Introduction

Syllabus

Part I

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Part II

Chapter One

Back to Realelvish

We linguists like to say that Sindarin is a prodominately "Left-branching" language. That means that most of the time, the modifiers follow what they modify. This lesson shall describe for you the syntax, or word order, of Sindarin modifiers.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Sindarin are fairly easy to spot. Many of them have one of these adjective suffixes on them:

1. -en/-n Often a sign that the adjective is also a past participle; like the word "fallen" dannen.
2. -ol/-el Usually found on adjectives that are also present participles; like the word "sudden" bregol.
3. -ren/-len This suffix doubles as the suffix for the name of a language because of its connotation of something being "of" the noun it is attached to; like the word "elvish" edhellen.
4. -ui Most often found on nouns that have been turned into adjectives; like the word "one-handed" erchammui.

This is of course, not an absolute rule. I just wanted to point out that these are the most common endings to Sindarin adjectives; but there are a lot of exceptions, and some nouns will end in these letters as well. Thus Sindarin is very different in this respect from Quenya, for those of you who have studied Quenya before.

When an adjective is modifying a noun, it follows the noun. Adjectives become plural with their nouns. Possessive pronouns are treated like adjectives.

find + caran = find garan (red hair)
ceryn + glân = ceryn 'lain (white globes)
cair + nîn = cair nîn (my ship)

The word for "red" in Sindarin is caran; so why would it become garan when modifying find? It is because of an interesting invention of Tolkien's: grammatical mutation. Mutation, as it applies to consonants at the beginnings of words; is changing them to make them easier to say. Tolkien made specific rules governing which consonants change into which sounds; which you shall study in full later. I will provide the mutated words for your homework 'til then.

Adverbs

Unlike adjectives, there is no common suffix or marker to be found on Sindarin adverbs; except that some adjectives have become adverbs.

There are two types of adverbs. The first is the independant words. The follow the verbs they modify, and they are mutated; just like adjectives are.

gladho + lim = gladho lim (to laugh a lot)
edro + si = edro hi (to open now)

The second type of adverb is prefixed directly onto the verb. Once again, the Mutation rules are quite complex; so I will be sure to mutate the words you need beforehand.

palan- + tirio = palan-dirio (to watch from afar)
go- + linno = go-linno (to sing together)

Adverbs also modify adjectives. The adverb precedes the adjective it modifies. Unlike the other modifier/modify-ee combinations, nothing gets mutated.

edregol muin (especially dear)
mae govannen (well met)

Homework

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