Saturday, April 05, 2008

Dagger, in J.R.R. Tolkien's words

The Quenya word for dagger (or knife) is sicil
The Sindarin word for dagger (or knife) is sigil

For this English word the Quenya and Sindarin words are quite close. You might ask, what's the difference between the Elven languages of Quenya and Sindarin?

At the time of The Lord of the Rings, Quenya was no longer a living language: most Elves spoke Sindarin, and Men mostly spoke Westron. Quenya was used as a formal language and for writing; Sindarin was the vernacular Elven language. Tolkien occasionally referred to Quenya as "Elven-Latin".

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