Comments by Elaran

These are the 10 posts of 195 by Elaran.

  • A short but tricky translation

    I think that verië would be the safest (Quenya) word for "courage". Sindarin lacks that word, but its safest reconstruction would be berias*. And neither Quenya nor Sindarin have the word "heart" with the sense in which we use it in English. Still, Q. órë & S. gûr would be close enough. If my interpretation is correct, the phrase commands the heart to have courage, but I think that we can skip the verb in Elvish like in English. So:

    Quenya: Verië, melda órë
    Sindarin: Berias, gûr vell

  • Gratitude for help..

    @Nimlothiel: barad means only "tower" in Sindarin, unlike its "Noldorin" (Sindarin's draft) meaning "fort, fortress".

    @Tounn: Apologies, it seems that I misread "fortress" as "forest". Corrections:
    Quenya: Tirnor Ostova Ilúvataro. | Click for Tengwar image.
    Sindarin: Tirn en-Ost Iladar. | Click for Tengwar image.

    Decided to drop "en" from "Iladar", treating as a name rather than a title.

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  • Gratitude for help..

    Let's just offer both:

    Quenya: Tirnor Taureva Ilúvataro.
    Sindarin: Tirn e-Daur en-Iladar.
    "Guardians/Watchers of the Forest of the All-father."

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  • Sindarin tense

    I must firstly comment on the previous question. More than a few enthusiasts would prefer egínen over egennen because the latter disregards (or was theorised before the publication of) the attested [PE17/93] archaic form of an analogue: †emēnē- >> *evíne-. Thus, *†ekēnē- >> *egíne-.

    I-verbs use two methods for the past tense (they are not interchangable). One is the above, often called "vowel lengthening", which adds the ancient base vowel to the beginning and lengthens original one. The other, "nasal infixion", concerns only the verbs whose final consonants are b, d, g, which again adds the ancient base vowel to the beginning, but also adds an n before the ancient p(>b), t(>d), k(>g).

    As for tol-, it would use the vowel lengthening method, but it is not clear whether this would yield odul, odúle-, or udul, udúle- (or even udul, odúle-). Arguments can be made both for and against either of these.

    My summary of the whole system:
    I-Verb Past Tense
    For final consonants: L, R, W, N, TH, DH, PH, F(V), CH
    Augmentation > lenition > vowel lengthening [> final e]
    car- > acar > agar > agor "(he/she/it) did" [> agóren "I did"]

    For final consonants: B, D, G
    Augmentation > lenition > nasal infixion [> final e]
    ped- > eped > ebed > ebent "(he/she/it) spoke" [> ebennen "I spoke"]

    Lengthened base vowels:
    a > ó | daf- > adhof, adhóve-
    o > ú | nor- > onur, onúre-
    e > í | men- > evin, evíne-
    i > í | nidh- > inidh, inídhe-
    y > ú | ýl- > uiul, uiúle-
    Nasal-infixed final consonants:
    -b > -mp, -mme- | cab- > agamp, agamme-
    -d > -nt, -nne- | mad- > avant, avanne-
    -g > -nc, -nge- | nag- > ananc, anange-

    Edit: I had started writing this comment before Ríon's, but then I had to leave the computer for a while. Looks like he replied before me, and I only noticed after I posted. Our replies are mostly in tune but I have to disagree with "egínnen" whose "-nn-" should have shortened the preceding long vowel, but also it should have simply been "-n-", following the other "non-b/d/g" I-verbs whose attested ancient forms do not show "-ne".

  • Gloss “gwîn” by Imported

    This word was based on a theory that predates Parma Eldalamberon #17. In this document, Tolkien writes:

    [...] Dorwinion is Sindarin meaning "Young-land country" [...] [PE17/54]

    The name's elements are dôr, gwain¹, and -ion.

    1 - This word comes from ancient WINjā which developed into Sindarin as [winjā > winja > gwinja > gwenja > gwenia > gweni > gwein > gwain]. Two of these phonetic development rules, A-affection (gwinja > gwenja) and I-intrusion (gweni > gwein), cannot take place when a word is not the final element of a compound word. And this is what we see with Dorwinion, as gwain is followed by -ion. Thus, winjā and jānā merged (because of the repeated -jā-) and developed as [winjānā > winjāna > winjǭna > winjauna > gwinjauna > gwiniauna > gwiniaun > gwinion]. This is why gwain seems like "(g)win". As for the actual gwîn, it means "youth", and only that.

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  • Namárië in Sindarin

    Unfortunately, "all of the above (and more)" would be the right answer to that question. Consequently, I did not want to comment on the problems, because it would be difficult to do so without sounding harsh, since there are many of them. I suggest studying further with this source.

  • Namárië in Sindarin

    Coming up with my own translation seemed easier than commenting on yours. I hope that you will find find it useful.

  • Phrase translation

    The Sindarin translation would be:

    Avo leitho!

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  • Contribution “ol-” by dreamingfifi

    How is ol- different from tha-?

    @Aldaleon: Well, tha- comes from Túrin's Wrapper, whose validity is somewhat arguable. And unlike ol-, it lacks detail (e.g. its root), and it is rather outdated in comparison.

  • Phrase “The King's Letter”

    Added the translation.

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