Tengwar and Certar

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Tengwar
Tengwar.svg Tengwar written in Feanor's script
Font Alphabet or Abugida
languages Languages ​​of Middle-earth
inventor JRR Tolkien
Emergence First published from 1919 1930 (in Tolkien's writings)
Usage time Age of Two Trees to Fourth Age of Middle-earth
Used in fictional world of middle earth
ancestry Sarati
 → Valmari
  →  Tengwar
Derived influenced
Cirth and Angerthas
particularities fictional writing system, used in the Middle-earth cycle and its film adaptations
ISO 15924 Teng
Sindarin Example.jpg

Tengwar and Certar are writing systems invented by the English philologist and author JRR Tolkien . He used them to write various languages ​​in the fictional world of Middle-earth he invented , but also to reproduce English and other languages.

According to Tolkien's fictional mythology, the two writing systems developed independently of one another. Certar ( Quenya , so-called Certa ) and Cirth ( Sindarin , so-called Certh ) are both translated with " runes ". In principle and structure, they are modeled on the North and West European runic scripts and thus form an alphabet font . They were made by Tolkien z. Used in the book The Hobbit . Tengwar (Quenya, so-called Tengwa ) or Tîw (Sindarin, so-called Têw ) mean "letters" and, in contrast to the Certar, are their own characters developed by Tolkien. They appear in the Lord of the Rings in the ring saying. Depending on the mode, the Tengwar can either appear as a pure alphabet or - together with Tehtar (Quenya: "Sign") called vowel signs .

Tengw inscription on the one ring

background

Tolkien tried to make his fictional world as authentic and realistic as possible and took the development of the earthly world as a template. It therefore seemed essential to him that, in addition to the peoples and mythology, languages ​​and scripts in Middle-earth should not have simply emerged from nothing, but also through historical developments. That is why he devised a series of scriptures for the inhabitants of his world, which both had an origin and were constantly evolving. From the oldest writing system, the Sarati invented on Valinor, the Tengwar emerged, which later served as the basis for the Certar.

Tengwar

Originally, all characters and letters used in the Third Age were invented by the Eldar ( Elves ). By the time of the War of the Ring , they had become a fully developed alphabet. However, the older spellings were still used, in which only the consonants are represented by full characters. The tengwar are soft characters that can be written with a brush or a pen. Modified angular shapes were rarely used, for example for inscriptions.

The Tengwar are the older characters that were developed by the Noldor, the most inventive people of the Eldar, long before their exile in Valinor . The predecessors of these letters are the Sarati from Rúmil from Tirion, which are called Valinorian script (English Valmaric ). This was never used in Middle-earth. Feanor, Finwe's eldest son and inventor of the Silmaril , developed the Feanoric Tengwar , which was later derived from it , adding many of his own new letters. After their exile from Valinor, the Noldor brought this script with them to Middle-earth, so that it was later adopted by the Edain and the Númenórern. It was as widespread as the Common Language in Middle-earth.

Rúmils Sarati

Rúmil's alphabet has partly similar characters as those later developed by Feanor, but they do not always stand for the same sound, as they were developed for Quenya . As the first writing from Middle-earth they are called Sarati Rúmils. As a chronicler, Rúmil wanted to record the events of that time, so it is said to have been he who wrote the Ainulindale. It is not known exactly when this writing was created, the only thing that is certain is that it was at a time when the Elves lived in the city of Tirion in the land of Aman, near the Valar residence known as Valinor . The so-called Valinórischen time or the age of the two trees is considered to be the origin of these characters. It was Rúmil who was the first to produce suitable characters for recording speech and song. The Noldor did not use this in the later ages, but the further developed and adapted to the Sindarin font Feanor. The characters Rúmils were always referred to as Sarati in Quenya , which goes back to a language root (SAR), which means notch, scratch. A single sign is called sarat . Tolkien himself has sometimes referred to the script as The Tengwar des Rúmil , the word Tengwar meaning letters in Quenya. The oldest Tolkien records, reproducing the Sarati Rúmils (there are more than a dozen of them), date back to 1919 and date back to the mid-1920s. Then he devoted himself to the further development of the Tengwar and Cirth and there are only a few small text examples in which he used the Sarati.

The sarati were originally written in the inscriptions starting from the right, whereby it happened that they continued like a serpentine line, i.e. not placed at the end of the line, but continued in the opposite direction in the next line. This way of writing is called a bustrophedon . In italics or in books, however, the letters were arranged from top to bottom. In the book form the letters z. T. laid on a line, with the consonants on the right or below and the vowels on the left or above. The consonants were regarded as full-fledged characters, while the vowels were added as diacritical marks .

The Valmarian or Valinórian script is regarded as a further development or intermediate to the Tengwar. There are a variety of characters for letter combinations. This font has already been written consistently from left to right.

Feanor's Tengwar

The Tengwar series of the Third Age, further developed by Feanor

With the banishment of the Noldor from Valinor, the writing of the so-called light elves came to Middle-earth. This expanded and modified form of the characters was known as the Feanoric alphabet , although the arrangement of the letters was based on the principle of the similar spelling of the consonants. This system consists of 24 primary letters arranged in four columns ( témar ) and six lines ( tyeller ). In addition, there are 12 other letters, of which only two (l = lambe and s = silme ) count as independent consonant characters, while the other represent modifications of existing characters. There are also so-called tehtar (additional characters) that do not appear in the table. A primary letter is formed from a telco (stem) and a lúva (bow). The first four lines of the table are considered to be the normal form. The telco could be extended or, as in line 5/6, shortened. The arch was either open or closed by a horizontal line ( hwarma ) or could be doubled.

The first column is considered to be the row of dental sounds and is named tincotéma according to its first letter . The second stands for the labial and is called parmatéma . For columns three and four, calmatéma and quessetéma, the assignment depends on the language used. For Quenya there is an additional column with palatals , which is a modified form of the tincotéma and also has two points above or below the character, which is added by a j-sound (y). This was called tyelpetéma .

The lines follow a different scheme, the first consists of voiceless plosives, the second with a double arc indicates voicing . A trunk that extends upwards indicates a rubbing sound . The fifth line is usually reserved for the nasals , while the sixth line contains the weakest sound or a semi-vowel . So it is a phonetic transcription . However, the usage was sometimes different depending on the language (Quenya, Sindarin, Westron ...).

The vowels are often represented by tehtar . These signs are usually above the consonant sign. In Sindarin the tehta is placed on the following consonant, if there is none, a short carrier is used. The 'a' is represented by three points that form a roof, similar to a French circumflex . The 'i' consists of a simple point, 'e' is like an acute acute , 'o' and 'u' have an arc pointing to the right or left.

  • Tehtar for the vowels

  • a

  • e

  • i

  • O

  • u

  • y

There are different spellings that have developed from the Feanoric alphabet. The spelling of Beleriand , for example, had its own vowel signs in addition to the tehtar, as did the spelling of the people of Númenor, in which, however, a vowel indicated by tehta followed the consonant. The people in Gondor used this only partially, with successive or appended vowels, because with them the tehta was on the following consonant, i.e. the vowel was spoken before the consonant. A sign that looks identical to tehta is pronounced differently depending on the language used. In addition, there are signs for sound doubling, which are indicated by a tilden-like sign, depending on the alignment of the telco (stem), above or below the consonant arc or indicate the lengthening of vowels.

Each Tengwa is assigned its own name, a word in the Quenya language in which this character occurs or with which this word begins. These terms have the following meanings.

tincotéma parmatéma calmatéma quessetéma
t inco (t) = metal p arma (p) = book c alma (c, k, ch) = lamp qu esse (kw, qu, rarely k) = spring
a nd o (nd in Quenya, otherwise d) = gate u mb ar (mb in Quenya, otherwise b) = fate a ng a (ng in Quenya, otherwise g, rarely j) = iron u ngw e (ngw, gw, rarely g) = spider
th úle, s úle (s, th) = soul, wind, breath f ormen (f, ph) = North h arma (ch, h) = treasure, possession hw esta (hw, chw) = breeze, breeze
a nt o (nt in Quenya, otherwise often ie) = mouth a mp a (mp in Quenya, otherwise often v) = hook a nc a (nk) = jaw, teeth u nqu e (nkw, nqu) = depression, trough
n úmen (n, rarely nn) = west m alta (m) = gold ng oldo, n oldo (ng, n) = a noldo yellow ngw alme, nw alme (ngw, nw) = torture, torment
ó r e (r, rarely n) = heart, mind v ala (v, w, rarely m) = God a nn a (nn in Quenya, otherwise rarely j or o) = gift, gift v ilya (v, w) = air
Additional characters
r ómen (r) = east a rd a (rd, rh) = kingdom, earth, world l ambe (l) = tongue, language a ld a (ld, lh) = tree
s ilme (s) = starlight, silver shine s ilme nuquerna (s) = inverted silver light áre, á z e (z, ts ?, later ss) = sunlight, golden glow áre, á z e (e ss e) nuquerna = inverted gold light
hy armen (ch, h) = south hw esta sindarinwa (w, hw) = sindarin hwesta y anta (y, i, j, rarely e) = bridge ú re (w, rarely u) = heat, embers

Certar

The Certar or Certhas (series of runes) were invented to carve or notch inscriptions or Sindarin sounds. Hence its name, which is derived from the verb certa-, which means notch or cut. The runes later known as Cirth were invented by the Sindar elves in Beleriand. Their use was initially limited to carving names and short records in wood, metal or stone. Therefore, they have straight or rectangular shapes that are very similar to the runic signs of Futhark . They differ only slightly from these, for example their assignment of letters has been changed and expanded by Tolkien. In their oldest form, the Cirth spread far east as early as the Second Age . Many peoples of Middle-earth knew them, both humans and dwarves or orcs. The people of Thal and the Rohirrim people retained a fairly simple form of these signs.

Runic writing in the hobbit

Gandalf's G rune

In the Book of the Hobbit, however, Tolkien used the runes of Futhorc in a slightly modified form . They are shown in the English edition on the Erebor map. These characters are sometimes called moon runes , as they are only visible on a predetermined night under moonlight. The additional secret runes appear on the card in the light of a moon that has the same shape as on the day the dwarf king wrote them. The Angertas differ significantly from these dwarf runes. Although they are similar in appearance and shape to the Germanic runes from which they are modeled, they represent a writing system specially adapted by Tolkien to his mythology.

Cirth

The Cirth have a trunk similar to the Tengwar, but instead of the arch they have a rather simple branch, which is usually arranged on the right. Here a single branch stands for a voiceless consonant, a doubling makes it voiced. The arrangement on the left stands for a frictional sound ( fricative ) or a breath sound (spirant). If the sign has identical branches in both directions, it is a nasal. Rudolf Simek assumes that this runic alphabet was probably only developed by Tolkien after the completion of The Hobbit.

In Beleriand, however, these changed before the end of the First Age due to the Tengwar of the Noldor, which were used there at the same time, so that they continued to develop. This expanded alphabet was called Angertha's Daeron (long rune series of Daeron) because he designed and expanded it. Daeron was a singer and writer from King Thingol of Doriath . However, the Elves preferred the Feanoric letters for their records. In the western areas, the Angerthas Daeron were partially given up completely. In Eregion , however, this alphabet remained in use, was further developed and thus reached the dwarves of Moria . They kept it, and with them it went far up north to Thal or Erebor. In later times they were called Angerthas Moria, the long rune series of Moria or simply dwarf runes. For their own language, the Khuzdul , they developed these characters accordingly.

"[...] the characters look like runes, some of them are also identical to real runes, but some characters only have a" pseudo-runic "appearance and in reality have nothing to do with real runes. Here Tolkien actually created a new system of signs that can no longer be deciphered with a knowledge of the Old English runes alone. "

- Rudolf Simek : Middle-earth - Tolkien and the Germanic mythology
  • Runes - Cirth - Angerthas

  • Runes from the hobbit

  • The whole Angerthas

  • Balin's tomb slab in Moria

Angertas - rows of long runes

A summary of the Cirth in all three ages
Angertha's Daeron

The Angerthas Daeron are divided into several rows or columns, the separation is indicated in the figure ( the complete Angerthas ) by two adjacent dots. These runes of Daerons correspond to the original characters used by the Elves in Eregion. However, since they were easily deduced to other languages, they quickly spread among the people, especially in the Westron or among the hobbits, who used them for their family trees. The G-rune, which was used by Gandalf as a distinguishing mark, comes from this alphabet.

Angerthas Moria

The runes of Moria are both on Balin's grave slab and in the Book of Mazarbul inside the dwarf grotto . Here you can also find records in the slightly modified form of the Erebor spelling. These had additional characters for diphthongs and newly added consonant combinations 'ps' and 'ts'.

literature

  • Wolfgang Krege: Elvish dictionary Quenya and Sindarin. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 978-3-608-93185-3 .
  • JRR Tolkien: Parma Eldalamberon 14. Early Quenya & Valmaric. Edited by Christopher Gilson. Tolkien Trust, Cupertino (California) 2003, OCLC 741958447 .
  • JRR Tolkien: Parma Eldalamberon 13. The Alphabet of Rúmil & Early Noldorin Fragments. Edited by Christopher Gilson. Tolkien Trust, Cupertino (California) 2005, OCLC 430496689 .
  • Rudolf Simek: Middle Earth - Tolkien and the Germanic mythology. Verlag CHBeck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52837-6 .
  • JRR Tolkien: Parma Eldalamberon 16. Early Elvish Poetry and Pre-Fëanorian Alphabets. Edited by Christopher Gilson. Tolkien Trust, Cupertino (California) 2006, OCLC 182748022 .
  • JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings. (Attachments). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-608-93830-2 .
  • Ross Smith: Inside Language. Linguistic and Aesthetic Theory in Tolkien (= Cormarë Series. 12.) Walking Tree Publishers, Zollikofen 2007, ISBN 978-3-905703-06-1 .
  • Helmut W. Pesch : The great Elvish book - grammar, writing and dictionary of the Elven language JRR Tolkien with appendices to the languages ​​of the dwarfs and orcs. Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-404-28524-2 .

Web links

Commons : Tengwar  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
  • Gernot Katzer: Tengwar and its use. Retrieved September 27, 2012 (page on some uses of the tengwar for JRR Tolkien's fictional languages).
  • The Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwa Specimina (DTS). Mellonath Daeron, accessed on September 27, 2012 (English, continuously expanding list of all known Tengwart texts by JRR Tolkien).
  • Måns Björkman: Amanye Tenceli. The Writing Systems of Aman. Retrieved September 27, 2012 (English, detailed page on the various writings of JRR Tolkien).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings . 2001, Appendix E-II, p. 1186.
  2. ^ A b Ross Smith: Inside Language. Pp. 106-107.
  3. ↑ a b c d J. RR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings. Pp. 1241-1252.
  4. ↑ Parma Eldalamberon 13. pp. 18-89 and Parma Eldalamberon 16. pp. 20-51. (Examples of Roman and pre-Feanoric characters).
  5. ↑ JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion. P. 81.
  6. ↑ Helmut W. Pesch: The great Elbisch book. Pp. 201-204.
  7. ^ Parma Eldalamberon 13. p. 66 (written example).
  8. ^ Parma Eldalamberon 14. Early Quenya & Valmaric. From p. 98. (Valmaric).
  9. ↑ Helmut W. Pesch: The great Elbisch book. Pp. 205-237.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Krege: Elvish dictionary Quenya and Sindarin. Pp. 39-41.
  11. ↑ in Quenya voiceless 's', in Sindarin voiceless English 'th'
  12. ↑ later a h a (h) = anger if 'h' is the first word
  13. ↑ voiced English 'th'
  14. ↑ German 'w'
  15. ↑ initially
  16. ↑ weak, not rolled
  17. ↑ semi-vowel English w
  18. ↑ tongue-r
  19. ↑ a b for the use of the diacritical marks rotated writing
  20. ↑ later e ss e (ss) = name, description
  21. ↑ as spoken in 'I'
  22. ↑ voiceless 'w', variant of the hwesta, adapted to the Sindarin
  23. ↑ semi-vowel 'y' (i)
  24. ↑ semi-vowel w
  25. ↑ a b c Helmut W. Pesch: The great Elbisch book. Pp. 213-216 and 242-251.
  26. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Middle Earth - Tolkien and Germanic mythology. Pp. 153-156.
  27. ↑ Rudolf Simek: Middle Earth - Tolkien and Germanic mythology. P. 154.