Sindarin

This article or section needs more/new/more-detailed sources to conform to a higher standard and to provide proof for claims made. Sindarin was the Elvish language most commonly spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age . Sindarin was the language of the Sindar , those Teleri which had been left behind on the Great Journey of the Elves . It was derived from an earlier language called Common Telerin . When the Noldor came back to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language, although they believed their native Quenya more beautiful. When the Elves of Beleriand first encountered the dwarves, they could not understand a word of the tongue of the Dwarves . Dwarves were swift to learn and indeed were more willing to learn Sindarin than to teach their own to those of alien race.[[1]]( Doriathrin or the language of Doriath , a form of the language which preserved many archaic forms; Falathrin or the language of the Falas , later also spoken in Nargothrond ; North Sindarin , the dialects originally spoken in Dorthonion and Hithlum by the Sindar, these dialects contained many unique words and were not fully intelligible with the Sindarin of Beleriand proper. With the exception of Doriathrin, the dialects were changed under Noldorin influence, and adopted many Quenya features, as well as unique sound changes devised by the Noldor (who loved changing languages). The distinct dialects disappeared after the Noldor and Sindar were dispersed during the later Battles of Beleriand . In the refuges on the Isle of Balar and the Mouths of Sirion a new dialect arose under the refugees, which mainly took after Falathrin. During the Second Age and Third Age Sindarin was a lingua franca for all Elves and the Elf-friends , until it was displaced as the Common Tongue by Westron , a descendant of Adûnaic which was heavily influenced by Sindarin. Before the downfall, most of the Men of Númenor knew Sindarin, along with the common language Adûnaic. Knowledge of it was kept in the Númenórean realms-in-exile Arnor and Gondor , especially amongst the learned. While Westron (descended from Adûnaic) became the most common language in the west of Middle-earth during the Third Age , Sindarin remained the everyday language of Elves. At the end of the Third Age there were probably more Men who spoke Sindarin or knew Quenya than there were Elves who either spoke the former or knew the latter. Gondor Sindarin was an acquired polite language and used by people of more pure Númenórean descent if they wanted to be polite.[[2]]( All Men of high lineage and all who learned how to read and write of the Faithful of the Dúnedain in Middle-earth used Sindarin, even as a daily language. It is said that Sindarin even became the native language in some families.[[3]]( They used Sindarin to give names to places in Middle-earth[[3]]( and usually changed the names that they adopted from those given by older inhabitants to fit the style of Sindarin[[4]]( . Sindarin is mainly analytic, though traits of its highly inflected progenitor can still be seen. Sindarin was designed to have a Welsh -like phonology. It has most of the same sounds and similar phonotactics. Sindarin plurals are characterised by i-affection , or umlaut (see also prestanneth "affection of vowels").[[2]]( Almost all Sindarin words form their plurals like English man/men and goose/geese — by changing the vowels in the word. The most usual plural patterns are: The reason for this is that the primitive plural ending -ī (still present in Quenya as -i after consonants and -e) affected the vowels in the word by making them higher and fronter. After this sound change occurred, the suffix -ī disappeared when all final vowels were lost: Sindarin has a complex series of mutations. There are three main different types of mutations: soft mutation (or lenition), nasal mutation and stop (occlusive) mutation . Additionally, a mixed mutation and a sibilant mutation are also observed after certain particles or prepos