Sindarin Lesson 1.
Lesson One.
Sindarin.
Sindarin was inspired by Welsh. It is an inflected language, meaning that verbs take different forms according to who is doing the action. It also has consonant mutation, which means that the first letter(s) of a word sometimes change. When you learn where and how they change, you will find that far easier than it sounds.
Some Suggestions.
When learning any language, it is helpful to immerse yourself in it as much as possible. With Sindarin, that is harder, but if you read it, speak it and listen to it as much as possible, you will find that you are soon accustomed to it. When you have done each lesson, try combining the words you have learned in other ways to get used to how the language works.
It helps to write down words and phrases in a notebook under headings such as "greetings" and "weather" etc. I will post several vocabulary lists, but a vocabulary notebook laid out in a way that makes sense to you is very helpful.
You should get a good Sindarin dictionary. The best is the Dragon Flame dictionary available as a free download from http://www.jrrvf.com/hisweloke/sindar/downloads.html It is a Windows application and is easy to use.
You will also need mutation charts. Here we will post lists of mutations, but a very good chart showing all of them (and also the changes for plurals) is available from Council of Elrond http://www.councilofelrond.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=EZCMS&file=index&page_id=4 Consonant mutations look scary, but you will soon get used to them.
At http://www.councilofelrond.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=EZCMS&file=index&page_id=3 you can also find verb conjugation charts
NEVER use Grelvish. Genuine Neo-Sindarin is based on what we know of the language, but Grelvish is meaningless gibberish. Anyone who speaks Sindarin will recognise Grelvish words and phrases and you will look foolish.
If you're learning alone, writing and speaking imaginary conversations in Sindarin will help. When I was teaching myself Italian, I wrote constantly about what I did all day in Italian. One useful way to learn a language is to imagine speaking it to an attractive native speaker. Imagine speaking to Finrod, Thranduil or Legolas, or, if you prefer, Galadriel, Melian or Arwen. Translating poetry is very helpful. Translate things whenever you get a chance.
If you're learning with a group, get together in a chat room, on MSN or in real life and talk to each other in Sindarin. You may at times be told it is impossible to use Sindarin for conversations. You will usually be told this by people who oppose all speculation about possible reconstructed terms and who basically want to preserve the language as a mere series of notes. I find that an odd view. My view is that a language that is not used is not a language. It can require some lateral thinking to make use of Sindarin, and some elaborate changes of phrasing may be needed, but I am so confident that virtually anything can be translated, that I am starting to translate Lord of the Rings. Act I: Scene i of Macbeth was a doddle!
A Note on Council of Elrond Lessons:
You will probably never find a more helpful group of brilliant Sindarin speakers than those at http://www.councilofelrond.com and their lessons are good beyond my capacity to praise them. In particular, Naneth and Gwendeth are two people who helped me immensely when I was very new to Sindarin. Sadly, I think the Sindarin chats held there are now no longer happening, but it's some measure of their usefulness and the fun we had there that I was willing to be awake at 3 am (sadly, they were scheduled for US members).
My lessons are not intended as a rival to CoE. In many ways, they merely come at things from a different angle. Since I myself worked through the CoE lessons, mine should work well alongside theirs
If anything in any lesson makes no sense, just say so. I am new to writing lessons and may not state something clearly enough, or perhaps there is a way I could make it easier for you to grasp. The intention of these lessons is to make Sindarin accessible to as many people as possible. If necessary, I am perfectly willing to arrange one-to-one help in a chat room or on MSN Messenger at a time convenient to you. If two or three are having the same problems, it may help if we all meet to go over the difficulty together. Never be afraid that you will sound stupid. It is my assumption that desiring to learn Sindarin is proof of intelligence. We all start out as beginners and there is no shame in not knowing some detail of the language.
Pronunciation.
Although there are errors in some of the Sindarin for the three LotR films, the pronunciation tends to be pretty good. Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) is especially good. If you pronounce the sounds pretty much as he does, you will not go far wrong. You can find the lines at http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/movie_elvish.htm with translations and sound files.
A few things to note:
c is always a k sound, never an s.
ch is pronounced like the ch in loch, not as ch in church or as ck.
dh is a soft th
f, when it ends a word, is a v sound.
g is always hard, as in go, not soft, as in gender
h is like h in house or hat
Where i begins a word and is followed by another vowel, it becomes a y sound iavas is pronounced yavas
ng is pronounced as in finger
every r is rolled
s is always s and never a z sound
sh is as sh in ash or shed
hw, rh and lh all represent aspirated letters (ie, breathe out as you say them)
The vowel sounds are as follows:
a father
e were
i machine
o for
u brute
y lune (French)
er air
ir ear
ur moor
ai rye
ei grey
oi boy
ui ruin
au loud
Greetings and Introductions.
The verb meaning “to be” is not known with any certainty, so it is generally best to avoid using it. Many Sindarin speakers simply leave it out, allowing it to be implied by the context, but I try to avoid that too. In the FotR film, Arwen introduces herself with the words “Im Arwen”, literally “I Arwen”. That is too much like “me Tarzan” for my liking. As an alternative, I suggest using the verb esta- (to name, call).
What do they call you? Man le estar?
What do you call yourself? Man le estach?
If you want to sound really fluent, try: What name do you have for yourself? Man eneth gerich anel?
They call me ________ Nin estar ________
I call myself ________ Nin eston ________
They call this elf ________ Edhel hen estar ________
In Eregion, they call me ___________ Vi Eregion, nin estar __________
Greet my friend, called _________ Suilanno vellon nín, estannen _________
Vocabulary
esta- to call
man what or who (interrogative)
le you
nin me
nín my
edhel elf
sen (shown in mutated form, hen, above) this
mellon (shown in mutated form, vellon, above) friend
Note that the verb form makes clear what person/people is discussed, so the relevant pronouns are not necessary. Estar is “they call”, eston is “I call”.
Suilad (greeting), suilaid (greetings) and le suilannon/le suilon (I greet you) are all appropriate greetings.
I come from ____________ Telin o ____________
You come from __________ Telich o ___________
He comes from __________ Tôl o ____________
Where do you come from? O mas telich?
Where does he come from? O mas tôl?
Where does the elf come from? O mas tôl i edhel?
Vocabulary
suilad greeting
suilaid greetings
suilannon I greet
tol- to come
o from
mas where (interrogative)
i the
Note that o causes stop mutation (explained in a later lesson). Words beginning with vowels, or with b, d, f, g, l, m, n, r or s are not mutated.
To enquire after someone's health you could say the following:
Do you have strength? Gerich vellas?
Does he/she have strength? Gâr vellas?
Answer Gerin I have (it) or Ú-'erin I don't have (it)
How goes your life? Manen bâd cuil lîn?
Possible answers include Mae Well or Ú-vâd mae It does not go well.
Do you have sickness? Gerich phaw?
Answer Gerin I have (it) or Ú-'erin I don't have (it)
Vocabulary.
gar- to have
bellas (shown in mutated form, vellas above) bodily strength
ú- negative prefix for verbs.
manen how (interrogative)
mae well
bad- to go
cuil life
lîn your
paw (shown in mutated form, phaw, above) sickness
(Note: bad- is disputed as the correct verb for "to go" Maethor Eruvenn has, with excellent reasons, suggested ledhia- or ledh-, favouring ledhia-. In the absence of guidance from Tolkien, I accept all three as useful versions. I use bad- here purely because it is widely used and will be understood)
Now seems a good time to cover some pronouns. The nominative pronouns are as follows:
I im
you (familiar) eg
you (formal) el
he/she e
we em
theyer
The accusative/dative pronouns (eg me, to me) are as follows:
me nin
you (familiar) cen
you (formal) le (Note: more correctly, len, but the elves seem to prefer le
him/her ten
us men
themren
Exercise 1.1
Translate the following to English.
1. Le suilannon, nin estar Legolas.
2. Edhel hen gâr vellas.
3. Mas le estar Mithrandir?
4. Nin estar Mithrandir vi Gondor.
5. Gerin phaw.
Exercise 1.2
Translate the following into Sindarin.
1. Greet my friend, called in Gondor Mithrandir.
2. Do you have strength, friend? (note, friend will not be mutated here)
3. What do they call this elf?
4. I come from Imladris.
5. What do you call yourself, elf?