TOLKIEN ALPHABETS

by, Dan Smith, with special thanks to Arden Smith and Doug Pearson. Compiled from the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Please stop by Dan's website and see amazing commpilation of Tolkien Runic information:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/4948/

Listed below are the alphabets I use regularly in my campaign. Not all the Tolkien alphabets are listed here.

Tengwar / Quenya Language

Tengwar Chart for consonants:

Primary Letters:

Additional Letters:

Notes:

1) Technically, anna does not have the value "y" when used in the Quenya mode; "y" is represented by anna + "following-y" tehta (or ). Anna is not used by itself in the published Quenya texts.

2) Although this letter is part of the standard set of additional letters, it is not used for writing Quenya language texts.

3) The long and short carriers are silent letters. They are used in conjunction with vowel symbols.

 


 

Tehtar Chart for Quenya vowels:

Notes:

1) In Quenya, the a sound occurs so frequently, that it's symbol (three dots) is often simplified (to look like a circumflex) or if no confusion would occur, eliminated altogether.

2) All of the published Quenya Tengwar inscriptions by Tolkien have used the acute accent mark for the e sound and the single dot for the i sound, but Tolkien also stated that the reverse could be equally valid.

3) Long vowels have the same sound as short vowels, the only difference is the duration of the sound. For example: the short u is as the u in brute, while the long u is as the uu in cool (English pronunciation).

 

Tengwar / Sindarin Language

(Classical Mode)

 

Tengwar Chart for consonants:

Primary Letters:

Additional Letters:

Notes:

1) The long and short carriers are silent letters. They are used in conjunction with vowel symbols.

 


Tehtar Chart for Sindarin vowels:

Notes:

1) In Sindarin, the a sound occurs so frequently, that it's symbol (three dots) is often simplified (to look like a circumflex) or if no confusion would occur, eliminated altogether.

2) All of the published Sindarin Tengwar inscriptions by Tolkien (that use tehtar) have used the acute accent mark for the e sound and the single dot for the i sound, but Tolkien also stated that the reverse could be equally valid.

3) Long vowels have the same sound as short vowels, the only difference is the duration of the sound. For example: the short u is as the u in brute, while the long u is as the uu in cool (English pronunciation).

 

 

Angerthas Moria:

Below is a table containing the standard Cirth letters and their Angerthas Moria values:

 

Note:
- These letters are not used with the Angerthas Moria mode.
' Letter #35 represented a glottal stop sound.
* The values for these letters are sometimes swapped so that letters #34 & #35 represent the s sound, and #54 represents the h sound.
[1] Letter #55 represented a schwa sound. A schwa is an unstressed vowel that can be spelled with any vowel in English orthography. The schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables.
[2] Letter #56 represented a sound similar to the schwa. This sound occurs only in stressed syllables.
 

Angerthas Erebor:

Below is a table containing the standard Cirth letters and their Angerthas Erebor values:

 

Note:
- These letters are not used with the Angerthas Erebor mode.
[1] Letter #55 represents silent-e or a schwa sound. A schwa is an unstressed vowel that can be spelled with any vowel in English orthography. The schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables.
[2] Letter #56 represented a sound similar to the schwa. This sound occurs only in stressed syllables.

Additional letters used with Angerthas Erebor:

Accent marks used with Angerthas Erebor:

Numerals:

J.R.R.Tolkien never published a runic numbering system that could be used with the Cirth. However, in the Book of Mazarbul inscriptions, some characters are specifically used to represent numbers:

The dot under the number 4 may be an example of a 'numeral indication' marker. Similar markers are used with the Tengwar numbering system , also used in Middle-earth.

 

Angerthas Daeron:

Below is a table containing the standard Cirth letters and their Angerthas Daeron values:

 

Note:
- These letters are not used with the Angerthas Daeron mode.
[1] Certh #7 was used for mh in archaic Sindarin but was later used for mb.
[2] Certh #34 represented the ss sound when used for Sindarin or Quenya, but represented the z sound when used for languages that had that sound.