Elvish
lesson seven : adverbs & adjectives
Aniron i ellon velui! E linna vain! (I want the lovely Elf! He sings beautifully!)
adjectives
The primary difference between adjectives in English and in Sindarin is the placement. Where we might say "green hills" in English, the Sindarin equivalent is "hills green" -- the adjective *follows* the noun in most cases. It is possible to put the adjective before a noun if you want to call special attention to it: the green hills (as opposed to the blue ones).
Another thing to note is that, unlike in English, Sindarin adjectives agree with their noun in number -- that is, if the noun is plural, the vowels in the adjective will change according to the plural rules as well. For example:
hill: amon
green: calen
green hill: amon galen
green hills: emyn gelin
Wait a minute! I can hear you shout. Where the bloody hell did that 'g' come from?! Well, when adjectives follow nouns, the initial consonants undergo lenition (say it with me, "which we'll get to later"). When the adjective comes first, though, the consonant stays the same: 'calen amon', for example.
(None of the adjectives in the exercises to this lesson will lenit.)
comparative and superlative
The comparative is the "-er" form of an adjective. In Sindarin, this is accomplished by adding "an-" to the front. Examples:
an + celeg "swift" --> angeleg "swifter"
an + fim "slim" --> anfim "slimmer"
Yep, there's that 'g' again. The initial consonant of the adjective lenits when you add the comparative suffix. Lenition is the next lesson, I promise.
The superlative is the "-est" form of an adjective. In Sindarin, the superlative is formed with the suffix "-wain".
celeg "swift" --> celegwain "swiftest"
mor "dark" --> morwain "darkest"
(Note that no part of the superlative form is lenited. Of course, if you put it after a noun, it will lenit normally.)
If the final syllable of the adjective contains a diphthong, the second vowel of the group drops when '-wain' is added:
bain "beautiful" --> banwain "most beautiful"
demonstrative adjectives
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| Sen "this" | Sin "these" |
| Te "that" | Ti "those" |
Be aware that these are all derived and deduced, but not attested.
adjectival suffixes
Okay, so what do you do when you can't find the adjective you need and all you have is some silly noun? How do you get from "soul" to "soulful", for instance? Or "glory" to "glorious"? Well, luckily for us, Tolkien left us three adjectival endings for just this purpose. These endings are "-eb", "-ren", and "-ui". So, we have:
glory "aglar" --> glorious "aglareb"
mael "lust" --> maelui "lustful"
Which ending should you use, then? There is no correlation between these endings and English endings like "-ful", "-ous", etc. The decision goes back to the very first rule of Sindarin -- it's all about the flow. The aim of Sindarin is to be a gentle, flowing language, so try to choose an ending that fits with that idea.
adverbs
There are few attested adverbs in Sindarin. I won't bother to list them, since they are easily found in the Dragonflame dictionary or on the Council of Elrond site. But what's a writer to do for all those that aren't there? Most sources for Sindarin seem to agree that the easiest way to create a adverb from an adjective is to simply put the adjective (lenited, of course) after the verb instead of a noun -- and it does the job of an adverb.
Example:
gûr anwareb : wonderful heart
Cenich anwareb : You cry out wonderfully.
relative and interrogative adverbs
As with the demostrative adjectives, none of these are attested, but can be deduced.
| Relative | Interrogative | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Ias | Mas |
| When | Ir | Mar |
| Who/What | Ian | Man |
| How | Ianen | Manen |
What's the difference? Use the relative adverb when introducing a clause, such as "when I finish with my lover". The interrogative adverb is for questions like "How do you expect to get *that* in?" We'll revisit these when we get into sentence structure.
Conclusion
- Adjectives in Sindarin follow the noun they modify except in special circumstances.
- Adjectives agree in number with their noun, and lenit when they follow a noun.
- The prefix 'an-' is used to create the comparative form.
- The suffix '-wain' is used to create the superlative form.
- The suffixes "-eb", "-ren", and "-ui" can be used to change nouns to adjectives.
- Adjectives can be used as adverbs with no change to the word.
