Cirth   Cirth

Origin

J.R.R. Tolkien created many languages throughout his life. He wrote in one of his letters that the tales of Middle-earth (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarilion) grew from these languages, rather than the languages being created for use in the stories.

Tolkien also created a number of different alphabets to write his languages - he modelled Cirth on Anglo-Saxon and Norse Runes. Its function in his stories is for inscriptions in wood and stone, just as Runes were used in the real world.

Notable features

Used to write

A number of different languages of Middle-Earth, such as:

Quenya (Qenya or High-elven), the most prominent language of the Amanya branch of the Elvish language family. Tolkien complied the "Qenya Lexicon", his first list of Elvish words, in 1915 at the age of 23 and continued to refine the language throughout his life. It is based mainly on Finnish, but also partly on Greek and partly on Latin.

Sindarin, the language of the Grey-elves or Sindar. Tolkien based Sindarin on Welsh and originally called it gnomish.

Dwarvish, the language of the dwarves.

Cirth

Cirth

Sample

Sample Cirth inscription

Links

Klingon mode for Cirth, by Yehuda Ronen
http://my.ort.org.il/tolkien/gandalf/html/klicirth/klicirth.html

More links to sites about Tolkien's alphabets and languages

Other alphabets invented by J.R.R. Tolkien

Cirth, Sarati, Tengwar, Uruk Runes

Fictional alphabets

Ancients' Alphabet, Ath, Atlantean, Aurek-Besh, Cirth, Daedric, D'ni, Dragon Runes, Futurama Alien Alphabet, Gargish, Gnommish, Golic Vulcan, Hylian syllabary (Old), Hylian syllabary (Modern), Hylian alphabet, Klingon, Kryptonian, Marain, Matoran, Romulan, Sarati, Standard Galactic Alphabet, Tsolyáni (Tékumel), Tenctonese, Tengwar, Utopian, Visitor, Zentlardy

Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app