Learn Elvish! Newsletter 
Beginning Sindarin (September 2002) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Dear Tina, I hope you enjoy learning more about fantasy language 
of Sindarin. This language is based on the Lord of the Rings 
series and was invented by the author for use in his books. I 
hope you enjoy learning it. Feel free to contact me with any 
problems, suggestions, or comments! 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
in this issue 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
* Phonology 
* Vowel Pronunciation 
* Diphthongs 
* Words To Try 

Phonology 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
For all you taking Beginning Sindarin, here is a warning: 
Sindarin is more difficult than Quenya if your first language 
(or only language) is English. There are some sounds in the 
phonology of Sindarin that are used by the German language, 
Spanish, and Russian which are non-native sounds to the phonology
 of the English language. Assuming I haven't lost you in 
technical terms, let's begin with how to pronounce the letters 
of the Sindar. The Sindarin phonology is less restrictive than 
that of Quenya (for those of you also in the Quenya course). 
Many consonant clusters can be found in all positions, as 
opposed to Quenya where initial and final clusters are not 
present. The sounds ch(pronounced like the German ach-Laut, not 
like the English word church), th (theta for all you linguists, 
as in the English word think), and dh (like the th in the English
 word this). Some letters that never come after a vowel, but are
 lenited (if you know what that means) are the letters p, t, and 
c, and they are lenited to b, d, and g respectively. Also, the 
letter c is always pronounced (like in Quenya) as a k. In the 
Sindarin phonology it never makes an s sound. Another detail is 
that at the end of words, f is pronounced v, as in the English 
word 'of'. R should be trilled (as in Spanish, Russian, or other 
languages). Get these rules down pat and you're well on your way
 to good pronunciation of the Sindarin language! 

Vowel Pronunciation 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
As for vowels, Sindarin has six of them: a, e, i, o, u, and y. Y 
differs from the English in that it makes an oo sound, such as 
in the English word 'moon' or the French word 'lune'. In the 
Sindar, when a vowel is longer than usual, we place an accent 
over it or a circumflex if it's especially long. However, with 
the letter y we do not place circumflexes, since it looks messy. 
When writing in the Tengwar, no distinction is made between 
short, long, and super-long vowels, since Tolkien merely used them in 
English- Sindarin writing to show correct pronunciation. 

Diphthongs 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Last but not least is the diphthongs. If any of you have read 
the pronunciation guides for Quenya on the main page, you'll 
have seen some diphthongs. Diphthongs are two letters that act 
as one, in case you didn't know. The Sindarin diphthongs are ai
(as in the English word aisle), ei, ui(as in the word gooey, 
with not as much w), and au (as in the English word 'cow' or 
German word 'haus'). Beware though: at the end of words, au is 
spelt aw. The diphthongs ae and oe can simply be pronounced as 
a(as in mat) and o(as in dog) said along with a short e(as in 
pet). The same is true for ai and oi - they are simply the 
letters a and o being pronounced together with i. 
Pronunciation Guides >> http://www.learnelvish.com 

Words To Try 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
I hope this hasn't confused you too terribly. In order to help 
you learn better, here are some words. Try to pronounce them 
correctly and pick out any diphthongs you see:
-Aerlinn; 
-Raegath; 
-Raegdain; 
-Leithio; 
-Mithrin; 
-Maedros. Just to keep it somewhat fun, here are some words for 
you to memorize and practise saying:
-Adar (father); 
-Gur (heart); 
-i (who); 
- Menel (heaven); 
-Echuir (spring); 
-Ess (your); 
-Lin (name). 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Quick Links... 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Learn Elvish webpage >> http://www.learnelvish.com 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
email: freedombelle@hotmail.com 
voice: (204)365-0385 
web: http://www.learnelvish.com 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~