Tongues

Now already in their first dwellings the Elves were divided into three kindreds, whose names are now in Valinorian form: the Lindar (the fair), the Noldor (the wise), and the Teleri (the last, for these were the latest to awake). The Lindar dwelt most westerly; and the Noldor were the most numerous; and the Teleri who dwelt most easterly were scattered in the woods, for even from their awakening they were wanderers and lovers of freedom. When Orome led forth the hosts of the Elves on their march westward, some remained behind and desired not to go, or heard not the call to Valinor. These are named the Lembi, those that lingered, and most were of Telerian race. / But those that followed Orome are called the Eldar, those that departed. [This sentence struck out and carefully emended to read: But Orome named the Elves Eldar or 'star-folk', and this name was after borne by all that followed him, both the Avon (or 'departing') who forsook Middle-earth, and those who in the end remained behind {changedfrom who in the end remained in Beleriand, the Dkorindi of Doriath and the Falas).] But not all of the Eldar came to Valinor or to the city of the Elves in the land of the Gods upon the hill of K6r. For beside the Lembi, that came never into the West of the Hither Lands until ages after, there were the folk of the Teleri that remained in Beleriand as is told hereafter, and the folk of the Noldor that strayed upon the march and came also later into the east of Beleriand. These are the IUcorindi that are accounted among the Eldar, but came not beyond the Great Seas to Kdr while still the Two Trees bloomed. Thus came the first sundering of the tongues of the Elves, into Eldarin and Lemberin; for the Eldar and Lembi did not meet again for many ages, nor until their languages were wholly estranged.

The three tongues(old version)

The three tongues (new version)

On the march to the West the Lindar went first, and the chief house among them was the house of Ingwe, high-king of the Eldalie, and the oldest of all Elves, for he first awoke. His house and people are called the Ingwelindar or Ingwi. The march began when the Elves had dwelt for about thirty Valian years in the Hither Lands, and ten more Valian years passed, ere the first companies of the Lindar reached the Falasse, that is the western shores of the Hither Lands, where Beleriand lay of old. Now each Valian year in the days of the Trees was as ten years now are, but before the making of the Sun and Moon the change and growth of all living things was slow, even in the Hither Lands. Little difference, therefore, was found yet in the speeches of the three kindreds of the Eldalie. In the year 1950 of the. Valar the Qendi awoke, and in the year 1980 they

began their march, and in the year 1990 the Lindar came over the mountains into Beleriand; and in the year 2000 of the Gods the Lindar and the Noldor came over the seas unto Valinor in the west of the world and dwelt in the light of the Trees. But the Teleri tarried on the march, and came later, and they were left behind in Beleriand for ten Valian years, and lived upon the Falasse and grew to love the sea above all else. And thereafter, as is told in the Quenta, they dwelt, because of the deeds of Osse, an age, which is 100 years of the Valar, on Tol-eressea, the Lonely Isle, in the Bay of Faerie, before at last they sailed in their swan-ships to the shores of Valinor. The tongue of the Teleri became therefore sundered somewhat from that of the Noldor and Lindar, and it has ever remained apart though akin.

For nine ages, which is nine hundred Valian years, the Lindar and Noldor dwelt in Valinor, ere its darkening; and for eight of those ages the Teleri dwelt nigh them, yet separate, upon the shores and about the havens of the land of the Gods, while Morgoth was in captivity and vassalage. Their tongues therefore changed in the slow rolling of the years, even in Valinor, for the Elves are not as the Gods, but are children of Earth. Yet they changed less than might be thought in so great a space of time; for the Elves is Valinor did not die, and in those days the Trees still flowered, and the changeful Moon was hot yet made, and there was peace and bliss.

Nonetheless the Elves much altered the tongue of the Valar, and each of their kindreds after their own fashion. The most beautiful and the least changeful of these speeches was that of the Lindar, and especially the tongue of the house and folk of Ingwe.

It grew therefore to be a custom in Valinor, early in the days of the abiding there of the Elves, for the Gods to use this speech in converse with the Elves, and Elves of different kindred one with another; and for long this language was chiefly used in inscriptions or in writings of wisdom or poetry. Thus an ancient form of Lindarin speech became early fixed, save for some later adoptions of words and names from other dialects, as a language of high speech and of writing, and as a common speech among all Elves; and all the folk of Valinor learned and knew this language. It was called by the Gods and Elves 'the Elvish tongue', (hat is Qenya, and such it is usually now named, though the Elves call it also Ingwiqenya, especially in its purest and highest form, and also tarquesta high-speech, and parmalambe the book-tongue. This is the Elf-latin, and it remains still, and all Elves know it, even such as linger still in the Hither Lands. But the speech of daily converse among the Lindar has not remained as Qenya, but has changed therefrom, though far less than have Noldorin or even Telerin from their own tongues in the ancient days of the Trees.

The Noldor in the days of their exile brought the knowledge of the Elf-latin into Beleriand, and, though they did not teach it to Men, it became used among all the Skorindi. The names of the Gods were by all the Eldar preserved and chiefly used only in Qenya form; although most of-the Valar had titles and bynames, different in different tongues, by which in daily use their high names were usually supplanted, and they were seldom heard saVe in solemn oath and hymn. It was the Noldor who in the early days of their sojourn in Valinor devised letters, and the arts of cutting them upon stone or wood, and of writing them with brush or pen; for rich as are the minds of the Elves in memory, they are not as the Valar, who wrote not and do not forget. But it was long ere the Noldor themselves wrote in books with their own tongue, and though they carved and wrote in those days many things in monument and document, the language they used was Qenya, until the days of Feanor's pride.