Common Eldarin
Encyclopedia
Common Eldarin, or simply Eldarin, is a constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...

 devised by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

. It is one of the many fictional language
Fictional language
Fictional languages are by far the largest group of artistic languages. Fictional languages are intended to be the languages of a fictional world and are often designed with the intent of giving more depth and an appearance of plausibility to the fictional worlds with which they are associated, and...

 set in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....

.

Common Eldarin is a tongue spoken by Elves called Eldar
Eldar
Eldar is both a Hebrew first/last name meaning "god resides" and a rare Norse first name meaning "Warrior who fights with fire" Eld=fire. It is also a Muslim name meaning 'ruler' in the Persian language. Its also the word for 'fires' in the Icelandic, Swedish and Norwegian language...

 or the West-Elves. Common Eldarin evolved directly from the original speech of all Elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...

, Primitive Quendian
Primitive Quendian
Primitive Quendian is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is one of the many fictional language set in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth....

 (called Quenderin in Quenya
Quenya
Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...

). It was the language of all the Eldar – those Elves who decided to undertake the Great March to Valinor
Valinor
Valinor is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the realm of the Valar in Aman. It was also known as the Undying Lands, along with Tol Eressëa and the outliers of Aman. This is something of a misnomer; only immortal beings were allowed to reside there, but the land itself,...

 – before their divisions.

Consonants

The following table shows the consonant phonemes found in Common Eldarin according to the "Outline of Phonology". The Quenya linguistic terms are taken from another work by Tolkien: "The Tengwesta Qenderinwa". These were invented, according to Tolkien, by the Elf Rúmil.
English Quenya Parmatéma Tincotéma Calmatéma
Voiceless stops Puntar alómear ‹p› ‹t› ‹k›
Aspirated stops Puntar alómea na-súrimar ‹ph› ph ‹th› th ‹kh› kh
Voiced stops Puntar ómaisi ‹b› ‹d› ‹g›
Nasal continuants Vórear nengwear ‹m› ‹n› ‹ñ› ŋ
Oral continuants Vórear milyar ‹w› ‹l›, ‹r› ‹j›
Spirant continuants Vórear suryar ‹s› ‹h›


The spirant s was naturally voiceless in Common Eldarin, and tended to unvoice preceding consonants, including nasals. It was voiced to z before the voiced consonants: b, d, g, m, n. This voicing was merely contextual and z did not occur as a separate word-building element; z was an allophone
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...

 of s.

The Vowels

According to Tolkien the original Quenderin vowels had acquired the following qualities and system in the Common Eldarin period before it diverged into the later dialects, i.e. as it was during the Great March of the Eldar.

Monophthongs

Common Eldarin had 12 monophthongs : a, e, i, o, u ; ē, ệ, ā, ō, ộ, ū.

Diphthongs

In Common Eldarin the diphthongs could be either primary or secondary.

The primary diphthongs were two: ai and au.

There were 8 secondary diphthongs: ei, ai, oi, ui; ou, au, eu, iu.

Reduced vowels

Common Eldarin had also "reduced vowels": a shwa ə and 5 syllabic continuants: ļ, ŗ, ņ, ṃ, ñ.

These were not inherited from Quenderin but resulted from vocalic reduction, under accentual laws.

See also

  • Quenya
    Quenya
    Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves...

  • Sindarin
    Sindarin
    Sindarin is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his secondary world, often called Middle-earth.Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called the Eledhrim or Edhellim in Sindarin....

  • Calendar of Imladris
  • Elvish languages (Middle-earth)
  • The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth
    The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth
    The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth is a book on the languages of Middle-earth by Ruth S. Noel. The first edition, entitled The Languages of Middle-earth, was published in 1974 by Mirage Press, Baltimore. The revised version was published in 1980 by Houghton Mifflin. Ruth S...

     (book)
  • Sarati
    Sarati
    Sarati is an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien. According to Tolkien's mythology, the Sarati alphabet was invented by the Elf Rúmil of Tirion.- External history :...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK