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Jebus
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Post A Gateway to Sindarin
on: November 01, 2014 12:11
Hello all,
I am new to the community and have a couple questions about Sindarin.
First off, Sindarin appeals the most to me as the Elvish language to learn. I was wondering how accurate or helpful the book 'A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings' is. I saw it at my local B&N and thought about picking it up. I saw the Sindarin workbook on the site and thought maybe this book would be a helpful resource for some of the material and assignments.

Like I said I'm new to this community and this is all very overwhelming so I apologize if this is repost. If it is a link(s) to a start point would be very much appreciated!

Thank you,
- Jebus
Elhath
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on: November 02, 2014 03:44
Published in 2004, Salo's book still relies extensively on the "Noldorin" stage (1930-40) material from The Lost Road and Other Writings and Vinyar Tengwar #45 & #46 for its synthetic reconstruction of Sindarin. Some new things have come to light since then (see links in my signature).

For instance, the -i infinitive no longer appears in Tolkien's since-published essay from the 1960's which only contains infinitives of the type cared (< car-), galod (< gala-) & nathlo (< #nathla-).

The said text (out in 2007) has also shed better light on the formation of the past tense in LotR-era Sindarin.

Pronouns are another "area of constant flux" on which no final word has ever been given (nor should one be accepted, especially from one source/site alone) due to the slow but imminent drip of revelations from Tolkien's notes in Parma Eldalamberon & Vinyar Tengwar.

To me, Salo's notes on Word Formation is the most praiseworthy part of the book, though of course everything about Sindarin's historical phonology (owing to the discussion & work of many unaccredited people like much of Gateway's content) also becomes inescapably important once the student progresses beyond a certain point.

[Edited on 11/04/2014 by Elhath]
LotR-era Sindarin subject pronouns (with verbs) ❖ On translating "until" ❖ Old /-ch/ of /man agorech/ discussed
Jebus
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on: November 04, 2014 09:41
Great to know. Thank you very much for your reply and help!
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