There's no difference between the la- and u- negation particles; it's simply that Tolkien kept changing his mind throughout his life and we don't really know which he settled on (if he did). Tolkien based a lot of Sindarin on Welsh, some of it is glaringly obvious: the Sindarin for 'city' is "minas" and in Welsh it's 'dinas'. Continuing on the Welsh theme... I've not idea how you missed the initial consonant mutations of Welsh being borrowed into Sindarin. The article (i/in) causes lenition or nasalization to the following noun: 'trann' (shire) - 'i Drann' (the Shire). Tolkien's mutations aren't fully understood but David Salo (who did the Elvish stuff for the movies) posits 5 types: soft, nasal, stop, liquid, and mixed; Welsh has 4: soft, spirant, nasal, mixed. Also, in "Im Arwen" isn't so much "I, Arwen" but "I am Arwen" - in both Sindarin and Quenya it is not only possible - but favourable - to omit the copula. In fact, the Sindarin copula is so rarely used that we don't have an entire conjugation paradigm for it!
You are fast becoming my favourite channel 😆 😅 I really enjoy your videos. You're so creative and artistic...plus always with a smile :) hope you and your cat are doing well.
Hello. I lead Tolkienian Linguistics communities and contribute to Eldamo, one of your sources. I had emailed you to help you with this Sindarin video before it came, given the amount of complexities around the subject and especially the fact that internet is filled to the brim with outdated information, if not outright misinformation. Sadly you did return to the email, and as I feared, there are issues. I stopped the video at 6:20 to write this comment. That "pronouns" chart is not only full of made up ones, but also they go against the ones which were later published in Tolkien's posthumous notes (i.e. that chart was made in the early 2000s, but a document from 2010s showed some of Tolkien's actual Sindarin pronouns, debunking that chart). The issue is mostly with "ch" forms, where the nominative should rather be "ci" and the other forms should show "g..." instead (e.g. "gín", not "chín"). The chart is also very lacking in its categorisation of what pronoun plays what role. I should also add that, like the chart, the translations in the PJ films predate the publications of some linguistic texts by Tolkien, meaning that, once again, they are essentially "debunked" (in part or in full) by Tolkien himself, as is the fate of most translations and documents from before the 2010s. There are likely other issues in the video. I may edit this comment to talk about them as they come up. Edit 1 - About "Man agorech": Just like I addressed in the chart issue, the "-ch" suffix should be "-g" to say "you". This phrase, "man agorech", is in fact attested, and its translation was offered by the editors of the publication as "what have WE done", as can be seen in the "Túrin's Wrapper" page on your source Eldamo. The "-ch" in this document was an earlier variant of later "-nc" (and "n+c" can yield "ch" via mutation in other circumstances, so the old form reflects older rules). Edit 2 - About "La chebin estel anim": The negative particle in Sindarin with "√LA negation" would rather be "law", not "la" (cf. √BA, the ancient root for prohibitive words, with its Sindarin derivative "baw", not "ba"). The attested phrase with "ú-chebin" is a poor example here, as it complicates matters which require an explanation. Tolkien changed his mind back and forth between "√LA negation" and "√U negation". And when he translated "ú-" as "cannot", he was preferring √LA over √U for negation in general. At other times √U was the actual base of negation and did not mean "cannot", simply "not", just like what "law" should mean in that sentence. So whether "ú-" means "not" or "cannot" depends on whether we use √LA. With √LA, "ú- = cannot", otherwise, "ú- = not". There are good arguments both for an against both approaches, the linguistic community accepts both. Edit 3 - About "in edhil belig": The example confuses copular formations with adjective usage. So instead of "great Elves", we see "the Elves are great". And this also misses a crucial part of adjective usage, soft-mutation. Adjectives not only follow the nouns, but they are also mutated, and while your example "in edhil belig" is accurate for "the Elves [ARE] great", the regular formation with "the great Elves" would have been "in Edhil velig" - notice the mutation with B>V. (Also, the "dh" in "Edhel/Edhil" is pronounced with [ð], not "d-h".) Edit 4 - About "celegwain = swiftest": This is entirely wrong. "-wain" is not a superlative suffix, I am not sure where you read that, but it is most certainly wrong. And I should add that even using "an-" like English comparative "-er" is debatable. Edit 5 - About the tense charts: Once again that website with its charts are extremely outdated and debunked by Tolkien's own notes. Meanwhile your examples with "running" were all accurate, because you took them from Eldamo, and if you pause to compare the forms, you can see that forms in the examples vs. those in the old charts do not at all agree with each other. Edit 6 - About the translations in the films, I just want to reiterate that they are sadly outdated and thus mostly debunked.
Wow, you put so much research into this! I really enjoy these videos and thank you for making them! I hope you and your family and friends have a very happy Easter! 🙏💐🐰🐣🗿
I am in the middle of digesting your videos (he says, carefully policing his grammar 😉). I would love if you spent at least one video on the Tengwar. I find them particularly beautiful in their construction and how they invite me to consider the construction of sounds. 🙂
I love it all. I want it all. It's good that the Ring never came to me. Continue please! I have books of Sindarin-English; Vinyar Tengwar I-II-III; an Elvish writing book or two. I am ready Madame.
The attested Sindarin superlative affix (for forming "-est, -iest" adjectives) is *ró-* (PE17 p. 147) which induces the Soft Mutation aka Lenition upon the adjective to which it is prefixed : *ró-* + *maed* = *róvaed* "most skillful".
I imagine that the passive verb paradigm in the 2000's Movie-Sindarin by David Salo was *prestar aen* "it is changing", *prestanner aen* "it was changed", *prestathar aen* "it shall be changed". . ?
Hi, have you seen the show "Wheel of time" not sure if it could be similar to Rings of power in terms the fantasy aesthetic but if you get to watch it, I'd like to know your opinions/reviews when you get a chance
Hi, I am a new viewer. I tried using the link in your description for the website you have been using but i got an error code. I don't know what I am doing wrong. If you have anything that might help me I'd appreciate it thanks.
hi! oh i see what the problem is - there are two links there, for two separate websites, but youtube must have collapsed the spacing. i fixed it, it should work now :)
