1.2.6 Conjunctions (conj.) and Subordinate Clauses

• 1.2.6.1 Conjunctions
• 1.2.6.2 Subordinate Clauses
• 1.2.6.3 Distribution of Meaning Among Words
• 1.2.6.4 Section Summary
• Exercise 1.5

Conjunctions are words that join together two or more things in a sentence, like English “and, or, but”. The things joined can be nouns, adjectives, verbs or even two otherwise independent sentences. The equivalent Sindarin conjunctions (ah, egor, ach) behave much like in English. Here are a handful of conjunctions:

• ah conj. “and”
• egor conj. “or”
• i² pron. “who, that”
• ach² conj. “but”
• pen² pron. “one, somebody”
• ᴺS. pi adv. “if”
• ᴺS. ce adv. “may(be), might”
• ᴺS. lo conj. “while”

This section is the most difficult part of this first chapter, and in it we can only scratch the surface for how complex sentences are assembled. However, you need some understanding of complex sentence structure to have anything resembling normal discourse.

1.2.6.1 Conjunctions: As noted above, conjunctions join elements of a sentence. Some examples of conjunction use:

• i-Edhel ah i-Adan lerir v’ i-mâr. “The elf and the man sleep in the house.”
• I-Adan mên n’ i-garas ach i-edhel mên n’ i-daur. “The man is going to the city, but the elf is going to the forest.”
• Tirin ben, Adan egor orch. “I am watching someone, a man or an orc.”

Note ¹: “ah” before vowels, and “a” before consonants. It also causes sibilant mutation, and I must note that Eldamo rates this as a “mostly optional” mutation, in that its effects are minimal and are mentioned only in a single source. It is suggested to restore the h before vowels, but otherwise ignore any other mutational effects. If you do choose to use this mutation, its effects are:

1.2.6.2 Subordinate Clauses:A subordinate clause is a phrase within a sentence that depends on something in the main clause, for example: “I am watching the man who is running”. In this sentence, “who is running” is the subordinate clause and refers to the noun “man”. One way to form a subordinate clause in English is to use a relative pronoun like “who”. In Sindarin, the indeclinable relative pronoun i performs a similar function: Tirin i-adan i nôr. This i looks like the definite article i “the” but serves a different function. Our sample sentence includes two i doing different things:

• tirin i (“the”) adan i (“who”) nôr. “I am watching the man who is running”, where tiri-n = “(watching)-I”

English uses different relative pronouns for people (“who”) versus things (“which”), but in simple subordinate clauses, Sindarin uses the same relative pronoun i for both (but not so when using noun cases, see below). In this respect, the Sindarin indeclinable relative pronoun is more like the English relative pronoun “that”, which in English can be used in subordinate clauses for both people and things: “I am watching the man that is running” and “he finds a tower that has a roof”. Some more examples:

• Hîr vinas i hâf rond. “He finds a tower which has a roof”, where hîr = “finds-he”.
• Riston i-aew i aran mâd. “I am cutting the bird that a king eats”, where risto-n = “(cutting)-I”.

Note ¹: Why hâf and not sâfis an excellent question. The current theory which seems to explain the data we have – which at first glance seems very contradictory. Sindarin distinguishes restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses; non-restrictive clauses use i with no mutation, whereas restrictive clauses use the definite article i/in with soft/nasal mutation (depending on the plurality of the referent). In this case “which has a roof” is necessary information to identify the referent of “tower”, making this a restrictive clause, thus presumably requiring mutation.

• Tirin adan edain i nerir. “I am watching men who are running.”, alternatively with a participle, Tirin edain norel.
• Hîr vinais i rynd sevir. “He finds towers that have roofs.”
• Riston in-Aew i aran mâd. “I am cutting the birds that a king eats.”
• Riston i-Aew i erain medir. “I am cutting the bird that kings eat”

Note ²: A Sindarin enthusiast noted that this is an acceptable canonical word order, which emphasises that the towers have roofs, rather than something else that they might have. With normal word order it would be Hîr vinais i hevir rynd.

Note ³: They also state to further clarify the restrictive/non-restrictive clause theory above – here i erain medir is a restrictive clause necessary to identify the “bird”, therefore the theory predicts that this clause would begin with the definite article (not necessarily attached to any one word, btw, but rather attached to the whole clause – German does the same). BUT, it should not use the plural in, because the clause refers to i-aew, which is singular; the plural erain is not a factor for this. So, the sentence is correct as it stands.

The pronoun i itself does not change for singular vs. plural. The relative pronoun i is called indeclinable because it cannot be modified. It can only be used as a standalone pronoun and cannot (for example) be declined into noun cases.

Sindarin does not have which and whom. These are speculative. * iaw for things (“which”) and *ial for persons (“who”). Some examples:

• Aew lerir v’ i-daur * iaw vedir edhil. “Birds sleep in the forest to which elves go”.
• Tirin i-orch * ial i-adan nôr. “I am watching the orc from whom the man runs”.

Note ⁴: Reconstruction by a fellow Sindarin enthusiast. The equivalent of Q. yanna (relativiser “to which”) as √YA·dā > ✶jad > S. iaw. Then comes the question of mutation… Deriving it from a primitive ✶jad would imply stop mutation, though with a form like that it seems odd… This is getting a bit too speculative.

Note ⁵: Reconstruction by a fellow Sindarin enthusiast. the equivalent of Q. yallo >> S. iall, or I personally prefer ial because it’s an unstressed function word (and it may in fact be etymologically sounder). This one, coming from ✶jal(l)ō, would cause lenition, but that’s not relevant here.

1.2.6.3 Distribution of Meaning Among Words: The examples in this section illustrate an important fact about Sindarin: the distribution of meaning among words in Sindarin are not necessarily the same as in English. You cannot assume that a given Sindarin word can be used in all the same ways as its English translation. For example, English has two relative pronouns which can be used for persons: “who” and “that”. Sindarin has “i” but used in different circumstances.

1.2.6.4 Section Summary:

• Conjunctions in Sindarin:
  • Sindarin conjunctions, like “ah” (and), “ach” (behind), and “egor” (or), function similarly to their English counterparts, connecting nouns, adjectives, verbs, or complete sentences. For example, “i-Edhel ah i-Adan lerir v’ i-mâr. ” translates to “The elf and the man sleep in the house.”
  • Sindarin uses pronoun “i” for both restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, functioning like the English “who” or “that.” For example, “Tirin i-adan i nôr.” means “I am watching the man who is running.” Additionally, declinable relative pronouns like * iaw (for things) and *ial(for persons) are used when the pronoun needs to be in a specific noun case.
• Complex Sentence Structures and Word Meaning:
  • Sindarin's sentence structure can be complex, with the distribution of meaning among words differing from English. It's important to understand that a Sindarin word may not always be used in the same contexts as its English translation, particularly in the case of relative pronouns and the formation of complex sentences.

Exercise 1.5

Translate the following into English:

1. i-Adan ah i-Hadhod sevir vegil.
2. Megil han ristar yrch sílar luin.
3. Sâf vegil *ial yrch nerir.
4. Tirin i-chothron yrch *iad in-yrch menir.

Translate the following into Sindarin:

5. Elves sleep in the forest that orcs cut.
6. Men find the forest where [= in which] the elves sleep.
7. Elves are running from the orcs who are cutting the forest.
8. Men and dwarves are going to the forest from which the elves run.

Answers are in Answer Key 1.5.