A word for "code" ?

I would love input on creating a Sindarin word for 'code,' as in programming. As I can see, teitha- is to write, inscribe etc. but I wonder if it is possible to create a more accurate and elegant phrase for code that doesn't just compound a lot of words. Is this the forum where I would go about doing so?

Possible pieces:

dolen teithar (secret writing?)

cirth cernui (command runes?)

maenas maethar (craft control?)

I am still a sindarin super noob and I'm working my way through Fiona Jalling's book. The rules around lenition and mutation are still tricky to me.

Well... teithar is not "writing", it is "they write", not a noun. And (n)dolen, as an adjective, should follow the noun and undergo lenition. I would replace that with teithas nolen.

No idea where you found "cernui", it makes no sense and could not mean anything close to "command". Anyway, the proper word for "command" would be difficult to determine, but I will spare you the details. It is safer to use tûr with its "mastery, power(over-others), control" senses. Hence cirth tûr.

Again, maethar would be "they wield", not a noun. And though you wrote the second idea in the correct reversed order (with regard to your English translation), this one is not reversed (i.e. it would have meant "control craft" instead, with the right words). Also I do not think that maenas is fitting here, or even the English "craft". Cannot provide alternatives as I would be changing the intent.

I could go for dolthain "hidden-rule/law" for this sense, in an attempt to replicate its etymology collectively.

Ah yes, I'm still getting used to the noun-adj format.

It looks like I messed up cernui. I had pulled it from conui, commanding, and then tried to pluralize it. And it seems I added an r for no good reason.

Would maethas mean controlling, as teithas means writing? I wonder if it is better to use a word for change, gwistas? It would be cool if there was an analog for Alchemy to use here...

I do like dolthain. Looking at your etymology I am pleasantly surprised to see that the roots of the word 'code' come from tree trunk. Is it possible to compose a word that preserves the tree connotations? For example, you have dolthain, and thond is root, does it make sense to change it to dolthaind?

I'll leave Elaran to comment on the rest, but -as is an abstract noun suffix, so maethas would mean something like "control" or "authority." English happens to use -ing as both a participial (adjective from verb) and gerund (noun from verb) suffix.

"Tree trunk" is a very idiomatic element of the real-world word's Latin etymology and likely wouldn't come into play with an Elvish construction. Dolthain is from doll "hidden, secret" + thain "rule"; !dolthaind looks like a plural of a nonsense word dolthand "hidden/secret shield."

That makes sense. Here's another thing I'm not sure I understand. If the format of words is always noun-adj, wouldn't dolthain instead be thaindol because the law is hidden? And in that case, does the n cause some kind of mutation in the d-?

If we said it as two separate words, then yes, the order would be noun + lenited adjective: thain "rule" + (n)dolen "hidden" > thain nolen "rule hidden" = "hidden rule." In a compound, the order is reversed.

I see. So when compounding words, there is no lenition, and a word like Mithorn (grey tree?) would be acceptable?

Back to the composition of code, what if I were to try another approach? I see sinnen means known, and inc or nauth means idea/thought. Would it perhaps be better to use these words as a base? Nauth could perhaps become nauthorn for thought-tree?

No, there very often is lenition or another form of mutation, but these processes don't affect all consonants. In this instance, th (a single consonant sound, though represented by two letters in our alphabet) does not change.

As a single word, yes, I believe Mithorn would work, and we don't see mutation because orn begins in a vowel. As separate words, however, you'd see orn vith or orn vithren.

I'm afraid I don't see how "thought tree" relates to "code."

Sorry for being oblique. Maybe some terms just won't translate well. I just thought of code like the act of composition/growing, and with roots and branches (of code) being involved it makes me think of a tree.

Ah, I see. Well, it's impossible to say what Tolkien might have imagined, but we do have tengwesta in Quenya meaning "system or code of signs," so that could drift and apply here. You could also derive something from Q. tenta- / S. *tenna- "to direct toward" in the sense of programming code as directives to a computer.

I'm hesitant to get too poetic without a better idea of the metaphors Elves might have applied to computing.