Common Eldarin
Common Eldarin is the tongue of the ancient Eldar of the Great March. It is the last common ancestor of all known Elvish languages (broken in Quenya and Common Telerin branches).
Origin
Common Eldarin is an evolution of Primitive Quendian, the original language of all Quendi, or Elves, until the Eldar left Cuiviénen for Valinor. As the years passed, the language of those traveler Elves became a little different than the one spoken before the March. By the time they reached Beleriand, dialects had already been formed.
Since the Eldar dominate the annals of the Elder Days, all the Elvish languages that appear, come from this branch. The Avarin languages possibly followed a wholly different evolution, outside Common Eldarin, and the changes presented here, may not have applied during the evolution of their languages.
Evolution from Primitive Quendian
During the Great March, minor changes to the Primitive Quendian brought the later Eldarin languages. These changes had to do with several developments of the word-forms, usually normalization. For example:
- "Difficult" consonant clusters, usually those with nasals (like bm and dn), were rearranged
- PQ: labmâ (root LAB) > CE: lambâ
- PQ: stabnê (root STAB) > CE stambê
- Final short -a, -e, -o are lost, sometimes producing a long monosyllable as their trace
- PQ: ndêro > CE: ndæ̂r[1] (kwende > quendë is an exception)
- a infiction in some stems which produced new diphthongs like ae, ao
- PQ: *melâ (root MEL) > CE *maelâ[2]
- final long -â, -ê, -î, -ô, -û became short (later stage)
- CE: stambê > stambe
- CE: mahtâ > mahta
- CE: lambâ > lamba
At some point, dialects separated the uniformity of that language, and produced the Common Telerin branch.
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, The Etymologies root NDER
- ↑ Vinyar Tengwar 39 p. 10