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Here I have listed some characteristics of the Elvish languages. This is not a complete list, but a sampling of some of the linguistic properties that Elvish has. I again am limited by what Tolkien has published. At times Tolkien has even contradicted his own rules in Elvish making it even more difficult for anyone to narrow down with accuracy what linguistic rules were intended for Elvish.
Phonetically speaking, Elvish is not significantly different when being compared to English. Elvish uses many of the same sounds as English, but Elvish excludes some sounds. Elvish does not have a “schwa” sound. That is the sound you hear in “again” that goes “uh”. There is no [z] sound in either Quenya or Sindarin. And there is no “ch”, “j”, “sh” or “zh” in either language. There is also no “th” like in “the” or “th” like in “thigh” in Quenya (Adams 81).
Quenya uses lots of continuants. These are consonants that are made when the vocal tract is only partly closed, allowing air to pass through. Some of these consonants include f, v, s, h, y, w, l, r, m, and n. Voiced stops, such as “b” are used primarily when try to close off continuants (Adams 82).
Sindarin uses lots of closed vowels, voiced plosives in any position of a word, and more fricatives than Quenya.
Elvish is a synthetic language. This is similar to many European languages such as French, English, and Spanish. The meaning of words can be adjusted by adding prefixes and suffixes. For example, endore- nna means “to middle earth”. The root word is “endore”, which means “middle earth”. “Nna” is used as a suffix to mean “to go to”. Suffixes may be used to indicate possessive pronouns. For example “Atari-nya” means “father-my”. Nya indicates possession of the word. Another example would be “hildi- nya-r”. This means “heir- my”. The “r” makes the word plurals. So, in translation, it would mean “my heirs” (Adams 85).
Some letters are associated with specific types of words. For example, “l” is used for words that indicate second person, plural suffixes, and participles such as “kindling” is “thoniel” (Adams 84).
Tolkien reused many root words in Elvish. Many words were just roots with new suffixes attached. In the book From Elvish to Klingon, Michael Adams gave an example of this reuse of root words. “For example, ORO- ‘up, rise, high’ appears in Quenya oromardi ‘high halls,’ ortane ‘lifted up’ and sindarin orod ‘mountain,’ orn ‘tree’”( Adams 88).
Phonetically speaking, Elvish is not significantly different when being compared to English. Elvish uses many of the same sounds as English, but Elvish excludes some sounds. Elvish does not have a “schwa” sound. That is the sound you hear in “again” that goes “uh”. There is no [z] sound in either Quenya or Sindarin. And there is no “ch”, “j”, “sh” or “zh” in either language. There is also no “th” like in “the” or “th” like in “thigh” in Quenya (Adams 81).
Quenya uses lots of continuants. These are consonants that are made when the vocal tract is only partly closed, allowing air to pass through. Some of these consonants include f, v, s, h, y, w, l, r, m, and n. Voiced stops, such as “b” are used primarily when try to close off continuants (Adams 82).
Sindarin uses lots of closed vowels, voiced plosives in any position of a word, and more fricatives than Quenya.
Elvish is a synthetic language. This is similar to many European languages such as French, English, and Spanish. The meaning of words can be adjusted by adding prefixes and suffixes. For example, endore- nna means “to middle earth”. The root word is “endore”, which means “middle earth”. “Nna” is used as a suffix to mean “to go to”. Suffixes may be used to indicate possessive pronouns. For example “Atari-nya” means “father-my”. Nya indicates possession of the word. Another example would be “hildi- nya-r”. This means “heir- my”. The “r” makes the word plurals. So, in translation, it would mean “my heirs” (Adams 85).
Some letters are associated with specific types of words. For example, “l” is used for words that indicate second person, plural suffixes, and participles such as “kindling” is “thoniel” (Adams 84).
Tolkien reused many root words in Elvish. Many words were just roots with new suffixes attached. In the book From Elvish to Klingon, Michael Adams gave an example of this reuse of root words. “For example, ORO- ‘up, rise, high’ appears in Quenya oromardi ‘high halls,’ ortane ‘lifted up’ and sindarin orod ‘mountain,’ orn ‘tree’”( Adams 88).