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 won't be covering the Gondorian's pronunciation changes, because their version of Sindarin doesn't help us figure out how the sounds came to be. Instead, we'll be studying it from the perspective of the Sindar. Up until now, we've been studying Sindarin from the perspective of the Noldor and the Gondorians, who speak Sindarin as a second language. This book shall focus more on the way that the original speakers of Sindarin developed their language.

Phones

We learned how to speak Sindarin in Part I. Now, we are going to go much deeper into the sounds we learned. To do this, we must look at the sounds in a different way: classified into groups, organized. This is the linguistic chart of all of the sounds, or "phones", in Sindarin.

Consonants

If you have no linguistics training yet, please refer back to the IPA Guide. It will teach you how to understand the linguistic charts.

Vowels

Diphthongs From the Front

Diphthongs From Behind

Phonemes and Allophones

The difference between phones and phonemes is that phonemes are the sounds that you think you are hearing/speaking, and phones are what the sounds actually are. Allophones are the sounds that you think are the same phoneme. So, a phoneme can have several allophones, and phonemes can share allophones. Take the English phonemes [t] and [d]. The English phoneme [t] has the allophones /t/, /d/, /ʔ/, and /ɾ/. Take the words "data", "letter", and "congratulations". We think that they're pronounced [detə], [lɛttəɹ], and [kangɹætjuleʃənz]; but they're actually pronounced /deɾə/, /lɛʔtəɹ/, and /kangɹædʤuleʃənz/. The phoneme [d] has the allophones /d/, /ʔ/, and /ɾ/. Take [skɪddɛd] versus /skɪʔdɛd/ and [hajdɪŋ] versus /hajɾɪŋ/.

This is important for learning how to write in the Elvish alphabet. Keep in mind: phonetic writing systems try to show the sounds that the speakers think they are saying/hearing, not what they actually are. Let's look at the charts of Sindarin phonemes.

Consonants

The only difference is the [l̡] is thought to be [l]. Why? It is a case of a phone acquiring a trait of another phone that is next to it. Note that the letters that make [l] (an alveolar consonant) become [l̡] (a palatal consonant) are unrounded front (palatal) vowels.

Vowels

[e] is thought to be [ɛ]. [e] only occurs in the diphthong [ej]. The [ɛ] becomes tense like the letter [i].