar- "stop" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. darn "(he, she, it) stopped" > passive participle darnen "stopped, halted"(The latter is attested in the Silmarillion, in the name Talath Dirnen "Guarded Plain": Dirnen is the lenited form of tirnen.)
sol- "close" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. soll "(he, she, it) closed" > passive participle sollen "closed" (the latter form being all that is attested of this verb: LotR refers to the Fen Hollen or "Closed Door" in Minas Tirith, hollen presumably being a lenited form of sollen)
tir- "watch, guard" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. tirn "(he, she, it) watched, guarded" > passive participle tirnen "watched, guarded"
Again, when another vowel comes to follow them, final -nt, -nc,
-mp, -nd, -m become -nn-, -ng-, -mm-,
-nn-, -mm-, respectively:
ped- "speak" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. pent "(he, she, it) spoke" > passive participle pennen "spoken"These passive participles in -en would have plural forms in -in, causing the normal umlauts: a and o both become e:
dag- "slay" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. danc "(he, she, it) slew" > pass. part. dangen "slain" (attested in LR:375 s.v. NDAK)
hab- "clothe" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. hamp "(he, she, it) clothed" > pass. part. hammen "clothed"
redh- "sow" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. rend "(he, she, it) sowed" > pass. part. rennen "sowed"
lav- "lick" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. lam "(he, she, it) licked" > pass. part. lammen "licked"
dangen "slain" > pl. dengin(Compare the Haudh-en-Ndengin or "Hill of Slain" mentioned in the Silmarillion; ndengin is a form of dengin.) As usual, the vowels e and i would not be affected in any way:
hollen "closed" > pl. hellin (archaic höllin)
pennen "spoken" > pl. pennin
tirnen "guarded" > pl. tirnin
cab- "jump" > cabed "jumping" (as noun, = "a jump, a leap")The Sindarin verbs cab- "jump, leap" and cen- "see, look" are actually attested as gerunds only! According to the Silmarillion, the gorge where Túrin slew Glaurung was called Cabed-en-Aras or "Deer's Leap" ("Jumping-of the-Deer"). The verb cab- is obviously to be referred to the stem KAP "leap" listed in the Etymologies (LR.362), but it is not mentioned there. Cened "looking" occurs as part of the compound cenedril "looking-glass" in RS:466.
cen- "see, look" > cened "looking"
glir- "sing" > glired "singing"
tol- "come" > toled "coming"
ava- "will not" > am "would not"(Concerning the shift o > u in groga-, loda-, soga-, toba- > pa.t. grunc, lunt, sunc, tump, see section IV below.)
brona- "last, survive" > bronn "lasted, survived"
drava- "hew" > dram "hewed"
fara- "hunt" > farn "hunted"
gala- "grow" > gall "grew"
groga- "feel terror" > grunc "felt terror"
laba- "hop" > lamp "hopped"
loda- "float" > lunt "floated"
nara- "tell" > narn "told"
pada- "walk (on a track or path)" > pant "walked"
rada- "make a way, find a way" > rant "made a way, found a way"
soga- "drink" > sunc "drank"
toba- "cover, roof over" > tump "covered, roofed over"
A number of three-syllable verbal stems in -da must also be assigned
to the mixed conjugation: aphada- "follow", athrada- "traverse",
gannada- "(play a) harp", lathrada- "eavesdrop", limmida-
"moisten", nimmida- "whiten" and tangada- "make firm": past tenses
aphant, athrant, gannant, lathrant, limmint,
nimmint, tangant, or with endings aphanne- etc. (The
"Noldorin" past tense lhimmint, that would correspond to Sindarin
limmint, is mentioned by Tolkien in LR:369 s.v. LINKWI.)
Long vowels would probably be shortened before the consonant cluster arising
in the past tense:
aníra- "wish" > anirn "wished"When further endings are to be added (to produce forms other than the 3rd person singular), the connecting vowel is here e, as the example drammen "I hewed" demonstrates.
síla- "shine" > sill "shone"
tíra- "watch" > tirn "watched"
NOTE: Since these verbs might seem to jump over to the I-stems in the
past tense, we might have expected the connecting vowel i as in
hennin "I hurled", hence **dremmin "I hewed", but this is not the
case. This might support the theory that the connecting vowel i in the
past tense arose on analogy with its use in the present tense (hedin "I
hurl"). The verb drava- does not have i in the present
tense (drava "hews, is hewing"), and hence does not show i in the
past tense, either. Instead we find e, like we would expect on
phonological reasons alone: drammen.
As usual, final -m, -nc, -nt, -mp becomes
-mm-, -ng-, -nn-, -mm- between vowels:
drava- "hew" > dram "(he, she, it) hewed" > drammen "I hewed", drammem "we hewed", drammeg/drammech "you heaved", drammer "(they) hewed"The passive participle would be derived with the ending -en, just as in the case of normal basic verbs. Thus, as usual, the past participle is identical to the 1st person singular form, hence drammen could also be "hewed" as a participle, sungen is also "drunk" etc. These participles would have plural forms in -in (causing umlaut), in other words behaving just like the passive participles of normal basic verbs. See rules in section II above. (The umlaut product of u, where it occurs, would be y. Hence the plural form of sungen would be syngin.)
laba- "hop" > lamp "hopped" > lammen "I hopped" (etc. with the various endings)
loda- "float" > lunt "floated" > lunnen "I floated" (etc.)
soga- "drink" > sunc "drank" > sungen "I drank" (etc.)
As noted above, these verbs probably have active participles in -ol,
like normal A-stems (drava- "hew" > dravol "hewing"). The
perfective active participle would presumably be formed according to the
rules of the I-stems, as if the final vowel did not exist. Hence we would see
the ending -iel combined with lengthening of the stem-vowel, í,
ó, ú representing í, á, ó (drava-
"hew" > dróviel "having hewed", soga- "drink" >
súgiel "having drunk"). If the vowel is long already, we must assume that
it simply stays long (síla- "shine" > síliel "having
shone").
groga- "feel terror" > 3 pers. sg. pa.t. grunc (original stem RUK)NOTE: In the Etymologies, LR:378 s.v. NOT, the verb nod- is given as "nud-", but this would contradict everything we think we know about Sindarin phonology. The verb toba- [inf. tobo] is derived from a stem TOP in LR:379, in which case the past tense would be tomp, but the Quenya verb untúpa "covers" in Namárië in LotR suggests that Tolkien had decided that the stem was TUP instead, though a distinct stem TUP occurs in Etym.
loda- "float" > pa.t. lunt (stem LUT)
nod- "tie, bind" > pa.t. nunt (stem NUT)
toba- "cover, roof over" > pa.t. tump (stem *TUP)
tog- "lead, bring" > pa.t. tunc (stem TUK)
Grunc, lunt, sunc and tump would appear as
grunge-, lunne-, sunge-, tumme- before the normal
plural/pronominal endings - grunger "(they) felt fear", grungen "I
felt fear" etc. If the example hant > hennin (LR:363 s.v.
KHAT) holds, we would in the case of nunt and tunc see the
connective vowel i before the normal endings are added. This i
would trigger umlaut u > y, so (with the normal change of
intervocalic nt, nc to nn, ng) we would have for
instance 1st person sg. nynnin "I tied" and tyngin "I led, I
brought". (But groga-, loda-, toba- would belong to the
mixed conjugation, with e rather than i as the connecting vowel,
and hence no umlaut either: grungen "I felt fear", lunnen "I
floated", tummen "I covered".)
The past participles of all the verbs we are dealing with here can be formed,
quite regularly, by adding -en to the 3 sg. past tense (with the normal
changes in final consonant groups when they become intervocalic instead):
groga- "feel terror" > pa.t. grunc > passive participle grungenAnd again, we would see umlaut u > y in the plural forms of these participles: gryngin, lynnin, nynnin, tymmin, syngin, tyngin. (A few of these verbs, "feel terror" and "float", may not normally have passive participles, though - since they are intransitive.)
loda- "float" > pa.t. lunt > passive participle lunnen
nod- "tie, bind" > pa.t. nunt > passive participle nunnen
soga- "drink" > pa.t. sunc > passive participle sungen
toba- "cover, roof over" > pa.t. tump > passive participle tummen
tog- "lead, bring" > pa.t. tunc > passive participle tungen
But in the case of groga-, loda-, soga- and
toba-, it may also be permissible to take the easier path and simply let
them go as A-stems (Tolkien made an explicit note to this effect in the case of
soga-). Hence we would have (3 pers. sg) past tenses grogant,
lodant, sogant, tobant (-nt regularly becoming
-nne- before endings), and past participles grogannen,
lodannen, sogannen, tobannen (pl. gregennin,
ledennin, segennin, tebennin - or archaic grögennin
etc.)
Another impersonal verb is elia- "rain". The "Noldorin" impersonal
form expressing "it rains", namely oeil [= öil], later eil,
is given in the Etymologies (LR:396 s.v. ULU). In Third Age
Sindarin, the form would be ail. The past tense, denoting "it rained",
could be aul or regular eliant. We may conjugate the verb like
this: infinitive elio "to rain", present tense ail = impersonal 3
sg. form "it rains", past tense eliant or aul = impersonal 3 sg
"it rained", future eliatha = "it will rain", imperative elio
"rain!", participle eliol "raining" (perfective úliel "having
rained"), gerund eliad "raining". A verb with this meaning would hardly
have any passive participles. The form would be eliannen, or, if we use
aul as the past tense, olen.
In LR:375 s.v. NDAM, a verb damna- "to hammer" is listed,
with a (3rd person sg.) past tense dammint. Both forms are positively
weird. There can be no doubt that damna is a misreading for
damma-, the form we would expect on phonological grounds; cf. mm
in the past tense. The past tense "dammint" is very strange. We would definitely
expect dammant. Where does the i in the past tense come from in
the first place, and if it is to be there at all, why does it not cause the
a to umlaut to e (i.e. demmint)? If we accept this past
tense form (with endings damminne-), we would also have to use
damminnen pl. damminnin as the passive participle. But personally
I am strongly inclined to dismiss dammint as a misreading for
dammant, in which case the verb would be perfectly regular.
The verb drava- "hew" would regularly have the past tense
dram (with endings dramme-). According to LR:354 s.v.
DARÁM, an irregular (3rd person sg.) past tense dramp was used in
poetry - as if the verb were **draba- instead. This form was apparently
used in addition to, not instead of, the regular past tense. With endings,
dramp and dram would both appear as dramme- anyway (e.g.
the 1st person pa.t. drammen that is mentioned in this entry in the
Etymologies).
As mentioned above, the regular past tense of the verb gwedh-
"bind" is gwend (with endings gwenni-), but Tolkien indicated that
an irregular past gwedhant (as if this were an A-stem **gwedha-)
came into use "later". The regular past tense had come to be regarded as archaic
or poetic. When the change occurred, it may be that the passive participle
"bound" was also altered from gwennen to gwedhannen. Presumably,
the verb was still inflected as a regular "primary" verb otherwise (infinitive
gwedhi, present tense gwêdh or before endings gwedhi-,
future gwedhitha, imperative gwedho, active participle
gwedhel, perfective participle gwídhiel). Perhaps the verb
redh- "sow" underwent a similar development, so that the regular past
tense rend was replaced by redhant?
The verb soga- "drink" would regularly have the 3rd person
singular soga "(he, she, it) drinks", but LR:388 indicates that the 3rd
person sg. is actually sôg (as if this were a primary verb sog-).
When endings are to be added to produce other forms than the 3rd person sg., we
may use the regular present-tense stem soga- (hence sogon [for
**sogan] "I drink", sogam "we drink" etc.) The (3rd person sg.)
past tense is either regular sunc (with endings sunge-) or
irregular sogant (with endings soganne-); Tolkien indicated that
both are valid. The passive participle "drunk" would then be either
sogannen (pl. segennin) to go with the past tense sogant,
or sungen (pl. syngin) if one prefers the past tense sunc.
Hopefully, the verb soga- "drink" is otherwise a normal, well-behaved
Mixed Conjugation verb, as the infinitive sogo (given in LR:388) would
suggest. Hence future sogatha "will drink", imperative sogo
"drink!", participle sogol "drinking" (perfective súgiel "having
drunk"), gerund sogad "drinking" (as noun).
NOTE: The actual wording in LR:388 s.v. SUK is "N sogo,
3 sg. sôg, pa.t. sunc, asogant (sogennen)".
Sogo is clearly the infinitive "to drink", sôg is identified as
the 3rd person singular (present), and sunc is likewise identified as the
(3rd person singular) past tense. However, asogant cannot be a correct
reading of Tolkien's text. It is very difficult to understand where this
a-prefix could come from, and moreover, such a prefix would in all
likelihood cause soft mutation of the initial s, so that we would have
the form **ahogant. What Tolkien actually wrote in his
less-than-calligraphic handwriting must have been "sunc, or
sogant", alternatively "sunc, and sogant" - a small doodle
representing or or possibly and being misread as a by
Christopher Tolkien, and prefixed directly to the following verb. The form
sogennen must be the passive participle "drunk", but since the past
participle is derived by suffixing -en to the past tense (nt
regularly becoming nn between vowels), we must conclude that "sogennen"
is a misreading for sogannen.
The verb thora- "fence" is stated to have the passive participle
thoren "fenced" (LR:393 s.v. THUR). Thoren suggests a past
tense thaur. The verb may go like this: Infinitive thoro "to
fence", present tense thora "fences, is fencing", irregular (3rd person
sg.) past tense thaur (with endings thore-, e.g. thoren "I
fence, I am fencing"), future thoratha "will fence", imperative
thoro "fence!", active participle thorol "fencing" (perfective
thóriel "having fenced"), passive participle thoren "fenced" (pl.
thorin), gerund thorad. Notice that the perfective participle is
thóriel instead of **thúriel, and that there is no umlaut in the
plural form of the participle thoren (pl. thorin, not
**therin). As in the case of other verbs, this is because o,
ó here represents the diphthong au.
The verb trenar- "recount, tell to the end" is stated to have the
(3rd person singular) past tense trenor or trener (LR:374 s.v.
NAR2). Regularly, we would expect **trenarn. The verb
may go like this: Infinitive treneri "to recount", 3rd person present
tense trenar "recounts, is recounting" (with endings treneri-,
hence trenerin "I recount", trenirem "we recount" etc.), irregular
past tense trenor or trener (with endings either trenori-
or treneri-, hence trenorin "I recount" etc.; the alternative form
trenerin would clash with the present tense), future treneritha
"will recount", imperative trenaro "recount!", active participle
trenarel "recounting" (perfective trenóriel "having recounted"),
passive particle ?trenoren (plural trenorin) "recounted", gerund
trenared "recounting". Notice the absence of umlaut in the form
trenorin ("I recount" or the pl. form of the passive participle
"recounted"). We would probably not find trenerin, since the o of
trenorin may represent au (in turn derived from long á, a
lengthened version of the vowel of the stem NAR2;
trenor may reflect a primitive past tense *trenâr-).
In the entry MBAKH in the Etymologies (LR:372), we read:
"Q[uenya] manka- trade; makar tradesman, mankale commerce.
N[oldorin] banc, banga." What are we to make of this?
Banga- is surely the "Noldorin" > Sindarin word corresponding to
Quenya manka-, hence the verb "to trade". But what does banc mean?
If banc is a form of banga-, it would most likely be an irregular
3rd person past tense: "(He/she) traded" (instead of regular bangant).
Again assuming that the example hennin "I hurled" can be trusted, we
would have bengi- before endings, e.g. bengin "I traded",
bengir "(they) traded" etc. The passive participle would also be
bangen (pl. bengin) rather than bangannen (pl.
bengennin). But I will not rule out the possibility that banc is
not intended as a form of the verb banga- at all; it could be a
noun "trade", corresponding to (but not an exact cognate of) Quenya
mankale.
...a primitive past tense, marked as such by the 'augment' or reduplicated base-vowel, and the long stem-vowel. Past tenses of this form were usual in Sindarin 'strong' or primary verbs: as *akâra 'made, did' > S agor.The new rules for the derivation of the past tense of primary verbs are quite easily reconstructed: The vowel occurring in the verb is prefixed, but in the verbal stem itself, a, e, o are altered to o, i, u, respectively (representing the "long stem-vowel" â, ê, ô, since the quality of such long vowels were changed in Old Sindarin). The vowel i would not change. The initial consonant would undergo soft mutation when a vowel is prefixed to it, p > b, t > d, c > g (hence agor from car-), b > v, d > dh, g > zero, m > v, s > h. (The consonants f, th would be unchanged.)
ped- "speak" > ebid "spoke"Of course, this would contradict the earlier system glimpsed in the Etymologies, where, for instance, the past tense of gwedh- is explicitly given as gwend (or later gwedhant) instead of ewidh. Etym also has sunc and sogant rather than ohug for "drank". Moreover, pent instead of ebid for "spoke, said" is attested outside the Etymologies. We must await the publication of more material before we can determine to what extent Tolkien carried out this revision - whether this was really intended to be the new way of deriving the past tenses of primary verbs, fully obsoleting the earlier system that we have tried to reconstruct above. For the moment, I would accept agor as the past tense of car- "make, do", but otherwise largely continue using the "classical" system. Perhaps Tolkien's wording - that agor-type past tenses were "usual" rather than universal - implies that one could to some extent chose which way to form the past tense (it is clear from several texts that Tolkien imagined that there were many varieties and dialects of Sindarin). We may let car- "do" go like this: Infinitive ceri, present tense: 3 sg. câr "(he, she, it) does", with endings ceri- (cerin "I do", cerim "we do" etc.), irregular past tense agor "did" (before endings agore-, e.g. agoren "I did"), future ceritha "will do", imperative caro "do!", active participle carel "doing", perfective participle córiel "having done", passive participle coren (or carnen?) "done", gerund cared "doing".
tir- "watch" > idir "watched"
car- "do" > agor "made"
bad- "go" > avod "went"
dar- "halt" > adhor "halted"
gwedh- "bind" > ewidh (= e'widh) "bound".
mad- "eat" > avod "ate" (same as the pa.t. of bad-!)
nor- "run" > onur "ran"
sog- "drink" > ohug "drank"
fir- "die" > ifir "died"
Tolkien's notes seem less than consistent. The verb osgar- "cut
around, amputate" includes the prefixed element os- "around". The
infinitive esgeri, listed in LR:379 s.v. OS, shows umlaut
throughout the word (not *osgeri, the prefix being exempted from umlaut).
On the other hand, the verb orthor- "master, conquer" (literally
"over-power", with or- meaning "over") shows no umlaut in the infinitive,
which is listed in LR:395 s.v. TUR as ortheri. If esgeri
from osgar-, why not *ertheri from orthor-? Alternatively,
if ortheri from orthor, why not *osgeri from
osgar-?
Perhaps this is to some extent optional. WJ:379, dealing with noun plurals, suggests that the "affection" or umlaut was originally carried through the word, so that a compound like orodben "mountaineer" in older times had the plural oerydbin (= örydbin, classical Sindarin erydbin). But later, to the extent this word was recognized as a compound orod-ben "mountain-person", only the second element was umlauted in the plural: orodbin. So perhaps esgeri "to amputate" later became *osgeri instead, and perhaps ortheri represents earlier *ertheri.
Here are some verbs with prefixes and suggested conjugations.
With the prefix go- "together":
(Notice that in the latter verb, go- appears in umlauted form in all forms except the perfective participle gonúdiel "having reckoned". The closely related verbs gonod- and genedia- would have identical perfective participles.)govad- "meet, come together", infinitive gevedi, present tense gevedi- (add the appropriate ending, except in the 3rd person singular, that is govad), past tense gevenni- (3 sg govant), future geveditha, imperative govado, participle govadel (perfective govódiel), past participle govannen, gerund govaded
gonathra- "entangle, enmesh", inf. gonathro, pr.t. gonathra, pa.t. gonathranne- (3 sg gonathrant), fut. gonathratha, imp. gonathro, part. gonathrol (perfective genethriel), pp. gonathrannen (pl. genethrennin), ger. gonathrad
gonod- "count up, reckon, sum up", inf. genedi, pr.t. genedi- (3 sg gonod), pa.t. genenni- (3 sg gonont), fut. geneditha, imp. gonodo, part. gonodel (perfective gonúdiel), pp. gononnen, ger. gonoded
genedia- "reckon", inf. genedio, pr.t. genedia, pa.t. genedianne- (3 sg genediant), fut. genediatha, imp. genedio, part. genediol (perfective gonúdiel), pp. genediannen (pl. genediennin), ger. genediad
This group of verbs incorporating the prefixes ad- "re-" and
an- "to" would probably not change them to ed- or
en- where umlauts may be thought to occur, though we have no clear
examples:
With the prefix os- "around":adertha- "reunite", inf. adertho, pr.t. adertha, pa.t. aderthanne- (3 sg aderthant), fut. aderthatha, imp. adertho, part. aderthol (perfective aderthiel rather than ?ederthiel), pp. aderthannen (pl. aderthennin rather than ?ederthennin), ger. aderthad
anglenna- "approach", inf. anglenno, pr.t. anglenna, pa.t. anglenne- (3 sg anglennant), fut. anglennatha, imp. anglenno, part. anglennol (perfective anglenniel (rather than ?englenniel), pp. anglennen (pl. anglennin rather than ?englennin), ger. anglennad
aníra- "desire", inf. aníro, pr.t. aníra, pa.t. anirne- (3 sg anirn), fut. aníratha, imp. aníro, part. anírol (perfective aníriel rather than ?eníriel?), pp. anirnen (pl. anirnin rather than ?enirnin), ger. anírad
osgar- "cut round, amputate", inf. esgeri, pr.t. esgeri- (3 sg osgar), pa.t. esgerni- (3 sg osgarn), fut. esgeritha, imp. osgaro, part. osgarel (perfective osgóriel), pp. osgarnen (pl. esgernin), ger. osgaredA long, clearly independent prefix like palan- "far and wide" may not show any umlauts:
palan-dir- "view far and wide", inf. palan-diri, pr.t. palan-diri- (3 sg palan-dir), pa.t. palan-dirni- (3 sg palan-dirn), fut. palan-diritha, imp. palan-diro, part. palan-diriel (perfective palan-díriel - hardly ?pelen-díriel), pp. palan-dirnen (pl. palan-dirnin, hardly ?pelen-dirnin), ger. palan-dired
Attested Sindarin pronouns include:
1st person sg: Independent pronoun im "I", also the ending
-n; cf. also nin "me", genitive nín "my", also anim
"for myself" (evidently an "for" + im "I, *me") and enni
"to me".
2nd person sg: The ending -ch, assuming that
agorech does mean *"you did"; cf. also the reverential dative pronoun
le "to thee", said to be of Quenya origin (RGEO:73), and lín as
the genitive "thy, your".
3rd person sg: E "he", genitive
dîn "his" (this could probably also be spelt dín, cf. lín
"your" above). The word den in the Lord's Prayer translation may mean
"it" as object; if so, it could likely cover "him" as well (and then dîn
possibly covers "its" as well as "his", since the words are obviously
related).
1st person pl: Ending -m "we" (in avam "we
won't", WJ:371), evidently men and mín as independent pronoun "we"
or "us", also ammen "for us" or "of us" (for *an men; an
"for, to", men = "us"?). "Our, ours" is vín.
2nd person
pl: none found, unless -ch covers both sg. and pl. "you" (cf.
PM:45-46)
3rd person pl: hain "them" (prob. also subject
"they")
When added to a stem ending in -a, the pronominal ending -n "I" seems to change this vowel to -o; contrast avam "we won't" with avon "I won't" (WJ:371, ava = "won't"). Cf. also linnon "I sing" and linnathon "I will sing"; the stems are evidently linna and *linnatha, "sings" and "will sing" (hence *linnam "we sing", *linnach "you sing"?)
Though an independent word for "my" is given in UT:54 (nín), there also exists an ending -en that can express the same meaning. It is attested in the word lammen "my tongue" in Gandalf's invocation before the Gate of Moria (LotR1/II ch. 4; see RS:463 for translation). Compare the Quenya ending -nya "my". A second attestation of the corresponding Sindarin ending became available in July 2000, when a sentence including the word guren "my heart" was published in VT41:11, 15. Presumably Sindarin has other pronominal possessive endings as well, but only -en "my" has been published. Since Tolkien elsewhere uses independent pronouns for "my" and "his", it may be that he changed his mind back and forth as to whether Sindarin used endings or independent genitive pronouns.
In addition to the genitive pronoun dîn "his", the King's Letter also has în: The king wishes to greet mhellyn în phain, all his friends. Though în, like dîn, is translated "his" in English, it appears that this is actually a reflexive genitive pronoun, referring back to the subject of the sentence. In Sindarin there may be a distinction that is not regularly expressed in English. Two sentences like *i venn sunc haw în and *i venn sunc haw dîn would both translate as "the man drank his juice" in English, but the first means "the man drank his (own) juice", while the second means "the man drank his (someone else's) juice" (Norwegian mannen drakk saften sin vs. mannen drakk saften hans, if I may refer to my mothertongue).
Under the stem S- in the Etymologies, some "Noldorin" pronouns are listed, but whether they are valid in LotR-style Sindarin is not known: Ho, hon, hono "he", he, hen, hene "she"; ha, hana "it". The plurals are given as huin, hîn, hein, evidently meaning "they" referring to a group of men, women and things, respectively. Hein would later appear as hain because of regular sound-change; cf. the Moria Gate inscription: Im Narvi hain echant "I Narvi them [= the letters] made". Moreover, the "Noldorin" pronoun huin would appear as *hýn in (Third Age) Sindarin.
Important samples of Sindarin in LotR include:
Outside LotR, the most important source - indeed the longest Sindarin text we have, and the longest prose text in any Elvish tongue - is the King's Letter, a part of the Epilogue to LotR, that Tolkien later dropped. It was finally published in SD:128-9: Elessar Telcontar: Aragorn Arathornion Edhelharn, aran Gondor ar Hîr i Mbair Annui, anglennatha i Varanduiniant erin dolothen Ethuil, egor ben genediad Drannail erin Gwirith edwen. Ar e aníra ennas suilannad mhellyn în phain: edregol e aníra tírad i Cherdir Perhael (i sennui Panthael estathar aen) Condir i Drann, ar Meril bess dîn; ar Elanor, Meril, Glorfinniel, ar Eirien sellath dîn; ar Iorhael, Gelir, Cordof, ar Baravorn, ionnath dîn. A Pherhael ar am Meril suilad uin aran o Minas Tirith nelchaenen uin Echuir. (The names Elessar Telcontar are Quenya; the Sindarin translation of Elessar, Edhelharn [Elfstone], occurs in the text.) This translation is given in SD:128: "Aragorn Strider the Elfstone [but the Elvish text reads "Elessar Telcontar: Aragorn Arathornson Elfstone"], King of Gondor and Lord of the Westlands, will approach the Bridge of Baranduin on the eighth day of Spring, or in the Shire-reckoning the second day of April. And he desires to greet there all his friends. In especial he desires to see Master Samwise (who ought to be called Fullwise), Mayor of the Shire, and Rose his wife; and Elanor, Rose, Goldilocks, and Daisy his daughters; and Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Hamfast, his sons. To Samwise and Rose the King's greeting from Minas Tirith, the thirty-first day of the Stirring [not in the Elvish text:], being the twenty-third of February in their reckoning." The words in the parenthesis ("who ought to...") are omitted from the translation in SD:128, but cf. SD:126.
Other samples of Sindarin include: