Author's Notes: This chapter explains the Nandorin history and language that serves as background for this story. The major external sources I have used come from the work of Helge Fauskanger (Ardalambion) and Ryszard Derdzinski (Fellowship of the Wordsmiths) regarding Nandorin, Common Eldarin and reconstruction of Elvish pronouns. The URLs for these sites may be found on the homepage listed under my ff.net profile.
Some of what appears in this Appendix has been stated in previous chapters - I just wanted to put it all together in one place.
Disclaimer: All languages herein referenced (er, with the exception of English - I think) belong to Tolkien.
Appendix II: Nandorin Etymology
The History: The language of the Nandor came originally from the tongue that developed among Lenwë's people in Eryn Galen after they left the Great March. Already the Teleri had begun to develop a language distinct from Common Eldarin (the root language of all elves) and from what would become Quenya among the Vanyar and Noldor. Common Telerin later spawned Old Sindarin in Beleriand and Telerin among Olwë's people in Aman. Old Sindarin broke up into Northern Sindarin (aka Ilkorin or Mithrim), Doriathrin and Falathrin (said to be both linguistically close to Ilkorin and also more ancient - it may have been more similar to Old Sindarin). The Exiles brought Quenya into the mix, and after the dust of the First Age settled, something akin to mature (Quenya-influenced) Sindarin (aka Imladris Sindarin) had developed. However, Círdan's folk apparently continued to speak a more ancient dialect (1) and Doriathrin may have survived among Oropher's people until the War of the Last Alliance. (2)
Meanwhile, some of Lenwë's people came to Ossiriand, speaking the Nandorin tongue. Among Denethor's folk, Nandorin probably survived in only a few words by the end of the First Age. Those who went into Doriath likely learned the Doriathrin dialect, and those who remained in the wilds of Ossiriand may have been influenced by Northern Sindarin, the language used by the sons of Fëanor. Nandorin was not a dead language, however, as it was still spoken in Eryn Galen. In Lórien, due to the many Noldor who entered the land after the fall of Eregion, the Silvan tongue remained only in an accent and perhaps a few words (mistakenly thought by Frodo to be a different language). In Thranduil's realm, however, it was still spoken late in the Third Age. Legolas almost certainly spoke this language, (3) but Imladris Sindarin was his birth tongue. (4)
The Sources: Most of our information regarding Nandorin comes from the Etymologies (circa 1938) in The Lost Road. Here, the language is called 'Danian'. Tolkien's later works, however, do not always agree with the phonology and grammar of Danian. From 1959 we have The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar', which changed plural formation and the fate of the kw consonant cluster. A few words come from Unfinished Tales, 'The History of Galadriel and Celeborn', giving us a hint to a possible genitive case and further revising the phonology (the date is possibly 1969, though it is difficult to determine from Christopher Tolkien's commentary; this work is, however, certainly late in J.R.R.'s career). Finally, a Letter from 1958 offers the word lêg from laika in explanation of the first part of 'Legolas' (the second part is there said to be derived from Sindarin).
Tolkien's changes are not so difficult to reconcile, if we suppose that what Pengolodh collected in the Etymologies represented the Nandor who came to Arvernien at the end of the First Age. By this point, Nandorin would have undergone some change, influenced by Doriathrin and Northern Sindarin, and would no longer be the 'pure' tongue of Lenwë's people. Likewise, the language of the Silvan Elves in the late Second Age and Third Age would also have been somewhat altered by the language of the King.
Umlauts in Nandorin: Umlaut causes vowels to change so that they are more like one another - briefly, in i-umlaut, back vowels become neutral or front vowels, whereas in a-umlaut, the opposite occurs. For English-speaking readers, this is best understood in terms of some of our irregular plurals and verbs. 'Foot' becomes 'feet' due to a now-lost plural vowel that changed oo to ee, for example.
i-umlaut: Our only example of 'Danian' plurals comes from urc/yrc, which would be identical to mature Sindarin plural formation. Evidently, when Tolkien later revised his languages, deciding that Sindarin developed in Beleriand and that Ilkorin and Doriathrin were dialects of Sindarin, he realized that the plural of mature Sindarin would not come from a language nearly dead (in Beleriand, at least) by the end of the First Age. In The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar', Tolkien introduced a new plural formation to what he now called Nandorin - and probably did away with the i-umlaut, as well. This text offers Penni from Eldarin kwende as the name Lenwë's people took for themselves. Obviously, the plural is now formed with an -i; moreover, if i-umlaut still held true, the plural would be pinni (or perhaps pindi, since i did not trigger the conversion of nd to nn). We might imagine that the i-umlaut spread among some of the Laiquendi who did not go into Doriath. These elves probably had contact with the Fëanorians and thus Northern Sindarin, from which the i-umlaut of mature Sindarin probably developed.
a-umlaut: a-umlaut causes preceding i to become e and u to become o. It is also seen in Doriathrin and mature Sindarin. We have no evidence that Tolkien later repudiated this vowel shift as he did i-umlaut, but the internal history would support its existence. It probably did not exist in the pure Silvan of Lenwë's people, but was assimilated into Nandorin by the Green Elves of Doriath (it is not seen in Old Sindarin or Telerin, and so cannot have been part of Common Telerin). It should be noted that Doriathrin and Nandorin had a feature not apparent in mature Sindarin - a-umlaut apparently did not affect vowels followed by a nasal consonant (n or m).
The Corpus: The following are the words to which I've referred in the last chapter as a basis for sound changes in Nandorin. For this, I am indebted to Helge Fauskanger for his Nandorin glossary, though in a few cases I disagree with the Eldarin source word, largely due to punctuation that sets some words in the Etymologies apart. Thus, I have also found his very detailed work on Primitive Elvish to be of great use, as it offers a few Eldarin words not found in the Etymologies (or later corrected by Tolkien), as well as many of the suffixes corresponding to parts of speech. Punctuation in the Etymologies is quite important: parentheses might be used to isolate a particular form, semi-colons usually show how Tolkien's various languages rendered one preceding Eldarin form, and a full stop generally sets a word apart from that preceding form. It should be noted that Christopher Tolkien had a fairly difficult task in transcribing the Etymologies in all their corrected forms. A missed full stop would not be held against him, but should be considered possible, nonetheless.
lygn (pale) from CE lugni: This is an example of the i-umlaut later rejected; it would probably come out as lugn according to Tolkien's later conception. It is useful, however, as it is our sole example of the fate of a final short -i - evidently, it drops off. This also tells us that Tolkien did not envision a special adjectival ending for Nandorin (which is also true in Sindarin).
Utum (Utumno) from CE Utubnu: In CE this probably became Utunbu and then Utumbu, given other words from the original Eldarin. We see here that medially, short u remained short u (except in the case of a-umlaut), that an unvoiced spirant between two vowels remained so, and that the nasal cluster mb became m in Nandorin (probably seen also in Nimrodel). Final short -u evidently drops off.
cogn (bow-shaped, bent) from CE ku3ná: This word is actually glossed as coming from another CE derivation, kogna, that also gave rise to the Ilkorin forms of the word. Here, the shift from the back-spirant 3 to g has already occurred, as has the a-umlaut of u to o (though a-umlaut did not occur in Ilkorin). Long final -á had already become short -a, which then drops off in Nandorin.
Golda (Noldo) from CE ngolodó: The source for the CE form is The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar'. Here we see that the nasal cluster ng becomes g in Nandorin, and final -ó becomes -a. We also have evidence of syncope of the second consonant, a common feature of Eldarin languages. When two identical vowels appeared in consecutive syllables, one, usually the second (unaccented) vowel would often drop out.
dunna (black) from CE dunná: The CE form is not attested, but must end in a long -á, as short -a must have remained in Old Sindarin in order to produce the a-umlaut apparent in mature Sindarin (donn). u does not become o in the Nandorin word, I assume, because in Doriathrin-style a-umlaut, vowels before a nasal were unaffected (this is apparent in the Doriathrin version of the same Eldarin word: dunn).
spenna (white) from CE spanjá: Helge Fauskanger notes that Telerin spania could not come from CE spána, the only Eldarin form given by Tolkien. The entry for SPAN is rather convoluted, but two sets of words are given for Quenya and Noldorin, the first meaning 'white', the second 'cloud'. After the Noldorin word for cloud, spána appears in parentheses, followed by a semi-colon and the Telerin and Danian forms. I would guess that spána is given as the CE origin of Noldorin faun, 'cloud', rather than as the source of the next two words. Something like spanjá must also be the source of the Quenya word for 'white', so we can suppose that words derived from spanjá (which, in any case, has an adjectival ending) mean 'white' and those from spána mean 'cloud'. Moreover, spanjá could yield Danian spenna: the j first becomes i, causing the a to umlaut to e (i-umlaut) and then is evidently lost (this is the only clue we have as to the behavior of j in Nandorin). spána, however, would likely yield Nandorin span. In spenna, we see the doubling of n after e and conversion of final -á to -a, and the conservation of CE sp (all other Eldarin languages, with the exception of Telerin, produced f from this consonant cluster). With Tolkien's later rejection of i-umlaut, the word would likely come out as spana.
snoe^s (spear-head, point, gore) from CE snasté: This may be a case, attested in Danian edel (from eled, originally) of transposition - here, final -é and s switch places. It appears that t - perhaps all unvoiced spirants - is lost before a consonant (tt seems to be the exception), while ae apparently renders oe^ in Nandorin. Nandorin is unique is preserving the sn- initial cluster. It should be noted that the Quenya word glossed under SNAS/SNAT is probably related to the Quenya verb nasta- under NAS.
hrassa (precipice) from CE khrassé: The consonant cluster kh becomes h in Nandorin (perhaps another case of an unvoiced spirant being lost before a consonant), and final long -é becomes -a.
meord (fine rain) from CE mízdé: This may be another case of transposition, though slightly different from edel and snoe^s. z becomes r, and final -é must become -a before the transition. The entire cluster of rd switches places with a, and the a causes í to umlaut to e; a evidently becomes o in this case, as it does in snoe^s. a is also seen to render o in lóra (isolated from Lórinand), derived from CE lauré.
Denweg (Lenwë; lithe and active) from CE dene + wego: This word does little but confirm the loss of short final vowels, already seen in lygn, Utum and cogn. Both the word and its CE roots come from The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar'.
Lindi (Nandor, lit. 'Singers') from CE lindá: One would expect the Nandorin singular to be Linda, as final -á usually becomes -a. Unlike Telerin, which appended the plural ending -i to any ending already present, Nandorin apparently replaced a final vowel with -i.
Some of what appears in this Appendix has been stated in previous chapters - I just wanted to put it all together in one place.
Disclaimer: All languages herein referenced (er, with the exception of English - I think) belong to Tolkien.
Appendix II: Nandorin Etymology
The History: The language of the Nandor came originally from the tongue that developed among Lenwë's people in Eryn Galen after they left the Great March. Already the Teleri had begun to develop a language distinct from Common Eldarin (the root language of all elves) and from what would become Quenya among the Vanyar and Noldor. Common Telerin later spawned Old Sindarin in Beleriand and Telerin among Olwë's people in Aman. Old Sindarin broke up into Northern Sindarin (aka Ilkorin or Mithrim), Doriathrin and Falathrin (said to be both linguistically close to Ilkorin and also more ancient - it may have been more similar to Old Sindarin). The Exiles brought Quenya into the mix, and after the dust of the First Age settled, something akin to mature (Quenya-influenced) Sindarin (aka Imladris Sindarin) had developed. However, Círdan's folk apparently continued to speak a more ancient dialect (1) and Doriathrin may have survived among Oropher's people until the War of the Last Alliance. (2)
Meanwhile, some of Lenwë's people came to Ossiriand, speaking the Nandorin tongue. Among Denethor's folk, Nandorin probably survived in only a few words by the end of the First Age. Those who went into Doriath likely learned the Doriathrin dialect, and those who remained in the wilds of Ossiriand may have been influenced by Northern Sindarin, the language used by the sons of Fëanor. Nandorin was not a dead language, however, as it was still spoken in Eryn Galen. In Lórien, due to the many Noldor who entered the land after the fall of Eregion, the Silvan tongue remained only in an accent and perhaps a few words (mistakenly thought by Frodo to be a different language). In Thranduil's realm, however, it was still spoken late in the Third Age. Legolas almost certainly spoke this language, (3) but Imladris Sindarin was his birth tongue. (4)
The Sources: Most of our information regarding Nandorin comes from the Etymologies (circa 1938) in The Lost Road. Here, the language is called 'Danian'. Tolkien's later works, however, do not always agree with the phonology and grammar of Danian. From 1959 we have The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar', which changed plural formation and the fate of the kw consonant cluster. A few words come from Unfinished Tales, 'The History of Galadriel and Celeborn', giving us a hint to a possible genitive case and further revising the phonology (the date is possibly 1969, though it is difficult to determine from Christopher Tolkien's commentary; this work is, however, certainly late in J.R.R.'s career). Finally, a Letter from 1958 offers the word lêg from laika in explanation of the first part of 'Legolas' (the second part is there said to be derived from Sindarin).
Tolkien's changes are not so difficult to reconcile, if we suppose that what Pengolodh collected in the Etymologies represented the Nandor who came to Arvernien at the end of the First Age. By this point, Nandorin would have undergone some change, influenced by Doriathrin and Northern Sindarin, and would no longer be the 'pure' tongue of Lenwë's people. Likewise, the language of the Silvan Elves in the late Second Age and Third Age would also have been somewhat altered by the language of the King.
Umlauts in Nandorin: Umlaut causes vowels to change so that they are more like one another - briefly, in i-umlaut, back vowels become neutral or front vowels, whereas in a-umlaut, the opposite occurs. For English-speaking readers, this is best understood in terms of some of our irregular plurals and verbs. 'Foot' becomes 'feet' due to a now-lost plural vowel that changed oo to ee, for example.
i-umlaut: Our only example of 'Danian' plurals comes from urc/yrc, which would be identical to mature Sindarin plural formation. Evidently, when Tolkien later revised his languages, deciding that Sindarin developed in Beleriand and that Ilkorin and Doriathrin were dialects of Sindarin, he realized that the plural of mature Sindarin would not come from a language nearly dead (in Beleriand, at least) by the end of the First Age. In The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar', Tolkien introduced a new plural formation to what he now called Nandorin - and probably did away with the i-umlaut, as well. This text offers Penni from Eldarin kwende as the name Lenwë's people took for themselves. Obviously, the plural is now formed with an -i; moreover, if i-umlaut still held true, the plural would be pinni (or perhaps pindi, since i did not trigger the conversion of nd to nn). We might imagine that the i-umlaut spread among some of the Laiquendi who did not go into Doriath. These elves probably had contact with the Fëanorians and thus Northern Sindarin, from which the i-umlaut of mature Sindarin probably developed.
a-umlaut: a-umlaut causes preceding i to become e and u to become o. It is also seen in Doriathrin and mature Sindarin. We have no evidence that Tolkien later repudiated this vowel shift as he did i-umlaut, but the internal history would support its existence. It probably did not exist in the pure Silvan of Lenwë's people, but was assimilated into Nandorin by the Green Elves of Doriath (it is not seen in Old Sindarin or Telerin, and so cannot have been part of Common Telerin). It should be noted that Doriathrin and Nandorin had a feature not apparent in mature Sindarin - a-umlaut apparently did not affect vowels followed by a nasal consonant (n or m).
The Corpus: The following are the words to which I've referred in the last chapter as a basis for sound changes in Nandorin. For this, I am indebted to Helge Fauskanger for his Nandorin glossary, though in a few cases I disagree with the Eldarin source word, largely due to punctuation that sets some words in the Etymologies apart. Thus, I have also found his very detailed work on Primitive Elvish to be of great use, as it offers a few Eldarin words not found in the Etymologies (or later corrected by Tolkien), as well as many of the suffixes corresponding to parts of speech. Punctuation in the Etymologies is quite important: parentheses might be used to isolate a particular form, semi-colons usually show how Tolkien's various languages rendered one preceding Eldarin form, and a full stop generally sets a word apart from that preceding form. It should be noted that Christopher Tolkien had a fairly difficult task in transcribing the Etymologies in all their corrected forms. A missed full stop would not be held against him, but should be considered possible, nonetheless.
lygn (pale) from CE lugni: This is an example of the i-umlaut later rejected; it would probably come out as lugn according to Tolkien's later conception. It is useful, however, as it is our sole example of the fate of a final short -i - evidently, it drops off. This also tells us that Tolkien did not envision a special adjectival ending for Nandorin (which is also true in Sindarin).
Utum (Utumno) from CE Utubnu: In CE this probably became Utunbu and then Utumbu, given other words from the original Eldarin. We see here that medially, short u remained short u (except in the case of a-umlaut), that an unvoiced spirant between two vowels remained so, and that the nasal cluster mb became m in Nandorin (probably seen also in Nimrodel). Final short -u evidently drops off.
cogn (bow-shaped, bent) from CE ku3ná: This word is actually glossed as coming from another CE derivation, kogna, that also gave rise to the Ilkorin forms of the word. Here, the shift from the back-spirant 3 to g has already occurred, as has the a-umlaut of u to o (though a-umlaut did not occur in Ilkorin). Long final -á had already become short -a, which then drops off in Nandorin.
Golda (Noldo) from CE ngolodó: The source for the CE form is The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar'. Here we see that the nasal cluster ng becomes g in Nandorin, and final -ó becomes -a. We also have evidence of syncope of the second consonant, a common feature of Eldarin languages. When two identical vowels appeared in consecutive syllables, one, usually the second (unaccented) vowel would often drop out.
dunna (black) from CE dunná: The CE form is not attested, but must end in a long -á, as short -a must have remained in Old Sindarin in order to produce the a-umlaut apparent in mature Sindarin (donn). u does not become o in the Nandorin word, I assume, because in Doriathrin-style a-umlaut, vowels before a nasal were unaffected (this is apparent in the Doriathrin version of the same Eldarin word: dunn).
spenna (white) from CE spanjá: Helge Fauskanger notes that Telerin spania could not come from CE spána, the only Eldarin form given by Tolkien. The entry for SPAN is rather convoluted, but two sets of words are given for Quenya and Noldorin, the first meaning 'white', the second 'cloud'. After the Noldorin word for cloud, spána appears in parentheses, followed by a semi-colon and the Telerin and Danian forms. I would guess that spána is given as the CE origin of Noldorin faun, 'cloud', rather than as the source of the next two words. Something like spanjá must also be the source of the Quenya word for 'white', so we can suppose that words derived from spanjá (which, in any case, has an adjectival ending) mean 'white' and those from spána mean 'cloud'. Moreover, spanjá could yield Danian spenna: the j first becomes i, causing the a to umlaut to e (i-umlaut) and then is evidently lost (this is the only clue we have as to the behavior of j in Nandorin). spána, however, would likely yield Nandorin span. In spenna, we see the doubling of n after e and conversion of final -á to -a, and the conservation of CE sp (all other Eldarin languages, with the exception of Telerin, produced f from this consonant cluster). With Tolkien's later rejection of i-umlaut, the word would likely come out as spana.
snoe^s (spear-head, point, gore) from CE snasté: This may be a case, attested in Danian edel (from eled, originally) of transposition - here, final -é and s switch places. It appears that t - perhaps all unvoiced spirants - is lost before a consonant (tt seems to be the exception), while ae apparently renders oe^ in Nandorin. Nandorin is unique is preserving the sn- initial cluster. It should be noted that the Quenya word glossed under SNAS/SNAT is probably related to the Quenya verb nasta- under NAS.
hrassa (precipice) from CE khrassé: The consonant cluster kh becomes h in Nandorin (perhaps another case of an unvoiced spirant being lost before a consonant), and final long -é becomes -a.
meord (fine rain) from CE mízdé: This may be another case of transposition, though slightly different from edel and snoe^s. z becomes r, and final -é must become -a before the transition. The entire cluster of rd switches places with a, and the a causes í to umlaut to e; a evidently becomes o in this case, as it does in snoe^s. a is also seen to render o in lóra (isolated from Lórinand), derived from CE lauré.
Denweg (Lenwë; lithe and active) from CE dene + wego: This word does little but confirm the loss of short final vowels, already seen in lygn, Utum and cogn. Both the word and its CE roots come from The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar'.
Lindi (Nandor, lit. 'Singers') from CE lindá: One would expect the Nandorin singular to be Linda, as final -á usually becomes -a. Unlike Telerin, which appended the plural ending -i to any ending already present, Nandorin apparently replaced a final vowel with -i.
- (1)'Círdan's folk apparently continued to speak a more ancient dialect'
- "Círdan and his people…remained in many ways a separate folk, speaking even in later days a more archaic language." (ref. The Peoples of Middle-Earth, 'Last Writings' pp 385-386 pub. Houghton Mifflin)
- (2)'Doriathrin may have survived among Oropher's people until the War of the Last Alliance'
- Nowhere does Tolkien suggest this, but I think it rather probable. Mature Sindarin is linguistically closest to Northern Sindarin, a language Thingol associated with the Fëanorians and which was as reviled in Doriath as Quenya. (ref. The Peoples of Middle-Earth, 'The Problem of Ros' p 372 pub. Houghton Mifflin) Quenya also influenced mature Sindarin, and no good Golodh-hating son of Doriath would adopt a language he probably associated with the Noldor. Moreover, Oropher's isolation from the Sindar and Noldor of Lindon would tend to preserve the Doriathrin dialect; most of those who went with him to Eryn Galen were probably Sindar or Nandor of Doriath. However, it is evident that by the late Third Age, not only did Thranduil's house speak Sindarin, but apparently had no problem with Quenya (see below). The war would be the likely catalyst for change - not only was Oropher killed in the war, but it would have brought the elves of Eryn Galen into contact with elves of Lindon and Imladris.
- (3)'Legolas almost certainly spoke this language'
- 'it is a fair song in our woodland tongue' (ref. LOTR p 330 pub. Houghton Mifflin)
- (4)'Imladris Sindarin was his birth tongue'
- "'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue." (Ibid p 377); 'In Eressëa, in Elvenhome' (ref. p 935). There is a Sindarin word for Eressëa, but evidently, any feeling his grandfather had against the language has not been passed on. He also uses Sauron rather than Gorthaur. Other sources: "Thranduil father of Legolas of the Nine Walkers was Sindarin, and that tongue was used in his house, though not by all his folk." (ref. Unfinished Tales, 'The History of Galadriel and Celeborn' p 269 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey); "The Silvan Elves of Thranduil's realm did not speak S. [Sindarin] but a related language or dialect." (ref. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 'Letter 347' p 425 pub. Houghton Mifflin)