Stress

The position of the 'accent' or stress is not marked, since in the Eldarin languages concerned its place is determined by the form of the word. In words of two syllables it falls in practically all cases on the first syllable. In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two (or more) consonants. Where the last syllable but one contains (as often) a short vowel followed by only one (or no) consonant, the stress falls on the syllable before it, the third from the end. Words of the last form are favoured in the Eldarin languages, especially Quenya. In the following examples the stressed vowel is marked by a capital letter:isIldur, Orome, erEssea, fEanor, ancAlima, elentAri; dEnethor, periAnnath, ecthElion, pelArgir, silIvren . Words of the typeelentAri 'star-queen' seldom occur in Quenya where the vowel ise, a, o , unless (as in this case) they are compounds; they are commoner with the vowelsi, u , asandUne 'sunset, west'. They do not occur in Sindarin except in compounds. Note that Sindarindh, th, ch are single consonants and represent single letters in the original scripts.

Note

In names drawn from other languages than Eldarin the same values for the letters are intended, where not specially described above, except in the case of Dwarvish. In Dwarvish, which did not possess the sounds represented above byth andch (kh),th andkh are aspirates, that ist ork followed by anh , more or less as inbackhand ,outhouse . Wherez occurs the sound intended is that of Englishz .gh in the Black Speech and Orcish represents a 'back spirant' (related tog asdh tod ); as inghash andagh . The 'outer' or Mannish names of the Dwarves have been given Northern forms, but the letter-values are those described. So also in the case of the personal and place-names of Rohan (where they have not been modernized), except that hereea andeo are diphthongs, which may be represented by theea of Englishbear , and theeo ofTheobald ;y is the modifiedu . The modernized forms are easily recognized and are intended to be pronounced as in English. They are mostly place-names: as Dunharrow (forDunharg ), except Shadowfax and Wormtongue.

II Writing

The scripts and letters used in the Third Age were all ultimately of Eldarin origin, and already at that time of great antiquity. They had reached the stage of full alphabetic development, but older modes in which only the consonants were denoted by full letters were still in use. The alphabets were of two main, and in origin independent kinds: theTengwar orTiw , here translated as 'letters'; and theCertar orCirth , translated as 'runes'. TheTengwar were devised for writing with brush or pen, and the squared forms of inscriptions were in their case derivative from the written forms. TheCertar were devised and mostly used only for scratched or incised inscriptions. TheTengwar were the more ancient; for they had been developed by the Noldor, the kindred of the Eldar most skilled in such matters, long before their exile. The oldest Eldarin letters, theTengwar of Rumil, were not used in Middle-earth. The later letters, theTengwar of Feanor, were largely a new invention, though they owed something to the letters of Rumil. They were brought to Middle-earth by the exiled Noldor, and so became known to the Edain and Numenoreans. In the Third Age their use had spread over much the same area as that in which the Common Speech was known. The Cirth were devised first in Beleriand by the Sindar, and were long used only for inscribing names and brief memorials upon wood or stone. To that origin they owe their angular shapes, very similar to the runes of our times, though they differed from these in details and were wholly different in arrangement. The Cirth in their older and simpler form spread eastward in the Second Age, and became known to many peoples, to Men and Dwarves, and even to Orcs, all of whom altered them to suit their purposes and according to their skill or lack of it. One such simple form was still used by the Men of Dale, and a similar one by the Rohirrim. But in Beleriand, before the end of the First Age, the Cirth, partly under the influence of the Tengwar of the Noldor, were rearranged and further developed. Their richest and most ordered form was known as the Alphabet of Daeron, since in Elvish tradition it was said to have been devised by Daeron, the minstrel and loremaster of King Thingol of Doriath. Among the Eldar the Alphabet of Daeron did not develop true cursive forms, since for writing the Elves adopted the Feanorian letters. The Elves of the West indeed for the most part gave up the use of runes altogether. In the country of Eregion, however, the Alphabet of Daeron was maintained in use and passed thence to Moria, where it became the alphabet most favoured by the Dwarves. It remained ever after in use among them and passed with them to the North. Hence in later times it was often calledAngerthas Moria or the Long Rune-rows of Moria. As with their speech the Dwarves made use of such scripts as were current and many wrote the Feanorian letters skilfully; but for their own tongue they adhered to the Cirth, and developed written pen-forms from them.

The Tengwar

I II III IV

1 11 2q 3a 4z

2 5 6 7 8

3 9 10 11 12

4 13 14 15 16

5 17 18 19 20

6 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28

29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36

(i) T he Fe Anorian Letters

The table shows, in formal book-hand shape, all the letters that were commonly used in the West-lands in the Third Age. The arrangement is the one most usual at the time, and the one in which the letters were then usually recited by name. This script was not in origin an 'alphabet', that is, a haphazard series of letters, each with an independent value of its own, recited in a traditional order that has no reference either to their shapes or to their functions. It was, rather, a system of consonantal signs, of similar shapes and style, which could be adapted at choice or convenience to represent the consonants of languages observed (or devised) by the Eldar. None of the letters had in itself a fixed value; but certain relations between them were gradually recognized. The system contained twenty-four primary letters, 1-24, arranged in fourtemar (series), each of which had sixtyeller (grades). There were also 'additional letters', of which 25-36 are examples. Of these 27 and 29 are the only strictly independent letters; the remainder are modifications of other letters. There was also a number oftehtar (signs) of varied uses. These do not appear in the table. Theprimary letters were each formed of atelco (stem) and aluva (bow). The forms seen in 1-4 were regarded as normal. The stem could be raised, as in 9-16; or reduced, as in 17-24. The bow could be open, as in Series I and III; or closed, as in II and IV; and in either case it could be doubled, as e.g. in 5-8. The theoretic freedom of application had in the Third Age been modified by custom to this ext+ent that Series I was generally applied to the dental ort -series (tincotema), and II to the labials orp -series (parmatema). The application of Series III and IV varied according to the requirements of different languages. In languages like the Westron, which made much use of consonants such as ourch, j, sh . Series III was usually applied to these; in which case Series IV was applied to the normalk -series (calmatema). In Quenya, which possessed besides thecalmatema both a palatal series (tyelpetema) and labialized series (quessetema), the palatals were represented by a Feanorian diacritic denoting 'followingy ' (usually two underposed dots), while Series IV was akw -series. Within these general applications the following relations were also commonly observed. The normal letters, Grade 1, were applied to the 'voiceless stops':t, p, k , etc. The doubling of the bow indicated the addition of 'voice': thus if 1, 2, 3, 4 =t, p, ch, k (ort, p, k, kw ), then 5, 6, 7, 8 =d, b, j, g (ord, b, g, gw ). The raising of the stem indicated the opening of the consonants to a 'spirant': thus assuming the above values for Grade 1, Grade 3 (9-12) =th, f, sh, ch (orth, f, kh, khw/hw ), and Grade 4 (13-16) =dh, v, zh, gh (ordh, v, gh, ghw/w ). The original Feanorian system also possessed a grade with extended stems, both above and below the line. These usually represented aspirated consonants (e.g.t+h, p+h, k+h ), but might represent other consonantal variations required. They were not needed in the languages of the Third Age that used this script; but the extended forms were much used as variants (more clearly distinguished from Grade 1) of Grades 3 and 4. Grade 5 (17-20) was usually applied to the nasal consonants: thus 17 and 18 were the most common signs forn andm . According to the principle observed above, Grade 6 should then have represented the voiceless nasals; but since such sounds (exemplified by Welshnh or ancient Englishhn ) were of very rare occurrence in the languages concerned, Grade 6 (21-24) was most often used for the weakest or 'semi-vocalic' consonants of each series. It consisted of the smallest and simplest shapes among the primary letters. Thus 21 was often used for a weak (untrilled)r , originally occurring in Quenya and regarded in the system of that language as the weakest consonant of thetincotema ; 22 was widely used forw ; where Series III was used as a palatal series 23 was commonly used as consonantaly . Since some of the consonants of Grade 4 tended to become weaker in pronunciation, and to approach or to merge with those of Grade 6 (as described above), many of the latter ceased to have a clear function in the Eldarin languages; and it was from these letters that the letters expressing vowels were largely derived.