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The Rover
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Ilkorin
Ilkorin - a "lost tongue"?
Originally, Tolkien did not imagine the history of the Elvish tongues in Middle-earth quite like the scenario we know from the published Silmarillion. According to the Silmarillion and other post-LotR sources, the Noldor and the Vanyar went over the sea and developed Quenya in Valinor, while some of the Teleri stayed in Beleriand, where their tongue evolved into Sindarin. But in Tolkien's older conception, Quenya was the language of the Vanyar (long called "Lindar") only; the Noldor developed the language that the Etymologies calls "Old Noldorin", while the tongue of the Teleri that were left in Beleriand evolved into Ilkorin. The Teleri in Beleriand were not called Sindar or "Grey-elves" in Tolkien's older scenario; they were Ilkorindi, "those not of Kôr" (a central place in Valinor). When the Noldor came from Valinor speaking "Old Noldorin", their language was influenced by the indigenous "Ilkorin" tongue and underwent drastic changes to become "Noldorin". (The last flicker of the idea that "the two tongues grew towards one another", before this concept was finally abandoned, is found in WJ:21, 24 - where the tongues in question are already Quenya and Sindarin.) Tolkien even considered the possibility that the languages became amalgamated. See LR:346.
But further revisions were to follow. Tolkien decided that the "Noldorin" language he had already made was not the language of the Noldor after all. In fact, it turned out to be the language of the Teleri that had remained in Beleriand, who came to be called Sindar (replacing the term Ilkorindi), so Noldorin had to be renamed Sindarin. The Noldor, that were now conceived as speakers of Quenya just like the Vanyar, simply adopted the Sindarin tongue when they came to Middle-earth. There was no complex process of mutual influence and amalgamation. In other words, "Noldorin" > Sindarin usurped the place of Ilkorin as the indigenous Beleriandic tongue. So what happened to the Ilkorin tongue - did it disappear from the mythos altogether? Many words and names that Tolkien originally held to be Ilkorin, such as Esgalduin or the name of Túrin's friend Beleg, survived in the narrative texts - but after the revision they must probably be understood as Sindarin forms instead. Interestingly, the name Esgaroth known from The Hobbit occurs in the Ilkorin wordlist. Elrond was also thought of as an Ilkorin name when Tolkien first made it, but in the context of LotR it can only be Sindarin. The status of Ilkorin in the mature mythos is thus very questionable. Edward Kloczko has argued that Tolkien, rather than scrapping Ilkorin completely, turned parts of it into the obscure "northern dialect" of Sindarin, the tongue of the Mithrim; his original article is reproduced as an Appendix.
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:26 PM |
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The Rover
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Elementary Phonology
The general sound of Ilkorin is reminiscent of Sindarin. As in Sindarin, the original unvoiced plosives have become voiced following vowels (e.g. t > d in adar "father" from the stem ATA; Sindarin also has adar; contrast Quenya atar). Original voiced plosives may become voiced spirants in the same position; cf. b > v in tovon "lowlying, deep, low" from the stem TUB; this is also the case in Sindarin. As in Sindarin, plosives generally become spirants following the liquids l, r: compare t in tôr "king" with th in balthor "Vala-king"; compare also dh in erdh "seed, germ" with d in the primitive form *eredê (stem ERÉD). The word erdh also illustrates one of the differences between Ilkorin and Sindarin. In primitive Elvish, there were many three-syllable words where all three vowels were the same except that the last was long, like *eredê "seed". Quenya dropped the middle vowel and shortened the last, *eredê yielding erde. Sindarin dropped the last vowel, *eredê becoming eredh. But Ilkorin dropped both the middle and the final vowel, so that *eredê became erdh.
Long and short vowels are distinctive, as is demonstrated by the minimal pair gwen "girl" vs. gwên "greenness". In monosyllables the long vowels are marked with a circumflex, e.g. côm "sickness", môr "night", ôr "blood". In polysyllabic words, the accent is used instead; compare tôr "king" with its plural form tórin (not *tôrin). This system is also used in the spelling of Sindarin; in that language, it denotes that in monosyllables, long vowels tend to become especially long. This may also be the case in Ilkorin.
The Noun
Two inflections are found in the material, genitive and plural. A genitive ending -a is seen in the phrase Tor Tinduma "King of Twilight", a title of Thingol (THIN, TIN; cf. tindum "twilight"). The plural ending is -in, seen in adar "father" pl. edrin (ATA), aman "mother" pl. emnin (misreading "emuin" in the published Etymologies, stem AM1), Balthor *"Vala-king" pl. Balthorin (BAL), boron "trusty man" pl. burnin (BOR), gangel "harp" pl. genglin (ÑGAN), tôr "king", pl. tórin (TÂ/TA3, BAL), talum "ground, floor" pl. telmin (TALAM), thorn "eagle" pl. thurin (THOR/THORON). It will be noted that the ending -in causes a to umlaut to e, and in the case of polysyllabic words, the vowel in the syllable preceding the ending is lost (adar > edrin, aman > emnin, talum > telmin). In one attested case, plurality is shown by umlaut only, and the ending -in is not used: tal "foot", pl. tel "feet" (TAL).
The vowel o becomes u in boron > burnin and thorn > thurin (read *thurnin?), but not in tôr > tórin (evidently because this ô is long and represents earlier long A).
A plural genitive ending -ion seems to occur in the phrase Dor-thonion "Land of Pines"; cf. also thurnion "of eagles" in Torthurnion "King of Eagles". Cf. Quenya -ion.
Verbs
Only five verbs are known, and there isn't much we can say about them. All end in -a: góda- "to soil, stain", taga "he fixes, constructs, makes", tingla- "sparkle", toga "he brings", tolda "he fetches" (see wordlist below for references). As we see, taga, toga and tolda are glossed as 3. person masculine singular present-tense forms, while góda and tingla are glossed as infinitives. Since they display the same ending as the other forms, it seems likely that they, too, are really 3. pers. sg. present-tense forms - *"he soils, stains" and *"he (it?) sparkles". In Ilkorin, the 3. pers. sg. present tense may be the simplest form of the verb and is therefore used as the lexical form. In three out of five cases, Tolkien translated the Ilkorin verbs literally; in the remaining two cases, he used the English lexical form, the infinitive. The ending -a for "he" and "present tense" may indeed represent older endings where an explicit pronominal element was present; see taga in the wordlist below for further discussion.
Past Participle
The word thúren "guarded, hidden" from the stem THUR- "hedge in" seems to argue the existence of a past participle in -en, presumably the cognate of Quenya -ina. Notice that the stem-vowel is lengthened; this means that where the original vowel was a, it would change to ó in the past participle (since A, when it was long already in the primitive language, became long O in Ilkorin - see for instance tôr in the wordlist below). Original O in the verbal stem would likewise come out as long ú.
Ilkorin vs. Doriathrin and Sindarin
From the above it is clear that Ilkorin is very similar to Doriathrin <doriath.htm>, as would be expected since Tolkien conceived them as closely related languages. For instance, the two tongues share the plural ending -in and the genitive ending -a. Doriathrin and Ilkorin should be considered closely related dialects of the same language; indeed Tolkien sometimes seems to use the term "Ilkorin" with reference to all the dialects of Beleriand, including Doriathrin.
But what is the relationship of Ilkorin to Sindarin, the language that usurped its place in the mythos? It is interesting to notice that when "Noldorin" became Sindarin, Tolkien did certain revisions that in some respects made the language somewhat more similar to Ilkorin. For instance, in "Noldorin" primitive initial l- and r- turned into unvoiced sounds lh- and rh-, but in Ilkorin, these sounds were unchanged - and this is also the case in Sindarin. Another change affects final w following a consonant: In "Noldorin" this sound remained unchanged; in LR:398 s.v. WEG, Tolkien noted that the "Noldorin" cognate of the Quenya name Elwë would have been Elw, but that no such form was in use. But in later Sindarin, we do find a Grey-elven form of the name Elwë, namely Elu - and this is also the form we would have expected in Ilkorin, in which language -w in this position did turn into -u. Cf. such an Ilkorin word as adu "double" as the cognate of Quenya atwa, LR:349 s.v. AT(AT). This word occurs in the Silmarillion as part of the river-name Adurant *"Doublecourse", and since in the published Silmarillion the language of Beleriand is Sindarin and not Ilkorin, adu must now be considered a Sindarin word - though it would probably have been *adw in Tolkiens earlier "Noldorin". Indeed one reason why Tolkien made "Noldorin" a little more similar to Ilkorin, thereby producing Sindarin, may have been that he wanted to keep many of the long-established names of places and people in Beleriand more or less unchanged - and this would not be possible if "Noldorin" was made the indigenous language of Beleriand just like this tongue had appeared in the Etymologies. So while "Noldorin" did in one way eat Ilkorin alive, it was not unaffected by this; Sindarin as we know it from later sources in some respects looks like the earlier "Noldorin" with an Ilkorin substrate!
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:26 PM |
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The Rover
Gender: Male
Location: Canada |
ILKORIN WORDLIST with etymological notes
Ancestral forms "reconstructed" by Tolkien himself are not asterisked. In the primitive forms, long vowels are marked by circumflexes; the sources use macrons instead.
-a genitive ending, seen in Tor Tinduma "King of Twilight", a title of Thingol (cf. tindum "twilight"). The primitive Common Eldarin genitive ending was -hô > -ô, derived from an "ancient adverbial element" HO meaning "away, from, from among" (WJ:368). The corresponding entry in the far earlier Etymologies seems to be 3O (3Ô) "from, away, from among, out of" (LR:360). Could primitive -ô come out as -a in Ilkorin? There are a few words where -ô may seem to develop in such a way (see adda, broga), but normally, final -ô is lost like other final vowels. - In the plural genitive ending -ion, the "genitival" element (< 3O or HO) appears as o; see -ion.
adar "father", pl. edrin. Derived from a stem ATA, itself simply defined as "father" (LR:349). The Primitive Quendian form is given as atar, that must be seen simply as an extension of the stem itself. As in Sindarin, unvoiced stops (p, t, k) are voiced (to b, d, g) following a vowel, hence atar > adar. - The plural form edrin shows umlaut a > e, caused by the i of the plural ending -in (concerning which see separate entry). Also notice the syncope of the second vowel of adar in the inflected form. For similar contractions, compare aman pl. emnin, boron pl. burnin, gangel pl. genglin (q.v.)
adda "father" (possibly hypocoristic, = *"dad"). Derived from the same stem ATA as adar above (LR:349). It would be tempting to believe that this is the cognate of Quenya atto, primitive *attô, evidently the stem ATA with a medial fortification t > tt and the masculine ending -ô. If so, the form adda would suggest that final -ô becomes -a in Ilkorin. Compare broga "bear" from primitive morókô - but in other examples, final -ô is lost without trace (see for instance benn, ber). Moreover, the word adda would seem to indicate that following a vowel, also double *tt becomes voiced dd in Ilkorin. Contrast Sindarin, in which language only single t would be voiced in this position, while *tt becomes th instead - cf. for instance peth "word" from earlier kwetta. However, another Ilkorin word does show a Sindarin-like development of *tt: brith "gravel" from b'rittê. It may be, then, that Ilkorin adda is not really the cognate of Quenya atto, but rather an affectionate form based on adar "father", formed later and not directly descended from the primitive language. If we see adda as the cognate of High-elven atto, we would have to assume that Tolkien changed his mind about the phonological evolution of Ilkorin while he was writing the Etymologies (which is of course not inconceivable; the editor in LR:346 refers to "divergent forms...between one part of the Etymologies and another").
adu, also ado, "double". Derived from a stem AT(AT), which Tolkien defined as "again, back" (LR:349). It would seem that this is basically a simple stem AT that often appears as ATAT, the reduplication symbolizing the repetition. Adu, ado must come from simple AT, though. These Ilkorin words for "double" are apparently cognates of Quenya atwa of similar meaning. The primitive form, transparently meant to be *atwâ, combines the stem AT with the adjectival ending -wâ (concerning this ending, cf. for instance narwâ "fiery red", derived from the stem NAR1 "flame, fire", LR:374; see also alch, laig). After the loss of primitive final -â, the final semi-vowel of the resulting form *atw apparently turned into a full vowel -u, *atu then becoming adu after the voicing of post-vocalic *t (cf. adar from atar). It would seem that adu subsequently became ado (a similar change of final -u to -o occurred in Common Eldarin, but this Ilkorin development must be later). That this change occurred only when -u was final is suggested by the compound Adurant (rather than *Adorant) for *"Doublecourse", name of a river in Ossiriand which for a distance had divided streams (concerning the second element, see rant).
alch "swan" (ÁLAK). Primitive form given as alk-wâ, derived from a stem ÁLAK "rushing" (LR:348). Alk-wâ would seem to be an adjectival formation (concerning the adjectival ending -wâ, see ado above). The primitive word was evidently an adjective with the same meaning as the stem: "rushing", later used as a noun "rushing (one)" and applied to an animal. Tolkien may have imagined that after the loss of the final vowel, the now final kw was de-velarized to k, the resulting form *alk then turning into alch because p, t, k following a liquid became spirants f, th, ch (= kh, [x]), just as in Sindarin (see UT:265, footnote). Compare words like Balthor, erdh, salch (but contrast the word tolda < tultâ-, where lt mysteriously becomes ld instead of lth; perhaps this is because this cluster lt occurred already at the very oldest stage, whereas the other combinations here listed arose only later, as a result of syncopes or compounding). Notice that kw was not de-velarized initially, so we have for instance cwess "down" (noun) from primitive kwessê (LR:366 s.v. KWES). In this respect at least, Ilkorin cannot function as a dialect of Sindarin after Tolkien's revisions of the history of the Elvish languages: In Sindarin, indeed in the entire Lindarin branch of the Elvish language family, primitive kw very early became p (WJ:375, cf. WJ:407 note 5). Alk-wâ so early became *alpâ that if we are to make Ilkorin a Lindarin language according to Tolkien's later ideas, this word would have had to become *alf, just like in normal Sindarin (in that language preferably spelt alph). Compare salch.
aman "mother", pl. emnin (obvious misreading "emuin" in the published LR). Derived from a stem AM1 (LR:348), simply defined as "mother". Aman must represent an "extended" stem *aman, sc. AM1 with suffixation of the stem-vowel (by a Quenya term ómataina, vocalic extension) and a suffixed consonant -n. Compare boron, q.v., from BOR. The plural form emnin shows the same contraction and umlaut as in the examples adar pl. edrin, gangel pl. genglin.
Argad "outside the fence", lands outside Doriath (the "fence" obviously being the Girdle of Melian). Also explicitly Argador "land outside the fence", sc. outside Doriath. (The forms Argad and Argador are mentioned in LR:349 s.v. AR2, Argador also in LR:358 s.v. GAT(H).) Concerning dor "land", see separate entry; as an Ilkorin word, the element gad "fence" is attested in this compound only, but Doriathrin has the same word: See gad in the wordlist appended to the article about Doriathrin for etymological discussion. The element ar- "outside" that is prefixed to Argad, Argador is derived from the stem AR2 (LR:349), not itself defined but probably meaning much the same as the Quenya preposition ara "outside, beside", the first word listed in this entry in the Etymologies. Compare the entry ar- in the Silmarillion appendix. In Etym it is stated that in Quenya and Ilkorin alike, this element was "purely local in sense", referring simply to spatial relationships. This was evidently the original meaning of this element as well, since it is further said that in Sindarin ("Noldorin"), this element developed a privative sense ("without"), as in arnediad (arnoediad) "without reckoning, numberless". Ilkorin and Quenya thus preserve the original meaning of this prefix.
arn "red". Derived from a stem YAR, defined as "blood" (LR:400, the Ilkorin word for blood, ôr, is indeed derived from the same stem). The primitive form is undoubtedly meant to be *jarnâ (*yarnâ) with the common adjectival ending -nâ (sometimes used to derive passive participles); the primitive word must clearly have implied "bloody" or "blood-red". Perhaps this association would no longer be so strong in Ilkorin, the phonological evolution having made the words for "red" and "blood" somewhat divergent in form; the words arn and ôr are not as obviously connected as their primitive counterparts *jarnâ and *jara. Notice that the final -â of *jarnâ is lost without trace in arn; more remarkably, the initial j has also disappeared (as in ôr "blood").
Aros name of river with reddish water, the southern river of Doriath. Derived from the same stem YAR "blood" as arn "red" above (LR:400). The "Noldorin"/Sindarin cognate is given as iaros, suggesting that the stem YAR as such (rather than a derivative like *jarnâ) was once prefixed in this word. The second element of the name, -os, is obscure. See the name of another river, Thalos, for some thoughts about this ending.
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:28 PM |
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The Rover
Gender: Male
Location: Canada |
For the rest go to Ardalambion....
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:28 PM |
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The Inkeeper
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Location: With You |
Gorgoroth
Could you PLEASE in future creat a 'Tolkeins Tongues' Thread or something and post it ALL in there
instead of creating endless threads of practically the same thing...
Or make a ardalambion thread
as seemingly thats where you are getting all this from
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:34 PM |
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Nienna
nonexistent
 Gender: Female
Location: Murcia, Spain |
^^*agrees* 
We can't have 14 language threads all over the forum  Make one big one and ask Storm to merge 
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:39 PM |
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The Inkeeper
Senior Member
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Oh i frogot 4 posts in a row, thats spamming *reports*
Spamming is only acceptable if its a unbelievable large numbr of posts...like 37 
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:42 PM |
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The Rover
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__________________
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:45 PM |
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The Inkeeper
Senior Member
Gender: Male
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Yeah whatever
Whatever your way out of your first spam warning that easy will you?
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Jul 11th, 2004 02:46 PM |
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