Common Eldarin

From Tolkien Gateway

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 into Quenya and Common Telerin branches).

Grammatical note[edit | edit source]

Common Eldarin presented the ending of -r as a plural marker of uninflected verbal stems.[1]

Origin[edit | edit source]

Common Eldarin is an evolution of Primitive Quendian, the original language of all Quendi (or Elves), developing after the Eldar left Cuiviénen for Valinor. As the years passed, the language of those traveling Elves became diverged from the one spoken before the March. By the time they reached Beleriand, dialects of Common Eldarin had already begun to develop.

Since the Eldar dominate the annals of the Elder Days, all the Elvish languages that are described in detail come from this branch. The Avarin languages followed a wholly different evolution, distinct from Common Eldarin, and the changes presented here may not have applied during the evolution of those languages.

At least at one point, the changes reflected coexisting alternative forms of PQ. For example, the pairs of endings (m), (f) and (m), (f). This is mirrored in the evolution of short -u becoming -o and the short -i becoming -e.

Evolution from Primitive Quendian[edit | edit source]

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:

Medial h was lost
PQ: - > CE:
"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
ȝt > cht
PQ: maȝtâ (root MAȜ) > CE: mahtâ (pronounced machta)
Final short -a, -e, -o are lost, sometimes producing a long monosyllable as their trace
PQ: ndêro > CE: ndæ̂r[2]
(kwende > quendë is an exception)
Final short -i, -u became -e, -o
PQ: maȝiti > CE: *maȝite
PQ: ranku > CE: *ranko
Other minor changes
PQ: wo > CE: wa
a infiction in some stems which produced new diphthongs like ae, ao
PQ: *melâ (Root MEL) > CE *maelâ[3]
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

External links[edit | edit source]

Languages and scripts in Tolkien's works
Elvish Angerthas (Angerthas Daeron) · Avarin · Cirth (Certhas Daeron) · Common Eldarin · Mátengwië · Moon-letters · Nandorin · Primitive Quendian · Quenya (Exilic · Valinorean · Vanyarin) · Sarati · Silvan Elvish · Sindarin (Doriathrin · Falathrin · Númenórean · Mithrimin · Old) · Telerin (Common) · Tengwar
Mannish Adûnaic · Dalish · Drúadan · Dunlendish · Halethian · Northern Mannish · Pre-Númenórean · Rohanese · Taliska · Westron (Bucklandish · Hobbitish · Stoorish)
Dwarvish Angerthas (Erebor · Moria) · Aulëan · Iglishmêk · Khuzdul
Other Black Speech · Old Entish · Orkish · Valarin · Warg-language
Earlier legendarium Gnomish · Gnomic Letters · Gondolinic Runes · Ilkorin · Keladian · Noldorin (Kornoldorin) · Melkian · Oromëan · Qenya · Valmaric script
Outside the legendarium Animalic · Arktik · Goblin Alphabet · Mágol · Naffarin · New English Alphabet · Nevbosh · Privata Kodo Skauta
Real-world Celtic · English (Old · Middle · AB) · Finnish · Germanic · Gothic · Hebrew · Runic alphabet · Welsh
"A Secret Vice" (book) · "The Lhammas" · "The Tree of Tongues" · Sub-creation