Common Eldarin

Common Eldarin is the tongue of the ancient Eldar of the Great March. It is the last common ancestor of all known Elvish languages.

Origin

Common Eldarin split off Primitive Quendian, the original language of all Quendi, or Elves, when the Eldar left Cuiviénen for Valinor, since their language still evolved during the Great March.

Since the Eldar dominate the annals of the Elder Days, all the Elvish languages that appear, come from that branch. The Avarin languages possibly followed a wholly different evolution.

Common Eldarin led is the last common ancestor of Quenya and the Telerin languages.

Evolution from Primitive Quendian

During the Great March, minor changes to the Primitive Quendian brought the later Eldarin languages. These changes had to do with several developments of the word-forms, usually normalization. For example:

Medial h was lost

PQ: -hô > CE: -ô

"Difficult" consonant clusters, usually those with nasals (like bm and dn), were rearranged

PQ: labmâ (root LAB) > CE: lambâ

PQ: stabnê (root STAB) > CE stambê

ʒt > cht

PQ: maʒtâ (root MAƷ) > CE: mahtâ (pronounced machta)

Final short -a, -e, -o are lost, sometimes producing a long monosyllable as their trace

PQ: ndêro > CE: ndæ^r (kwende > quendë is an exception)

Final short -i, -u became -e, -o

PQ: maʒiti > CE: *maʒite

PQ: ranku > CE: *ranko

Other minor changes

PQ: wo > CE: wa

a infiction in some stems which produced new diphthongs like ae, ao

PQ: *melâ (root MEL) > CE *maelâ

final long -â, -ê, -î, -ô, -û became short (later stage)

CE: stambê > stambe

CE: mahtâ > mahta

CE: lambâ > lamba

At some point, dialects separated the uniformity of that language, and produced the Common Telerin branch.

External links

• Common Eldarin discussion under Primitive Elvish in Ardalambion