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Terminology and Notations

This lexicon uses a lot of notations for consistency and brevity of descriptions. Most of these notations follow the general patterns used by other authors when writing about Tolkien’s languages.

General Notations

• bold marks the primary words or entry currently under discussion
• italic marks other words in Tolkien’s fictional languages not currently under discussion
• “quotes” are for glosses and translation into real-world languages, usually (though not always) English

Language Notations

• Q. is used for Quenya words
• S. is used for Sindarin words
• † is used for archaic or poetic words
• ✶ marks primitive word forms, usually (though not always) Primitive Elvish
• √ marks a primitive base or root, usually (though not always) Primitive Elvish
• For abbreviations of other languages, see the Language Index.
• Language markers are omitted from lists and discussions for a specific language: Q. is not used in the Quenya word list

Period Notations

• See the Conceptual History of Elvish for the time periods designations used in this lexicon
• ᴱ superscript marks Early Period forms: ᴱQ. = Early Qenya
• ᴹ superscript marks Middle Period forms: ᴹQ. = Middle Quenya
• Unmarked languages that span multiple periods are late forms: Q. = Late Quenya
• Languages that appear primarily in a single period have no period marker for that period: N. = Noldorin (Middle Period)
• ᴸ superscript marks Late Period forms of earlier languages: ᴸN = Late Noldorin
• ᴺ superscript marks Neo-Language constructions by authors other than Tolkien, e.g. Neo-Quenya (ᴺQ.) or Neo-Sindarin (ᴺS.)

Derivation Notations

•  <  or  >  indicate a form that developed etymologically from an older form
• ← or → indicate a form derived grammatically from another form
• ⇐ or ⇒ indicate a word composed of other words as elements
• << or >> indicate changes Tolkien made from one form to another
• «« or »» indicate editorial corrections for errors in previously published materials

Reference Notations

• italics are used for the titles of published works: The Lord of the Rings
• italics are also used for major linguistic documents published within other works: the Gnomish Lexicon
• “quotes” are used for articles, short documents and unfinished stories within other works: the “Unfinished Index”
• Abbr/Page is the common format for references to published works: LotR/435 = The Lord of the Rings p. 435
• Detailed references have a decimal notation, usually indicating line and word position on a page: LotR/1117.1405 (line 14, word 5)
• A full set of reference abbreviations can be found in the References Index.

Reliability Markers

• Words directly attested in Tolkien’s writing are unmarked and followed by a reference (Abbr/Page)
• # marks words that can be derived from attested words via grammatical rules or as elements of compounds
• * marks words that are reconstructed but can be reasonably deduced by comparison to other words
• ^ marks words that are reformulated from early versions of the languages to fit the structure of later languages
• ? marks words that are more speculative, but still deduced from original source material
• ‽ (interobang) is used where Tolkien himself wrote a “?” in the source material
• ! marks words that are pure neologisms: fabrications and inventions by authors other than Tolkien
• ⚠️ marks words that are not recommended (by this lexicon) for Neo-Quenya or Neo-Sindarin writing️

Glosses may also have reliability markers.

• * marks “reconstructed” or fan-invented glosses, usually deduced from context or cognates from other language, or English synonyms that better illustrate the particular connotations of a word
• ? marks more speculative reconstructed glosses
• ⚠️ marks glosses that are not recommended (by this lexicon) for Neo-Quenya or Neo-Sindarin writing️

Additions and Deletions

• [brackets] mark editorial additions to original texts, both those of other authors and my own
• strike-through marks words deleted by Tolkien from the original text
• {braces} also marks deletions from original texts, where a strike-through would be unclear
• double braces marks words and glosses appearing in a deleted section, where the word itself was not specifically rejected

Phonetic Notations

• [brackets] mark phonetic descriptions, usually in IPA notation (International Phonetic Alphabet)
• See the Phonetic Descriptions for further phonetic notations and terminology