Sindarin Translator

What is Sindarin?

Sindarin is the second great Elvish language, and the one most often used in everyday speech in its fictional world. Where Quenya leans on Finnish, Sindarin was modelled on Welsh, including the way sounds change. That gives it a more earthy, musical feel, with sounds like dh, th, lh, rh and ch that Quenya does not have.

A Sindarin translator has to cope with one tricky feature in particular: mutation. The first sound of a word changes depending on what comes before it, just as in Welsh. So gwath, "shadow", becomes i 'wath, "the shadow". Plurals change vowels inside the word too, so orod, "mountain", becomes ered, "mountains".

How to translate English to Sindarin

Type your sentence, select Sindarin and press Translate. The AI builds the translation from the published vocabulary and applies the mutations it knows, then explains its choices word by word. Where a word is missing, it coins one from known roots and says so. You also get a pronunciation guide and a speaker button.

Short phrases about friendship, travel, nature and light work best. For instance, mellon means "friend", and "mae govannen" is a greeting meaning "well met".

Sindarin or Quenya?

Sindarin is a good place to start if you want to learn a fictional language, because it is more approachable than the formal, ceremonial Quenya. It was written first in a runic alphabet and later mostly in Tengwar. Try both and compare how they sound.

Phrases to try in Sindarin

• Welcome, friend, come in.Try it
• The road goes on and on.Try it
• Welcome to our home in the forest.Try it
• Night has fallen, rest now.Try it
• You are a true friend.Try it

Questions about the Sindarin translator

Learn more about Sindarin

• Sindarin (Wikipedia)
• Eldamo, an Elvish lexicon