The Sindarin dictionary project

Got a question, or a problem using the dictionary? Please read this section before considering to send me an e-mail. You may find an answer to your questions among those that were already received from other readers.

In December 2002, access to the search engine was limited to a certain number of requests (independently from users) per day. Many people have complained about it (sometimes with rather rude and impolite words).

I was not very happy to do that either... I worked on the dictionary more than 800 hours since it was begun in october 1999, and I felt sad to have to impose such a restriction on my baby.

However, with the second LotR movie coming in theater, people tend, it seems, to use the dictionary search engine a lot more than before: the page scored more that 48000 hits between December 1 and December 13... Which would then account to ~100000 hits for the whole month of December. The Sindarin search engine, being composed of scripts (programs) that search through word lists, is rather time consuming. It sollicitates more CPU usage than a mere static web page. Had I more free time, I would try to perform some optimizations on the source code, but this is just simply not possible for me currently.

As a result of this increased success, the web site hosting the dictionary crashed in July while I was on holiday, and crashed twice in early December because of CPU/processing overload.

JRRVF is a great French Tolkienian web site, also hosting a forum, several other search engines and a lot of useful resources. The sindarin search engine is currently one of the most visited pages, to the detriment of the other features.

Unfortunately, as people tend to forget, hosting such a site with CGI programming features is not free... And the webmaster that kindly accepted to host the dictionary can't afford a more powerful server -- the next solution would be nearly twice the cost he currently pays.

800 requests per day mean 24000 per month. But of course this does not take into account the unsuccessful attempts after the quota limit has been reached, which will probably raise this evaluation to 30-35000 hits. Until the scripts are recoded for optimization, it just seems reasonable to us to fix such a limitation: this number is more or less what the past usage of the dictionary used to be.

Now, you are not left without solution: Dragon Flame, our Windows application for the dictionary, is available for free download.

For all Tolkien fans who need an simple, efficient and quick dictionary at home, this should be the perfect solution. We worked during week-ends and long nights to complete Dragon Flame, and yet this a free tool too. It includes, beside the dictionary, a corpus, and it will be extended with new features. The source code for Dragon Flame is also available, meaning that people will be able to port it under other operating systems if they wish.

Thanks for your understanding.

Can you help me translating [my name | some sentence] into Sindarin?

I have very little free time for Tolkienian linguistics currently, so I cannot guarantee that such questions will receive an answer. First, try to do some research on your own, using the dictionary to look up for the words you may need. There are also some grammatical articles on the Internet (see "General enquiries" below).

How come I can't find a word for [some meaning]?

This dictionary only includes Sindarin (and Noldorin) words from Tolkien's books. If you can't find a word, it probably means that Tolkien did not invent it (unless the material has not been published yet).

In particular, the dictionary does not include all the words occuring in the Lord of the Rings movie by P. Jackson. Some words were coined for the movie, but are not attested in Tolkien's writings. Though some of them are included for discussion, we have not searched to reference all the inventions used in the movie.

But I am pretty sure that [word] is attested in Tolkien's writing, so why is it missing?

I may have missed it when compiling the dictionary. Report the missing entry to the Sindarin dictionary group (see feedback section). Please try to provide all the references, so that I won't spend hours checking in the books.

And what about errors?

If you think there is an error (even a mere typo) in the dictionary, please report it to the Sindarin dictionary group. Many errors have been reported by readers since the dictionary is available. However, I update the dictionary during my spare time, so don't hope to see the errors you reported quickly corrected...

Can you help me writing [some sentence] in elvish script, for [a tattoo | whatever]?

No. Elvish scripts and calligraphy are not my specialty (ok, it's sort of a lie, but I won't do it anyway).

My registration key for the dictionary in PDF, received by e-mail, does not work.

Try to register again. Sometimes the server crashes, or becomes unreachable, and after a reset it seems that some keys are sometimes lost. If it still fails, contact me, from the same e-mail account that you use for the registration.

I did not receive my registration key for the dictionary in PDF (or I lost it).

First, try to register again. You would be amazed to know how many people just enter an invalid address, with a mistake in their name...

If the registration procedure says you are already registered, the e-mail probably got lost. E-mails are not always reliable, they sometimes never reach their destination. It actually happens more than often, especially if you have a free mail account and you exceed your space quota... In such cases, please contact me directly (see feedback section) from the mail account you used during the registration. I will re-post the registration key, but don't expect a quick reply as I might be too busy to handle the request immediately. Please do not contact the Sindarin dictionary group for such issues, there is nothing they can do about it.

I don't have a printer, can I order the dictionary in book form?

No. Ryszard Derdzinski compiled another Sindarin dictionary (see further below), you might be interested in getting it.

When I download the dictionary in PDF, it says it is not a valid file... What's wrong?

Check the configuration of your computer. Something is likely to be broken in your configuration (files incorrectly associated to tools, etc.)... There is nothing I can do about it. Please don't even contact me if you experience such problems. See also next question.

When I download the dictionary in PDF, it opens in [MS-Word | any other weird application].

Same as the previous question... I won't be of any help here. First check that the necessary software (e.g. a decompression tool such as Winzip, a PDF viewer such as Acrobat Reader, etc.) are installed on your system. You might want to have them re-installed to fix the problem.

If everything fails, don't try to open the downloaded file directly from your web browser, but rather save it to a local folder on your disk. Then, use the appropriate tools to open it. Do not double-click on the file, but first lauch the tools and use their "File / Open" menu to access it. It might work even when your system is poorly installed or when you Windows registry is corrupted.

How can I manage to see the phonetics in Unicode?.

I'll assume the question applies to the on-line search engine on this site. Phonetics may be rendered in SAMPA (an ASCII representation for the IPA), with small pictures in different sizes (20 or 32 points at your convenience), or with Unicode characters if your browser allows it.

For Unicode, you may need to install specific fonts on your computer. Supported Unicode-aware fonts are: Thryomanes, Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS.

Where can I find a good Sindarin grammar and/or articles about Sindarin?

Helge Fauskanger's Sindarin grammar, AE or OE, Tolkien's Hard Choice, LH and RH (not to mention HL and HL.

Where can I find a serious Quenya dictionary?

Edouard Kloczko's Dictionnaire des langues elfiques, volume I. The grammar and the texts are in French, but the lexicon itself is multilingual (Quenya / French-English).

Helge Fauskanger's Quenya grammar.

Where can I discuss Elvish linguistics?

The Elvish Linguistics List.

Ryszard Derdzinski compiled another good and reliable Sindarin dictionary. Here is what I wrote about it in the PDF version of my own dictionary:

While I was still struggling to achieve this work, a friend once asked me whether he should wait for its completion, or whether he should try to obtain Ryszard Derdzinski’s dictionary instead. “Get both of them”, I immediately answered without hesitation. The fact that there are now two Sindarin dictionaries in existence should not be regarded as a problem. They were done for different purposes, reflecting the understanding and the ideas of there respective authors. To this respect, they certainly enrich each other, presenting different points of view or different solutions for problematic issues.

This work initially began as an independent project, whose primary aim was to provide a complete and accurate Sindarin search engine on the Internet. The entries were produced automatically in alphabetical order, whereas Ryszard Derdzinski arranges them more consistently. Ryszard’s dictionary also includes all the words marked as ‘Doriathrin’ and ‘Ilkorin’ in the Etymologies whereas mine only contains the ‘(Exilic) Noldorin’ forms. On the other hand, this dictionary provides the phonetic transcription for all entries, and is also more consistent (or so I believe) in its treatment of misreadings and in its normalization of ‘Noldorin’. Finally, Ryszard’s dictionary gives Tolkien’s own etymologies, as appearing in the published texts; the present lexicon includes David Salo’s etymological reconstructions, which sometimes slightly differ from Tolkien’s explanations, but present several advantages for the study of the ‘ultimate’ form of the language. In conclusion, I hope that Tolkien’s fans will enjoy both dictionaries, and regard them as complementary."

Kenneth Chaij from the Tolkien Oxford Society published another Sindarin dictionary, with the approval of the Tolkien Estate. This work is accurate and reliable. However, it does not provide any precise reference and words are not annotated. According to the definition we proposed in our introductory note, it qualifies as a "wordlist" rather than a dictionary.