Ancient Telerin

As the Eldar marched towards Aman, the language of the third tribe diverged first from that of the other Elves, since the Teleri travelled more slowly than the other Elves (PE18/73); in fact, the name of their tribe means “Hindmost”. Certain common characteristics shared by the various languages spoken by their descendants can be attributed to this early divergence, most notably the change of labialized velars into labials, such as primitive [kw] becoming [p]. In his writings, Tolkien used the term “Ancient Telerin” to describe this period of early divergence (PE18/80).