This began to be a little more complicated, since we do reference to the beginning of this tongue, that was called Noldorin. The Noldorin wasn’t the tongue of the Noldor that we know in the Lord Of The Rings or the Silmarilion , it is the origin of the Sindarin that we are learning, so like in all tongue, the Sindarin had keep some influence from is original form in this case the Noldorin.

*To have more detail of the Noldorin you can read the History Of Middle-Earth edited by Christopher Tolkien*

In Noldorin, to do the plural was easy, you just add an i at the end of the word. But the Sindarin, as change since then, but is still influenced by it. This phenomena is call Umlaut. There is more then one way to do the plural of words, The first is call Prestanneth, that is an elvish word meaning changement, in our case the vowel change. The second is to do the plural of group, or people. And there is a third one that we will not see in this document, it is rarely used and a little hard to understand.

In sindarin, to do a plural, it is not like the usual way in English, adding an S at the end. but more like the exception of it, changing a vowel like in Mouse-mice, Man-Men.

In Sindarin we have 6 vowels: A-E-I-O-U-Y

The vowel A:

The way to form the plural is to change the final vowel ‘a’ in ‘ai’, but if you have other ‘a’ in the word, that aren’t in final syllable, then they become ‘e’.

        Aran (King)----> Erain
        Barad (Tower)--> Beraid
        Tβl (Foot)------>Tail

There is sometime some exception in words, that didn’t change from the archaic Sindarin. They are seen but rarely, a good example of it is Ereinion, *Aran do Erain in plural but in this compound eran do erein (noldorin plural) so we got Ereinion « scion of the kings » another name given to Gil-Galad. And not Erainion, but hopefully it is rare.*

The vowel E:

For this letter, it is easier since it is like it was in the old sindarin. In the final syllable of a word, ‘e’ turns into ‘i’: and in the non-final syllable, it stays ‘e’

        Edhel (Elf)--------> edhil
        ereg (holly-tree)----> erig
        Laegel (Green-elf)-->Laegil

If there is a long κ, then it change in a long ξ

        Hκn (child)----->Hξn (Children)

If there is an ‘i’ and an ‘e’ together: ‘ie’ it will not do ‘ii’ but will turn to a single ‘i’ and in this case will change in a long μ (there is not enough proof on this but this is looking to be the rule that the expert sort out)

        Miniel---->mμnil

The vowel I:

The easiest one, nothing change about it, it stay ’i’ all the way. But make it harder to know if it is plural or not, it will depend of the context!!

        Ethir (spy)------->Ethir
        Silevril (silmaril)---> silevril
        Dξs (bride)-------> Dξs

The vowel O:

        Orch (orc, goblin)--> yrch
        toll (island)------> tyll
        bσr (trusty man)---> bύr

The vowel U:

        Tulus (poplar)----> tylys

When there is a long ‘ϋ’ at the end of the word, or in a monosyllable word, it becomes ‘ui’

        Dϋr (dark)----> duir.

The vowel Y:

Another easy one, this vowel don’t change at all, it stay ‘y ’ all the way through the word.

Exercises

Telch (stem)--> _____________

Miniel (Minya (Elf of the First Clan))--> _____________

Lavan (animal)--> _____________

Adan (Man)--> _____________

Malen (yellow)--> _____________

Tκw (letter)--> _____________

Adar (father)--> _____________

Annon (Hill)--> _____________

Adanadar(man-father)--> _____________

Rach(Wagon, wain)--> _____________

Edhel(elf)--> _____________

Lalven (elm-tree)--> _____________

Ehtir(spy)--> _____________

Certh (rune)--> _____________

Cant(Shape)-->______________