Note: tengwa = consonant, theta = vowel
A basic table of the alphabet and letter names
There is a bit of debate that exists within the Tolkien linguistic community concerning the proper manner in which English should be properly transcribed. Tolkien appears to have used two different methods, which are sometimes referred to as orthographic and phonemic, but even inconsistencies became apparent within his own work as, one would assume, the tengwar refined itself over time. While some tengwa only appear in one of the significant examples that we have at our disposal [1], others we never see used at all despite the fact that Tolkien did ascribe them with letter values , thus making their usage purely theoretical. Tolkien’s son Christopher further confuses the situation with his own efforts to expand upon the works of his father [3]. As a result he has introduced new tengwa, reassigned the values of others, introduced a series of (urë) + theta to diphthong combinations, and even began placing a combination of theta above and below a short carrier in order to depict various vowel combinations. Yet, even like his father’s work, C. Tolkien’s pieces change over time as well. The transcription into English is then even further complicated by what Chris McKay calles the Common Mode [4]. McKay explains that the ever evolving Common Mode has developed in recent years because people learning tengwar have taken samples from both JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien’s transcriptions, and have in effect created a hybrid mode of sorts while not wrong per say, it is not always accepted as being correct either. There are also further complications that arise under further scrutiny of JRR Tolkien’s lesser known transcriptions, but the point is that the proper way to transcribe English into tengwar (tengwa and theta) is anything but straight forward.
After a good amount of digging, and a number of years to sort through the valid and invalid information to be found on the subject, I eventually settled on a form that suited me best. Using what Christ McKay calls “Original Mode,” a slightly rough mode which he drew from Appendix E of The Lord of the Ring and the Hugh Brogan Letter, as my base I have also added a few elements from Måns Björkman’s [6] assessment of the orthographic mode. All text in this book was transcribed by me with “trouble words” double checked using Björkman’s Tengwar Scribe[7] computer application. Since I am unsure of the transcription mode the Tengwar Scribe uses for English texts, any tengwa discrepancies were over ruled by McKay’s Original Mode, with one key exception. The key differences between the Original Mode and Björkman’s assessment of the orthographic mode is McKay’s inclusion of Theoretical tengwa - key among them being (arda) and (alda) McKay also includes a number of tengwa that represent unconventional letter combinations (usually aspirated). I made the executive decision to not use these, save for the common “of” “the” “of the” “and” symbols, since they are not represented on the “The Tengwar” table found in Appendix E under “The Fëanorian Letters” section. In an effort to artistically make the alphabet my own so that it would be visually more appealing I have also made a number of decisions that are not explicitly listed in either of my base sources, but are either supported by the Tengwar Scribe or side notes on Björkman’s website as alternate forms. In order to fully account for any debatable choices, I have attempted to list them in full below. The list also includes a number of rules that do not necessarily apply to just the Original Mode, but are correct form on all accounts as far as I know.
- the letter “x” is represented by a (quessë + s-curl) instead the (quessë + silmë) combination.
- “s” is represented by (silmë)while “soft c” is represented by (silmë nuquerna) with only a couple exceptions where “s” had to use the latter symbol for practical purposes
- Instances of “oo”, “ee”, “uu”, and “ii” are represented with double theta above the following tengwa. For artistic purposes “oo” has been adapted to look like__, “uu” looks like __, and “ee” looks like __
- The R-rule is followed concerning the use of (rómen) and (orë)
- Since the text are transcribed orthographically, long vowel carriers are not used.
- The use of a modifying bar above (tinco) and (ando) when preceded by (númen) and above (parma) when preceded by (malta) (as a replacement for [númen] and [malta]) is permitted.
- No more than two modifiers, excepting a double theta preceding a double consonant, is permitted. Should a tengwa call for a theta, a “silent e” modifier, and an s-curl then only the theta remains, and the silent e and s-curl are instead represented by (slime) and the “e” theta following the preceding tengwa.
- Diverging from the Original Mode, but in keeping with Tengwar Scribe, ("o" theta + üre) is used to represent the o+w combination instead of ("o" theta + vala) for visual aesthetic reasons.
- Concerning punctuation
o The symbols , : and – have been replaced by the “comma” symbol ·
o The symbols . and ; have been replaced by the “period” symbol :
o All proper symbols that replace English punctuation, as directed by JRR Tolkien are observed
o For clarity sake, the common English punctuation for ( ) [ ] / # and ‘ have been retained.
_______________________________________________
[1] Like the the k+h compound from the Hugh Brogan Letter
[2] Example – arda (-rd)or alda (-ld)
[3] As found in the Histories of Middle Earth Series
[4] Of Tolkien Script Publishing (http://www.geocities.com/tengwar2001/)
[5] TSP’s Tengwar Textbook edition 4, version 2.00, copyright April 2004
[6] Amanye Tenceli - http://at.mansbjorkman.net/
[7]Tengwar Scribe 1.1 - http://at.mansbjorkman.net/tengscribe.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment