Common Eldarin

Common Eldarin, or simply Eldarin, is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is one of the many fictional language set in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth.

Common Eldarin is a tongue spoken by Elves called Eldar or the West-Elves. Common Eldarin evolved directly from the original speech of all Elves, Primitive Quendian (called Quenderin in Quenya). It was the language of all the Eldar – those Elves who decided to undertake the Great March to Valinor – before their divisions.

Consonants

The following table shows the consonant phonemes found in Common Eldarin according to the "Outline of Phonology".^[1] The Quenya linguistic terms are taken from another work by Tolkien: "The Tengwesta Qenderinwa".^[2] These were invented, according to Tolkien, by the Elf Rúmil.

English	Quenya	Parmatéma	Tincotéma	Calmatéma
Voiceless stops	Puntar alómear	‹p›	‹t›	‹k›
Aspirated stops	Puntar alómea na-súrimar	‹ph› [ph]	‹th› [th]	‹kh› [kh]
Voiced stops	Puntar ómaisi	‹b›	‹d›	‹g›
Nasal continuants	Vórear nengwear	‹m›	‹n›	‹ñ› [ŋ]
Oral continuants	Vórear milyar	‹w›	‹l›, ‹r›	‹j›
Spirant continuants	Vórear suryar		‹s›	‹h›

The spirant s was naturally voiceless in Common Eldarin, and tended to unvoice preceding consonants, including nasals. It was voiced to [z] before the voiced consonants: b, d, g, m, n.^[3] This voicing was merely contextual and z did not occur as a separate word-building element; [z] was an allophone of [s].

The Vowels

According to Tolkien the original Quenderin vowels had acquired the following qualities and system in the Common Eldarin period before it diverged into the later dialects, i.e. as it was during the Great March of the Eldar.

Monophthongs

Common Eldarin had 12 monophthongs : a, e, i, o, u ; ē, ệ, ā, ō, ộ, ū.

Diphthongs

In Common Eldarin the diphthongs could be either primary or secondary.

The primary diphthongs were two: ai and au.

There were 8 secondary diphthongs: ei, ai, oi, ui; ou, au, eu, iu.

Reduced vowels

Common Eldarin had also "reduced vowels": a shwa ə and 5 syllabic continuants: ļ, ŗ, ņ, ṃ, ñ.

These were not inherited from Quenderin but resulted from vocalic reduction, under accentual laws.

1. ^ J.R.R. Tolkien, "Outline of Phonology", Parma Eldalamberon 19, p. 89; except that y is here represented by j.
2. ^ J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Tengwesta Qenderinwa 1", Parma Eldalamberon 18, p. 30.
3. ^ sñ did not occur in normal word-building or derivation in C.E.

See also

Middle-earth portal

• Quenya
• Sindarin
• Calendar of Imladris
• Elvish languages (Middle-earth)
• The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth (book)
• Sarati