Sindarin

Sindarin or Grey-elven was originally an elvish dialect that arose in Beleriand (especially Doriath) among the Grey-elves of the First Age from their own local Telerin dialect. Later it became the common lingua franca among the elves of Beleriand and was even preserved among the Edain (Númenórean and Dúnedain) nobility as a language of etiquette.

Sindarin grammar recognizes singular, paucal (paucal number, also paucal plural), and plural numbers, for example: onod = "ent"; enyd = "a few/several/some ents"; onodrim = "(all) ents".

Curiously, the term "Sindarin" is a Quenya word (exonym); the equivalent Sindarin term (endonym) would be Thindrimen (or Thindrimin).

Genealogy of Sindarin

• Primitive Quendian
  • Nelyarin Avarin
  • common Eldarin
  • common Telerin
    • Lemberin
      • Sindarin
        • Beleriandic or Lam Eglathon
          • Dialect of the House of Beor (influenced by Taliska)
            • Dialect of northwestern Númenor
              • Dialect of the Men of Gondor
                • Loremaster-dialect of the Fourth Age (influenced by Westron and Quenya)
        • Mithrimin or northern Sindarin (strongly influenced by Noldorin)
        • Noldoric-Sindarin or Golodhbaeth (dialect developed by the Sindarin-speaking Noldor)
          • Eressëan Sindarin ("substituted" by Goldogrin)
        • Dialect of the Wandering Tribes of Beleriand
        • Doriathrin or (Iathrin or Iathrimin)
        • Falathrin (still more archaic and closer to Falmarin)
          • Dialect of Balar and Sirion
            • Dialect of the Elves of Eriador
              • Dialect of Imladris (strongly influenced by Golodhbaeth and Quenya)
              • Lam Tawaren
                • Dialect of the Woodland Realm (strongly influenced by Nandorin)
                • Dialect of Lórien (strongly influenced by Nandorin)

Outer information

Sindarin is the best-attested of Tolkien's invented languages, with a fairly large corpus, and is widely studied. Professor Tolkien stated that it was deliberately constructed to resemble Welsh phonologically. Tolkien’s Sindarin language was mainly inspired by Welsh, and perhaps to a much lesser extent by Greek. Tolkien’s earliest predecessor of later Sindarin was Goldogrin, originally intended as the mother-tongue of the Noldoli, which later evolved into Sindarin, the language of the Ilkorin of Beleriand.

Web links

• Eldamo: Sindarin
• Hiswelókë's Sindarin dictionary
• Parf Edhellen: an elvish dictionary