A Gateway to Sindarin: A Grammar of an Elvish Language from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Paperback – April 1, 2007

As a lifelong fan of Tolkien's works, studying the languages has been an important part of comprehending the fantastic world he created. David Salo's _A Gateway to Sindarin_ is an absolutely invaluable resource for those interested not only in the words themselves, but in how the language evolved. I wish I had had this book long ago when I began trying to understand Sindarin. It would have made my studies so very much more productive.I see some harsh reviews associated with this book, but it would seem that the critics are not interested in a scholarly work, and simply want someone to give them a bi-directional Sindarin-English dictionary so they can pretend they know Sindarin. Unless you are willing to put some effort into actually understanding the context and development of the language, this is not the book for you; but for those who wish to delve into the linguistic backstory to get to the useable Sindarin, buy, buy, BUY THIS BOOK!

I haven't quite finished the book yet, it's not quite the thriller like the books it was based on, that you simply can't put down before reading "just one more chapter." However, for those interested in such things, it is rather well written (the sort of thing I would expect from an expert in both the language the reader is familiar with and the one he/she is attempting to learn about). The primary motivation for the review though, is to respond to some of the previous reviewers, who make some rather harsh accusations concerning David Salo's supposed lack of "proper citation," among other things.Certainly I am no linguist myself (in fact, if I were, I would probably do the research myself) and lack the expertise to comment on some of the more technical aspects of the work, but I am more or less literate, and I was able to comprehend the preface to the book which clearly states, "This volume is not and cannot be the last or most accurate word on Sindarin... within the limits of the available source material, I believe this work to be accurate in general and in most points of detail... where gaps occur, they have been filled in by educated guesswork marked as such". That being so, those of us who have no formal education in linguistics, may find it very difficult to pick out the subtle nuances that experts such as Tolkien used in their creations.It is, therefore, immensely helpful for those of us with an interest in learning a particular language, to have someone who is trained in such things do the research for us and fill in gaps more accurately than we might have ourselves. At the end of the day, Tolkien did not publish an all-encompassing guide to his works, so any reasonable interpretation of the missing pieces can hardly be called "unreliable."As far as the citation comment, Tolkien's name appears on the front cover above the author's in the same size and style of print. This is effectively a textbook. I imagine most people don't randomly find this book with no foreknowledge of Tolkien's works and think to themselves, "what a great idea, I'll study an imaginary language for no particular reason!" One probably starts by reading the Lord of the Rings and desiring to learn more, and when you've run out of works written by the creator himself, what's the next step? Beyond that, the first 18 pages are actually a short recap of much of the history written in The Silmarillion and the other histories published by Christopher Tolkien. In this section, one can hardly two sentences without running into a cited reference, book and page number included.Perhaps there are other works on the subject that Mr. Salo could have attributed his inspirations to, but seriously, he spent enough time researching and writing about the subject. One can hardly expect him to attempt to go back in time and make a note of every last detail in his life that led to the completion of this work. I am annoyed by the mere mention of legal proceedings.Please try to find a book written about person A by person B that person C can't criticize for reasons D, E, or F. Good luck.

An interesting book, very well written, but for academic linguists not language-learners. I'm keeping it anyway because it's so cool!

I've searched all over: books, websites, etc., to find something this dedicated to Tolkien's creation. An extremely in-depth text, it is truly the go-to manual for all things Sindarin. It has 'lesson' breakdowns, charts, dictionaries, and diagrams of select excerpts. Since David Salo was the linguistic consultant on the LoTR movies, I trust him and his works much more than most other Sindarin references. A bit on the pricey side, but completely worth it as it is really the *only* source you'll need for the language.Just be mindful that is a true language immersion. It can be a bit difficult to try to teach yourself the language since so much of Sindarin is based on how words *sound* together. However, whatever you can pull from this will be much better than any 'gaming' or 'online Elven dictionary'. You know of what I speak, wink.

I am rather surprised that this books gets such a bad rap in the Tolkienic linguistics community.Mr. Salo's book is not a presentation of "Sindarin as Tolkien defined it", because such a thing does not really exist. I don't think that Mr. Salo claims it is such. Rather, it is an attempt to synthesize the available evidence from Tolkien's writing into something resembling a complete language. Such an exercise necessarily requires extrapolation and guesswork from the (numerous) gaps in the existing information. I think the result is largely successful, though it is does not (and can not) agree in every detail with Tolkien's work.The book isn't perfect, but it is thoroughly researched, and he does discuss the available evidence at length. Admittedly, Mr. Salo doesn't spend much time examining evidence contrary to his theories of the language, but I think that is due more to limitations of length rather than any kind of deliberate deception. I do wish he had included more bibliographical references, but he does generally cite his sources and explains his methods, contrary to what some of the reviews state. His examination of Sindarin phonetic development is, I think, unique in its level of detail.One word of warning: this is not a beginner's book. If you are new to the study of Tolkien's languages, you would be better off starting with one of the simpler online descriptions of Sindarin. Once you have mastered the basics, though, Salo's book is a worthwhile guide for deepening your knowledge of one of Tolkien's elaborate and beautiful linguistic creations.

This book is amazing! It makes it about a hundred times easier to make a sentence in Sindarin. I especially like how there's a "Glossary of Linguistic Terms" at the back of the book, which makes understanding it a whole lot simpler. Although I would recommend looking it over a couple of times to fully understand what's going on. It's a bit complex, but well worth the buy.

Love it!

Nice introduction to Sidarin. Worth it for both Tolkien Fans and people interested in Conlangs in general. If you are both a Tolkien fan and a linguistic or philosohy student interested in conlangs, this book is worth your while.

If you want to learn more about Sindarin then there is no better book.BE WARNED that this isn't simply a book to learn Sindarin. It is a full grammar, morphology and lexicon of the Sindarin language. Some knowledge of linguistics is required.

Uno studio veramente interessante ed approfondito!Chi ama Tolkien ed i magici mondi da lui inventati, non può rimanere insensibile all'abilità con cui il grande scrittore ha dato vita ed anima ai suoi personaggi... E la loro lingua è parte integrante del loro esistere romanzesco...Questo libro è uno strumento preziosissimo e molto accessibile per scoprire i segreti del Sindarin...

トールキンは、指輪物語を書いたから偉大なのではない。指輪物語の舞台である世界を作り上げたから偉大なのだ。指輪物語は、その世界で起きた単なる一つの出来事を小説にしたのに過ぎない。こんなことを言うと、指輪物語を単なる英雄冒険モノとして読んで喜んでいる人に怒られそうだが、本当なのだからしょうがない。嘘だと思うなら、「The History of Middle-earth」を読んでみれば分かる。これに比べれば指輪物語なんて短いお話だった。　言語学者であったトールキンは、もちろんその世界の人々が使う言語も作り上げた。この本で取り上げられているのは、エルフの使うシンダール語(Sindarin)である。彼は、その言語の歴史的な音韻変化や新しい文字まで作り上げた。異世界が舞台の物語では、異世界の言葉が「〜語」として登場することが多い。しかし、多くの場合それは単なる名前だけである。これに対してトールキンのシンダール語は、実際にその言語で会話したり、長い文章が書ける、本当の意味での言語である。　この本は、そのようなシンダール語を「外国語」として学ぶ上で、まず参考書として上げられるもの。「The History of Middle-earth」を読むのが大変な場合、これしかない。シルマリルの物語や指輪追補編にもチラッと解説があるが、訳本には間違いも多い。　指輪物語の表紙のエルフ語や、中にたまに出てくるエルフ語を解読して喜ぶ程度の「ぬるい」ファンから、マニアやオタクに脱皮したければ読むべし。　それにしても、指輪物語などの小説しか訳されず、「The History of Middle Earth」が訳されない日本は、やはりイマイチだなーと思う。オタクはいてもせいぜいマニアレベルで、研究までするオタクはいないのかと。　トールキンを極めたい人の入り口として。