The Sindarin Mode

For discussion of Dunedain culture, what it might have looked like and how it worked.

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Ernildir
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The Sindarin Mode

Post by Ernildir »

Hullo Rangers,

Here is a compact one-sheet guide to the Sindarin mode of Tengwar that I put together for any of you who are interested in learning it but are not sure where to begin or are confused by Tolkien's presentation in his appendices. Feel free to print it out and use it in your learnings. I recommend that you just find a text you enjoy (perhaps a poem or a psalm) and transcribe a bit of it into Tengwar -- you can have the whole system memorized in a couple of hours.

Image

A few things to note:

Tolkien states that the Tengwar do not have any absolute values. The exact phonetic properties of each symbol can be adjusted according to the needs of the language that they represent. What I have here is the generally accepted way to represent the phonetic values of the English language. If you wish to use the Tengwar for Sindarin, Quenya, or other languages, the values of a few of the Tengwar might be slightly different, as well as the rules for vowel placement. Some of the Tengwar I have crossed out would also become available (they mostly represent consonants that we do not use in English).

If you have ever studied phonetics, the system will be very much easier to learn. If not, perhaps you can still recognize some of the relationships. Notice that in the first block of Tengwar, each row and column contains characters that not only have visual similarities, but phonetic similarities which are represented by these visual similarities (with the exception of the Tengwar for "j," "ch," "sh," and "zh" not fitting into their rows: this is because these consonants do not appear in the Elvish languages so are phonetically out of place). For example, a stem pointing downwards indicates a plosive, a stem pointing upwards indicates a fricative, no stem indicates a nasal or a glide, a single curve indicates an unvoiced consonant, and a double curve indicates a voiced consonant.

Have fun! Feel free to ask questions, too.


P.S. If you want to learn the Quenya or Beleriand Modes of Tengwar, they are not all that different and very easy to pick up once you have the Sindarin Mode down. But we are Dunedain, and the Dunedain used Sindarin, so I think most of us will prefer the Sindarin Mode.
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Eledhwen
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Eledhwen »

Memories. Long ago a circle of friends and I used to correspond using Tengwar. We were widely scattered at that time and all Tolkien fans so we used this as a way to both demonstrate our love for the Master's works and because it was unlikely anyone reading the letters would be able to figure out what they said.

Since that time I have used it for decorative purposes; few people actually write any longer anyway.

Useful stuff.

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Ringulf
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Ringulf »

Kind of like Elven "Windtalkers"!
Very cool, I did the same with passing notes in class to my friend in highschool. Unfortunately, my English teacher Mr. Opp was a closet Tolkienite and intecepted the message read it out loud and corrected my Dwarven (we were using Angerthas Moria) I was embarased on several levels! :mrgreen:
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I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Ranger Guerin »

I've looked at similar sheets of that I've been wanting to learn to speak and write sindarin for awhile. If anyone's wanting to learn it and if there is not a word there you want to use you can use welsh instead since that is what Tolkien base it on
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Southwind »

Or you can see if there is a word for it in Quenya, then figure out what its Sindarin cognate might be. Link to a (fairly technical) article detailing the process: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~trenk/elvish/rogue.html

Although I've been known to just make up words that "seem to fit"... A current project of mine is to develop a dialect of Sindarin that might be spoken by elves outside Middle-Earth (and used in role-playing games), and which is also more complete with regards to vocabulary and grammar. One of these days I might make a website about it.

If anyone is interested in learning true Sindarin, I've found this site to be a really good resource: http://www.realelvish.net/
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Addreonynn
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Addreonynn »

This is really cool!!! but i still don't understand it!!! lol could you guys that can write it make a tutorial?!? I would love that!!! also, If you can speak Sindarin or Quenya, you could do one on that as well!!!
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Eledhwen »

Much of the Elvish language was based on a now vanishing Finnish language, with influences from several others, notably Welsh.

I have been making a set of Tengwar leather stamps, slowly and with more than a few resets, but getting there.

Pity folks don't actually write any longer. I have tried to get some folk to correspond via longhand, even just in everyday written English, but no, the electronic age has killed that.

Penmanship fails over time unused. It shows. Hand cramps are a problem too. Glad I have kept at it via decorative work at the least.

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Addreonynn
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Addreonynn »

Addreonynn Lightfoot wrote:This is really cool!!! but i still don't understand it!!! lol could you guys that can write it make a tutorial?!? I would love that!!! also, If you can speak Sindarin or Quenya, you could do one on that as well!!!
So I spent the last 5 and a half hours going from website to website, video to video and... I FIGURED IT OUT!!! :D at least the writing in English part!!! so maybe I'll give making a tutorial a try!!! lol
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Southwind »

Eledhwen wrote: I have been making a set of Tengwar leather stamps, slowly and with more than a few resets, but getting there.
You might be able to make a "modular" kind of thing, since many of the letters are composed of just telco and luva. Would save a lot on the total number of stamps to make. Or maybe you're already doing this.
Eledhwen wrote: Pity folks don't actually write any longer. I have tried to get some folk to correspond via longhand, even just in everyday written English, but no, the electronic age has killed that.

Penmanship fails over time unused. It shows. Hand cramps are a problem too. Glad I have kept at it via decorative work at the least.
If you just want someone to write back and forth to, I'm up for that :)
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Rifter
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Rifter »

I sadly learn better from people showing me and involving me rather then reading. Just the way I absorb new input
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Re: The Sindarin Mode

Post by Stormraven »

Great post especially for the Sindarin numbering system. Thank you!
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