The Cirth (, meaning "runes"; sg. certh ) is a semi‑artificial script, based on real‑life runic alphabets, one of several scripts invented by J. R. R. Tolkien for the constructed languages he devised and used in his works. Cirth is written with a capital letter when referring to the writing system; the letters themselves can be called cirth.
In the fictional history of Middle-earth, the original Certhas was created by the Sindar (or Grey Elves) for their language, Sindarin. Its extension and elaboration was known as the Angerthas Daeron, as it was attributed to the Sinda Daeron, despite the fact that it was most probably arranged by the Noldor in order to represent the sounds of other languages like Quenya and Telerin.
Although it was later largely replaced by the Tengwar, the Cirth was nonetheless adopted by the Dwarves to write down both their Khuzdul language (Angerthas Moria) and the languages of Men (Angerthas Erebor). The Cirth was also adapted, in its oldest and simplest form, by various races including Men and even Orcs.
External history
Concept and creation
Many letters have shapes also found in the historical runic alphabets, but their sound values are only similar in a few of the vowels. Rather, the system of assignment of sound values is much more systematic in the Cirth than in the historical runes (e.g., voiced variants of a voiceless sound are expressed by an additional stroke).
The division between the older Cirth of Daeron and their adaptation by Dwarves and Men has been interpreted as a parallel drawn by Tolkien to the development of the Futhorc to the Younger Futhark. The original Elvish Cirth "as supposed products of a superior culture" are focused on logical arrangement and a close connection between form and value whereas the adaptations by mortal races introduced irregularities. Similar to the Germanic tribes who had no written literature and used only simple runes before their conversion to Christianity, the Sindarin Elves of Beleriand with their Cirth were introduced to the more elaborate Tengwar of Fëanor when the Noldorin Elves returned to Middle-earth from the lands of the divine Valar.
Internal history and description
Certhas
In the Appendix E to The Return of the King, Tolkien writes that the Sindar of Beleriand first developed an alphabet for their language some time between the invention of the Tengwar by Fëanor (YT 1250) and the introduction thereof to Middle-earth by the Exiled Noldor towards the end of the First Age.
This alphabet was devised to represent only the sounds of their Sindarin language and its letters were mostly used for inscribing names or brief memorials on wood, stone or metal, hence their angular shapes and straight lines. In Sindarin these letters were named cirth (sing. certh), from the Elvish root *kir- meaning "to cleave, to cut". An abecedarium of cirth, consisting of the runes listed in due order, was commonly known as Certhas (, meaning "rune-rows" in Sindarin and loosely translated as "runic alphabet").
The oldest cirth were the following: Consonants p b mh m t d n k g ng r l ~ h or s s or h ss Vowels i u e o
The form of these letters was somewhat unsystematic, unlike later rearrangements and extensions that made them more featural. The cirth and were used for and , but varied as to which was which. Many of the runes consisted of a single vertical line (or "stem") with an appendage (or "branch") attached to one or both sides. If the attachment was made on one side only, it was usually to the right, but "the reverse was not infrequent" and did not change the value of the letter. (For example, the variants or specifically mentioned for h or s, also or for t, etc.).
Angerthas Daeron
In Beleriand, before the end of the First Age, the Certhas was rearranged and further developed, partly under the influence of the Tengwar introduced by the Noldor. This reorganisation of the Cirth was commonly attributed to the Elf Daeron, minstrel and loremaster of King Thingol of Doriath. Thus, the new system became known as the Angerthas Daeron (where "angerthas" is from Sindarin + "certhas" , meaning "long rune-rows").
In this arrangement, the assignment of values to each certh is systematic. The runes consisting of a stem and a branch attached to the right are used for voiceless stops, while other sounds are allocated according to the following principles: adding a stroke to a branch adds voice (e.g., → ); moving the branch to the left indicates opening to a spirant (e.g., → ); placing the branch on both sides of the stem adds voice and nasality (e.g., → ).
The cirth constructed in this way can therefore be arranged into series, each corresponding to a place of articulation: labial consonants, based on ; dental consonants, based on ; front consonants, based on ; velar consonants, based on ; labialized velar consonants, based on .
Other letters introduced in this system include: and for and , respectively; runes for long vowels, evidently originated by doubling and binding the certh of the corresponding short vowel (e.g., → two front vowels, probably stemming from ligatures of the corresponding back vowel with the -certh (i.e., → , and → some homorganic nasal + stop clusters (e.g.,
Back to the fictional history, since the new and encompass sounds which do not occur in Sindarin but are present in Quenya, they were most probably introduced by the Exiled Noldor who spoke Quenya as a language of knowledge.
By loan-translation, the Cirth became known in Quenya as Certar , while a single certh was called certa .
After the Tengwar became the sole script used for writing, the Angerthas Daeron was essentially relegated to carved inscriptions. The Elves of the West, for the most part, abandoned the Cirth altogether, with the exception of the Noldor dwelling in the country of Eregion, who maintained it in use and made it known as Angerthas Eregion.
Note: In this article, the runes of the Angerthas come with the same peculiar transliteration used by Tolkien in the Appendix E, which differs from the (Latin) spelling of both Quenya and Sindarin. The IPA transcription that follows is applicable to both languages, except where indicated otherwise.
Regularly formed cirth Labialconsonants Certh Translit. p b f v m mh, mb IPA () () Dentalconsonants Certh or Translit. t d th dh n nd IPA Frontconsonants Certh Translit. ch j sh zh nj IPA () ɟ ← () Velarconsonants Certh Translit. k g kh gh ŋ ng IPA Labiovelarconsonants Certh Translit. kw gw khw ghw nw ngw IPA () ← Additional cirth Consonants Certh or Translit. r rh l lh s ss or z hIPA or Approximants Certh Translit. w hw IPA Vowels Certh Translit. i, y u e a o IPA , Longvowels Certh or Translit. ū ē ā ō IPA Frontedvowels Certh or or Translit. ü ö IPA
Notes:
Angerthas Moria
According to Tolkien's legendarium, the Dwarves first came to know the runes of the Noldor at the beginning of the Second Age. The Dwarves "introduced a number of unsystematic changes in value, as well as certain new cirth". They modified the previous system to suit the specific needs of their language, Khuzdul. The Dwarves spread their revised alphabet to Moria, where it came to be known as Angerthas Moria, and developed both carved and pen-written forms of these runes.
Many cirth here represent sounds not occurring in Khuzdul (at least in published words of Khuzdul: of course, our corpus is very limited to judge the necessity or not, of these sounds). Here they are marked with a black star (★).
Certh Translit. IPA Certh Translit. IPA Certh Translit. IPA Certh Translit. IPA p ★ Not used l e b z lh ★ ê f k nd a v ★ g h â hw ★ kh ★ ’ o m gh ★ ŋ ★ ô mb n ng ö ★ t kw ★ nj ★ n d gw ★ i s th ★ khw ★ y dh ★ ghw ★ hy ★ r ngw ★ u ch ★ nw ★ û Not used j ★ w ★ +h sh zh ★ ü ★&
Notes: A. Khuzdul has two glottal consonants: and , the latter being "the glottal beginning of a word with an initial vowel". Thus needing a reversible certh for these sounds, and were switched, giving the former the value and using the latter for , and its reversed counterpart for . B. These cirth are halved forms of , used for vowels like those in the word . Thus, represented a sound in unstressed syllables, while represented , a somehow similar sound, in stressed syllables. When weak they were reduced to a stroke without a stem (, ). C. This letter denotes aspiration in voiceless stops, occurring frequently in Khuzdul as kh and th. D. D scribal abbreviation to represent a conjunction, identical to the ampersand in Latin script.
The cirth and for and were changed to and respectively, replacing the Elvish usage of and . The certh changes to from . Certh changes to from (a sound not in Khuzdul). The certh was made as a simplified alternative of . Because of the visual relation of these two cirth, the certh was given the sound to relate better with that became .
Angerthas Erebor
At the beginning of the Third Age the Dwarves were driven out of Moria, and some migrated to Erebor. As the Dwarves of Erebor would trade with the Men of the nearby towns of Dale and Lake-town, they needed a script to write in Westron (the lingua franca of Middle-earth, usually rendered in English by Tolkien in his works). The Angerthas Moria was adapted accordingly: some new cirth were added, while some were restored to their Elvish usage, thus creating the Angerthas Erebor.
While the Angerthas Moria was still used to write down Khuzdul, this new script was primarily used for Mannish languages. It is also the script used in the first and third page of the Book of Mazarbul.
Certh Translit. IPACerth Translit. IPACerth Translit. IPACerth Translit. IPA p zh l e b ks f k nd a v g s hw kh o m gh ŋ mb n ng ö t kw n d gw i h th khw y dh ghw hy r ngw u ps ch nw z ts j g w +h sh gh ü &
Notes:
∗. Cirth unique to Angerthas Erebor.
Angerthas Erebor also features combining diacritics: a circumflex used to denote long consonants; a macron below to indicate a long vowel sound; an underdot to mark cirth used as numerals. As a matter of fact, in the Book of Mazarbul some cirth are used as numerals: for 1, for 2, for 3, for 4, for 5.
The Angerthas Erebor is used twice in The Lord of the Rings to write in English: in the upper inscription of the title page, where it reads "[dh]ə·lord·ov·[dh]ə·riŋs·translatᵊd·from·[dh]ə·red·b[oo]k' ..." (the sentence follows in the bottom inscription, written in Tengwar: "... of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Herein is set forth/ the history of the War of the Ring and the Return of the King as seen by the Hobbits."); in the bottom inscription of Balin's tomb—being the translation of the upper inscription, which is written in Khuzdul using Angerthas Moria.
The Book of Mazarbul shows some additional cirth used in Angerthas Erebor: one for a double ligature, one for the definite article, and six for the representation of the same number of English diphthongs:
CerthEnglish spelling, , , ,
Notes:
A. A scribal abbreviation for the definite article. ∗. Cirth unique to Angerthas Erebor.
Other runic scripts by Tolkien
The Cirth is not the only runic writing system used by Tolkien in his legendarium. In fact, he devised a great number of runic alphabets, of which only a few others have been published. Some of these are included in the "Appendix on Runes" of The Treason of Isengard (The History of Middle-earth, vol. VII), edited by Christopher Tolkien.
Runes from The Hobbit
According to Tolkien himself, those found in The Hobbit are a form of "English runes" used in lieu of the Dwarvish runes proper. They can be interpreted as an attempt made by Tolkien to adapt the Fuþorc (i.e., the Old English runic alphabet) to the Modern English language.