Sindarin Phonetics

This section explores the later phonetic developments in the Sindarin language of the 1950s and 1960s; for earlier (in-universe) changes see the phonetics discussions for Ancient Telerin and Old Sindarin. My analysis also compares Sindarin to the early conceptual stages of the language in order to trace the conceptual evolution of Tolkien’s ideas: Noldorin (1930s), Early Noldorin (1920s) and Gnomish (1910s).

My analysis of Sindarin phonology draws heavily on David Salo’s work in A Gateway to Sindarin (GS/31-72), but there are quite a few places where my analysis differs from his, mostly because a lot of material has been published in the time between when he wrote his book (2004) and when I did my research (mainly 2018-2019). I also consulted a number of other articles by Bertrand Bellet (NPE, VASN) and Thorsten Renk (ENPP), and relied very heavily on the work of Roman Rausch (HPG, HPITN) for comparisons with the Gnomish and Early Noldorin conceptual stages of the language.

I consider this analysis more or less “complete”, in that I’ve explored the majority of the etymologies of published Sindarin words, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is correct in all places, since frequently the evidence is ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations. There are also a couple areas, notably Sandhi sound changes at morpheme boundaries, that I only barely cover. For Sandhi changes in particular I recommend consulting A Gateway to Sindarin (GS/51-59), which despite its age is the only thorough exploration of this topic that has been published.

Phonemes

  p-series t-series k-series
voiceless-stops [p] [t] [k] ‹c›
voiced-stops [b] [d] [g]
voiceless-spirants [f] ‹f, ph› [s] [θ] ‹th› [h] [x] ‹ch›
voiced-spirants [v] ‹v, f› [ð] ‹dh› †[ɣ] ‹gh›
nasals [m] [n] [ŋ] ‹ñ›
voiceless-continuants [w̥] ‹wh› [l̥] ‹lh› [r̥] ‹rh›
voiced-continuants [w] [l] [r] [j] ‹i›

vowels [i] [y] [e] †[œ] [a] [o] [u]
long-vowels [ī] [ē] [ā] [ō] [ȳ] [ū]
diphthongs [ae] [ai] [ei] [oe] [ui] [au] [eu]
others †[ou] [ø]

Phonetic Groups

Phonetic Rules

initial nasals vanished before stops [{mb|nd|ŋg}-] > [{bdg}-] 00100
final nasals vanished after vowels [-V{mn}] > [-Vø] 00200
initial [s] vanished before spirants [s{ɸθx}-] > [{ɸθx}-] 00300
initial voiceless [j̊] became [x] [j̊-] > [x-] 00400
voiced stops became spirants after liquids [{rl}{bdg}] > [{rl}{vðɣ}] 00500
[zb], [zg] became [ðβ], [ðɣ] [z{bg}] > [ð{βɣ}] 00600
initial [w] became [gw] [w-] > [gw-] 00700
short [i], [u] became [e], [o] preceding final [a] [-{ĭŭ}{C|CC}a] > [-{eo}{C|CC}a] 00800
voiced stops became spirants after vowels [V{bdg}] > [V{vðɣ}] 00900
[ɸ], [β] became [f], [v] [ɸ|β] > [f|v] 01000
medial [j] became [i] [CjV] > [CiV] 01100
short [e], [o] became [i], [u] in syllable before final [i] [-{ĕŏ}{C|CC}i] > [-{iu}{C|CC}i] 01200
short [a], [o], [u] became [e], [œ], [y] preceding [i] [{ăŏŭ}{C|CC}i] > [{eœy}{C|CC}i] 01300
[ē], [ō] became [ī], [ū] [ē|ō] > [ī|ū] 01400
[ɣ] vocalized before [l], [r], [m], [n] [V{ɣ}{lrmn}] > [Vi{lrmn}] 01500
[x], [ɸ] vocalized between a vowel and [θ] [Vx{θ}|Vɸ{θ}] > [Vi{θ}|Vu{θ}] 01600
non-initial [xʲ] vocalized to [ix] [xʲ] > [ix] 01700
[iu] and [ju] became [ȳ] [{ij}u|jui] > [ȳ|jui] 01800
short [u] often became [o] [ŭ|uC{uw}|u{mnŋ}] > [o|uC{uw}|u{mnŋ}] 01900
[nm], [ŋm] became [nw], [ŋw] [{nŋ}m] > [{nŋ}w] 02000
[ŋ] vanished with compensatory lengthening [Vŋ{nw}] > [V̄{nw}] 02100
[ǭ] became [au] [ǭ] > [au] 02200
[ę̄] became [ai] [ę̄] > [ai] 02300
short final vowels vanished [-S{ĕăŏ}] > [-Sø] 02400
final [i] intruded into preceding syllable [-VCi] > [-ViC] 02500
final [w] sometimes intruded into preceding syllables [-xw] > [-ux] 02600
initial [x-] became [h-] [x-|x{lr}-] > [h-|{l̥r̥}-] 02700
voiceless stops voiced after vowels [V{ptk}] > [V{bdg}] 02800
short vowels generally lengthened in monosyllables [C*V̆C] > [C*V̄C] 02900
final [ɣ] became [a] after a consonant [-Cɣ|-Cɣi] > [-Ca|-Cī] 03000
[ɣ] became [i] between sonants and vowels [{lrð}ɣV] > [{lrð}iV] 03100
[ɣ] otherwise vanished [ɣ] > [ø] 03200
final [-wi] became [-y] [-wi] > [-y] 03300
[h] vanished after vowels [Vh] > [Vø] 03400
final [i], [u] generally vanished [-S{ĭŭ}|-uCu|-Sī] > [-Sø|-uCu|-Sĭ] 03500
short vowels vanished before morpheme boundaries [C{ĭĕăŏŭ}+C] > [Cø+C] 03600
[ai], [oi] became [ae], [oe] [ai|oi] > [ae|oe] 03700
later [ei] became [ai] in final syllables [-eiC|-ei] > [-aiC|-ai] 03800
diphthongs [yi], [yu] became [ui] [y{iu}] > [ui] 03900
[œi] became [ui] or [y] [œi] > [ui|y] 04000
[nr] became [ðr] [nr] > [ðr] 04100
dissimilation of dental spirants [{θð}Sθ] > [{θð}Ss] 04200
[ls], [rs] became [lθ], [ss] [ls|rs] > [lθ|ss] 04300
final [mf], [nθ], [ŋx], [lθ] became [mp], [nt], [ŋk], [lt] [-{mf|nθ|ŋx|lθ}] > [-{mp|nt|ŋk|lt}] 04400
nasals vanished before spirantal clusters [{mnŋ}{fθxs}{lr}] > [ø{fθxs}{lr}] 04500
nasals vanished before morpheme boundaries [-{mnŋ}·{fθxsmnŋl}-] > [-ø·{fθxsmnŋl}-] 04600
[ð] vanished before nasals at morpheme boundaries [ð{mnŋ}] > [ø{mnŋ}] 04700
voiced spirants restopped after nasals [-{mnŋ}{vðɣ}-] > [-{mnŋ}{bdg}-] 04800
medial [mf], [nθ], [ŋx], [lθ] became [mm], [nn], [ŋg], [ll] [-{mf|nθ|ŋx|lθ}-] > [-{mm|nn|ŋg|l̥l̥}-] 04900
voiceless nasals were voiced [m̥|n̥] > [m|n] 05000
long vowels shortened before clusters [V̄CC] > [V̆CC] 05100
[ī], [ū] often shortened in polysyllables [ī|ū] > [ĭ|ŭ] 05200
[awa] sometimes became [au] [awa] > [au] 05300
[au], [ae] became [o], [e] in polysyllables [ˌau|ˌae] > [o|e] 05400
[lð] became [ll] [lð] > [ll] 05500
[nl] became [ll] [nl] > [ll] 05600
[mb], [nd] became [mm], [nn] [mb|nd] > [mm|nn] 05700
middle consonants frequently vanished in clusters [CCC] > [CC] 05800
medial [s] became [θ] before [l], [r] [Vs{lr}] > [Vθ{lr}] 05900
[wo] became [o] [wo] > [o] 06000
[n] assimilated to following labial [n+{mb}] > [m+{mb}] 06100
[œ] became [e] [œ] > [e] 06200
final [ll], [nn], [ss] shortened in polysyllables [-SS{ll|nn|ss}] > [-SS{l|n|s}] 06300
final and initial [ŋg] became [ŋ] [ŋg-|-ŋg] > [ŋ-|-ŋ] 06400
non-initial [m] usually became [v] [Vm|{lr}m|m{mbp}] > [Vv|{lr}v|m{mbp}] 06500
[ðv] became [ðw] [ðv] > [ðw] 06600
[mm] shortened [mm] > [m] 06700
final [v] became [w] after [i], [ae], [oe] [-{ae|oe|i}v] > [-{ae|oe|i}w] 06800
final [w], [v] vanished after [u] [-u{vw}] > [-u] 06900
[ou] became [au] [ou] > [au] 07000
long voiceless spirants shortened [θθ|xx] > [θ|x] 07100
final [l], [r] usually became syllabic [-C{lr}] > [-Co{lr}] 07200
final [vn] sometimes became [von] [-vn] > [-von] 07300
final [w] usually became [u] [-Cw|-aw] > [-Cu|-au] 07400
final [rr] became [r] [-rr] > [-r] 07500
[sk], [sp] usually became [sg], [sb] [s{pk}] > [s{bg}] 07600
medial [x] became [h] in Gondorian pronunciation [-x-] > [-h-] 07700
voiced spirants unvoiced before voiceless spirants [{vð}{hx}] > [{fθ}] 07800

Other

long-consonants
phonetics
syncope