A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

by David Salo

From the 1910s to the 1970s, author and linguist J. R. R. Tolkien worked at creating plausibly realistic languages to be used by the creatures and characters in his novels. Like his other languages, Sindarin was a new invention, not based on any existing or artificial language. By the time of his death, he had established fairly complete descriptions of two languages, the "elvish" tongues Quenya and Sindarin. He was able to compose poetic and prose texts in both, and he also constructed a lengthy sequence of changes for both from an ancestral "proto-language," comparable to the development of historical languages and capable of analysis with the techniques of historical linguistics.

In A Gateway to Sindarin , David Salo has created a volume that is a serious look at an entertaining topic. Salo covers the grammar, morphology, and history of the language. Supplemental material includes a vocabulary, Sindarin names, a glossary of terms, and an annotated list of works relevant to Sindarin. What emerges is an homage to Tolkien's scholarly philological efforts.

Genres: Fantasy, Linguistics, Language, Reference, Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction Fantasy

456 pages, Paperback

First published November 8, 2004

Reviews

[Arok · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a fairly technical work on the linguistic structure of the Sindarin language (Edhellen). It is not a a "How to Speak Sindarin" language teaching text, so those of us wishing to challenge the pre-eminence of Klingon will have to wait for that. However, what it is is an excellent description of many of the features of one of the two main Elven languages invented by Tolkien. It is technical because Tolkien was a master of philology and linguistics, and through the technical description we can begin to glimpse exactly how masterful he was. It's an excellent book and I only hope we might one day see a matching volume for Quenya. And bring on the language lessons as well!

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

With his 2004 A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings American linguist David Salo is presenting his ideas regarding the grammar of Sindarin (and with Sindarin of course being one of the Elvish languages J.R.R. Tolkien invented, developed and used in The Lord of the Rings and in other works of his legendarium). But while this book according to its title claims to be a gateway to Sindarin, sorry, but in my humble opinion, for the majority of LOTR fans, Salo's supposed gateway will more than likely remain as closed as the sealed entrance to Moria.

And yes, this has definitely been the case for me regarding the vast majority of A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, that therefore, I also decided to stop reading at around page one-hundred of A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings since I was both not really enjoying A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and also getting ever more massively academically (read linguistically) frustrated (so that my three star rating only exists because I do appreciate the detailed bibliography David Salo provides and that A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is definitely vastly superior and much less inaccurate than Ruth L. Noel's The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and well, because I rated Noel's book with two stars, yes, even with me being unwilling and unable to finish with A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Salo's text does therefore deserve a rather grudgingly given and somewhat generous three star rating).

For considering how much linguistic jargon David Salo is using and how A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is for the most part penned in a frustratingly (and often even unnecessarily so) overly complex technical language, albeit there is a glossary of linguistic terms being provided, honestly, in order to actually read and sufficiently understand Salo's text for A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings readers would (at least in my humble opinion) definitely require more than an elementary knowledge of morphology, phonology, grammar, syntax and the like, that without a solid upper undergraduate and graduate university level linguistic familiarity, A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would in my opinion be at best rather massively difficult and at worst a tome with the proverbial seven seals so to speak (and that for me, the basic linguistics I had to learn in the 1990s regarding my first comprehensive exam for my PhD in German literature was definitely not in any way even remotely sufficient for A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings).

And combined with the fact David Salo is also not even remotely interested with A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in teaching his readers some basic Sindarin, that for me there should definitely be a language learning component (with exercises and simplified grammatical explanations provided by Salo), no, I cannot really recommend A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. For a language learning part would in my opinion also make A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (even with the complicated linguistics) much easier to understand, so that as A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is now, there exists just Salo's complicated text (and that readers with no or with just sparse background in linguistics would more than likely find A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings incessantly frustrating and as such also majorly textually annoying).

[Tyler · Rating 1 out of 5]

This work is not as intellectually honest as it should be, given the amount of scholarship that has gone into the study of Tolkien's invented languages. Many of the claims in this book are presented as facts based on selectively chosen data that suit Salo's desired "final" version of Sindarin. Salo's version of Sindarin is an interesting exercise, but unless you are already a Sindarin scholar, you won't know where Salo is making reasonable claims and where he is ignoring valid counterpoints.

[James Spahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a contributor to the officially licensed Middle-earth table-top "The One Ring," this is a great reference for the linguistically inclined Tolkien fan. However, that being said, it is dense and reads like a textbook because, well, it is.

[Tao Zheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating tome. Mainly read about the history of Sindarin and its writing systems. A must-have for linguistic nerds and Tolkienologists.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to admit it, but although I am marking this book as "read," I did not, in fact, read the whole thing. Just enough to remind myself that while I am fascinated by languages and linguistics, I have never felt particularly drawn to the constructed languages of Tolkien. I guess studying Latin and Greek keeps me quite occupied, and if I were going to read up on a conlang, it would probably be Esperanto . . . .

[Colin Carlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely excellent! A full text book on sindarin. If you are looking for a fictional story this isn't the way to go, it is literally an in-depth text book full with pronunciation, grammar, sentence structure and so so much more. Salo did a great job and if you want to learn elvish this is the only way to go.... until they come out with a rosetta stone for elvish that is....

Cheers

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars given with the caveat that if you aren't into deep deep linguistic theory and arcane rules of grammar and obscure Indo-European glottal stops... well, don't bother.

If you want to become totally immersed in Sindarin, you have to own this book. (and no I'm not being sarcastic)

[Maria ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needed this for Uni, but yo I actually liked it. Very interesting, loads of source materials on Tolkien.
Pretty good

[franklinia ☦︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tolkien is one of the best and the last good writer.

[Daniella]

Yes, I want to learn Sindarin, so I can insult people in a fictional language without them realizing. Don't worry about it.

[James Madsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I confess that I haven't read this entire book, but as a reference, it has excellent word lists and a good discussion of linguistic issues. What it's not is a book to teach you the language step by step.

[Linda Hoover · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive guide to one of the Elvish languages created by Tolkien. This book is a wonderful, in-depth guide to Sindarin!! Anyone wishing to learn or know more about Tolkien's Sindarin language should read this book.

[Anny]

Lamen i ann-speech is a gift

[Jason Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Educational, not entertaining. It's a textbook, and a good one.

[epizkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a linguist, this book made me giddy. Highly recommend,but only if you've had linguistic training. My mother took one look and gave up, its very complicated for people not in the field.

[Haplila]

This one is MUST READ!!☺️☺️☺️

[Jun]

https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328773...

[. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was pretty much obsessed with this book. I think I read more of this book than any textbook I've ever read in college xD