One of the more complicated aspects of writing and understanding Sindarin is that initial consonants mutate (change). These changes were originally phonological in nature; the changes were made to make the words sound nicer together. As always, you can learn far more detailed information about why all of this occurs in Helge Fauskanger’s brilliant essay Sindarin: The Noble Tongue at Ardalambion. Here I will try to explain more simply what to do, and when to do it.

Once you understand the concept behind mutations, and how to use the chart, it is mostly a matter of recognizing the times when you need to mutate. This is less complicated when constructing a sentence than when decoding one, in my experience.

Important: Mutation only happens to words that begin with a consonant, and it is that initial consonant that is changed. There are five consonants that are immune to mutation - f, l, n, r, and th.

Much of what follows is deduced from the scant attested examples; it is theory. It has the benefit of being theory based on reason, logically arrived at, by Helge Fauskanger and David Salo, two prominent and eminent scholars of Sindarin.

The single most useful tool you have at your disposal is the Consonant Mutations Chart, and I strongly recommend that you print it out and keep it handy. With practice and experience, you will become increasingly familiar with which consonant changes into what and when, but you will need to refer to it often in the beginning stages of your study; I still refer to it frequently.

There are five different kinds of mutations: lenition, nasal mutation, mixed mutation, stop mutation, and liquid mutation.

The chart lists all the consonants down the first column, in their natural state. It also lists some consonant clusters (two or more consonants together) that are uniquely affected by mutation (bl, br, cl, cr, etc.). The second column shows what they become after lenition (“softening”). The third and fourth columns show the results of nasal mutation. The fifth column shows what happens to the consonants when you apply mixed mutation. Column six shows the impact of stop mutation, and the final column shows the consonants’ forms after liquid mutation.

The top row, from left to right, lists the different kinds of mutation and in brackets says which preposition or article is used to demonstrate. Often the preposition or article causing the mutation will change its form as well, to make the combination sound nicer (or to make it easier to pronounce).

What does this mean? The consonant b will turn into a v if it is lenited (“softened”), but nasal mutation will turn it into m. It retains its original form under mixed mutation and stop mutation, and softens to v with liquid mutation. Beneath the main chart is a special chart for the inevitable exceptions to the rules.

This may seem very mysterious at first, but for now we're simply going to start with…

This is the most frequent type of mutation. It is called “softening” because the consonants change to a softer version (p becoming b, for instance). The most common cause of lenition is the singular definite article i “the”. I’ll use that to demonstrate. We’ll look at all the causes of lenition afterwards.

As you can see, g lenits away completely, and in its place is left a mark. In our alphabet we represent it with an apostrophe; unfortunately we have no example of how Tolkien intended it to be shown in the writing system of the Elves, the tîw, or tengwar.

1. Lenition is caused by prepositions and prefixes ending in vowels, and by prepositions and prefixes that used to end in vowels in an earlier stage of Sindarin’s development:

i ~ singular definite article “the”
ab ~ preposition and prefix “after, behind, following, later” (used to be apa)
adel ~ preposition “behind, in rear of” (used to be atele)
am ~ preposition and prefix “up, upwards, above, over” (used to be amba)
ath- ~ prefix “on both sides, across” (used to be attha)
athra- ~ prefix “across”
av- ~ prefix “don’t” (from avo)
be ~ preposition “according to, as, like”
bo ~ preposition “on”
dad ~ adverb or prefix “down”
di ~ preposition “under, beneath”
go- ~ prefix “together”
gwa- ~ prefix “together” (no longer used in modern Sindarin)
mi ~ preposition "in"
na ~ preposition "to, towards; at; of; with, by"
nu ~ preposition "under"
sui ~ preposition "as, like"
tre- ~ prefix "through"
trî ~ preposition "through"
ú- and u- ~ negative prefix "no, not" (similar to English un-, im-, dis-, mis-)
*ú ~ "no, not" (reconstructed usage)
*no ~ ""before" (reconstructed usage by D. Salo)

Note: Prefixes are marked with a dash (-) following them. They are usually united with the noun or verb, either with the dash or as a compound: tre- "through" + bad- "go" = trevad- "traverse, go through". It is possible that some of them can also stand alone as a preposition.

Note: The singular article i also seems to cause lenition when it is used as a singular relative pronoun “who, that, which” in most cases.

2. The imperative adverb avo ~ used to express a negative command ~ causes lenition:

Caro! “Do [it]!” becomes Avo garo! “Don’t do [it]!”
Garo! "Hold/have [it]!" becomes Avo 'aro! or Avaro! "Don't hold/have [it]!"
Pedo! “Speak!” becomes Avo bedo! “Don’t speak!”

3. An adverb seems to be lenited when it is immediately after an imperative verb, but is not lenited if it comes before the verb or if the verb is conjugated in a different tense:

Edro hi ammen ~ "Open now for us" where hi is the lenited form of si "now"
Le nallon sí ~ "I cry to thee here" ~ no lenition
Mae govannen ~ "Well met" ~ no lenition

4. A noun is lenited when it is the object of the verb:

Daur a Berhael… eglerio! ~ “Taur and Perhael… Glorify!” Note that both Taur and Perhael are the objects of the verb ("Glorify Frodo and Sam!"), and both are lenited regardless of where they are found within the sentence.

5. The second word of a compound is often lenited:

calen “green” + sad “space” = calenhad “green space” (lenition)

6. Adjectives following the noun they describe are usually lenited:

Tol “isle” + calen “green” = Tol galen “Isle Green” (or "Green Isle")

Note: It is possible that an adjective does not lenit when it is a predicate: Tol calen ~ "An island [is] green" ~ is perhaps correct. This uncertainty is best addressed in further detail after learning the basics.

Note: The consonants b and m both lenit to v, which can sometimes create confusion (bess vell could mean “strong woman” or “dear woman”). It is permissible to not lenit a word beginning with m- if it creates confusion with an identical word beginning with b-. However, Tolkien does not say that a word beginning in b- would not need to lenit, so you should always lenit those.

Note: There are a number of attested examples where the adjective is not lenited in this position, which cannot be easily explained. Rath Dínen “Silent Street” should be Rath Dhínen if it followed the rules. Cú Beleg "Mighty Bow" should be Cú Veleg. However, it is probably best to lenit the adjectives in this position.

In addition to the uncertainty about whether an adjective should lenit following the invisible verb "to be", there is another issue about mutation that is unresolved.

guren bêd enni “my heart says to me” shows lenition of pêd.

Is this lenition caused by a rule that verbs are lenited when they immediately follow the subject? We have no other examples to support the idea. It is possible that the first-person possessive ending -n causes lenition. This phrase is from Tolkien's notes, and is possibly just a concept he experimented with and discarded.

When possible, you can avoid this situation by inserting an adjective after the noun, or by placing the verb before the subject instead. Sometimes it isn't avoidable, however, and until or unless any future publication settles the question it is advisable to pick one method or the other and be consistent.

You might wish to copy that list of the causes of lenition into a word-processor file, and perhaps add to it the information about causes of the other types of mutations in Lesson #5, then print the entire list. It is a lot of information to absorb, and it will take practice to become more familiar with applying the rules. The more you practice, the better you will become and the easier it will seem.

Decoding Sindarin requires that you recognize when mutation must have occurred, and that you "un-mutate" the consonant. If you see i haew and look up haew in the dictionary, you will find "habit". However, knowing that i causes lenition, you would look to see what consonant lenits to h by running down the "SOFT" column until you discover that the original consonant was s. Therefore i haew stands for i + saew, and looking in the dictionary you will find saew means "poison".

We will deal with verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in later lessons. For now it is easier to practice the simple causes of lenition: prefixes and prepositions.

1. Soft mutation (lenition) means the change of a word's initial consonant to a softer sound
2. The most common cause of lenition is the singular definite article i "the"
3. Lenition is caused by many prepositions and prefixes, and the negative command avo "don't!".

Translate the following into Sindarin applying soft mutation:
1. "survival" ~ bronad … "the survival" ~
2. "a star" ~ gîl … "beneath a star" ~
3. "a bow" ~ peng … "with a bow" (using na) ~
4. "blood" ~ sereg … "like blood" ~
5. "a deed" ~ cardh … "a misdeed" ~
6. "support" ~ tulu … "the support" ~
7. "sky" ~ menel … "the sky" ~
8. "a child" ~ hên … "the child" ~
9. "a whisper" ~ lhoss … "the whisper" ~
10. "east" ~ rhûn … "the east" ~

Translate the following into English using the Sindarin dictionary and "un-mutating" the words:
11. i dhû
12. bo gair
13. i vrannon
14. i drenarn
15. úchannas
16. be 'lîr
17. i vôr
18. na beth
19. trî ham
20. sui 'wael

The answers to the exercise can be found in the Answer Key. If you do not understand something in the lesson, please post questions in the Plaza's Language Forum or in the Plaza house Tham Lammath Edhellin. Please read the Introduction to these lessons for disclaimers and sources. You can contact the author of these lessons at taramiluiel@cox.net

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