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This article is about the language. For the Elven people, see Teleri.

Telerin, or Falmarin, was the language of the Falmari Elves.

History[]

Telerin or Falmarin, also called Lindalambë or Lindárin ("tongue of the Lindar"), was the language of the Falmari,[1] the Elves of Teleri lineage who lived in Valinor and descended directly from Ancient Telerin or Common Telerin. Because the Teleri lingered in Middle-earth during the Great Journey,[2] Ancient Telerin diverged early from Common Eldarin.[3] Certain common characteristics shared by the various languages spoken by their descendants can be attributed to this early divergence, most notably the change from labialized velars into labials, such as the primitive [kw] becoming [p]. Compared to the other two languages descended from Ancient Telerin, Sindarin and Nandorin, the Telerin spoken by the Falmari was more conservative and closer to Quenya. In fact, from the viewpoint of speakers of Quenya, Telerin was still largely intelligible and has been considered a dialect of their language. However, the Teleri themselves considered it to be an independent language and the phonology of the two languages differed much, with Telerin often being more conservative than Quenya.[4]

The influence of Telerin, made the Ñoldorin Quenya to differientate from Vanyarin Quenya. For example the Vanyar pronounced /f/ very soft, almost like /hw/, but the Ñoldor resisted this change through influence from the Teleri. Also, the Teleri prized silver above gold, and their skill as silversmiths was esteemed even by the Ñoldor who seemed to prefer the Telerin word telpe "silver" instead the Quenya form tyelpë. Finarfin is said to have learned Telerin and he also gave his sons Telerin-influenced Quenya names.

Because the Teleri outnumber the Vanyar and Ñoldor, Telerin was the most widespread language of Aman.

Conceptual history[]

In earlier versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, Teleri and then Lindar were the names of the first tribe of the Elves, while the third tribe was called "Solosimpi". From the the early 1920s, Tolkien decided to change the name of the Solosimpi to Teleri, and the language that he developed for them he called Early Telerin.[5] From the 1930s, Tolkien introduced enough changes to conventionally classify a new stage of that language as Middle Telerin.[6] In this period the term Lindarin still indicated the dialect of Qenya spoken by the first tribe of the Elves.[7] However, the final form of Telerin was conceived in the period during and after the publication of The Lord of the Rings.

References[]

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