History of Elven Writing Systems/Second Age

= Quenya Mode = Some changes occurred in Noldorin phonology, already in Valinor, that differentiated it from the dialect of the Vanyar: th merged with s, initial ch with h and maybe later, but still before the Exile, z with r. Those changes were inherited to Exilic Quenya which slowly evolved further.

There is not much known about the slow elvish evolution in 2nd Age, but certainly the sages of Númenor, as well as Elven sages of middle-Earth, were using the Quenya Tengwar and applied some changes and simplifications to them. It is not known when exactly those changes that brought us to the final form of the table in Appendix E took place, but if we consider some changes as “early” or “late”, we could attribute some intermediate stages to the 2nd Age. It still must be noted that some changes described here could not had happened then, but later.

Aldwin Lowdham wrote some Numenorian names with tengwar and Lisa Star believes this writing represents a Numenorean mode. This mode reminds of Sanskrit: since a was very frequent, its sign was sometimes left out, and the sound was just meant, giving the script therefore an abugida flavour. An unutixë (underdot), which in this case was called Putta, was used to indicate that a consonant is not followed by any vowel (Minyatur, t%5Ô1Y6Ê ).

Examples
Concerning the mode of Númenor, this is how Elendil’s Oath can be transcribed

- `V1 `V`7Rj°^ `V2^7R5: `M1~Mj%`V5È = 8`B5^t$ t7Uy5È `6 dTm%5Ô6 1R5: `w6 t$1; --

''Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinomë maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar metta.''

And other words. Please pay attention to their etymology:

3f92^ 	Sangahyando < *Thangahyando (‘Throng-cleaver’, a name)

`V,Fj^°d6 	*Erellochar < Ezellochar (Green Mound in Valinor)

9FjLn 	Helwa < HEL (pale blue)

d^q8Ê 	Hopas < *Chopasse (harbour)

=General Use mode= The Noldor founded Eregion in the year 750 of the Second Age. When this civilization reached its peak, it was already a cultural and financial crossroad of races: Noldor, Sindar, Dwarves and Men, Dúnedain or other.

In The Howlett Rivendell Inscriptions, Tolkien affirms that there was a "general use (applicable to both S[indarin] and Q[uenya])" around the end of the Third Age but there is some evidence that the same or similar concept must have been employed back to the Eregion times: The Third Age "general use" shown by Tolkien is consistent to the Second Age the Ring-inscription, which, Isildur says, is "fashioned in an elven-script of Eregion" ; this mode bore many similarities to the actual theoretical and unused values of the Tengwar.

A similar system is also used for the few late Second Age Adûnaic words in Edwin Lowdham's Manuscript, Text I, we may tentatively assume that the "general use" is of Númenorian influences.

The origins of the General Use Mode are unclear; we can assume that it originated in Eregion that could satisfy the needs of non-Elvish languages and facilitate writing and communication in those multicultural circumstances; out of this contact Sauron could have inscribed the Ring. But it is also possible that this Mode originated in Númenor and spread with the use of Westron.

Since the Ring Inscription is the only Second Age source for this, and because the "General Use" is mentioned mostly in context to the Third Age, please see the relevant section

= Angerthas Daeron = Similar to the "General Use" modes, the Cirth also saw universal usage. The Gelydh (Noldor) made use of the cirth and made a name for them in Quenya, Certar. They even extended the Certhas and added several cirth. The adding of 2 whole new rows was attributed to the Ghelydh (CH-row and QU-row). It was considered an extention of Certhas Daeron, so it was named Angerthas Daeron (''and+certhas=long runerow).

Tolkien is not clear about when the name 'Angerthas Daeron' was used. An Introduction to Elvish interprets Tolkien as if the Angerthas was an earlier invention, while the authors use the custom name 'Angerthas Eregion' to refer to the system of the Second Age explained below.

Whatever this system was called, we see the innovations concerning the employment of the two new CH and QU-series, a new certh for h to replace the previous certh # which became ch. This certh was preferred for ch because its shape seemed to be between the shapes of the T and K cirth (8 T + e K > # CH), to represent how the ch sound also (phonologically) exist between t and c. There was also a new certh for nd, which as Tolkien notes, its form wasn’t much related to the dental cirth.

Some of the new letters were used for sounds of Quenya (and other tongues) not found in Sindarin. In that stage, the Angerthas reached its fullest extent, but for most forms of writing other than carving, the Tengwar were used.

Examples
The Angerthas was convenient for Quenya and alien languages, probably Mannish, and maybe the ancestor of the Common Speech. We can see how some archaic Mannish words that maybe were current, can be written.

9Dec@ 	Dûkan (Roh. dweller)

ecf8S 	Kastu (treasure)

Rnrl@ 	Rógin (Woses)

8Rc.ca9 	Trahald (Nor. Mannish: burrowing)

= Angerthas Moria = During the 2nd Age, or maybe its beginning, the Dwarves got accustomed with Angerthas of the Noldor and they modified it to suit Khuzdul, their language. This alphabet was spread further wherever the Dwarves went, hence the name Angerthas Moria, which is exemplified on the Balin's Tomb Inscription.

The Dwarves introduced various new cirth and some unsystematic minor changes to the values. The greatest of those changes, which resulted in major reorder, was the switch of the cirth for s and h (f and . ), and for unknown reasons, the abandonment of the cirth <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">$, <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">q for which they substituted <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">R , <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">T. Subsequently they used <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">@ for r and subsequently <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">u for n!

They used also <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">,, which was a simplified form of <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">u. Following the relation of those two letters, they gave to <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">w the value z to relate better with <em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">. , which as mentioned had now the value s.

Tolkien doesn’t mention any other cirth abandoned by the Dwarves but much must have been, as there are many that represent sounds not occurring in (at least our published words of) Khuzdul, like th, dh, hw etc. It is strange also to observe that some of the cirth they introduced represent sounds not occurring in their language, like nj, hy, ñ, y-, hy! Of course, our corpus of Khuzdul is very limited to judge the necessity or not, of these sounds.

Examples
The only Angerthas Moria inscription by Tolkien is Balin’s Tomb.

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">2calu 3SdluSa Sw2c9eVcwc99D6S

Balin Fundinul UzbadKhazadDûmu

From the documentation, the Dwarf battle-cry could be as written:

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">}2c@SeeVcwv9IeVcwv9cl6xuS}

''Baruk Khazâd. Khazâd ai-mênu!''

and some other words:

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">gcwvu ‘azân < `-Z-N (dimness, shadow)

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">gcwcuSa2lwc@ ‘Azanulbizar (Dimrill Dale)

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">uSaSeeVlw9lu 	Nulukkhizdin (caves of Nargothrond)

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">8Vc@eDu 	Tharkûn (Staff-man, the dwarves name for ‘Gandalf’)

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">glral%6xe 	‘iglishmêk (the gesture code / sign language of the Dwarves)

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">eVzaz9wv@c6 	Kheled-zâram < Kh-L-D, Z-R-M ('Mirrormere')

<em style="font-family: 'Cirth Erebor'; font-style: normal;">eVcwv9 Khazâd < Kh-Z-D (Dwarves)

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