tengwë

indication, sign, token

tengwë (pl. tengwi attested) noun "indication, sign, token", in linguistics used for phonemes(VT39:7, WJ:394); hloníti tengwi "phonetic signs" (WJ:395). The term tengwë was particularly associated with consonants (VT39:16). In the Etymologies, stem TEK, tengwë is glossed "writing"; this gloss would seem to be obsolete (for this meaning the word sarmë occurs in Tolkien's later material).

tengwë

noun. sign, token, indication; writing, sign, token, indication; writing; [ᴱQ.] knowledge, understanding; idea, notion, thought

óma-tengwë

vowel

#óma-tengwë noun "vowel" (only pl. óma-tengwi attested); this refers to vowels considered as independent phonemes, according to Fëanor's new insights on phonemics. Also #ómëa. (VT39:8; ómatengwi ["ñ"] with no hyphen in VT39:16)

óma-tengwë

noun. vowel-sign

mussë tengwë

soft elements

#mussë tengwë noun-phrase only attested in the pl.: mussë tengwi ("ñ") "soft elements", a term for vowels, semi-vowels (y, w) and continuants (l, r, m, n). (In the pl. we would rather expect *mussi tengwi with the pl. form of the adjective.) (VT39:17)

náva-tengwë

mouth-sign

náva-tengwë noun*"mouth-sign" = "consonant" considered as a phoneme (only pl. náva-tengwi ["ñáva-"] is attested). Also #návëa. Fëanor later substituted the term #pataca (VT39:8)

sarda tengwë

hard sound

#sarda tengwë noun "hard sound", a term for "consonant", but not used of semi-vowels (y, w) and continuants (l, r, m, noun). (Only pl. sarda tengwi [ñ] is attested; we would rather expect #sardë tengwi with the pl. form of the adjective.) Sarda tengwi are also simply called sardë "hards", see sarda. (VT39:17)

tapta tengwë

impeded elements

#tapta tengwë phrase only attested in the pl.: tapta tengwi ("ñ") "impeded elements", a term for consonants. (In the pl. we would rather expect *taptë tengwi with the pl. form of the adjective.) Also simply tapta pl. taptar (VT39:17)

náva-tengwë

noun. consonant

sarmë

writing

sarmë noun "writing" (VT39:8). Cf. sarat.

sarmë

noun. writing