THE EVOLUTION FROM PRIMITIVE ELVISH TO QUENYA
A Comprehensive Survey

Whereas many students of J.R.R. Tolkien's languages would be inclined to focus on their "classical" form – that is, Quenya and Sindarin as they are supposed to have existed at the time when the narratives of LotR and the Silmarillion took place – the author himself is often seen to focus rather on the long evolution of these languages from the earliest forms of Elvish. Observes Christopher Tolkien, "My father was perhaps more interested in the processes of change than he was in displaying the structure and use of the languages at any given time" (LR:342). Elsewhere, he comments on how his father worked out a "minutely refined historical development of Quenya and Sindarin" (PM:367).
	To the academic, the fact that the historical development was so important to Tolkien should be sufficient to warrant a careful study of it. A deeper understanding of how the languages were supposed to have evolved during the long ages of Arda will also lead to a fuller apprehension of the method, spirit and focus of Tolkien's work. Yet this study does not have to be wholly "academic": People who want to develop a Tolkien-language like Quenya into a useable system, even coining new words from Tolkien's roots to supplement the existing vocabulary, must know what rules Tolkien himself applied when developing Quenya vocabulary. It is a matter of debate whether a post-Tolkien Quenya word can be counted as a "genuine" word, but everybody would agree that a word that was not derived in accordance with Tolkien's rules and does not fit into his system cannot be counted as genuine in any sense.
	What follows is a comprehensive (not "exhaustive"!) list of phonological changes that occurred during the evolution of Quenya. Though I briefly describe the nature of the changes, I have focused more on providing a survey of the observed changes than on formulating abstract "rules" that may seem to govern the sound-shifts. The changes have been listed in what may be assumed to be something roughly similar to their chronological order. The material has been grouped under the following headings: Primitive Quendian, Common Eldarin, Pre-Record Quenya, Changes Producing Valinorean Quenya, and Changes Producing Exilic Quenya. In some cases, it is obvious where a certain phonological change belong (Tolkien may even have made an explicit statement about it). In many cases, it is less than obvious. It should be understood that this is in no way a "canonical" of "definite" listing as regards the chronology of Quenya sound-shifts. This said, the material here presented is quite sufficient to explain how the vast majority of Quenya words reached their "classical" or "contemporary" form.
	I mention many of the clues and deductions that may throw some light on the chronological order of the changes, but when one studies these things in detail, it soon becomes obvious that the material is not entirely consistent. For instance, Tolkien seems to have experienced considerable trouble trying to figure out precisely when the shortening of the long final vowels of Primitive Elvish took place. Some of his "reconstructed" forms may seem to imply that this happened already during the Common Eldarin stage. On the other hand, the form Valinôrê "Valinor" in WJ:413 implies that the long final vowels were still in place as late as after initial b- had become v-, a change entirely characteristic of Quenya. (See also Appendix: Some Special Cases.)

Some practical matters: In his notes, Tolkien mentions many primitive, "reconstructed" forms, and usually he even places an asterisk before such ancestral forms to mark them as "unattested". Since Tolkien's own supposed "reconstructions" must be assumed to be rather more authoritative than my own, very much genuine reconstructions, I have distinguished between them here. Tolkien's alleged reconstructions are marked with the symbol ¤ instead of *, the asterisk being reserved for my own reconstructions – forms that are really unattested in Tolkien's published material. (A double asterisk ** marks a wrong form.) Most of the forms here marked ¤ are found in the Etymologies. To the extent primitive forms here mentioned cannot be readily located, the wordlist appended to my article about Primitive Elvish will provide references to the primary sources (see http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/primelv.htm).
	In the sources, Tolkien usually marks long vowels by means of a macron, a line above the vowel. We will here use circumflexes instead: â, ê, î, ô, û. However, in the Quenya forms we will eventually reach, long vowels are marked by means of an accent instead: á, é, í, ó, ú.
	The nasal sound ng as in English king is here represented by ñ, a spelling often used by Tolkien himself. However, in accordance with Tolkien's own spelling the clusters ng and nk (nc) in the middle of words are so represented, though this is technically ñg, ñk.
	Syllabic consonants are here separated from the preceding part of the word by means of a dot, e.g. *hek·l (the final l being syllabic, somewhat like English "little" is pronounced lit·l.) An initial syllabic consonant is followed by a dot: *n·dûnê. A syllabic consonant in the middle of a word is both preceded and followed by a dot: ¤kwent·r·o.
	In Tolkien's spelling of primitive forms, the semi-vowel y as in English you is inconsistently represented as either y or j (and in the Etymologies as published in LR, Christopher Tolkien in most cases altered his father's original spelling, changing j to y). In this study, we have consistently used the grapheme j when actual, primitive words are quoted, switching to y when we reach Quenya forms. (However, for easy reference, we maintain Y when referring to entry-heads in the Etymologies, e.g. YUR rather than JUR. Inevitably there are here some orthographic inconsistencies, as when we quote the primitive form ¤wâjâ while referring to the entry WAY in Etym, but the graphemes j and y in any case refer to the same sound in all Elvish forms.)
	The aspirated sounds of primitive Elvish are here marked by means of a raised h, as in ph, th, kh. (In published sources, Tolkien simply wrote ph, th, kh.)
	Elvish has certain labialized sounds, consonants pronounced with poised lips. The labialized quality of the consonant is here indicated by means of a raised w, e.g.  kw, gw, nw, ñw. (However, in normal Quenya orthography kw is written qu, and the other groups are represented as simple digraphs in -w, e.g. nw. The distinction between nw as a unitary, labialized consonant nw and nw as a genuine cluster n + w is not upheld in the normal orthography. Indeed Tolkien does not uphold this distinction in any of his published writings.)
	Palatalized consonants are here indicated by means of a raised j, e.g. nj (= palatalized n, like Spanish ñ) and tj (more or less like the initial t of English "tune"). In Quenya orthography, the same sounds are represented as ny and ty, though these combinations may also represent genuine clusters n + y, t + y.
	The English alphabet has separate letters for only two spirant sounds, f and v. We will also use the special letters þ (more or less = English th as in think) and ð (= soft English th, as in these). The "back spirant", spirant G, Tolkien sometimes represented as a symbol resembling the number 3, and we will use 3 here as well. For ach-Laut we will resort to the digraph ch (as in Scottish loch – NOT as in English church, a sound that does not occur in any known Eldarin language).
	Unvoiced w, n, m are here represented as digraphs hw, hn, hm. The digraph hy likewise represents voiceless y (= German ich-Laut), as in the normal orthography of Quenya.
	It will be noted that by introducing these special spellings, the exact pronunciation of primitive words "reconstructed" by Tolkien is made more specific than his original spellings are. While I do believe the interpretations here set forth are generally sound, they should not be taken as "Tolkien fact". For instance, the word here cited as ¤kwent·r·o (with the symbol ¤ to indicate a primitive form actually given in Tolkien's material) simply appears as "kwentro" in the source. While there are good reasons to assume that the initial "kw" is meant to be a unitary, labialized consonant kw, and that the r at some point became syllabic, these phonological details are not directly confirmed by Tolkien's spelling and do not have absolute authority.
	 As this discussion reaches a recognizable form of Quenya, we introduce LotR-style Quenya orthography. (The relevant spelling conventions are set out in the Introduction to my Quenya course.) We have already commented on the use of y instead of j; also notice the use of c rather than k as well as x rather than cs/ks, plus the marking of certain vowels with diaereses (ë is so marked when occurring finally and in the combinations ëa, ëo). These divergences from the spelling of primitive forms do not suggest any phonological distinctions.

We will now attempt to survey the changes that occurred during the evolution of Quenya from the earliest forms of Elvish, as far as Tolkien's intentions can be reconstructed. It must be understood that this discussion focuses on phonological developments: Of course there were also changes that had nothing to do with the regular sound-shifts (as when the old plural ending -i was in many cases replaced by the ending -r – according to PM:402 a "new device").

PRIMITIVE QUENDIAN

The "primeval" stage of Elvish speech, the language originally invented by the Elves at Cuiviénen, cannot be seen as a static and unchanging entity even within the primitive period. Tolkien explicitly refers to the "common development of primitive Quendian" (VT39:8, emphasis added). There would be divergent developments even within the most primitive period, but there was apparently one unique point in pre-history when the various ultra-primitive language-constructions were unified and coordinated so that all Elves achieved one single language: "The hundred and forty-four Quendi [that originally awoke] dwelt long together by the lake, until they all became of one mind and speech, and were glad" (WJ:423). 

Wrote Tolkien in an early source: "Roots...are not words in use at all, but serve as an elucidation of the words grouped together and a connection between them" (LT1:246). In all later forms of Elvish, the roots (stems, bases) can certainly be treated as abstract raw-material for actual words, mere skeletons to be fleshed out with various derivational endings, producing the kind of words that can actually be used in speech. Yet if there was ever a stage where the roots themselves existed as actual words, it must be the most primitive form of Elvish. At the very beginning, we must probably imagine a fleeting era when as yet undifferentiated morphemes exist in a linguistic limbo, predating all derivation, all inflection, all distinguishing between different parts of speech. The first word ever spoken by the Elves was supposedly ele, "a primitive exclamation, 'lo!', 'behold!' made by the Elves when they first saw the stars" (WJ:360). 

Later proto-words, if that is what they are, seem in most cases to have consisted of two (usually identical) short vowels separated by a medial consonant. Usually there was also an initial consonant, though it could be missing (as in ele). Forms later considered "roots", such as DELE "walk", HEKE "aside" or ABA "refuse" (WJ:360, 361), may be seen as representing actual, ultra-primitive words. This pattern came to be especially preferred in the case of stems with a verbal significance. At some point there occurred a "reorganisation of [...the] basic structure" of the language (WJ:392), some originally monosyllabic stems being expanded to conform with it. Hence the primeval root having to do with vocal speech, KWE, came to appear in elaborated forms KWENE and KWETE (the former underlying the very word Quenya, the latter producing the Q verb quet- "say, speak").

The "reorganisation" Tolkien hints at seems to suggest that the first Elves eventually developed a feeling for distinct parts of speech, their language gradually assuming a more well-defined structure. There appear derivational elements assisting the transfer of morphemes from one part of speech to another, or modifying the meaning of the proto-words, which words eventually begin to assume the function of "roots" from which actual words are derived.

Later, in Valinor, the Eldar would analyze a Quenya word like tuilë "spring" as representing tu-yu-le, becoming tuyle > tuile by the loss of the second vowel of the root TUJU (TUYU) "sprout, bud" (VT39:7). Tolkien seems to hint that this analysis was essentially correct, or at least "later Loremasters" are said to have held similar views – "when Quendian origins had been further investigated" (VT39:11 No. 6). Given the form of the root TUJU, it might seem that the word for "spring" was originally simply this verbal root with the abstract ending -lê attached: hence *tujulê "sprouting, budding".

However, Tolkien in the Etymologies listed ¤tuilê as the primitive form producing Quenya tuilë. One of the very first phonological changes in Quendian may have been a primitive syncope whereby the second of two identical short vowels in many cases disappeared before a derivational ending:

*tujulê > (*tujlê >) ¤tuilê "spring" (or "budding")

Many of the words that seem to have been syncopated very early involve two-syllable bases (sometimes "original", sometimes extended from simpler roots, e.g. ÁNAK from NAK or WENED from WEN[E]). In most cases only the fact that Tolkien listed the base itself (with the second vowel intact) allows us to deduce or theorize that some kind of syncope is operating. Some examples:

	From the base ÁSAT: *asatô > ¤astô "dust" (Quenya asto, Sindarin ast)
	From ÁNAK: *anakâ > ¤ankâ "jaw" (Q anca, S anc)
	From PARAK: *parakâ > *parkâ "dry" (Q parca, S parch)
	From TÁWAR: *tawarê > ¤taurê "forest" (Q taurë, S taur)
	From TÉLEK: *teleku > *telku "leg" (Q telco, S telch)
	From ÚLUG: *ulugundô > ¤ulgundô "monster" (Q ulundo, S ulun(d))
	From WENED: *wenedê > *wendê "maiden" (Q vendë, S gwend)

NOTE: It will be noticed that Tolkien in many cases indicated (by means of an accent) that it is the first vowel of the relevant two-syllable bases that receives the stress. Where the stress was on the second vowel, no syncope occurred at this stage. Thus ¤morókô "bear" from MORÓK did not become **morkô (though the word did eventually end up as morco in Quenya, because of a later syncope).

Here we list the eventual Sindarin forms as well as the Quenya forms, to demonstrate that these vowels must have been syncopated quite early. In Quenya, the second of two identical short vowels would have a "second chance" to become syncopated, but this happened after the branch of Elvish leading to Sindarin had separated from the branch leading to Quenya: When Quenya and Sindarin "agree" in having syncopated a certain vowel, we can often assume that the syncope occurred already in their common ancestral language. In Etym, the entry USUK provides a good example: Tolkien listed a primitive word us(u)k-wê "reek", producing Q usquë and S osp. It seems that ultra-primitive ¤usuk-wê turned into ¤usk-wê (or *uskwê, the labio-velar kw becoming p in the Lindarin branch that Sindarin is a part of). *Usukwê with no syncope might (via Old Sindarin **usupe, **uhupe) have produced Sindarin **uhub instead of osp.

In the branch of Elvish that leads to Sindarin, an unaccented vowel in the first syllable of a word is very often syncopated, resulting in an initial consonant cluster: for instance, the base BORÓN- produces Sindarin words in br- (e.g. brûn "old" from b'rônâ, the first vowel of the original base dropping out). However, in the branch of Elvish that leads to Quenya, the first vowel of a base is nearly always preserved even where it was originally unaccented. We seem to have only one divergent example: the Quenya word ráca "wolf" Tolkien referred to ¤d'râk, a syncopated form of the stem DARÁK. Actually the complete primitive word must have been *d'râkâ, reduced from eaven earlier *darákâ.

As is evident from the example *tujulê > (*tujlê >) ¤tuilê "spring", a semi-vowel j occurring at the end of a root might turn into a full vowel i when it occurred in front of a consonant (or was brought into contact with one after the syncope). In a similar environment, w became u. In the Etymologies, the bases TÁWAR (extended from TAWA, VT39:7) and TUY (= TUJU, VT39:7) produce primitive forms like ¤taurê "forest" and ¤tuilê "spring". Such words may be reworked from *tawrê and *tujlê, the syncopated forms of *tawarê and *tujulê. Cf. also one word derived from the base LAWAR: ¤laurê "golden light" (for *law'rê?)

The syncope of the second of two identical short vowels in concomitant syllables is not entirely regular in the primitive language. There are quite a few examples of words that escaped this syncope. Examples of words in which the second vowel was not lost include ¤galadâ "tree", khjelesê "glass" and ¤kjelepê "silver" (cf. Sindarin galadh, hele, celeb with the second vowel still intact: though it was eventually syncopated in Quenya al'da, hyel'lë, tyel'pë, this is a later development). It may indeed be doubted whether there was a primitive syncope at all, since some words mysteriously seem to have escaped it. When Tolkien lists a word like ¤hekla "outcast" as a derivative of a root he quotes as HEKE (WJ:361) are we to assume that ¤hekla must necessarily be shortened from even earlier *hekela by a primitive syncope, or did the derivational patterns of Primitive Quendian allow the suppression of the second vowel of the root from the start? Regarding the situation in Common Eldarin, Tolkien did note that both leaving out and retaining the second root-vowel in derivatives were "legitimate and regular" procedures (VT41:9) – apparently simply a matter of choice. Anyhow: whether in PQ we have a somewhat sporadic and unpredictible syncope, or a somewhat unpredictible suppression of reduplicated root-vowels in derivatives, is mainly an academic question. Of course, Tolkien may have imagined it differently at different times – and in any case even he himself preferred to deal with Primitive Quendian as a somewhat vague and hypothetical entity: The precise details were not necessarily to be pinned down in all cases, but were allowed to remain obscured by the passage of long ages.

Besides this early syncope, if it ever occurred, some final vowels may also have disappeared in the early period – so early that their former presence seems to have no influence on any of the later stages. In VT39:6, Tolkien states that in Quenya, "all final consonants had probably lost a vowel, if remote Quendian origins were considered". Earlier, in the Etymologies, he had nonetheless cited a few forms that he himself identified as Primitive Quendian even though they ended in a consonant: ¤atar "father", ¤dêr "man", ¤mâ3 "hand" (but in both earlier and later sources, the primitive word for "hand" is said to have been ¤maha). Perhaps we are to understand that there was an even more primitive stage of PQ where these words did have a final vowel, but what its quality might have been, we can only speculate about.

The normal plural marker -î evidently had to be shortened following a long vowel (or any vowel?); the Primitive Quendian plural "Lindar" (Elves of the Third Clan) is given as ¤Lindâi, not **Lindâî (WJ:378). If the latter form ever existed, it must have been altered very early. Perhaps the plural of a word with a short final vowel, such as swanda "sponge", likewise appeared as *swandai rather than *swandaî (the ultra-primitive form?) But a short final -e seems to have been displaced before î, as when the plural of ¤kwende "elf" was ¤kwendî (for ultra-primitive *kwendeî?)

We will list some more very early changes, but whether they occurred in late Primitive Quendian or early Common Eldarin is difficult to say. Tolkien stated that the metathesis bm > mb occurred in Common Eldarin at the latest, but added that it was "possibly earlier" (WJ:416), which necessarily implies that it may have occurred already in Primitive Quendian:

	¤labmâ > ¤lambâ "[physical] tongue" (Q lamba)
	¤labmê > ¤lambê "tongue, language" (Q lambë)

(Given the form of the root LABA whence these words are derived, we may perhaps assume that their ultra-primitive, pre-syncope forms were *labamâ, *labamê.) The change bm > mb is an example of metathesis of a stop and a nasal sharing the same place of articulation; this is also the case with dn > nd, which seems to be another example of very early metathesis:

¤adnô > *andô "gate" (Q ando)
¤sjadnô > ¤sjandô "cleaver" (Q hyando)

A long vowel -â, -ê, -ô, or -û + -i becomes a diphthong -ai, -ei, -oi, or -ui:

	¤Lindâi > ¤Lindai "Lindar" (WJ:378 vs. WJ:385), sg. Lindâ
	*ornêi > ¤ornei pl. "trees" (SD:302), sg. ornê

(If the combination -îi ever occurred [e.g. *târîi "queens"?], it was presumably contracted to -î.)

The combination Tolkien spells "KW" is probably to be taken as a labialized sound kw; thus, this is a single consonant rather than a cluster k + w. However, it seems that even genuine clusters k + w very early were assimilated to unitary consonants kw:

	¤hek-wâ (root HEK(E) + ending -wâ) > *hekwâ (Q hequa "except")
	¤salák-wê (root SALÁK + ending -wê) > *salákwê (Q salquë "grass")

Notice that the latter example will later undergo syncope in Quenya: the second a has disappeared in the Quenya form. However, as will be discussed below, such syncope did not occur in front of a consonant cluster. We are therefore able to tell that by the time the syncope occurred, the original cluster kw had merged into a single labialized consonant kw. This kw survived into Quenya (in regularlized spelling written qu, but the fact that Tolkien in early sources represents it by means of the single grapheme q also suggests that it is to be taken as a single consonant – salquë is indeed spelt "salqe" in the primary source).

The aspirates are reduced to unaspirated stops before certain consonants. The aspirates kh and th (we have no example for ph) evidently become simple k, t before s.

From root LOKH: *lokhsê > *loksê (Q loxë = loksë)
From root KHOTH: *khothsê > ¤khotsê "assembly" (no known Q descendant)

(The example ¤khotsê, "reconstructed" by Tolkien himself, could also be taken to mean that aspirates could not occur before s even in Primitive Quendian, some phonological restraint prohibiting such combinations. The question has only academic interest.)

Possibly, kh becomes simple k before t: The Quenya verb rihta- "to jerk" may descend from either *riktâ or rikhtâ; Tolkien gave the root as RIK(H), either RIKH or RIK. But the Quenya form would be rihta- in any case, so we cannot be sure.

COMMON ELDARIN

Common Eldarin was the language spoken by the Eldar (as opposed to the Avari) during the Great March from Cuiviénen. This is the last common ancestor of all the later Eldarin tongues – Quenya, Telerin, Sindarin and Nandorin. Common Eldarin should not be thought of as an entirely homogeneous structure; apart from the linguistic changes that occurred during the March, there were already some minor dialectal differences. For instance, it seems that the Teleri had already turned the original labialized sound kw into p (whereas it remained kw = qu among the Noldor and the Vanyar).

The aspirate th and the voiced stop d both became s before t: 

	*khothtâ > *khostâ "to collect" (Q *chosta- > hosta-; cf. root KHOTH)
*kothtâ > *kostâ "to quarrel" (Q costa-; Tolkien changed the root from KOT to KOTH)
*ledtâ > *lestâ "to leave" (Q lesta-, cf. the entries ÉLED, LED in Etym)

Another example of dt > st was ¤wed-tâ > *westâ "to swear" (Q *westa > vesta), but Tolkien dropped this word because it clashed with [*bestâ >] vesta "to marry". See entries WED and BES in Etym, and cf. lesta above. (It is not entirely clear whether the word lesta was rejected or not; the entry ÉLED where it occurred was "replaced" by another version – but the phonological rule dt > st may be "valid" all the same.)

A t may also become s before another t when they are perceived to belong to different morphemes:

	*put-tâ (root PUT + verbal ending -tâ) > *pustâ "to stop" (Q pusta)
*lot-tâ (root LOT + the same ending) > *lostâ "to bloom" (Q losta)

The latter example comes from VT42:18, Tolkien explicitly commenting on the change "t-t in inflexion > st". This change does not occur when tt occurs within a unitary word. Indeed the same root PUT (see LR:382 s.v. PUS) that is the source of pusta- also yields Quenya putta "stop (in punctuation)", which is clearly meant to represent primitive *puttâ. It may be similar in sound to the primitive word that produced Q pusta, but here the double tt occurs as a medial fortification of the final consonant of the stem PUT. This *puttâ is therefore perceived as a unitary word, and the change tt > st does not occur. 

The above-mentioned Quenya word costa "to quarrel" was originally an example of tt > st, Tolkien referring it to ¤kot-t[â], but then he changed the root from KOT to KOTH.

The nasals m and ñ both became n when preceding a t or d:

	*kemtanô > *kentanô "potter" (Q centano – the first element seems to represent the root KEM "earth")
	*pilimda (final vowel uncertain, may also be -o or -e) > *pilinda "arrow" (Q pilin with stem pilind-; cf. the base PÍLIM, LR:382)
	*wiñtâ > *wintâ "to scatter" (Q winta > *vinta; if this word is to be related to the noun wingë as suggested in PM:376, it seems to require a root *WIÑ)

Final -wô changes to -wâ:

	¤nidwô > *nidwâ "cushion" (Q nirwa)

Final -mâ becomes -mê after a dental consonant:

	¤jatmâ > *jatmê "bridge" (Q yanwë)

(Cf. also "Old Noldorin"/Old Sindarin katwe from earlier ¤katwâ, demonstrating that -wâ likewise becomes -wê > -we following a dental consonant – see the entry KAT in Etym.)

Medial ñw turns into ñgw:

	¤liñwi > *liñgwi "fish" (Q lingwë)
	¤neñwi > *neñgwi "nose" (Q nengwë)

Evidently quite early (or even from the "start"), a long final vowel is shortened if the word in which it occurs appears as the first element of a compound: 

	¤andâ "long" + ¤-mbundâ "snouted" = ¤andambûndâ (not *andâmbundâ) "long-snouted"
	¤lassê "leaf" + ¤-kwelêne "fading" = ¤lassekwelêne (not *lassêkwelêne) "autumn"
¤tuilê "spring" + ¤lindô "singer" = ¤tuilelindô (not *tuilêlindô) "spring-singer, swallow"

In some cases, but not regularly, the nasal element of the initial nasalized stops nd, ñg, mb develops into an independent syllabic consonant:

	¤ndûnê > *n·dûnê "sunset" (Q andúnë)
*ñgjô > *ñ·gjô "grandchild, descendant" (Q indyo)
	*ñgwalê > *ñ·gwalê (Q ungwalë)
*mbarta > *m·barta "fate" (Q umbar)

In origin, this development seems to have functioned as a kind of "strengthening" that may also modify the meaning of the word: From ¤ñgôlê "philosophy" is derived *ñ·gôlê "deep lore, magic", and these words continue to coexist (eventually producing Quenya ñólë and ingolë, respectively). But in most cases the "original" form with no syllabic nasal seems to have been lost completely, replaced by the "strengthened" form.

Later Quenya developments suggest that the initial nasal of the group ñgw- became labialized by assimilation to the following gw, so that the whole group is technically ñwgw (or ñw·gw where the nasal came to be syllabic); perhaps *ñ·gwalê above should more strictly be represented as *ñw·gwalê.

Some cases of haplology:

	¤kukûwâ > *kûwâ or *kuwâ "dove" (Q cua)
	¤tuilelindô > *tuilindô "spring-singer" = "swallow" (Q tuilindo)

The changes above may have occurred in the earliest stages of Common Eldarin. Some of the changes listed below may be imagined to have occurred later – say, after the Eldar had crossed the Hithaeglir. (By this time, Common Eldarin would not be entirely "common" anymore, since the Nandor had already left the march.)

It may seem that relatively early, the aspirates th, ph, kh became normal t, p, k immediately following another consonant. The word Quenya word ilfirin "immortal" is evidently meant to be derived from *l·phirin- (root PHIR), but in the relevant entry in Etym, Tolkien seems to indicate that this should regularly have produced Quenya *ilpirin instead. The actual form Quenya ilfirin was apparently reformed after firin "mortal" (< *phirin-). 

During the Common Eldarin stage, tkh was apparently assimilated to kk. Perhaps tkh first became tk in accordance with the rule set out above, and this in turn becomes kk (evidence from Sindarin indicates that tk of whatever origin normally became kk, whence Grey-elven ch). The later Quenya word eccaira "remote, far" must come from *ekkairâ, but since the root is given as KHAYA, we must probably assume that at an even older stage, the word appeared as *etkhairâ with the prefix et- "out-" prefixed.

In one attested case, tk does not become kk, but undergoes metathesis to kt instead: ¤et-kelê *"out-flow" early becomes *ektelê (later ¤ektele, whence Quenya ehtelë "spring, issue of water").

S is voiced to z before a voiced stop:

	¤esdê > ¤ezdê "rest" (WJ:403 seems to place this change in the CE era)

Another example of the same would seem to be ¤mazgâ "pliant"; given the base MASAG, this must come from earlier *masgâ.

D becomes t before s:

¤sjadsê > ¤sjatsê "cleft, gash" (Q hyatsë)

Before an unvoiced consonant, the back spirant 3 lost its voicing by assimilation, producing ch. The first of the examples below is explicitly identified as an "Eld" (Common Eldarin) form in Etym.

¤ma3tâ > ¤machtâ- "to handle" (Q mahta-) (In Etym, entry MA3, the CE word is spelt mahtâ-, but it is clear that Tolkien is here using the letter h for [x] rather than a simple breath-h; cf. Quenya mahta-, where it is clear from the descriptions in LotR Appendix E that ht represents [xt].)
*wa3sê > ¤wachsê "stain" (Q *waxë > vaxë) (again Tolkien's actual spelling of the primitive word is "wahsê")

THE LOSS OF MEDIAL 3 (H) AND Ñ: Except initially, these sounds normally disappeared, though 3 became ch before unvoiced consonants (see above) and ñ survived before g and k (including labialized gw, kw – the labialized sound ñw arising from ñ + w had already become ñgw and thus preserved ñ). Much later, the language would re-acquire 3, developed from earlier g, only to lose it once again (even initially). The loss of "original" 3 and this "later" 3 has certain parallels, but whereas the "later" 3 survived into historical times (it was recorded in Rúmilian orthography, at least in initial position), the "original" 3 or h was lost very early: Tolkien also referred to the loss of intervocalic h as "prehistoric" (VT39:11). Even more definite is the statement made in WJ:368: "Medial h was very early lost without trace in CE" – tying this change to the Common Eldarin stage.

A final 3 following u might develop into w (or perhaps rather: the loss of 3 triggered the development of a semi-vowel -w from the corresponding full vowel -u, as if to compensate for the lost -3):

		¤ku3 > ¤kuw "bow" (Q cú)

Sometimes, the loss of intervocalic ñ and 3/h would not cause any further changes, but simply leave two vowels in hiatus; occasionally a new diphthong might arise after the loss, like ai in the second example below:

*teñâ > *teâ > "indicates" (Q tëa; cf. VT39:6)
¤ma3iti > *maiti "handy" (Q maitë)

The primitive dual ¤peñû producing Quenya peu "pair of lips" would also be an example of a new diphthong arising after the loss of ñ. Whether eû became eu "directly", or remained as two vowels in hiatus until the much later shortening of the final vowels, has only academic interest. 

The Quenya genitive ending -o is derived from the root HO or 3O after this loss of medial h/3 (a primitive postposition 3ô "from" being directly suffixed and turning into *-ô, later becoming -o).

Two identical short vowels brought into contact by the loss of ñ or 3/h would merge into one (long) vowel: 

	¤peñe > pê "lip" (VT39:11; still pé in Quenya)
	¤maha > mâ "hand" (VT39:11; still má in Quenya)

NOTE: These examples are interesting, indicating that the loss of medial ñ and h occurred very early, since short final -a and -e were lost during the Common Eldarin stage; see below. ¤Peñe was evidently contracted to pê before ¤peñe would have been reduced to **pêñ (with the same lengthening of the vowel as in PQ ¤kwene > CE ¤kwên).While *pêñ would probably also have produced Quenya pé, this does not seem to have been the way Tolkien imagined it, since he referred to pê as a "contraction" of ¤peñe (VT39:11).

However, if the last vowel was long, and the loss of ñ or 3 brought it into contact with another vowel of similar quality (long or short), the first vowel might be dissimilated, like eê > iê:

¤te3ê or *teñê > (*teê >) *tiê "path" (Q tië; see the entries TE3, TEÑ in Etym, the latter replacing the former)

Possibly the form *teê survived for a while, the actual dissimilation to *tiê taking place much closer to historical times: Similar dissimilation can be observed later as well, as when ¤wê3ê produces Quenya vië "manhood" (via *wêê > *wîê). But in this case 3 is not original; it is altered from g, since the root not *WE3, but WEG (LR:398). The change g > 3 (and its subsequent loss) occurred much later.

Where 3 or ñ disappeared before a consonant, the preceding vowel was lengthened in compensation:

	¤do3mê > *dômê "night" (Q lómë)
	¤te3râ or ¤teñrâ > *têrâ "straight, right" (Q téra; again see TE3, TEÑ in Etym)
	¤wa3râ > *wârâ "dirty" (Q *wára > vára)

It should be noted that while medial h/3 disappeared, it surprisingly seems to have survived finally, being lost only much later in that position. This phenomenon is not explicitly referred to in Tolkien's published writings, but we shall probably need final 3 later, to explain the Book Quenya accusative – formed by lengthening the final vowel of a noun. This probably indicates the former presence of a final 3 as a primitive accusative ending. But if we let final 3 disappear already in Common Eldarin, it would be lost too early to exert any influence over the final vowels of later Quenya. So a word like *lassê3 or *lassêh, the probable primitive accusative of ¤lassê "leaf", must remain unchanged for now.

During the Common Eldarin stage, the short final vowels -a, -e and -o were lost. Examples:

Loss of final short -a; where the ending -la is so reduced, the remaining l came to be syllabic:
¤swanda > *swand "sponge" (Q hwan with stem hwand-)
¤jakta > *jakt "neck" (Q yat with stem yaht-)
¤hekla > *hek·l "outcast" (Q hecil)
¤makla > *mak·l "sword" (Q macil)
¤tankla > *tank·l "brooch" (Q tancil)
¤tekla > *tek·l "pen" (Q tecil)

Loss of final short -e:
	¤i-ndise > indis "bride"
	PQ ¤kwene "person" > CE ¤kwên (WJ:360)
	¤nere "man" > nêr (WJ:393)

Loss of final short -o:
	¤abaro "refuser" > ¤abar (WJ:371 identifies the latter as a CE form)
¤ndôro > *ndôr "land" (Q nór, WJ:413)
¤Spanturo > *Spantur "Cloud-lord" (Q Fantur)
¤tollo > *toll "island" (Q tol with stem toll-)
	¤Denwego > *Denweg (personal name, Q Lenwë)

As is evident from the examples ¤kwene "person" > CE ¤kwên (WJ:360) and ¤nere "man" > nêr (WJ:393) already quoted, a word that becomes monosyllabic by the loss of a final vowel has its stem-vowel lengthened in compensation. But where the word occurs compounded or with endings and thus is not a monosyllable, the vowel remains short. Therefore the CE plural of ¤kwên is given as ¤kwenî (WJ:360), not **kwênî. This variation is still reflected in Quenya quén pl. queni (WJ:361; likewise nér "man" pl. neri, MR:213).

Where the loss of a final short vowel made a semi-vowel -w final, it turned into a full vowel u:

(¤angwa >) CE *angw > *angu "snake" (Q ango)

[Compare the entry-head ANGWA in Etym with the stem-form angu- of the Quenya noun ango, seen in the compound angulóce, entry LOK. Like -w became -u, a -j becoming final would likewise turn into -i; cf. the example ¤talrunja "sole of foot" producing Quenya tallunë, evidently via *talrunj and then *talruni; see below. In this case the loss of a final -a is later than CE, indicating that the rule for how final -w and -j behaved (turning into -u and -i) continued to operate in the earliest stages of Quenya.]

A final semi-vowel following a long vowel could likewise develop into a separate vowel:

	(PQ ?*râwa >) CE *râw > ¤râu "lion"

This is our sole certain example of this phenomenon (Tolkien only provided the root RAW and the form ¤râu). This -u was later lost, evidently also during the Common Eldarin stage. It is unclear whether we should generalize a rule "a short final vowel immediately following a long vowel is lost":

	¤râu > râ "lion" (still rá in Q)

NOTE: If the entry-head NOWO in Etym is taken as representing a PQ word *nowo, Quenya nó "conception, idea" might arise in this way:  PQ *nowo first becomes CE *nôw (just like kwene becomes kwên), this *nôw then turns into *nôu, and the final -u is subsequently lost leaving only *nô = Q nó.

After the loss of a final vowel by any of the processes described above, the plural forms were evidently reformed by analogy with the new simplex form. In Primitive Quendian, the plural of ¤swanda "sponge" must have been *swandaî or (later?) *swandai, but when ¤swanda was reduced to *swand in CE, its plural was altered to *swandî (still reflected in Q hwandi) – as if this were a normal consonant stem. The original plural of PQ *râwa (or *râwe, *râwo) "lion" must likewise have been altered from *râwai (or *râwei, *râwoi) to *râwî. Here, w was not final and therefore did not become u, later lost as described above. So in Quenya, the plural of rá "lion" is still rávi, reflecting CE *râwî and the original root RAW.

Evidently during the latter part of the Common Eldarin stage, short final -i turned into -e: 

¤dômi > *dôme "twilight" (Q lómë)
¤pori > *pore "flour, meal" (Q porë)
*kari > *kare "does" (aorist form of the verb kar-) (Q carë)
*karini > *karine "I do" (aorist with pronominal ending; cf. Old "Noldorin"/Sindarin yurine "I run", see note below) (Q carin)
*talruni > *talrune "sole of foot" (Q tallunë)

The vowels did not change their quality when they were not final, and so in Quenya we still have the variation seen for instance in the aorist, as in care "does" besides carin "I do" (the first evolving from *kari with the change i > e, the second from *karini with a 1st person ending, the pronominal suffix *-ni precluding the change i > e because the vowel was not final).

NOTE: We date this change to the Common Eldarin stage because it is also seen in Old "Noldorin"/Sindarin: The form yurine "I run" (YUR) exemplifies an I-stem *yuri- with an ending -ne "I", whereas the form trenare "he recounts" (NAR2) shows that the change from older *trenari has already occurred: Add the ending -ne "I" to trenare so that the final -e is not final, and we would evidently see *trenari-ne with the original quality preserved. The ending -ne "I" would itself exemplify the change from -i to -e, since it must come from earlier ni; compare the stem NI2, simply defined "I". Another relevant "ON"/OS form is barane "brown", which is surely meant to represent older *barani (cf. Quenya varnë with stem varni-). However, the change -i > -e did not happen at the beginning of the Common Eldarin stage; this is evident from the fact that Tolkien refers to phini "a hair" [> Q finë] as a Common Eldarin form in PM:362 (cf. PM:340 for Q form). It may also be noted that Nandorin, Green-Elven, seems to have branched off from Common Eldarin before this change occurred; see the entry lygn in the wordlist appended to my article about Nandorin.

As a parallel to the change from short -i to -e, short final -u becomes -o:

*kuru > kuro "skillful device" (in Q still curo with stem curu-; the examples below must also have stems in -u when endings are added to them)
¤smalu > *smalo "pollen" (Q malo)
¤tundu > *tundo "hill, mound" (Q tundo)
¤ranku > *ranko "arm" (Q ranco)
*angu > *ango "snake" (Q ango)

PRE-RECORD QUENYA
As far as the imaginary Arda timeline is concerned, the March is now past, and the Lindarin branch of Elvish (that leads to Sindarin and Amanya Telerin) has now definitely separated from the "Vanya-Ñoldorin branch" (VT39:10) that we will continue to pursue here. The Vanyar and the Noldor have settled in Aman, but the linguistic development of this period still has to be "reconstructed"; Quenya still has not been reduced to writing. An actual word of what seems to be pre-record Quenya is found in WJ:402: Mbelekôro is there said to be the "oldest Q[uenya] form" of the name Melkor. This word indicates that the primitive nasalized stops mb, nd, ñg were still in place initially, and that the syncope still had not taken place: Mbelek- would later become Melk-. Tolkien actually asterisked the form Mbelekôro, so it is clear that Rúmil still had not invented writing. Hence this can properly be called pre-record Quenya.
	It was in the period that now followed that the language underwent the greatest changes. "Its altering ...[came]...in the softening and harmonizing of the sounds and patterns of the Quendian tongue to forms that seemed to the Noldor more beautiful" (WJ:20).

A long final vowel occurring at the end of a compound is normally shortened; Tolkien explicitly dated this change to "the earlier stages of Quenya" (VT39:6):

	*Erukhînâ > *Erukhîna "Child of Eru" (*Erû, *Eru- "God" + khînâ "child"; cf. WJ:403 s.v. Atan)
*tal-runjâ > ¤talrunja "sole of foot" (*runjâ "sole" combined with tal- "foot"; Q tallunë)
*pel-taksê > ¤peltakse "pivot" (¤taksê "nail" combined with pel- "revolve on fixed point"; Q peltas with stem peltax-)

Cf. also -wego as the "compound form" of wegô "man" (LR:398 s.v. WEG).
However, the plural ending -î is not subject to this change (¤kala-kwendî "light-elves" was not reduced to **kala-kwendi). It is also evident that many Quenya compounds were formed after this rule ceased to be effective – for instance, Elentári "Star-Queen" would rather have been **Elentar if this descended from *Elentârî at the oldest stage. One example mentioned above, *kemtanô > *kentanô "potter", may likewise actually be a later formation (suggesting that the rule mt > nt continued to operate in the language): If this had been reduced to *kentano in early Quenya, the Quenya form might have been **centan instead of centano because of the loss of certain final vowels that we will now discuss.

At some later stage, in words of three or more syllables, a short final vowel may occasionally be lost (but not wholly regularly so):

 ¤Awadelo > *Awadel "Away-goer" (Q Auzel > Aurel; this word refers to the Elves that departed from Beleriand and went to Valinor, WJ:360, 363; the form below is a variant)
¤Awâdelo > *Awâdel  "Away-goer" (Q Oazel > Oarel)
¤Mbelekôro > *Mbelekôr "Melkor" (Q Melkor)
(¤etsiri >) late CE *etsire > Q etsir "mouth of a river"
(*karini >) late CE *karine > Q carin "I do"

However, this loss seems to occur quite regularly in the case of the final vowels that had been shortened in compounds (another change dated by Tolkien to "the earlier stages of Quenya", VT39:6):

(*Eru-khînâ >) *Erukhîna > *Erukhîn "Child of Eru" (later Q Eruhin with stem Eruhín-)
(*pel-taksê >) ¤peltakse > *peltaks "pivot" (later Q peltas with stem peltax-)
(*khala-tirnô >) ¤khalatirno > *khalatirn "fish-watcher" (name of a bird, English kingfisher; in later Q halatir with stem halatirn-)
(*Mand-ostô >) ¤Mandosto > *Mandost (later Q Mandos with stem Mandost-, MR:350 cf. VT39:6)

[Perhaps ¤Mbelekôro > *Mbelekôr also belongs in this list, if the "oldest Q form" represents a compound *Mbelek- "mighty" + -ôro, shortening of *ôrô ?"rising" or ?"one who rises". The name Melkor – as it later appears – supposedly means "mighty-rising", also translated "He that arises in might".]

Where a semi-vowel j became final because of the loss of a final vowel, it turned into a full vowel -i:  

¤talrunja > CE (*talrunj >) *talruni "sole of foot" (Q tallunë)

As is evident from the Quenya form, short final -i at some point became -e just as in Common Eldarin, so it would seem that this rule continued to operate in the language: *talruni became *talrune (later Q tallunë). This parallels the change of -w > -u > -o in Common Eldarin (as when ¤angwa "snake" becomes *angw > *angu > Q ango), and it is essentially the same rule continuing to operate in the language (but after this stage, it apparently ceases to function).

Very early, there were some instances of metathesis, certain sounds often switching place. One example is DL > LD, as in ¤Edlô > *Eldô (Q Eldo, a variant of Elda "Elf", though ultimately with another etymology – see WJ:363). Tolkien wrote that "transposition of dl in primary contact to the favoured sequence ld not infrequently [but not universally either?] occurred in the pre-record period of Quenya" (WJ:363). Later, more systematic metathesis would occur.

This may be the stage where Quenya loses many of the initial consonant clusters of the primitive language. The initial combinations sk-, sp-, st- evidently turned into aspirates kh-, ph-, th-, merging with the original aspirates (but medially these groups were apparently unchanged, cf. sk surviving in a Quenya word like rusco "fox"). This change is not directly "attested" in Tolkien's published papers, but we know he imagined such a change in the branch of Eldarin that lead to Sindarin. (In both Quenya and Sindarin the original aspirates and the initial combinations of s + k, p or t will later become spirants ch [> h], f, þ, respectively. However, Amanya Telerin retains the combinations in s- unchanged, so this change must have happened independently in Quenya and Sindarin: If it occurred already in Common Eldarin, we would have seen it in Telerin as well.)

¤skarwê > *kharwê "wound" (Q *charwë > harwë)
¤skjapat- > *khjapat "shore" (Q hyapat)
*skwarmâ > *khwarmâ "crossbar" (Q hwarma)
¤spangâ > *phangâ "beard" (Q fanga)
¤stankâ > *thankâ "split" (Q *þanca > sanca)

The initial groups sl- and sr- become hl- and hr-, sc. unvoiced l and r:

	¤srâwê > *hrâwê "flesh" (Q hrávë)
	*slôkê > *hlôkê "dragon" (Q hlócë)

NOTE: In the scenario of the Etymologies, original initial sl- seems to be simplified to l- at a relatively early stage; as one of the primitive derivatives of the stem SLIG we have ¤ligâ (presumably representing even earlier *sligâ, cf. other primitive derivatives from the same root, ¤slignê or ¤slingê). In Etym, all Quenya words derived from stems in sl- show simple l-, which is of course logical enough if s early disappeared with no trace. (Etym provides no example of how initial sr- came out in Quenya.) But later, Tolkien decided that primitive initial sr- and sl- produced Quenya hr- and hl-, though this had come to be pronounced as normal r- and l- by the Third Age. So when Etym has a primitive word like (say) ¤slîwê yielding Quenya lívë instead of *hlívë, we may see lívë as representing the Third Age pronunciation. But in reality, Tolkien probably did not imagine any intermediate stage with hl- when he wrote Etym in the thirties; the introduction of hr- and hl- as Quenya sounds was a later idea. In the pre-LotR period it would seem that he meant sl- to have been simplified to l- already in the primitive days. Cf. sm- and sn- below.

The initial groups sm- and sn- are simplified to m- and n- (conceivably there may have been a intermediate stage with unvoiced hm- and hn-, paralleling hl- and hr- above, but there is no direct evidence that Tolkien imagined this to have been the case):

	¤smalinâ > *malinâ "yellow" (Q malina)
	*snardâ > *nardâ "knot" (Q narda)

Perhaps it is at this stage certain primitive initial clusters in -j are altered. Primitive kj becomes tj (via tj?), primitive sj becomes hy (= ich-Laut), whereas primitive gj, dj and ñgj are all reduced to a simple semivowel j-: 

¤kjelepê > *tjelepê "silver" (Q tyelpë)
¤sjalmâ > *hyalmâ "shell, conch" (Q hyalma)
¤gjernâ > *jernâ "old, worn" (Q yerna)
*djeltâ > *jeltâ "to loathe" (Q yelta)
*ñgjalmê > *jalmê "clamour" (Q yalmë)

The sound of hw (unvoiced w) enters the language as a simplification of initial sw-:
	
	(¤swanda >) *swand > *hwand "sponge" (Q hwan with stem hwand-)
	¤swesta- (read *swestâ-) > *hwestâ- "to puff" (Q hwesta-)
*swinjâ- > *hwinjâ "to swirl" (Q hwinya, cf. the entry SWIN in Etym) 

Another source of hw is the aspirate ph, where it occurred before the vowel u (cf. VT41:8):

*phuinê > *hwuinê "gloom, deep shadow" (Q huinë)

BEGINNING OF THE RETRACTION PERIOD: In primitive Elvish, it was not predictable (from the shape of a word) which syllable received the stress. In a little less than 30 cases, Tolkien in the Etymologies indicated by means of an accent which syllable is stressed (plus some additional cases where he indicated which syllable in the root is stressed). For instance, it would seem that the primitive words barádâ "lofty", berékâ "wild" and morókô "bear" were stressed on the second-to-last syllable. But at some early point in the evolution of Quenya, the stress was moved to the first syllable in nearly all cases. (The only known exception is the augment, or prefixed reduplication, in verbal stems: according to WJ:366 this remained unstressed.) So now the three words above became *báradâ, bérekâ, mórokô – but since practically all words are henceforth stressed on the first syllable, there is no point in marking the stress at all. The period from now and until the emergence of the later Latin-style stress-patterns we know and love from LotR-style Quenya is called the retraction period (WJ:366). It seems to cover the entire formative phase of the Quenya language, so the original stress-patterns of Primitive Elvish actually have minimal impact on the evolution of High-Elven.
Exactly when Tolkien imagined the retraction period to have begun we cannot know, but it should be noted that the vowels that were originally accented in our three examples (barádâ, berékâ, morókô), have all been lost in their Quenya descendants: Varda, verca, morco. They disappeared in the Quenya Syncope (see below). It is not probable that they would have been syncopated if they had still been accented, so the retraction period must at any rate have begun before the syncope set in. *Salákwê "grass" must also have transferred its accent to the first syllable (*sálakwê) before it underwent syncope to produce the immediate ancestor of Quenya salquë.
	Shorter words that Tolkien indicated were accented on the final syllable, like the verb barjâ- "protect" or the related adjective (or participle?) barnâ "safe, protected" were also stressed on the first syllable from now on. The Quenya descendants varya- and varna are still so accented.

THE QUENYA SYNCOPE: Where a word of three or more syllables commences in two concomitant syllables that contain identical short vowels, the second of these vowels is normally syncopated (cf. Letters:426):

*doronô > *dornô "oak" (Q norno)
	¤galadâ > *galdâ "tree" (Q alda)
	(¤karani >) late CE *karane > *karne "red" (Q carnë)
(¤kjelepê >) *tjelepê > *tjelpê "silver" (Q tyelpe)
	*morokô (no longer stressed on the second o!) > morkô "bear" (Q morco)
	¤neresâ > *nersâ  (Q Nessa, name of a Valië: WJ:416)
	(¤phoroti >) late CE *phorote > *phorte "northern" (Q fortë)
	¤silimâ > *silmâ "shining white" (adj.) (Q silma)
	¤turumâ > *turmâ "shield" (Q turma)
	¤Ulumô > *Ulmô, name of the Vala of all waters (Q Ulmo)
	(¤salakwê >) *salakwê > *salkwê "grass" (Q salquë)

However, the syncope did NOT take place if there was a consonant cluster before or following the second vowel. The word *aklarê "glory" (Q alcarë), where the second vowel follows the group kl, cannot be syncopated to **akl'rê. A word like *kjelepnâ "of silver" could not become *kjelpnâ, and therefore the second e still persists in Quenya telemna (altered from *tyelemna under the influence of Telerin, that had t for ty). A double consonant likewise hinders syncope in the previous syllable: P tjulussê "poplar-tree" is not reduced to **tjulssê (the second u is still present in Quenya tyulussë).

NOTE: The fact that double consonants would prevent the syncope from taking place, confirms one sound-shift set out above: k + w had already merged into a single labial consonant kw. If ¤salák-wê (LR:385) had not become *sálakwê at this stage, there would still have been a consonant cluster following the second a, and the syncope producing the form *salkwê (directly underlying Q salquë) could not have taken place. I cannot readily explain why ¤atakwê "building" (LR:390, later presumably *atakwê) is not syncopated to *atkwê; the second a is still present in Quenya ataquë. But a form *atquë would probably be impossible in Quenya, and a combination like *tqu = *tkw would maybe be disliked also at earlier stages of Vanya-Noldorin; perhaps the syncope was sometimes avoided where certain "undesirable" consonant clusters would otherwise arise. Cf. also a word like ¤tatharê yielding Quenya tasarë ("willow") rather than syncopated (**tatharê >**taþre >) **tassë. – The syncope did not regularly take place in the branch of Elvish leading to Sindarin; hence primitive ¤karani (late CE *karane, which would also be the Old Sindarin form) comes out as caran in Grey-elven. Where Sindarin words are syncopated, it may at least sometimes be the result of the more sporadic syncope taking place already in Primitive Quendian. Therefore we postulated above that (¤usuk-wê >) *usukwê "reek" became *uskwê very early and did not have to wait for the Quenya syncope: Though the Quenya form would be usquë in any case, "Noldorin"/Sindarin osp demands a syncopated form *uskwê existing already in Common Eldarin (in the Lindarin dialect of CE actually *uspê). 

A long vowel could not be syncopated, so a word like terêwâ was not reduced to **terwâ (Quenya tereva "fine, acute" still preserves the second e; as we see it did become short later, but by then the syncopation had ceased to operate). Another example of the same is ¤narâka (read *narâkâ), that was not reduced to **narkâ (Quenya naraca "rushing, violent"). Also contrast the development of two variant forms of the same word (WJ:360, 363): CE ¤awa-delo "away-goer" becomes syncopated to *aw'del > *audel (Quenya Auzel > Aurel), whereas the variant awâ-delo shows no syncope because of the long â: This produces Quenya Oazel > Oarel, the group oa later arising from earlier awa (after it had been shortened from original awâ, but too late for the syncope to take effect).

NOTE: The fact that the syncope only occurred in words of more than two syllables is responsible for the fact that a Quenya word like toron "brother" is reduced to torn- before an ending (e.g. pl. torni). The singular toron had only two syllables and was therefore unaffected by the syncope, whereas the three-syllable plural form *toronî was reduced to *tornî (> Quenya torni). But sometimes inflected forms were later re-formed on analogy with the singular form, the syncopated vowel being reintroduced. The noun elen "star" is an example of this: "The pl. form eleni, without syncope, is re-formed after the singular" (WJ:262). But a syncopated form *elnî had actually existed at an earlier stage, yielding an alternative Quenya plural eldi that might turn up in verse (for the change ln > ld, see below). Other Quenya examples of what seems to be analogical plurals are talami "floors" and filici "birds" (instead of syncopated **talmi, **filci; cf. syncopated nelci rather than **neleci for "teeth").

Where the syncope brought j or w into direct contact with a consonant, they became vowels i, u and could form a diphthong with the previous vowel:

	¤gajakâ  > (*gajkâ >) *gaikâ  "fell, terrible, dire" (Quenya aica, PM:363)
	(¤awa-delo >) *awa-del > (*awdel >) *audel "Away-goer" (Quenya Auzel > Aurel)
	*tawarinâ > (*tawrinâ >) *taurinâ (Q taurina "of wood")

At some early point (but after the final separation of the branches of Eldarin that lead to Quenya on the one hand and Amanya Telerin on the other, and evidently also after the syncope), the consonant d is changed in many positions. Initial d is consistently altered in the proto-Quenya branch. It normally becomes l:

(¤dômi >) late CE *dôme > *lôme "twilight" (still lómë in later Quenya)
¤dattâ > *lattâ "hole, pit" (Q latta)

If the word ¤d'râk[â] "wolf" still survived with its initial cluster dr- (produced by syncope of the original base DARÁK-) intact, it may have been simplified to *râkâ at this point. If the form *lrâkâ ever existed, it hardly lasted long. The original initial cluster dr- has in any case been simplified in the later Quenya form ráca, whenever the simplification may have occurred.

Occasionally, initial d becomes n instead of l:

¤dêr > nêr "man" (still nér in Quenya)
(*doronô >) *dornô > nornô "oak" (Q norno)

In the latter case, d evidently becomes n because of assimilation with the other n in the word. In WJ:413-414, Tolkien comments on the derivation of the Q adjective norna "tough, stiff", which is implied to come from *dornâ; he notes that "this is probably one of the cases in which Q initial d became n-, not l-, by assimilation to an n occurring later in the word". (The Quenya words nenda "slope" and nendë "sloping", derived from a root DEN, seem to display the same assimilation: primitive *dendâ, *dendê. However, Tolkien struck out the entry DEN [LR:354].) As for dêr > nêr "man", the Etymologies implies that this unexpected development is "partly due to [influence from] NÎ, NIS woman, partly to strengthened stem ndere bridegroom" (LR:354 s.v. DER); therefore this word did not end up as **lér in Quenya (LR:377 s.v. NÎ1).

NOTE: But in a post-LotR source, Tolkien derived Quenya nér from a root NERE instead (WJ:393), eliminating the complications above: In the new scenario, the initial n of nér had been n all along.

Medial, intervocalic d may also become l by assimilation with another l in the same word, but this only happens sporadically:

	¤g-lada- > *glala- verbal stem "to laugh" (Q lala-, PM:359)

Contrast ¤lâda (read *lâdâ) as a primitive word for "flat"; this did not become *lâlâ (which would have produced Quenya **lála, but we actually see lára, the consonant r regularly evolving from post-vocalic d – see below).

The primitive word *lâdâ derived from a stem DAL seems to exemplify another phenomenon: Occasionally, the initial change d > l would cause an l occurring later in the word to be dissimilated to d. In effect, d and l switch places, as when the root DAL seems to have become *LAD in the derivative *lâdâ (whence Q lára). Tolkien explicitly deals with another example of this phenomenon in WJ:363: "by dissimilation", the root DEL "go, proceed" turned into led- in Quenya. (The Etymologies only lists LED- "go, fare, travel" [LR:368]; when writing Etym, Tolkien had apparently not yet "discovered" that this is actually a dissimilated form of DEL-!)

According to WJ:363, there is yet another way d can become l in Quenya: "dj became ly medially". This is from the same paragraph that discusses DEL vs. LED, so we are obviously to assume that Quenya lelya- "go" descends from older *ledjâ-. However, this does not agree very well with one example from the Etymologies: The root MAD yields a Quenya word marya "pale", clearly meant to come from *madjâ (post-vocalic d regularly evolving into r via ð and z; see below). According to the rule Tolkien later set out, *madjâ should have yielded Quenya *malya instead, the cluster dj becoming ly before d had the chance to become r. But instead of altering the word, we may simply see marya as a lone sample of an irregular development.

As we have seen, Tolkien could not quite make up his mind whether a specific primitive sound was to be reconstructed as h (presumably like English h), or as a back-spirant 3. But if this sound was not h all along, the back-spirant 3 was changed to h at this stage at the very latest. We know this because Quenya was about to acquire 3 from another source (changed from initial and post-vocalic g), and this sound would not behave like the older (?3 >) h. The latter survived into Quenya as h whereas the "new" 3 would eventually be lost completely. Therefore, they cannot have been identical during the next stages of the linguistic evolution.

THE SPIRANTS ARISE: So far proto-Quenya did not have any spirant sounds (except possibly 3, which had by this stage at the latest finally become h, as noted above). But now a wide range of spirants would develop from two sources: the voiced stops and the unvoiced aspirates. Turning these sounds into spirants may be one of the changes Tolkien referred to as a "softening" of the older form of Elvish (WJ:20).
Initial and post-vocalic g and b became 3 and v, respectively:

	(¤galadâ >) *galdâ > *3aldâ "tree" (Q alda, but 3alda in the archaic Rúmilian spelling – see below)
	*wegê > ¤we3ê "manhood" (Q *wië > vië)
	(¤Denwego > *Lenweg >) *Lenweg > *Lenwe3 (personal name, Q Lenwë, WJ:412)
	(¤lugni >) *lugne > *lu3ne "blue" (Q lúnë, possibly *lu3ne in Rúmilian spelling)
	¤besû > *vesû "married pair" (Q *vezu > veru)
¤laibê > laivê "ointment" (Q laivë)

It seems that g became 3 following l as well:

	¤ulgundô > *ul3undô "monster" (Q ulundo)

It may be that not just g, but also b turned into a spirant following l (hence lb > lv), but the evidence is somewhat divergent. The Etymologies has it that the cluster lb produces Quenya lw (as in ¤golbâ > Q olwa "branch", entry GÓLOB). But Tolkien seems to have abandoned this idea; in a post-LotR source the word for "branch" is quoted as olba instead (PM:340) – as if the original cluster lb was unchanged in Quenya. However, LotR Appendix E informs us that "for lv, not for lw, many speakers, especially Elves, used lb". So perhaps ¤golbâ does properly yield Quenya *olva, but many speakers would alter it back to olba, and it is this "alternative" form that is quoted in PM:340. The cluster lv is not very common in Quenya, but in some of the cases where it does occur (e.g. in the word elvëa "starlike"), it almost certainly comes from earlier lb. We can probably feel free to postulate a regular development lb > lv, though "many speakers, especially Elves" would later undo this change – apparently to distinguish this cluster more clearly from lw.

Paralleling the changes b > v and g > 3, post-vocalic d became ð. The only direct evidence for this is Tolkien's statement (in WJ:363) that a primitive word ¤edelo would have produced Quenya ¤ello via ¤eðlo; the word ¤ello was not actually found, but the development d > ð must be "valid" all the same. Hence:

(*tada >) CE ¤tad > *tað "thither" (Q *taz, in Exilic tar)
(¤awadelo >) *Audel > *auðel > auzel (Q Auzel > Aurel)
(¤nidwô > *nidwâ >) *nidwa > *niðwa "cushion" (Q *nizwa > nirwa)

As for the first example, compare the primitive allative ending -da (WJ:366), hence *ta-da "that-to" = to that, thither. (Quenya mir "to the inside; into" must likewise descend from *mida via mid > mið > miz.)

NOTE: No examples of initial d becoming ð can be quoted, since in this position d had already become l (or exceptionally n). Hence a primitive word like ¤do3mê produces Quenya lómë rather than (¤do3mê > *dômê > **ðôme > **zôme >) **rómë.

Possibly about the same point in time, the unvoiced aspirates also turn into spirant sounds. This seems to have occurred in all positions, though most of our examples involve initial aspirates. The change from aspirates to spirants seems to have happened more or less independently in all Eldarin tongues; for instance, Tolkien noted that kh "became in all Eldarin tongues the spirant" – sc. the spirant ch, ach-Laut (VT41:9). Likewise, the aspirate ph became the spirant f, whereas th became the spirant þ:

	(¤khîthi >) *khîthe > *chîþe "mist" (Q *chíþë > hísë)
	¤tathar > *taþar "willow-tree" (Q *taþar > tasar)
	¤neth-râ > *neþra "young" (Q nessa)
	¤khjelesê > *chjelesê "glass" (Q hyellë)
	¤khithme (read *khithmê) > *chiþmê "fog" (Q *chiþwë > hiswë)
	(¤thindi >) *thinde > þinde "grey" (Q þindë > sindë, WJ:384)
	(¤phini >) *phine >  fine "a single hair" (still finë in Q, PM:362/340)

Since it seems that Quenya had already turned original initial sk-, sp-, st- into aspirates kh-, ph-, th-, they now became spirants just like the original aspirates (hence Tolkien was free to change his mind about whether findë "tress, hair" comes from ¤spindê or ¤phindê: LR:387 vs. PM:362!)

(¤skarwê >) *kharwê > *charwê "wound" (Q *charwë > harwë)
(¤skjapat- >) *khjapat > *chjapat "shore" (Q hyapat)
(¤skwarmâ >) *khwarmâ > *chwarmâ "crossbar" (Q hwarma)
(¤spangâ >) *phangâ > *fangâ "beard" (Q fanga)
(¤stankâ >) *thankâ > *þancâ "split" (Q *þanca > sanca)

It should be noted that the þ that now arose in proto-Quenya was not quite like the sound of English th as in think. This English sound is interdental, sc. pronounced with the tip of the tongue between the teeth. The Elvish þ was strictly dental, made with the tongue-tip behind the back of the upper front teeth, and therefore closer to s (and in the Noldorin dialect, it would indeed merge with s later). Likewise, f was not originally quite like English f; the f of Amanya Elvish was originally a bilabial sound, pronounced using the lips only, without any friction between the teeth and the lower lip. It was quite close to hw (unvoiced w), and later – in the Vanyarin dialect – the sounds would indeed threaten to fall together. See VT41:7-8 concerning all this.

The combination chj, whether descended from khj or skj, becomes hy (= ich-Laut):

	(¤khjelesê >) *chjelesê > *hyelesê "glass" (Q hyellë)
(¤skjapat- > *khjapat >) *chjapat > hyapat "shore" (still so in Q)

The labialized combination chw becomes hw (= unvoiced w):

(*skwarmâ > khwarmâ >) *chwarmâ > hwarmâ "crossbar" (Q hwarma)

Because of this early merger of chw with hw, "distinct signs for chw and hw were not required" in Fëanorian writing (LotR Appendix E). There really was a merger, for it should be noted that the sounds hw and hy were not quite new to the language: It seems that at this stage, proto-Quenya already had hw derived from sw and from the aspirate ph in front of u, and possibly also hy derived from earlier sj- (see above). 

THE SHORTENING OF FINAL VOWELS IN POLYSYLLABIC WORDS: At some point perhaps not very far from the beginning of the "historical" period, the long final vowels so characteristic of Primitive Elvish are finally shortened. (The late Common Eldarin and early proto-Quenya rule that final short -i and -u turn into -e and -o is no longer operating, so the final -u and -i that now develop from earlier -û and -î are not so changed.)

¤kornâ > Q corna "round"
¤Valinôrê (WJ:413) > Q Valinóre "Valinor"
¤târî  > Q tári "queen"
¤kundû > Q cundu "prince"

Evidently by analogy, the shortened vowels were also introduced in positions where the vowels were not absolutely final, as in the inflected forms of nouns. For instance, the dative of lassë "leaf" (earlier ¤lassê) is lassen, not **lassén.

The example Valinôrê from WJ:413 is of interest regarding the sequence of the changes: It demonstrates that the change from voiced plosives to spirants, like b > v, occurred before the shortening of the long final vowels. 

NOTE: Tolkien may have imagined a different sequence when he wrote the Etymologies, where we find some primitive words that already seem to have shortened the long final vowels, but still have not turned the voiced stops and the unvoiced aspirates into spirants. For instance, we have ¤râba (> Q ráva "wild") and ¤khagda (> Q *chahta > hahta "mound") with b and kh still intact,  though the final -a has already been shortened. It must have been long at the oldest stage, or it would not have survived into Quenya (cf. ¤swanda > Q hwan "sponge", not **hwanda). But then there are also words in the Etymologies that would seem to confirm that the spirants entered the language before the final vowels were shortened. Cf. ¤we3ê (> Q vië "manhood"), that comes from a root WEG and must therefore have been *wegê at an older stage; the form ¤we3ê cannot be Primitive Quendian or Common Eldarin, but is rather proto-Quenya, after the voiced stops had become spirants in many positions. Yet in ¤we3ê the long final vowel is still in place, confirming the order of changes suggested by Valinôrê in WJ:413. The Etymologies material is thus not wholly consistent; we may simply assume that the macron denoting a long final vowel has dropped out in a number of cases. This is also seen in later sources; in WJ:361 a certain Primitive Quendian verb is quoted as ¤hek-tâ, but in WJ:363 we have ¤hek-ta instead – plainly an error, whether the author or the transcriber is to be blamed.

However, Quenya still had some long final vowels at a later stage, in the accusative form of nouns. In the Plotz Letter, Tolkien indicated that in the conservative "Book Quenya", a noun like cirya "ship" had the accusative form ciryá, whereas lassë "leaf" had the accusative form lassé. How are we to account for these forms? It has been suggested that at an older stage, there was an accusative marker *-h. Whereas medial h was lost already in Common Eldarin (WJ:368), it may be that final -h survived much longer. If older ¤lassê "leaf" had an accusative form *lassêh, the long vowel of the latter word would initially be shortened by analogy with the development of the simplex form: the new accusative would be *lasseh. However, final *-h was apparently lost before the beginning of the historical period, and the preceding vowel was lengthened in compensation. Hence presumably *lasseh > acc. lassé, *ciryah > acc. ciryá, long final vowels arising anew. (Presumably we would even see long final vowels in the accusatives of nouns that originally had short final vowels.)

Devoicing of medial combinations: Perhaps at this point, a number of medial clusters of two voiced sounds are seen to become unvoiced. Examples include zd > st, zg > sk, and gd > kt: 

	(¤esdê > ¤ezdê >) ezde > estë "rest" (Q Estë as name of a Valië, WJ:403)
	(¤mizdê >) *mizde > Q mistë "fine rain"
	(*masgâ > ¤mazgâ >) *mazga > *maska "soft" (Q maxa)
(¤khagda [read *khagdâ] >) *chagda >  *chakta  "mound" (Q *chahta > hahta)

Moreover, we can deduce that bd at one stage turned into pt:

(*libdâ >) ¤libda > *lipta "soap" (Q lipsa)

We rely on the example ¤libda to place the devoicing of these combinations in the period postdating the shortening of the long final vowels. The example ¤khagda points in the same direction, but other evidence suggests that the initial aspirate kh- should already have turned into a spirant ch- when the final vowel had become short.

According to the Etymologies, the combination pt (of whatever origin) later turned into ps:

(¤libda >) *lipta > Q lipsa "soap"
	(*lepetê >) *lepte > Q lepsë "finger"
	
For the primitive form *lepetê, cf. the root LEPET and the "Noldorin" cognate lhebed (Sindarin *lebed), LR:368. Conceivably the most primitive form should rather be *lepeti, but the immediate ancestor of Quenya lepsë would still be *lepte. 

It may be that Tolkien dropped the "pt > ps" rule; SD:68, 72 gives raccalepta for "claw-fingered". This adjective lepta "fingered" must probably be derived from *lepetâ via *leptâ; in any case, the word must be closely related to lepsë "finger". A late source also has tapta rather than *tapsa as a word for "impeded" (VT39:17). Some would emend lepsë "finger" and lipsa "soap" to *leptë, *lipta – to go with Tolkien's later insights on Quenya phonology. Perhaps we may rather assume that there were minor dialectal variants.

"Before the separation of Vanyar and Ñoldor," both clans alter hw- to h- before the vowel u- (VT41:8):

	(*phuinê > *hwuinê >) *hwuinë > huinë "gloom, deep shadow"

In the Etymologies, this word has a Quenya side-form fuinë (LR:382), but according to VT41:8, fuinë is actually a Telerin form.

Initially, the primitive nasalized explosives mb-, nd-, ñg- are normally reduced to m-, n-, and ñ-. (As for certain alternative developments, as when ¤ndûnê produces Quenya andúnë instead of **núnë, see below.) If we can trust the examples ¤ndeuna and ¤ndeuro found in the entry NDEW in the Etymologies, this simplification took place after the shortening of the final long vowels (or we would see *ndeunâ and *ndeurô with the long vowels intact):
	
	(*ndeunâ >) ¤ndeuna > Q neuna "second"
	(*ndeurô >) ¤ndeuro > Q neuro "successor"
	(¤ñgolodô > *ñgoldô >) *ñgoldo > Q Ñoldo "Noldo"
	(*ñgwalmê >) *ñgwalme > Q ñwalmë "torment" (spelt ngwalme in LotR, Appendix E)
	(¤mbandô >) *mbando > Q mando "custody" (MR:350)
(*mbaratâ > *mbartâ >) *mbarta > Q marta "fey, fated" (for the middle vowel of *mbaratâ, later syncopated, cf. the base MBARAT and the "Noldorin"/Sindarin cognate barad)

Properly, this reduction only occurs initially, but in some cases, it can be observed medially as well. The primitive word ¤andambundâ "long-snouted" produces Quenya andamunda "elephant" (not **andambunda). The latter element of a compound might be "reformed after the simplex" (LR:350); in this way Tolkien in the Etymologies explained how ¤balî-ndôre "Valar-land" could end up as Valinor instead of *Valindor: Occurring as a "simplex", by itself, *ndôrê yielded Quenya nórë "land" – and what would be *Valindor was altered to Valinor by analogy (but see WJ:413, note 25, for a somewhat different explanation which Tolkien came up with decades later). So *andambunda might become andamunda by analogy with a related word like mundo "snout" (itself < ¤mbundu). Where the second element of a compound normally does not occur as a separate word, nd/mb/ñg is normally preserved unchanged also medially. Prominent examples are the endings -ndil "friend" and -ndur "servant", as in Eldandil "Elf-friend" (WJ:410). There are no separate "simplex" words **nil and **nur, though longer derivatives from the same stems are found in Quenya (e.g. nildo "friend" < *ndildô). Indeed we may also include the element -ndor "land", as in Valandor "Vala-land" (WJ:413, after Tolkien had rejected or forgotten his original explanation of Valinor – in Quendi and Eldar he invoked, not analogy with a simplex form, but rather confusion with a distinct root that never had initial nd- to explain why we do not see *Valindor).

NEW VOWELS: Around this stage, a number of vowels appeared "out of nothing" in Quenya. This usually occurred to turn syllabic consonants into normal syllables including a vowel. Henceforth, syllabic consonants were not tolerated in the language.

This explains why in some cases the pre-nasalized initial stops mb, nd, ñg were not simplified to m, n, ñ as set out above. As described above, during the Common Eldarin stage the nasal element had occasionally been "strengthened" so that it had come to constitute a syllable by itself. Tolkien explicitly deals with one example in PM:360: The primitive noun ¤ñgolodô could appear both with and without syllabic ñ. With no syllabic ñ it produced Quenya Ñoldo as described above. But where a syllabic ñ occurred (*ñ·golodô), it came out as Ingoldo in Quenya, an i developing before the syllabic consonant. Ingoldo was a "strengthened" form, "being in full and more dignified form is more or less equivalent to 'the Ñoldo, one eminent in the kindred' " (PM:360). As is evident from this example, an i developed before syllabic ñ (except in the case of ñ·gw, see below) but before a syllabic n an a appears, and before a syllabic m there develops a u: 
	
	(¤n·dûnê >) *n·dûne > andûne "sunset" (still andúnë in Q)
(*ñ·gjô >) *ñ·gjo > *iñgjo "grandchild, descendant" (Q indyo)
(*m·barta [final vowel uncertain] >) *m·bart > *umbart "fate" (Q umbar with stem umbart-)

Syllabic ñ before gw however prefers the vowel u (as we noted above, it seems that this ñ had itself become labialized to ñw already in Common Eldarin, by assimilation to the following gw – and its labialized quality colours the quality of the vowel that develops before it):

	(*ñ·gwalê >) *ñw·gwale > uñwgwale "torture" (spelt "ungwalë" in Q)

Syllabic l triggered the development of the vowel i. As recorded in the entry LA in the Etymologies, there was a negation prefix ¤la- "not-, un-" that had lost its vowel (not a regular development), so that only a syllabic (or "vocalic") l was left: This prefix became il- in Quenya, as in ilfirin "immortal" (for *l·phirin-). It has been suggested that the Quenya verb ilca- "to gleam" comes from the same root that produces Sindarin lach "flame", evidently *LAK-; if so ilca- could come from an original *l·kâ, an unusual primitive form suppressing the stem-vowel. An i likewise developed before the final syllabic l's that had become final after the loss of final short -a in Common Eldarin. This change gives these words their "final" Quenya shape (the difference k/c is of course purely orthographic):

(¤hekla >) *hek·l  > Q hecil "outcast"
(¤makla >) *mak·l  > Q macil "sword"
(¤tankla >) *tank·l > Q tancil "brooch"
(¤tekla >) *tek·l > Q tecil "pen"

It may be that the Q word siril "rivulet" comes from *sirla > *sir·l; if so, this would demonstrate that the vowel i developed before a final syllabic l before the assimilation rl > ll occurred (see below) – the intruding vowel breaking up the cluster before it could be assimilated. 

In one case, an a rather than an i develops before l. In the Etymologies, Tolkien derived the noun cala "light" from a primitive form "k'lâ", perhaps = k·l·â. But since the stem is given as KAL, it would seem very much easier to derive cala from *kalâ, instead of supposing a weird primitive form that suppresses the stem-vowel only to have an identical vowel arising later.

In some cases an a also developed before r, because it had become syllabic in certain positions:

	(*kwentrô >) ¤kwent·r·o > Q quentaro "narrator" (the distinction kw/qu is of course orthographic only)

Here we have a syllabic r developing after a consonant cluster. In the case of Q tambaro "knocker" (used = "woodpecker"), which Tolkien indicates was ultimately derived from ¤tamrô, we must probably assume an intermediate form *tamb·r·o. There are no other examples of the strange development mr > mbr, but if a group mbr arose, the further development would confirm that r became syllabic following a consonant cluster. The word Istar "wizard" is perhaps to be derived from *istro > early Q *ist·r, given the Sindarin cognate Ithron (apparently representing an extended form *istro-n-; the point is that for st to have become th = þ, it must at an earlier stage have been in direct contact with the following r).

Around this stage, various medial consonant clusters underwent changes. Some were complete assimilations resulting in double consonants:

LR > LL: 	(¤talrunja >) *talrune > Q tallunë "sole of foot"
(¤kalrô >) *kalro > Q callo "hero"
NL > LL: 	(*nenlê >) ¤nenle > Q nellë "brook"
LS > LL: 	(¤télesâ > *telsâ >) *telsa > Q tella "hindmost" 					(¤khjelesê > *chjelesê > *hyelesê > *hyelsê >) *hyelse > Q hyellë "glass"
RS > SS:	(¤neresâ >) *Nersa > Q Nessa (name of a Valië) (WJ:416)
SM > MM: 	(¤asmalê >) *asmale > Q ammalë "yellow bird"
SR > RR: 	¤mi-srawanwe > *mirrawanwe "incarnate" (Q mirroanwë, MR:350)
þR > þþ: 	(¤neth-râ >) *neþrâ > *neþþa (Q nessa "young")

Regarding medial sm, the examples are somewhat divergent. In ¤asmalê > Q *ammalë we see a straightforward assimilation. Yet Tolkien (in LR:362 s.v. KAS) has primitive ¤kas-sa/¤kas-ma yield Quenya cassa "helmet"; if cassa is to be referred to kas-ma, we must postulate a progressive assimilation sm > ss (and then ammalë should have been **assalë instead!) However, cassa is perhaps rather to be derived from ¤kas-sa. In a later source, the Quenya word for "helm(et)" appears as carma instead (PM:260). If this is to be derived from ¤kas-ma, the group sm is not assimilated to mm (or ss), but simply remains unchanged. (Later, s occurring between two voiced sounds is regularly voiced to z, in turn producing Exilic Quenya r – hence the form carma. But then Q ammalë from ¤asmalê should have become **armalë instead!) It seems that we shall simply have to accept that medial sm could develop in various ways.

In WJ:363, Tolkien also indicates that ðl would be assimilated to ll, though no good example can be quoted (Tolkien mentioned that a form ¤eðlo would have produced Quenya ¤ello, but this word he asterisked, for it was "not found"). The group ðr would likewise have been assimilated to rr, and here we may have a direct example, though a garbled one: From a primitive form njadrô, literally *"gnawer", Tolkien derived a Quenya word for "rat" that his son read as "nyano" (LR:379). However, this is certainly a misreading for nyarro, representing older *njaðro. (In the normal Roman spelling of Quenya, nj is represented as ny, but this is only a matter of orthography, like kw = qu.) Since post-vocalic ð would later become r (via z) anyway, we cannot be certain that this assimilation really occurred. If not, the word for "rat" would appear as *nyazro in the Vanyarin dialect.

The example ¤nenle (not older *nenlê) given in the Etymologies would seem to indicate that the assimilation nl > ll occurred after the shortening of the long final vowels, so perhaps all of these assimilations can be placed at this stage.

There are also some cases of partial assimilation/dissimilation (not producing double consonants):

LN > LD: (¤skalnâ > *khalnâ >) *chalna > *chalda "hidden" (in later Q halda)

Cf. also WJ:362 about the plural form (¤elenî > *elnî >) *elni "stars" becoming eldi (though it was usually replaced by the analogical form eleni).

NOTE: It seems that occasionally, *ln may yield Quenya ll instead of (or as well as) ld: cf.  ¤ndulna > Q nulla or nulda "secret" (LR:355 s.v. DUL). Such attested past tense-forms as willë "flew" and ullë "poured" may then represent older *wilne, *ulne; cf. -në as a common past tense ending in Quenya. But it may also be that these past tense forms represent older nasal-infixed stems, so that the double ll seen in Quenya actually comes from nl rather than ln.

PN and BN both > MN: 
(¤Utupnu >) *Utupno > Q Utumno (Melkor's first stronghold)
(¤stabnô >) *þabno > Q *þamno "carpenter" (in later Q samno)
(¤tubnâ >) *tubna > Q tumna "low"

(The reconstruction ¤Utupnu is found in MR:69; Etym gives ¤Utubnu instead [LR:394 s.v. TUB], but the Quenya form would be Utumno in either case.)

NOTE: In one exceptional case, bn becomes mb instead: The Quenya adjective lemba "left behind" is explicitly referred to ¤lebnâ (LR:368 s.v. LEB). This must be due to an early, irregular metathesis ¤lebnâ > *lenbâ > *lembâ, perhaps helped by the alternative root LEM listed in the same entry in Etym (LEM could have produced a form *lembâ already in the primitive language). In the case of sambë "room" (LR:387 s.v. STAB), Tolkien listed both ¤stabnê and ¤stambê as primitive forms, but these are evidently meant as variants co-existing already in the primitive language: While Quenya sambë clearly comes from  ¤stambê, the "Noldorin"/Sindarin word thafn is to be derived from ¤stabnê; the true "N"/S cognate of Q sambë is actually tham, listed in the same entry. Thus the meaning cannot be that ¤stabnê became or was replaced by ¤stambê, so we have no second attestation of the development bn > Q mb after all. On the contrary, the entry STAB in Etym confirms the regular development bn > Q mn, since the Q word samna "wooden post" there listed is certainly meant to come from *stabnâ. Cf. also the adjective lumna "burdensome", derived from a root DUB; the primitive form is clearly meant to be *dubnâ.

The nasal m becomes w following n or þ:

(¤tinmê >) *tinme > Q tinwë "sparkle, glint; star"
(¤khithme [read *khithmê] > *chiþmê >) *chiþme > Q *chiþwë "fog" (in later Q hiswë)

Certain other changes involved metathesis, two sounds switching place:

KL > LK (LC): (*aklarê >) *aklare > Q alcarë "glory" (also short alcar)
KR > RK (RC): (*lakrâ >) ¤lakra > Q larca "swift"
TR > RT: (¤netere >) *netre > Q nertë "nine" (VT41:26; in this source Tolkien explicitly refers to changes TL, TR "etc." > LT, RT)

Again, we have an example (¤lakra instead of older *lakrâ) that would seem to place these changes in the period post-dating the shortening of the final vowels. (The example ¤akrâ "narrow" > Q arca [LR:348] would then skip over the intermediate form *akra.)

Tolkien is seen to have changed his mind repeatedly about the behaviour of the medial cluster sk: Did it survive unchanged to become Quenya sc, or did it undergo metathesis to produce Quenya ks = x? In the entry EZGE in Etym (suggesting a primitive word *ezgê) a Quenya word escë is listed; this sc represents the sk that arose after the regular devoicing of older zg. However, the entry EZGE was struck out. In other entries, Tolkien let sk (whether original or devoiced from zg) undergo metathesis to become Quenya x (actually spelt ks in Etym). Thus the word ¤mazgâ (entry MASAG) yields Quenya maxa (maksa), and given the primitive form, this must be metathesized from an intermediate form *maska. The entry MISK indicates that original sk (not devoiced from zg) behaves in the same way; here we find a Q word mixa (miksa) "wet", which given the entry-head must descend from *miskâ at the oldest stage.
However, Tolkien seems to have changed his mind back again later: In a post-LotR source we find a word like rusca "red-brown" (VT41:10), which must be connected to the entry RUSKÂ in Etym (in the later source, Tolkien actually struck out rusca, but retained related words like rusco "fox"). So now there is no metathesis sk > ks, just as suggested by the rejected entry EZGE in Etym. If we are to go with Tolkien's final (?) insights on this matter, the Quenya words mixa "wet", maxa "pliant, soft" and maxë "dough" (< *miskâ, ¤mazgâ, ¤mazgê) would have to be altered to *misca, *masca and *mascë. Perhaps we may simply assume that there were some minor dialectal differences and divergent developments within Quenya, and accept all words as they stand.

The group rg becomes ry: (¤targâ >) *targa > tarya "stiff". 

NOTE: In one case, Tolkien in the Etymologies likewise lets lg become ly, Telerin felga "cave" having the Quenya cognate felya (PHÉLEG). The primitive form is clearly meant to be *phelgâ. However, this does not agree with another example, quoted above: ¤ulgundô "monster" does not yield Quenya **ulyundo, but ulundo (evidently via *ul3undô). We can probably afford to ignore the entire entry PHÉLEG in Etym, for it reflects an idea Tolkien later rejected: He is here explaining the origin of the first element of the name Felagund, which in the Etymologies is "Noldorin"/Sindarin for Cave-Prince (cf. the entry KUNDÛ). However, Tolkien later decided that Felagund was not an Elvish name at all. In a post-LotR source it was re-explained as an adaptation of a Dwarvish (Khuzdul) term for Cave-Hewer: Felakgundu or Felaggundu – and it is now actually the second element gundu rather than the initial element felag- that means "cave" or "underground dwelling" (PM:352). So from a certain point of view, Quenya felya "cave" and all its cognates must be rejected as Elvish words. It would seem, then, that Tolkien considerately eliminated a troublesome example for us. I would not let lg produce Quenya ly, but let lg behave as in ¤ulgundô > (*ul3ondô >) ulundo instead.

At some point after the shortening of the long final vowels (as is evident from the example ¤ektele), the group kt becomes cht, but we are now so close to classical Quenya that we will represent cht as ht in accordance with normal Quenya orthography:

(¤et-kelê >) ¤ektele > Q ehtelë "spring, issue of water"
(¤hek-tâ >) ¤hek-ta > Q hehta- "forsake" (WJ:361, 363)
(*khagdâ > *khaktâ >) *chakta > *chahta "mound" (in later Q hahta)
(¤jakta >) *jakt > *jaht "neck" (Q yat with stem yaht-)
(¤nuktâ >) *nukta- > Q nuhta- "to stunt" (WJ:413)

In a few cases, this change caused confusion. The verb (¤maktâ- >)  *makta- "wield a weapon" had until now been distinct from (PQ *ma3tâ > CE *machtâ- >) *machta- "to handle". But now *makta- came to be pronounced just like *machta-, and the verbs fell together in the form we would normally spell mahta- in Quenya. The Etymologies records how the verbs became "blended" (LR:371 s.v. MAK).

The verb rihta "to jerk" may descend from either *riktâ or rikhtâ; Tolkien somewhat indecisively listed the root as "RIK(H)" (LR:383) – either RIK or RIKH, or perhaps rather both. It may be that kh before t was reduced to k already in Common Eldarin; if so Q rihta would come from *riktâ anyhow. But if *rikhtâ survived in this form, it became Q rihta (= richta) already in the general change kh > ch and did not have to wait for the change kt > ht (= cht).

Eventually ch (of whatever origin) before t would turn into ich-Laut following the vowels e and i; cf. the later Quenya pronunciation of words like nehta "spear-head" or tihta- "to blink". We cannot know at what stage this change happened (since it is not reflected in normal Quenya orthography anyway – it may well be late). In any case, ch remained unchanged following the vowels a, o, and u; cf. the later Quenya pronunciation of words like mahta- "to handle/wield", ohta "war", luhta- "to enchant".

Various combinations of voiced stops + m also underwent changes. The Etymologies quotes ¤nakma (rather than older *nakmâ) as the origin of the Quenya word nangwa "jaw"; if we can trust this piece of information, this change also occurred after the shortening of the final long vowels. (In the case of a word like sungwa "drinking-vessel", said to be derived from ¤sukmâ, we may assume that Tolkien simply did not mention the intermediate stage *sukma with the final vowel shortened.)

KM and GM both > NGW (technically ÑGW):
(*nakmâ >) ¤nakma > Q nangwa "jaw"
(¤sagmâ >) *sagma > Q sangwa "poison"
				
TM > NW: 
(*mbaratmê >) *maratme > Q maranwë "destiny"
(¤jatmâ > *jatmê >) *jatme > Q yanwë "bridge" (the difference j/y is of course orthographic only) 

The group *dm would probably also become nw, but we have no examples.

Probably already in the pre-record period, initial w is lost before long ô (WJ:367). Hence the prefix ¤wô-, meaning "together" referring to the union of two things, was reduced to ó- in Quenya (when unstressed shortened to o-), and we have for instance *wô-mentie > Q omentië "meeting (of two)", *wô-nôna > Q adj. onóna "twin-born" (WJ:367).

Post-vocalic s followed by a voiced sound (any vowel or a voiced consonant) becomes z. (This z will eventually become r in Exilic Quenya.)

	(¤thausâ > *þausâ >) *þausa > *þauza "foul" (Q *þauza > saura)
(¤besû > *vesû >) *vesu > *vezu "married pair" (Q *vezu > veru)
	(¤besnô > *vesnô >) *vesno > *vezno "husband" (Q *vezno > verno)
	(*pisjâ >) *pisya > *pizya "syrup" (Q *pizya > pirya)

The voicing s > r does not take place if s is followed by an unvoiced consonant (including another s, in the case of double ss):

	(¤usuk-wê > *uskwê >) uskwe = Q usquë "reek" (not **uzquë > **urquë)
	(¤bessê > *vessê >) vesse = Q vessë "wife" (not **vezsë > **versë)

The evidence is somewhat divergent regarding the behaviour of a (single) post-vocalic s occurring finally. In the Etymologies, Tolkien let s become z (> later r) in this position as well, as when he derived the Quenya noun solor "surf" from older ¤solos (implying the existence of an intermediate form *soloz). The first word listed in the entry ÓLOS is likewise olor ("dream"); the imagined development would be *olos > *oloz > olor. However, this very word reappears in UT:396, but now in the form olos – though its plural is given as olozi/olori. Hence Tolkien has altered the rules for what precise environment the voicing s > z occurs in. In Etym, the rule is that a post-vocalic s becomes voiced unless it is followed by an unvoiced sound. The later rule seems to be that s is voiced if it occurs between two voiced sounds (either two vowels, or a vowel and a voiced consonant). Thus olos is still olozi in the plural, where the plural ending makes s intervocalic so that the voicing can occur.

NOTE: If we were to impose full "consistency" on the material, we should have to alter some of the words in the Etymologies. Solor "surf" would become *solos (to go with olos rather than olor), and seler "sister" (derived from older *þelez, cf. the base THELES) would have to become *seles instead. Teler "Telerin Elf", in Etym derived from TELES, would have to become *Teles in the singular, though the plural could still be Teleri for older *Telezi (cf. olos having the pl. olozi > olori in UT:396). However, Tolkien in a post-LotR source implied that Teler comes from *Telero instead (WJ:371), so this word can stay as it is (the r now being original, not altered from z < s). Perhaps Tolkien changed the etymology precisely because he did not want the singular to be *Teles (as it would have to be according to his Revised Voicing Rules). We could follow Tolkien's example and keep seler "sister" as it is by assuming that it "actually" comes from primitive *thelere (with a feminine ending *-re corresponding to masc. ¤-ro added to *THELE, the extended form of the root THEL listed in LR:390 – of which THELES listed in the same place is merely another possible extension). – Concerning a curious example from the entry KAS,  cár "head" with stem cas-, see Appendix. We should probably read *cás with stem *car-.

The spirant ð merges with the newly-developed sound z (and will also end up as r in Exilic Quenya):

(¤Awadelo > *Audel >) *auðel > auzel (Q Auzel > Aurel)
	(¤nidwô > *nidwâ >) *niðwa > *nizwa "cushion" (Q nizwa > nirwa)

When writing the Etymologies, Tolkien imagined that non-initial t became s before the vowel i (at what point in the imagined timeline this change was supposed to have occurred is difficult to say; probably relatively late, since there is no trace of such a shift in "Noldorin"/Sindarin). Therefore, the adjective (¤ma3iti >) maitë "handy, skilled" had the plural form maisi, ultimately < *ma3itî. (From this example it is clear that this shift must have occurred after final short -i became -e in late Common Eldarin, or t would have become s in the singular form as well.) In the case of a cluster tt, only the second t changes to s before i, as when quelet "corpse" (stem quelett- < ¤kwelett-) has the plural queletsi. – However, it may be that Tolkien dropped this sound-shift after completing the Etymologies. In a much later (post-LotR) source, Tolkien wrote hloníti tengwi, not ?hlonísi tengwi, for "phonetic signs" (WJ:395). So perhaps the plural form of maitë, quelett- could simply be *maiti, *queletti as well.

Sporadic losses of final vowels still occur; some adjectives in -ina are shortened:

(*melinâ >) *melina > melin "dear"
(*skwarinâ >) *hwarina > hwarin "crooked"
(*phirinâ >) *firina > firin "dead"
(*kwalinâ >) *qualina > qualin "dead" (by unnatural cause) 

The Quenya descendant of *latinâ Tolkien listed as latin(a), apparently meaning that latina and shortened latin coexisted. The unattested longer forms of the adjectives above may also still be "valid". Most adjectives in -ina seem to persist in their full forms (calina "light", culina "flame-coloured", enwina "old", malina "yellow", etc. etc.)

Evidently before the beginning of the "historical" period, the diphthongs ae, ao and ei turn into long vowels é, ó, and í, respectively. (Ae and ao did not change "directly"; Tolkien implied that between ae and é there was an intermediate stage which he represented as æ, and before ao turned into ó this diphthong first became a special A-like version of the vowel ô. See VT39:10. These intermediate stages may have been short-lived.)

Where one of the older diphthongs ao or ei (no examples for ae) had occurred at the end of a word, the language now regained some long final vowels in polysyllabic words. They survived throughout the "historical period" in Valinor and were directly recorded in the classical "Book Quenya" orthography (these long final vowels became short only after the Noldor went to Middle-earth).

Ae becoming long é:

	(*maelâ >) *maela > méla "loving" (Tolkien mentioned no primitive forms, but this Quenya adjective is implied to be derived from an A-infixed form of the stem MEL-; see VT39:10)

Ao becoming long ó:

	(*kaolô >) *kaolo > cólo "burden" (again, Tolkien in VT39:10 implies that an A-infixed variant of the stem KOL underlies this word)

Also notice that in "Book Quenya", nouns in -a are seen to have genitive forms in -ó, e.g. ciryó as the genitive of cirya "ship". The genitive form ciryó arose at this point in the linguistic evolution and represents *kirjao, in turn derived from older kirjâ-hô or *kirja-hô. The vowel of the suffixed element -hô "from, of" came into direct contact with the preceding vowel a after the "very early" loss of medial h treated above (WJ:368). Thus a final diphthong -ao arose.

Ei becoming long í:

	(¤neiti >) *neite > Q nítë "moist"
          (¤meinâ >) *meina > Q mína adj. "eager to go" (VT39:11)

Final -ei also becomes -í, as in the plural of words ending in -e (the diphthong arising when the plural ending -i is added). The plural of lassë "leaf", that had long been *lassei, now becomes lassí – the form recorded in "Book Quenya" orthography.
	In one exceptional case, Tolkien let ei become ai instead of í: In the Etymologies (entry WEY), the name of the Valië Vairë is referred to primitive weirê, and there is a reference to a change "wei > wai" as if the preceding w has something with this unusual development. However, perhaps this example should be ignored. In a later source Tolkien derived Vairë's name from an A-infixed form of the stem WIR (evidently meant to be *Wairê), in which case the dipthong ai would simply be unchanged since the primitive period. –VT39:10.

Virtually all final consonant clusters are simplified (the ending -nt for dual dative is the sole known final cluster in later Quenya); the clusters are however preserved before endings, since they are not then final:

(¤jakta > *jakt >) *jaht > Q yat "neck" (but with stem yaht-)
(¤peltakse >) *peltaks > Q peltas "pivot" (with stem peltax- = peltaks-)

Final -rt and -st become simple -r and -s, respectively:

(*m·barta > *m·bart >) *umbart > Q umbar "fate" (with stem umbart-)
 (*Mand-ostô > ¤Mandosto >) *Mandost > Q Mandos (with stem Mandost-, MR:350 cf. VT39:6)

Final clusters in -d loose this consonant, e.g. -nd becoming -n:

	(¤swanda > *swand >) *hwand > Q hwan "sponge" (with stem hwand-)
	(*thaurondo >) ¤þaurond > Q *þauron (Exilic Quenya Sauron, quite possibly with stem Saurond-)

For the latter example, see Letters:380. Another example involves a simpification -ld > -l: In the Etymologies scenario, the name Taniquetil has the stem Taniquetild- because the latter element of this name is reduced from tildë "horn". The final -e was lost early, but the name must have appeared as *Taniquetild at one stage.
	Final -ng (actually -ñg) loses the -g and ñ becomes a normal n. The name of the Golden Tree Laurelin was sometimes taken to mean "Hanging Gold" and assigned the stem Laureling-, the latter element being related to linga- "hang, dangle". To the extent this interpretation was correct, the name may indeed have appeared as *Laureling (i.e., *Laureliñg) at one earlier stage.

Final -m and -k become -n and -t, respectively. Thus the older base TALAM is the source of the Quenya word talan "floor", with stem talam-. A word for "bird" derived from the stem PHILIK had by now probably reached the form filik; in classical Quenya we find filit, with stem filic-. Cf. also nelet "tooth" from an original base NEL-EK (in this case the stem-form has undergone syncope: nelc-).

Final double consonants are simplified, but remain before endings:

(¤tollo >) *toll > Q tol "island" (stem toll-)
*kwelett > Q quelet "corpse" (stem *quelett-)
(*nisse >) *niss > nis "woman" (stem niss-)

(The simplex nis "woman" also occurs in the form nís; it is difficult to account for the long vowel, unless this form is influenced by the archaic word ní of similar meaning.)

Changes producing VALINOREAN QUENYA

Probably before the beginning of the "historical" period, a double ii (evidently two vowels in hiatus) was simplified to i. The old perfect form ¤a-wâwiiê "has passed away" (WJ:366) would have become *awâwiie with a short final vowel by now; perhaps around this stage, it was further simplified to *awâwie. (In later Quenya this yielded avánië, which is not a regular phonetic development; the n replacing the last w intruded by association with the past tense ending -në. See WJ:366.)

At some relatively late stage, ai/ay (but not ây with a long â) becomes e before an unaccented vowel (or at least before o and a; examples for other vowels seem to be missing). Probably ay first became ai; then it was reduced to e (ë) in this position.

(¤daio [read *dajô] > *lajô >) *layo/*laio > lëo "shade"
(¤gajâr > *3ayâr >) *ayár/*aiár > *ëár "sea" (cf. WJ:400; in Exilic Quenya ëar)
(*phajâ >) faya/*faia > fëa "spirit"

The latter word is the first element in the name of Fëanor, Quenya Fëanáro; the fact that it is quoted in the form Fayanáro in PM:343 would seem to indicate that aya > ëa is a late change (at least post-dating the change ph > f). We do not asterisk the form faya, since it is attested in this name. It may be that Tolkien meant this change to have taken place during Fëanor's lifetime, since his name could also be quoted as Fayanáro.

Paralleling this change, the group aw (not âw) before an unaccented vowel is reduced to o (in WJ:367, Tolkien hints that aw first became au and then o):

(¤awâ >) *awa > áua (WJ:367, the accent probably indicating stress rather than length) > oa "away" (WJ:366, VT39:6)
(*lawâ >) ¤lawa > *laua > loa "year" (VT42:10)
(¤srawâ >) *hrawa > *hraua > hroa "body" (MR:349-350)
(¤mi-srawanwe >) *mirrawanwe > *mirrauanwe >Q mirroanwë "incarnate" (MR:350)

Strangely, Tolkien has the primive word ¤tawar "wood" (as material) yielding Quenya tavar instead of **toar (LR:391 s.v. TAWAR; as for w becoming v in this position, see below). In a later source, a word for "wood" is however given as toa, regularly derived from a root TAWA (VT39:6). The TAWAR of the Etymologies could be simply an extended form of it.

At some later point, when the rule turning ay/ai and + a vowel into e had ceased to function, the combination âj (or in Quenya orthography áy) became ai. The older forms with áy seem to have survived into the historical period, so the Quenya designation of the lesser spirits of the people of the Valar can be cited as Máyar (PM:363, 364). Yet the word normally appears in its later form Maiar (which did not turn into **Mëar since the older rule had ceased to operate, as noted above). Another example of the same is waia "envelope", ultimately derived from ¤wâjâ (Etym, entry WAY).
Perhaps some words escaped this change; in the Etymologies, Tolkien cited the Quenya adverb "far off" as háya without mentioning any later form *haia. (The word must ultimately be derived from khâjâ, closely reflecting the root KHAYA. In Valinorean Quenya it would actually appear as *cháya; see below concerning the shift ch > h in Exilic.)

The retraction period ends. The classical stress-patterns are established: Two-syllable words are nearly always stressed on the first syllable; longer words are henceforth accented on the second-to-last syllable if that is long; otherwise the stress falls on the third syllable from the end.

At some point after the establishing of the new stress-patterns, a long vowel immediately preceding or following the accented vowel is usually shortened (but not universally so as far as a preceding vowel is concerned; for instance, in WJ:368 Tolkien notes that the Quenya prefix hó- "from" usually retained its long vowel "even when it had become unstressed"). 

Shortening of vowels immediately preceding the accented vowel:

	(*wô-nônâ > *ô-nôna >) *ônôna > Q onóna "twin-born" 
	(*ômandî >) *ômandi > Q omandi pl. "vowels" (but singular *ômand- > Q óman with the long vowel intact since it is stressed)

NOTE: The plural omandi appears as "amandi" in LR:379 s.v. OM, transparently a misreading or typo.
	 
Many three-syllable words do not behave quite like we might expect. Even where there is a long vowel in the second-to-last syllable that "ought" to attract the stress, the accent remains on the first syllable even after the end of the retraction period, and the long vowel in the following syllable is shortened:

	(¤Awâdelo > *Awâðel >) *Oâzel > Q Oazel "away-goer" (later > Oarel)
	(¤Arâtâ >) ¤arâta > arata "exalted" (PM:363, VT41:9; Q pl. Aratar used of the chief Valar) 
	(*narâkâ >) ¤narâka > Q naraca "harsh"
	(¤terêwâ >) *terêwa > *terewa "fine, acute" (> Q tereva)
	(¤terênê >) *terêne > Q terenë "slender"

Perhaps we should also include ontaro "parent" here, if the accompanying form ontâro listed in Etym (entry ONO) is to be taken as an older form rather than a mere alternative. (It is indicated that ontâro was at some point accented on the second-to-last syllable, but during the retraction period, the stress would have fallen on ont-.)
This development seems to be relatively "regular" when we are dealing with an originally long vowel in the penultimate syllable of three-syllable words: The vowel is shortened and the stress settles on first syllable. Perhaps *wô-nônâ behaves differently (producing Q onóna instead of **ónona) because the initial syllable is a prefix so that this did not count as a quite regular three-syllable word? However, there are certainly further inconsistencies in the material on this point: The primitive form ¤ñgôlê (> *ñ·gôlê > *ingôle) produces Quenya ingolë "philosophy" (PM:360), with the stress moving to the first syllable and the long vowel in the penultimate syllable becoming short, just as in naraca, terenë and the other examples just listed. Yet primitive ¤ndûnê (>*n·dûnê > *andûne) yields Quenya andúnë "sunset" with the long vowel in the penultimate syllable intact; this must also be the syllable that receives the stress. These two examples ought to be completely parallel (incidentally even in the fact that the initial vowel developed from a syllabic nasal), so why do they develop differently? If ingolë, why not **andunë? And if andúnë, why not **ingólë (and **naráca, **teréva, **terénë etc.)? It would seem that the outcome of the phonological evolution is not entirely predicable in this regard. Exceptionally the long vowel in the penultimate syllable attracted the stress and remained long, but in most three-syllable words the stress moved to the first syllable and the long vowel of the penultimate syllable became short.

On the other hand, another development has the stress moving towards the end of the word, a vowel being lengthened to accomplish this. A word ending in three short syllables would normally be stressed on the third syllable from the end. However, it seems that this stress-pattern is only tolerated in words that only consist of three syllables in all, so that the accented syllable is also the first syllable of the word. If the stress would normally fall on the third syllable from the end in a word of more than three syllables, and this syllable is short, the vowel in the second-to-last syllable is lengthened so as to attract the stress. Thus if we add the possessive ending -va to Eldalië "Elf-people", the result is not **Eldalieva (accented on the short syllable li), but Eldaliéva (accented on év). Cf. also Cuiviénen, which is cuivië "awakening" + nén, -nen "water".
NOTE: Curiously, the combination ui seems to count as two short syllables for this purpose, as is this were a combination of two short vowels in hiatus rather than the diphthong Tolkien stated ui to be. Thus the possessive form of huinë "shadow" is attested as huinéva (LR:382) rather than **huineva, and a compound of tuilë "spring" + ré, -rë "day" must appear as tuilérë (mentioned in the LotR Appendices) rather than **tuilerë.
The adjective vanima "beautiful", if supplied with the partitive plural ending -li to express "beautiful ones", must of course become *vanimáli. This is only attested in the genitive form vanimálion (occurring in Treebeard's greeting to Celeborn and Galadriel). The first edition of LotR had vanimalion, but this rejected form would conflict with the apparent rule that a noun of more than three syllables cannot end in three short syllables. Some compounds (like Altariel/Ñaltariel = ñalta + riel, PM:347) seem to be exempted from this rule; on the other hand, we observe the excepted lengthening in Anárion "sun-son" = Anar + the patronymic ending -ion. 
NOTE: Since Anar "Sun" descends from ¤anâr- (LR:348), it may be that in Anárion an old long vowel is simply preserved long because it happened to be stressed. (The simplex "sun" may still have been *Anár in earlier forms of Quenya: according to what Tolkien wrote in the Plotz Letter, the shortening of long vowels in the final syllable of polysyllabic words is a feature of Exilic Quenya. See below.)

Classical Quenya does not seem to permit a long vowel immediately before a consonant cluster. Mánwen or Mánwë is quoted as the oldest Quenya form of the name Manwë (WJ:399); notice how á was eventually shortened before the cluster nw. Likewise, Fíriel's Song indicates that the noun má "hand" appears as mannar in the (plural) allative – perhaps for older *mánnar. However, long vowels seem to be allowed before clusters ending in the semi-vowel y: Namárië has máryat (rather than *maryat) for "her hands".

Anticipatory vowels developing following initial 3 + consonant: It seems that in some cases, a vowel developed following an initial consonant cluster in 3- (representing earlier g-). This vowel seems to echo or rather "anticipate" the first vowel occurring after it, even where that vowel was the first element of a diphthong. Tolkien indicated that original ¤grauk- underlies Quenya rauco and arauco "terrible creature" (WJ:415). Evidently ¤grauk- (the complete primitive word must have been *graukô or *grauku) first became *3rauk- with the general change g > 3. This 3 would later disappear (see below). *3rauk- might either persist in this form, in which case it would simply be reduced to rauc- in Quenya, or it might develop an extended parallel form *3arauk-, the vowel developing after 3 anticipating the next vowel in the word (in this case the first element of the diphthong au). This *3arauk- would later become Quenya arauc-.
The Etymologies seems to include one example of this phenomenon, though Tolkien later struck out the relevant entry: The stem GLINDI produced Quenya ilin "pale blue" (evidently shortened from *ilindë). The idea must be that GLI- first becomes *3li- and then *3ili- with an anticipatory vowel, eventually reduced to ili- with the later loss of 3. Another possible example was apparently also rejected by Tolkien: In MR:284, the place-name "Avathar" (evidently = Avaþar) is said to be ancient Quenya for "the Shadows". This must somehow be related to Sindarin gwaþ "shadow" (see gwath in the Silmarillion Appendix). In the Etymologies, this word is derived from a root WATH, and the prefixing of g- in the "Noldorin"/Sindarin branch is secondary. However, Tolkien may at one point have considered deriving gwaþ from a stem *GWATH instead, the initial G being original and therefore also able to influence the branch leading to Quenya.
In this alternative scenario, the word "shade, shadow" might be *gwathâ in the primitive language, later becoming *3waþa > *3awaþa in the proto-Quenya branch, in turn producing archaic Quenya *avaþa (see below concerning the change of post-vocalic w > v). Avaþar could obviously be the plural of this word, so that the word could refer to the "Shadows" as Tolkien stated. This derivation is not entirely unproblematic, though: Instead of *GWATH and *gwathâ we would expect *GWATH and *gwathâ at the primitive stage; the initial combination would not strictly be a cluster g + w, but simply gw = labialized g, a unitary consonant. Later we would then have 3w (rather than 3w). Hence 3 would not really be part of an initial consonant cluster, the environment that triggers the development of an anticipatory vowel. Could the labialized quality of 3w really be separated from it to materialize as a separate consonant w > v, an intruding vowel splitting an originally unitary consonant in two (3w > 3aw-)? In the Etymologies, the stem GWEN produces Quenya wendë > vendë "maiden", not **evendë for older *3wende. (Cf. also ¤g-lada- > *glala- > *3lala- simply becoming lala- in Quenya, PM:359 – but the hyphen inserted by Tolkien in the form ¤g-lada- may indicate that the prefixing of g- was peculiar to the Lindarin branch, so that the branch leading to Quenya never had anything but simple initial l-.) It seems that Tolkien eventually gave up trying to find an Elvish etymology for the name Avathar, explicitly denying that it was Elvish and instead suggesting that it was a borrowing from Valarin (WJ:404). But since our source for this is the same essay that provides the example ¤grauk- > Q arauc-, the idea of anticapatory vowels as such was evidently not rejected.

The semi-vowel j is lost when it occurs after the corresponding full vowel i and before another vowel. W is likewise lost between the corrresponding full vowel u and a following vowel:

	(¤oijâ >) *oija > Q oia "ever"  (but in later Exilic Quenya, the form*oiya might arise once again, because a glide consonant y occasionally developed between i and another vowel – see below)
	(¤kukûwâ > *kûwâ >) *kûwa > Q cua "dove"

Tolkien mentions kûua as the immediate ancestor of cua, so it would seem that the w of kûwa became u before it simply merged into the preceding u. Also notice how the long û becomes short when brought into contact with a following vowel. Such shortening occurs in other parallel examples from the Etymologies (see below concerning tuo, rië).

In a monosyllabic word, a final w merging into a preceding u does produce a long û, still surviving as Quenya ú:

	(¤ku3 >) ¤kuw > kû "bow" (= Q cú)

Older w, where it still survived after the various changes discussed above, in very many cases became v. It seems that the change of medial w to v occurred before the same change happened initially (the initial change w > v is rather a feature of Exilic Quenya – see below). But post-vocalically, w normally became v very early, and that this change would have taken effect already during the Classical Valinorean period. See further discussion below (under "Exilic Quenya"). Also notice that while Tolkien thought of Avaþar as an Elvish name meaning "the Shadows" (before he turned it into a Valarin word), he stated that it was "ancient Quenya" (MR:284). The v of Avaþar certainly reprensents earlier w (this goes whether Avaþar is derived from a root like WATH "shade", cf. LR:397, or from *GWATH > 3waþ- > 3awaþ- as we theorized above). Hence, the change of post-vocalic w to v had already occurred in "ancient Quenya", perhaps meaning pre-record Quenya. 

Examples of post-vocalic w becoming v:

	(¤srâwê > *hrâwê >) *hráwë > hrávë "flesh" 
	(¤kuiwê >) *cuiwë > cuivë "awakening" (for the most primitive form, cf. the prefixed variant ¤et-kuiwê listed in the Etymologies, entry KUY)
	(*râwî >) *ráwi > rávi pl. "lions" (cf. root RAW)
	(¤terêwâ > *terêwa >) terewa > tereva "fine, acute"

However, it would seem that w remained unchanged following the vowel o; cf. nówi as the plural form of nó "conception" (the pl. form more closely reflecting the original root NOWO). 

For some reason, w also persists unchanged following the diphthong ai. In the Etymologies, Tolkien has ¤slaiwâ yielding Quenya laiwa "sick" (not **laiva). Contrast the related word ¤slîwê, producing Quenya lívë "sickness"; here there is no diphthong ai to hinder the development w > v. Other examples:

aiwë "bird" (< ¤aiwê, given as an entry-head in Etym)
maiwë "gull" (< *maiwê, with an A-infixed variant of the root MIW)
vaiwa "wind" (< *waiwâ, cf. root WAIWA)

NOTE: Since the Quenya possessive ending -va evidently descends from *-wâ, one may wonder why we see Eldaiva rather than *Eldaiwa as the pl. possessive of Elda (WJ:368). The explanation seems to be that -va had originally only occurred in the singular (Eldava, with no preceding diphthong ai); the plural form Eldaiva was a later, analogical formation based on the singular Eldava. See WJ:407.

Depending on its position, the original back spirant 3 had either turned into h (or ch) or been lost, as described above. Now Quenya had re-acquired 3 (developed from original g), but this sound was evidently not destined to be a lasting part of the Quenya sound-system: This "new" 3, whether initial, medial or final, also disappeared:
	
	(*wegô > ¤we3ô >) *we3o > *wëo "man" (in later Q vëo)
	(¤Denwego > *Denweg >) *Lenwe3 > Lenwë (personal name, WJ:412)
	(¤gassâ > *3assâ >) *3assa > assa "opening"
	(¤grauk[ô] > *3raukô >) *3arauko > arauco "terrible creature" (WJ:455)
	(¤gardâ > *3ardâ >) *3arda > Arda (a name of the world, WJ:402)
	(*gondô > *3ondô >) *3ondo > ondo "rock"
	(¤galadâ > *galdâ > *3aldâ >) 3alda > alda "tree"
	
In some sources Tolkien only speaks of how "primitive initial g- was lost in Q" (Letters:410), but g did not disappear "directly"; it first turned into 3. We know this because 3 survived long enough to be explicitly recorded in Rúmilian writing: In Rúmilian orthography, the word alda was still spelt 3alda – that is, it had an initial letter "which was known by tradition among the loremasters to have represented the open back spirant" (VT39:7). Hence we need not asterisk the form 3alda. (If we knew more about Rúmilian writing, we could probably have removed the asterisk from words like *3assa, *3arda, *3ondo as well.)

Between vowels, and following l, the spirant 3 is lost with no trace:

	(*khugan >) *chu3an > *chuan "hound" (Exilic Quenya huan)
	(¤ulgundô >) *ul3undo > ulundo "monster"

Where a postvocalic 3 was followed by a consonant, the preceding vowel was lengthened to "make up" for its disappearance (maintaining prosodic length – see SD:420 for Adûnaic parallels):

	(¤lugni > *lugne >) *lu3ne > lúnë "blue"
	(*rignâ > *rigna >) *ri3na > rína "crowned"
	(¤sagrâ > *sagra >) *sa3ra > sára "bitter"
	(¤magrâ > *magra >) *ma3ra > mára "good"

It would be interesting to know whether Rúmilian orthography represented these words in a spelling similar to the (bold) asterisked forms above.

NOTE: The noun huan "hound" (descended from ¤khugan via *chu3an) is said to appear as hún- when endings are added. This would seem to come from *chu3n-, exemplifying the same phenomenon of vocalic lengthening. It may be that soon after g became 3, an unstressed non-final syllable 3a lost its vowel: *chu3an- > *chu3n- (> ultimately hún-). This did not happen where no ending followed so that the combination 3a was part of the final syllable; hence *chu3an by itself produces Quenya huan with no loss of a. 

It should be noted that a w that became intervocalic only by the loss of 3, "missed" the normal change of intervocalic w > v; this change had ceased to operate when 3 disappeared:

	(¤jagwê > *jagwe >) *ya3wë > yáwë "ravine" (NOT > **yávë)

According to the Etymologies, a long vowel is shortened if, by the loss of 3, it is brought into direct contact with another vowel:
	
	(¤tûgu > *tûgo >) *tû3o > tuo "muscle" (not *túo)
	(¤rîgê > *rîge >) *rî3ë > rië "crown" (not *ríë)

But according to a post-LotR example (PM:347), such a vowel remains long; this is actually a variant of rië above:

	(¤rîgâ > *rîga >) *rî3a > ría "wreath" (not *ria)

Whether we should emend Quenya tuo, rië above to *túo, *ríë is unclear. Perhaps we may rather assume that they "actually" descend from *tugu, *rigê instead, the stem-vowel being short from the beginning.

From one example it may seem that two identical vowels brought into direct contact by the loss of 3 merge into one (long) vowel: (¤ugu- >) *u3u- > ú-, the Quenya negative prefix "un-" (in the Etymologies derived from a stem UGU). However, it may be that the second u was lost already in the syncope, and that *u3-, usually occurring before a consonant, turned into ú- by same process that turns *ya3wë into *yáwë (see above). In other examples of two vowels of the same quality coming into contact by the loss of 3, the first of them is dissimilated: ó3o > o'o > uo, and e3e > e'e > ie. (Compare e'ê becoming iê in Common Eldarin, after the loss of intervocalic ñ or 3.)

	(¤Khô-gorê "heart-vigour" >) *Chó3orë > *Cho'orë > *Chuorë (masc. name, Exilic Quenya Huorë, Sindarin Huor)
	(*wegê > ¤we3ê >) *we3e > *we'e > *wie "manhood" (Q *wië > vië)

(In the first of these examples we again a long vowel being shortened before another vowel after the loss of 3; the long ô evidently becomes short o and is then dissimilated to u before another o. According to the post-LotR example ¤rîgâ > *rí3a > ría quoted above, we might expect the vowel to remain long: *Chó3orë > *Chúorë, later *Húorë.)

By a change that first occurred in Telerin, the original bilabial f became a labio-dental f, similar to English f (pronounced with friction between the lower lip and the upper teeth). This change made it easier to distinguish f from hw, so the Noldor adopted labio-dental f from Telerin (VT41:7). The Vanyar did not, and the Noldor accused them of confusing f and hw.

Secondary syncope: The last recorded syncope operating in Quenya involved the omission of the second of two identical short vowels where a word occurs in "long compound names" (VT41:9). We call this secondary syncope because it is unrelated to the much older, primary syncope that produced, say, al'da "tree" from original ¤galadâ. The primitive word ¤arâtâ had produced Quenya arata "exalted, noble" with the second a surviving the primary syncope because it had originally been long (PM:363, VT41:9). Yet a word like arata could be shortened to arta (PM:354) when it occurred as part of a longer name (e.g. in Artaher "noble lord", PM:346, or masculinized -arto in Ambarto, PM:354). We must assume that the silma- part of the word Silmaril has also undergone secondary syncope, since this element represents "the name silima that Fëanor gave to the substance from which [the Silmarils] were made" (Silmarillion Appendix, entry sil-).

NOTE: In the earlier scenario recorded in the Etymologies, the initial element of Silmaril is suggested to be the adjective silma "silver, shining white", which is referred to a primitive adjectival form ¤silimâ that would have lost its second i already in the primary syncope (LR:385 s.v. SIL). Indeed a primitive form of the word Silmaril is provided, namely ¤silimarille (LR:383 s.v. RIL, the final -â of silimâ regularly being shortened when the word occurs as the first part of a compound). But the actual existence of such a primitive form is problematic for historical reasons: Surely the primary syncope was long since over when Fëanor invented the Silmarils? It must be placed in the unrecorded past long before he was even born. Perhaps the form ¤silimarille is to be seen as an entirely hypothetical "back-formation" even within the fictional context? But if we accept the new scenario set out in the Silmarillion Appendix – that the first element of Silmaril represents a contemporary noun silima coined by Fëanor himself – we can appeal to secondary syncope regarding its reduction to silma- in a compound. Thus the linguistic "anachronisms" are avoided.

In the dialect of the Noldor, unlike that of the Vanyar, nd is simplified to n before y (WJ:360, 361):

	(¤kwendjâ >) Quendya > Quenya

NOTE: A double form like endya, enya "middle" (Etym, entry ÉNED) may be taken as the Vanyarin/original form and the later Noldorin form, respectively. However, this would mean re-interpreting the Etymologies material in the light of Tolkien's later ideas, for when he wrote Etym, there was no such thing as a Noldorin dialect of Quenya (the Noldor were still conceived as speaking something very much like the language Tolkien later called Sindarin). – In the case of indyo "grandson" (entry ÑGYÔ), no later form *inyo is mentioned.

Changes producing EXILIC QUENYA

The noon-time of Valinor is drawing to an end. Soon, Fëanor will lead the Noldor into exile, and Quenya will become known in Middle-earth as well as in Aman. In Middle-earth it will become a language of lore, largely shielded from further changes by the fact that it is learnt from writing by each new generation. But before the language to some extent becomes fixed like this, a few more changes will occur – some of them greatly controversial, intertwined with Valinorean politics! They will define the shape of Exilic Quenya, by definition the only form of Quenya known in Middle-earth. These changes also defined the Noldorin dialect of Quenya, as opposed to the Vanyarin dialect (though it is possible that Vanyarin did not share with Noldorin all the changes so far listed).

An important source of information about the changes affecting Exilic Quenya is the list of Tengwar names in LotR Appendix E. The original name of all the relevant Tengwar includes the sound this letter originally represented. But its precise pronunciation was later altered, as when þúlë (in LotR Appendix E spelt "thúle") came to be pronounced súlë instead. In some cases, a Tengwa could be renamed altogether because of the phonological changes.

Wrote Tolkien regarding the Tengwar names, "Where there are variants this is due to the names being given before certain changes that affected Quenya as spoken by the Exiles." This should not be taken to mean that all of these changes necessarily occurred during the Exile, after the Noldor had actually left Valinor. We know that Tolkien imagined the shift reflected in the change þúlë > súlë to have occurred in Valinor during Fëanor's lifetime. The shift þ > s is indeed the most celebrated of all Quenya sound-changes, and Tolkien was able to develop an entire story around it: It was underway in Valinor during Fëanor's lifetime, but he and all the loremasters deplored it, since "it caused a great deal of homophony, and confused the derivatives of originally quite distinct stems." (VT41:8 – actually there are very few words in our corpus that would merge in form; *þamna > samna "wooden post" vs. original samna "diphthong" may be one example, but these are hardly difficult to distinguish in context!) However, Fëanor's "advice" was presented with such arrogance and haughtiness that he rather accelerated the merger of þ and s: "Into the strife and confusion of loyalties in that time this seemingly trivial matter, the change of þ to s, was caught up to its embitterment, and to lasting detriment to the Quenya tongue. Had peace been maintained there can be no doubt that the advice of Fëanor, with which all the other loremasters privately or openly agreed, would have prevailed. But an opinion in which he was certainly right was rejected because of the follies and evil deeds into which he was later led. He made it a personal matter; he and his sons adhered to þ, and they demanded that all those who were sincere in their support should do the same. Therefore those who resented his arrogance, and still more those whose support later turned to hatred, rejected his shibboleth" (PM:333-334). Hence:

	þúlë > súlë "spirit"
	þerindë > Serindë (the name of Fëanor's mother; the change annoyed both mother and son, PM:333)
	þindë > sindë "grey"
	þelma > *selma "will" (WJ:319)
	*chiþwë > *chiswë "fog" (later hiswë)
	riþil > *risil "circle"
	nauþë > nausë "imagination"

According to the Etymologies, final -s might also represent earlier -þ sometimes: The name Tulkas is apparently derived from Tulkatho in LR:395 s.v. TULUK; if so its older Quenya form might be *Tulkaþ. (However, Tolkien would later explain the name of this Vala as a borrowing from Valarin: WJ:499, 404.)
In Etym, there even seems to be an example of double ss representing earlier double *þþ; the word nessa "young" is ultimately derived from ¤neth-râ, presumably via *neþrâ > *neþþa. In the Etymologies, this is presented as the origin of the name of the Valië Nessa. But in a later source Tolkien suggested that this name comes from ¤neresâ instead, or explained it as a borrowing from Valarin (WJ:416, 404). However, this ¤neresâ does not mean "young" as did ¤neth-râ, so perhaps the two must now be considered wholly separate words, the later forms Nessa and *neþþa coinciding only in late Quenya, because of the þ/s merger.
The change þ > s eventually became universal in Noldorin Quenya (in Middle-earth, even the sons of Fëanor seem to have adopted the new pronunciation after his death), but the distinction was never dropped in writing (PM:332). According to LotR Appendix E, the letter now called súlë continued to be used for s derived from earlier þ – though we have an example of Tengwar calligraphy where Tolkien himself seems to have forgotten this, using the normal s-Tengwa (silmë) even where he "ought" to have used súlë.

NOTE 1: As discussed earlier, þ was itself derived from the aspirate th, which in turn was sometimes original and sometimes changed from the initial cluster st-. However, it seems that when Tolkien wrote the Etymologies, he imagined the change from þ to s to have occurred  in the remote past – not as late as during Fëanor's lifetime. This is evident from a note in the entry STAR, where Tolkien observed that the "Noldorin" word tharn (meaning "sapless") was "not in Q" – that is, had no Quenya cognate – "since it would coalesce with sarnâ". Tharn comes from *starnâ (the "Old Noldorin" form stharna is given), whereas ¤sarnâ comes from a distinct root SAR and produces the Quenya adjective sarna "of stone". According to the later scenario, *starnâ would become *tharnâ and then *þarna, remaining distinct from (¤sarnâ >) sarna until the merger þ/s occurred. Since Tolkien did not say that the words did coalesce so that one of them was suppressed, but implied that one had never been in Quenya because it would have coalesced with the other, we can infer that the merger þ/s was originally imagined to have taken place already in the pre-record period. One remark in the entry SIL, to the effect that this stem and THIL "in Q cannot be distinguished normally", points to the same conclusion. Later, Tolkien moved the merger þ/s forward in the imagined time-line and had it occurring in Fëanor's day.

NOTE 2: In one word, þ may seem to behave quite differently. The Quenya form corresponding to Sindarin Morgoth is said to be Moriñgotto, yet it is also given as "Moriñgotho", presumably = Moriñgoþo. The latter form is explicitly said to be the one originally used by Fëanor (MR:294), whereas Moriñgotto is merely called a "more ancient form" than Morgoth (MR:194). Are we to assume that Moriñgoþo later became Moriñgotto (instead of **Moriñgoso as we might expect), so that we must reckon with a strange development þ > tt? Or did Tolkien simply change his mind about what the original form of the name Morgoth really was, so that one is not to be derived from the other? There are a few other possible examples of a development þ > tt. The words latta and motto "blot" are derived from roots LATH, MBOTH. If the most primitive forms were *lathâ and *mbothô, these words might have appeared as *laþa and *moþo in Valinorean Quenya, becoming latta and motto in the Exilic dialect. (Interestingly, this would mean that *laþa > latta "strap" was not originally a homophone of  latta "pit", itself < ¤dattâ and therefore showing tt all along.) However, it is eminently possible that the double tt of latta and motto is "original", these words descending from *lattâ, *mbottô despite the final aspirate of the roots LATH, MBOTH. (Double aspirated consonants were evidently not tolerated in the primitive language; cf. "Noldorin" lhoch "ringlet" being derived from ¤lokko rather than **lo(k)kho even though the root is LOKH.) All things considered, there is little solid evidence for a development þ > tt in Quenya, though it cannot be wholly ruled out. The regular development in any case remains þ > s.

It should be noted that the change from þ to s did not occur in the Vanyarin dialect of Quenya, but only in the Noldorin dialect (thus sindë rather than þindë is said to be a "Ñ[oldorin] dialect" form in WJ:384). When Indis, herself a Vanya, married Finwë, she made a conscious decision to change her pronunciation: "I have joined the people of the Ñoldor, and I will speak as they do" (PM:336). Fëanor was not amused.

Another change that seems to have occurred already in Valinor, but very late, was the shift z > r in nearly all positions. (One exception: according to WJ:413, medial z escaped this change if there already was an r in the same or an adjacent syllable. If z thus did not become r, it apparently became s instead, for z was never used in Exilic Quenya.) The Tengwa that Fëanor had originally named ázë ("sunshine") thus came to be called árë, but since there already existed another letter for r, árë ceased to have any clear function: It would seem that the distinction between original r and r changed from z was not upheld in writing. (In Middle-earth, the now "vacant" letter árë was eventually assigned a new value, double ss, and the letter itself was renamed essë to reflect this.) As in the case of the shift þ > s, the Vanyar were conservative; Vanyarin never shifted z to r, so the Vanyar would perceive this change as a dialectal feature of Noldorin Quenya. A place-name like Ezellohar indicates that z remained a living sound in Amanya Elvish, though the Noldor probably came to say *Erellohar instead. In WJ:363, the forms Aurel and Oarel (evidently Noldorin Quenya) are contrasted with Auzel and Oazel in the Vanyarin dialect; these Vanyarin forms also reflect the older, common Vanya-Noldorin pronunciation. This also seems to confirm that the Noldorin change of z > r occurred already in Valinor, or there would be little point in using it to contrast the Vanyarin and Noldorin dialects of Quenya.

The z's that now become r may derive from either d or s in the primitive language:

	(*olosî >) olozi > olori pl. "dreams" (sg. olos, UT:396)
	(¤nidwô > *nidwâ > *niðwa >) *nizwa > nirwa "cushion"

With this change, the already very limited number of consonants that Quenya can have finally is further reduced by one; after this change, only -t, -l, -n, -s and -r (original or derived from -z) remain. 

The letter harma Fëanor originally meant to represent ach-Laut, the spirant ch, and undoubtedly the original pronunciation of its name was *charma. However, LotR Appendix E records how ch "became breath h initially (though remaining [ch] medially)". Hence:

(¤kherû > *cherû >) *cheru > heru "lord" (cf. Letters:282)
(¤khugan > *chu3an >) *chuan > huan "hound"
 	(¤skarwê > *kharwê > *charwê >) *charwë > harwë "wound"

The early Quenya forms in ch- are implied to have existed, but no such form is directly quoted in the published material, so we must asterisk them. In the Etymologies, only the Exilic Quenya forms in h- are recorded (that is, what would be Exilic Quenya forms in Tolkien's later scenario). It may be that Tolkien originally held this change to have occurred further back in history, in the pre-record period. But in the linguistic scenario as it appears in the LotR appendices, this weakening of initial ch to h can perhaps be ascribed to Sindarin influence on Quenya as spoken by the Exiles in Middle-earth: Sindarin had also turned initial ch into h. However, Tolkien noted that this change occurred in "all Eldarin tongues" (VT41:9), which would include the Telerin of Aman; hence this change was not unheard of in Valinor either. Perhaps it was already beginning in Valinor shortly before the Exile, but occurring too late to be reflected in the original Fëanorian orthography.

According to LotR Appendix E, the sound ch remained medially even after it had become breath h initially. The Tengwa harma was therefore renamed aha ("wrath"), since in this word the middle consonant was still pronounced ch. But later, intervocalic ch was also weakened; in a post-LotR source, Tolkien wrote: "In Quenya and Telerin medial [ch] eventually became h also in most cases" (VT41:9). Perhaps this is why *acha, as it must originally have been pronounced, is nonetheless spelt aha in Appendix E: In the end, medial ch also came to be pronounced h – "in most cases". The exceptions are probably the combinations normally spelt aht, oht, uht, where orthographic "h" ever remained a full spirant ch. In the combinations eht, iht it turned into ich-Laut, but in these groups it was quite possibly still represented by the letter aha in Tengwar orthography – though we have no examples.

When initial ch became h, it seems that it merged with the initial breath-h that already existed in Valinorean Quenya. This breath-h was in most cases derived from primitive 3 (or, if Tolkien was in that mood, it had been h already in the primitive language and never changed – e.g. Primitive Quendian ¤hekla "outcast" > Quenya hecil in WJ:361, 365). Exceptionally h was also derived (via hw-) from the aspirate ph before u, as in huinë "gloom". Initial ch was on the other hand derived from the aspirate kh- (original or changed from even older sk-). The change ch- > h- in Exilic Quenya lead to some cases of homophony. The word harwë "treasury", representing primitive *3arwê (root 3AR, LR:360) would have had breath h already in Valinorean Quenya. But the word harwë "wound" was not originally a homophone; this comes from primitive ¤skarwê, which (after first becoming *kharwê) yielded Old Quenya *charwë. Only with the change ch > h did the words coincide in form.

NOTE: There is one problem; in the Etymologies Tolkien derived the word harma from a root 3AR, and then it should have had breath h already in Valinorean Quenya. Yet Tolkien picked this word as the name of the Tengwa originally denoting ch, which would imply that it was earlier pronounced *charma instead. We could assume that earlier breath h merged with ch in Valinorean Quenya, later reverting to h in Exilic Quenya (when original ch also became h). However, LotR Appendix E indicates that even the original Fëanorian system had distinct signs for breath h (originally represented by the sign halla, a raised stem with no bow) and the spirant ch (represented by harma). This would suggest that h and ch coexisted in Valinorean Quenya. Perhaps Tolkien simply changed his mind about the derivation of harma "treasure", deriving it from a stem *KHAR instead of 3AR, so that it would originally have had initial ch. If the word halla ("tall") contained breath h already in Valinorean Quenya, Tolkien may have altered its derivation as well: It is not actually listed in the Etymologies, but it would probably have to be referred to the root KHAL2 as a cognate of "Noldorin"/Sindarin hall "exalted, high" (older form khalla given). But halla with original breath h would require a stem *3AL (or, *HAL). Conceivably, halla "tall" simply describes the form of the letter (a raised stem) rather than exemplifying the sound it denoted: If the root is to remain KHAL, this word must have been pronounced *challa in Valinorean Quenya.

The name of the Tengwa wilya was pronounced vilya in Exilic Quenya. It would seem, then, that initial w became v (merging with v derived from earlier b). Above we have discussed how w became v medially, and one may well ask why we cannot let initial and post-vocalic w become v at the same time – but there is good reason to believe that post-vocalic w normally became v much earlier than the initial shift occurred. Consider this: The loss of 3 must be placed very early in the historical period, since it was only by the "tradition among the loremasters" anyone knew what sound had once been represented by the initial letter of such a Rúmilian spelling as 3alda (VT39:7). Yet the medial shift w > v must predate the loss of 3: In the case of (¤jagwê >) *ya3wë > yáwë "ravine" a 3 that was later lost hindered the development of post-vocalic w to v. A later shift w > v, after the loss of 3, would have turned *ya3wë > yáwë into yávë (producing a homophone with the word for "fruit", itself < *jâbê). 
So the evidence might seem to be contradictory: One line of reasoning leads to the conclusion that the shift w > v cannot be later than the earliest parts of recorded history, whereas Tolkien elsewhere seems to imply that w and v remained fully distinct at the time Fëanor devised the Tengwar – the sounds merging only in Exilic Quenya. The only way of reconciling all the evidence is to distinguish between a shift of post-vocalic w > v, which took place very early before the loss of 3 (and which *ya3wë > yáwë thus escaped), and an initial shift w > v, which took place only after Fëanor invented the Tengwar and is reflected in the change wilya > vilya. Since Eärendil is said to have named his ship Wingalótë or Wingelótë (PM:370, 371) with initial w still intact, this change may have occurred after the end of the First Age. It would seem, then, that changes like the following happened among the Exiles in the Second Age or later:

wéra > véra "private, personal, own" (PM:340, where it is made clear that this change occurred after the stage Tolkien called "Old Quenya")
waia "envelope" > vaia
wán > ván "goose"
waiwa > vaiwa "wind"
wendë > vendë "maiden"

Where Tolkien quotes Quenya forms in w- only, as he sometimes does, we must assume that he intends them to be "Old Quenya", First Age Quenya. The Etymologies is quite inconsistent in this regard: Quenya words derived from bases in W- are sometimes quoted with initial w-, sometimes with initial v-, and sometimes both. All contradictions are resolved when we recognize the forms in w- as Old Quenya, whereas the forms in v- are later. (In one case, vilin "I fly" derived from the root WIL, Christopher Tolkien interprets his father's notes to mean that he "changed" it to wilin: LR:399. However, there can be no question of vilin being rejected in favour of wilin; for some reason, Tolkien decided to quote this verb as an Old Quenya form rather than the "modern Quenya" variant.) – It is not clear whether the distinction between w and v was upheld in Tengwar writing (the letter vilya still being used for initial v even after it had been changed from w), or whether all initial v's came to be spelt with the letter vala regardless of derivation. (Vala originally represented the v's that were present already in Valinorean Quenya; when initial they were always derived from older b-.) In his RGEO Tengwar transcript of Namárië, Tolkien did use the letter vala to spell the initial v of the word vanwa "lost", though this is understood to represent primitive *wanwâ and must have been *wanwa in Old Quenya. (But then he also used silmë to spell the s of hísië "mist", though this s represents earlier þ and should have been spelt with the letter súlë according to the rules he set out elsewhere!)

Another change implied by the Tengwar names involves initial ñ becoming normal n (this includes labialized ñw becoming nw, normally spelt nw in Roman Quenya orthography). In LotR Appendix E, Tolkien records how the Tengwa originally called "ngoldo" (alternative spelling of ñoldo) had its name changed to noldo, and "ngwalme" (that is, ñwalmë) similarly became nwalmë. In the same Appendix, Tolkien noted that the sound of ñ (or "ng") "also occurred initially in Quenya, but has been transcribed n (as in Noldo), according to the pronunciation of the Third Age". The Etymologies hints at a similar change. In the case of ñarmo "wolf" from the root ÑGAR(A)M, the later form narmo is also listed. In other cases, Tolkien is quite inconsistent about whether he lists the "older" form in ñ- or the "later" form in n-; he may even be inconsistent within the same entry in Etym, as when the root ÑGAW yields ñauro "werewolf" next to naulë "wolf-howl": When naulë had reached this form (from older *ñaulë), ñauro had likewise become *nauro! In the case of some words that are obviously related to ñwalmë > nwalmë "torment" in LotR Appendix E, namely nwalya- "to pain" and nwalca "cruel" from the root ÑGWAL, only these "later" forms are recorded in Etym: Given the form of the root, the words must earlier  have appeared as *ñwalya- and *ñwalca.

In the Plotz letter, Tolkien mentioned certain changes that occurred before Quenya ceased to be a birth tongue among the Noldor, hence early in their exile. To the extent Quenya was spoken in Middle-earth, it reflected these changes: At the end of polysyllabic words, all long vowels became short. This affected the long final vowels Quenya had reacquired after the pre-historic shortening of the long final vowels of primitive Elvish. It included -í as the nominative plural ending of words in -ë (this long -í being reduced from -ei at an older stage) as well as -ó in the genitive forms of nouns in -a (reduced from earlier -ao). Thus "Book Quenya" forms like lassí "leaves" or ciryó "of a ship" now became lassi, ciryo. This shortening of final vowels also resulted in the loss of distinct accusative forms, that in "Book Quenya" were formed by making a short final vowel long (e.g. ciryá as the accusative of cirya "ship", but now ciryá was reduced to cirya and merged with the nominative form).
Another change mentioned by Tolkien in the Plotz letter affects final -ai at the end of polysyllabic words. This diphthong first became a long -æ (with the same quality as the vowel of English cat, but longer). Then, like other long vowels at the end of polysyllabic words, it was shortened and turned into a regular final -ë. In this way adjectives in -a came to have plural forms in -ë, e.g. lintë as the plural form of *linta "swift", lintë representing earlier lintai. Adjectives in -ëa, that originally had plural forms in -ëai, came to have plural forms in -ië (obviously dissimilated from *-ëe).
In Plotz, Tolkien also mentioned another late change: In polysyllabic words, a long vowel occurring before a final consonant might also be shortened. Some of these long vowels had occurred in a final syllable since ancient times, others had ended up in the final syllable by the loss of some final vowel. Shortened forms of names, such as Valinor (for *Valinór as a shorter form of Valinórë) would also belong on this list:

	¤anâr- > Anar "sun"
	¤terên > teren "slender"
	(¤gajâr > *3ayâr > *ayâr >) ëár >  ëar "sea"
 (¤Mbelekôro > *Mbelekôr >) *Melkór > Melkor
(*Erukhînâ > *Erukhîna > *Erukhîn > *Eruchín >) *Eruhín > Eruhin "Child of Eru" (but still Eruhín- before endings)
*Valatár "Vala-king" > Valatar (but still Valatár- before endings)
*Valinór (shortened form of Valinórë) > Valinor

Where a word occurs compounded or with endings, an originally long vowel might stay long because according to the normal stress rules it happens to receive the accent. The singular *Eruhín > *Eruhin thus retains the plural Eruhíni with the long vowel intact. (But the plural of ëar is ëari rather than *ëári; as we noted above, three-syllable words tend to move the stress to the first syllable and shorten the vowel in the second-to-last syllable.)

Quenya as spoken in Valinor possessed voiceless l and r, spelt hl and hr. LotR Appendix E indicates that by the Third Age, hl was "usually pronounced as [normal, voiced] l". It may be assumed that hr was likewise normally pronounced as a voiced r in Frodo's day, though there is no explicit statement to this effect. (However, it seems that the digraphs hl- and hr- persisted in the established spelling of Quenya – these h's being spelt with the Tengwa halla.)

Between i and another vowel, a glide consonant y could develop, breaking up the hiatus. Citing a word for "shingle" as sarnië, Tolkien also listed sarniyë as a parenthetical alternative (VT42:11). This glide consonant may also develop between a diphthong in -i and a following vowel, as when older waia, vaia "envelope" could also appear as waiya, vaiya (Etym, entry WAY). These examples suggest that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the glide consonant developed: was it before or after initial w- became v-, a change we tentatively assume to have occurred in the Second Age? As suggested by the example sarni(y)ë, the presence of such glide consonants seems to be an "optional" feature of Exilic Quenya, and their representation in writing is apparently rather irregular. There is no trace of glide consonants in Namárië in LotR; we have forms like laurië and namárië rather than *lauriyë, *namáriyë. On the other hand, Frodo speaking in tongues in Cirith Ungol employs the word aiya for "hail!", this form representing older aia (so in Tolkien's Quenya translation of the Hail Mary).

Lastly, certain assimilations seen to occur in contact may be listed; it is difficult to say at what stage these assimilations "happened". Perhaps the combinations in question were assimilated already in Valinorean Quenya, but were treated likewise in younger compounds.

The groups nl, nm, nr, ns are all assimilated to double consonants ll, mm, rr, ss:

Númen "West" + lótë "flower" = Númellótë "Flower of the West"
elen "star" + macil "sword" = Elemmacil *"Star-sword"
elen "star" + rína "crowned" = Elerrína "Star-crowned"
elen "stone" + sar "stone" = Elessar "Star-stone" (or "Elf-stone")

The cluster ll may also arise from rl, e.g. Casalli as the partitive plural of Casar "Dwarf" (Casar + -li).

APPENDIX: Some Special Cases
I will briefly discuss certain words and phonological features which do not readily agree with the system sketched above.

In the Etymologies, Tolkien derived the name Melko (Melkor) from ¤Mailikô, an A-infixed variant of the extended base MIL-IK supplied with the masculine ending -ô. The name is apparently here meant to suggest *"Greedy One". This seems like a strange ad hoc etymology. It is difficult to get from ¤Mailikô to Melko. The shortening of final -ô to -o is of course regular enough, but Tolkien here has the second i undergoing syncope in a word that does not have two identical short vowels following one another – the environment normally triggering such syncope. Or are we to assume that the final element of the diphthong ai in the initial syllable constitutes the first of this pair of identical vowels? The intermediate form *Mailko is then supposed to become Melko, the diphthong ai collapsing into a monophthong e. This development is apparently meant to be triggered by the following consonant cluster; yet this does not agree with other material from the Etymologies, cf. a word like aista- (entry GÁYAS) failing to become **esta-. In any case, Tolkien adandoned the etymology here proposed for the name Melko. In a post-LotR source, this alternative name of Melkor is said to mean simply "Mighty One", derived from a stem melk- or melek- having to do with force and strength (MR:350, 360). This mel(e)k- may be taken as the Classical Quenya form of the original mbelek- seen in the old form Mbelekôro "Melkor" (WJ:402). So according to Tolkien's later ideas, the shorter name Melko is certainly meant to come from *Mbelekô, and the troublesome evolution ¤Mailikô > Melko presupposed in the Etymologies does not have to be considered part of the "classical" linguistic scenario.

The same goes for malarauco as the Quenya word for "Balrog". It is listed in the Etymologies, entry RUK, and explicitly referred to a primitive form ¤ñgwalaraukô. However, the idea that initial ¤ñgw- is to produce Quenya m- is blatantly contradicted by the entry ÑGWAL (though there is actually a cross-reference to it in the same entry RUK!) From ÑGWAL- Tolkien derived words like nwalya- "to pain" and nwalca "cruel" – not **malya- and **malca, though the primitive forms are obviously meant to be *ñgwaljâ-, *ñgwalkâ. We can be certain that the words nwalya- and nwalca reflect Tolkien's final decision on how primitive initial *ñgw- is to come out in Quenya, for what is obviously another derivative from this stem occurs as the name of a Tengwa letter in LotR Appendix E: Nwalmë "torment" (earlier "ngwalme" = ñwalmë).
So why does ¤ñgwalaraukô produce malarauco instead of the expected form *nwalarauco in the Etymologies? Comparison with earlier material reveals that malarauco as the High-elven word for Balrog is influenced by such early "Qenya" forms as Malcarauke (LT1:250). However, the m-forms can be ignored altogether, for Tolkien later decided that in Quenya, a Balrog is called a Valarauco (WJ:415, VT39:10). This is clearly meant to be derived from *balaraukô, and the phonological evolution would be quite regular.

The word palantír is somewhat puzzling. In the Plotz letter, Tolkien explicitly stated that a long vowel in the final syllable of a polysyllabic word became short; yet the long í of palantír apparently persisted as late as in the Third Age. On the other hand, Palantir with a short i is mentioned as the name of a Númenorean king in the LotR appendices.
	In Letters:427, Tolkien refers palantír to a primitive form ¤palantîrâ or ¤palantîra; he marked the final -a with a diacritic indicating that it could be either long or short. (This "primitive" form must be seen as a hypothetical back-formation, since the palantíri were made and presumably named by the Noldor after the end of the "pre-historic" period.) According to the rules set out above, ¤palantîrâ should have produced Quenya *palantíra, whereas ¤palantîra should have yielded palantir, attested as the personal name of Tar-Palantir of Númenor. (¤Palantîrâ could also have produced palantir if the primitive form was recognized as a compound, so that the long final vowel was shortened at an early stage.) So what are we do make of the form palantír occurring in LotR? Perhaps we are to assume that since the Seeing Stones were so closely associated with "ancient lore" and were rarely mentioned otherwise, the word persisted in its older Valinorean form rather than undergoing the normal sound-changes? Of course, the long vowel may also have been re-introduced into the singular by analogy with the plural form palantíri.
Another example of a word with a long final vowel persisting in the final syllable is Erusén, translated "children of God" in RGEO:74. This form is doubly perplexing, for judging by the translation, it should be a plural form. Yet there is no plural ending. Is this a collective of some sort?

The noun "head" is given in the Etymologies as cár with stem cas-; the root is KAS. This makes little sense within the later phonological framework; it seems to be a form carried over from Tolkien's earliest "Qenya" (QL:45: notice that the K-stems are among the oldest parts of the Etymologies, apparently never thoroughly revised). In the Etymologies, Tolkien lets a final postvocalic -s become -r, as when the root TELES produces Quenya Teler "Teler-elf". The root KAS, or rather a primitive form *kasa > Common Eldarin *kâs, *kas-,  might therefore produce cár via *cáz. However, this would not have a stem-form cas-, e.g. plural **casi "heads" – no more than the plural of Teler was **Telesi even within the Etymologies scenario (the plural Teleri occurs in the entry TELES). According to the system Tolkien employed in most of Etym, the word for "head" ought to be *cár with stem *car-. Later Tolkien apparently decided that a final original -s remained unchanged, though the development s > z > r does occur between vowels; thus we have olos "dream", pl. olori for older olozi, in UT:396. If the noun olor of Etym (entry ÓLOS) was later emended to olos, the noun cár "head" (KAS) must also become *cás, though the stem-form remains (*caz- >) *car-. A possible attestation of "cas" as a word for "head" occurs in the compound cas-raya "tressure" (literally *"head-net"), later becoming carrëa (VT41:12). Interestingly, the form cas-raya is not asterisked, and it is spelt with a c rather than k also in the primary source – suggesting that this is a "historical" or "attested" Quenya form. Perhaps, then, cas-raya is meant to represent the form of the word in Valinorean Quenya of the early historical period, the "classical" form carrëa arising within recorded history. (The assimilation of medial sr to rr probably began already in the prehistoric period, but perhaps it continued to operate and was eventually applied even to more recent compounds.)

According to the Etymologies, the stem ÑOL yielded the Quenya word holmë "odour". This must be derived from primitive *ñolmê. So does initial *ñ- produce Quenya h-? If so, this change must have occurred before the ancient initial combination ñg- was simplified to ñ-, since the latter persisted in Valinorean Quenya (becoming normal n- in the Third Age). However, in a much later source, Tolkien lets primitive ñ- remain unchanged in Quenya: the word ñalta "radiance, glittering reflection" he referred to primitive ¤ñalatâ. So why does *ñolmë produce Quenya holmë instead of *ñolmë? Some think holmë is simply a misreading for *nolmë in Tolkien's manuscript. *Nolmë could be the later pronunciation of *ñolmë.

The view presented above is that the shortening of the long final vowels of primitive Elvish took place at a relatively late stage (after Common Eldarin), whereas original short final -a, -e and -o disappeared during the Common Eldarin stage. Examples supporting this view are cited above. However, counterexamples can certainly be found. In some sources, Tolkien cites Common Eldarin words with short final vowels that survive unchanged into Quenya, as when ¤sloga and ¤netere is said to be the origin of Quenya hloa, nertë (VT41:9, 26). According to the system here reconstructed, these C.E. words would rather produce Quenya **hló, **neter. To reach the "desired" outcome in Quenya we would have to assume that the C.E. forms were *slogâ, *neterê with long final vowels. We could assume that after original short -a, -e, -o were lost, but still during the Common Eldarin stage, the original long final vowels were shortened so that *slogâ, *neterê turned into the forms ¤sloga, ¤netere mentioned by Tolkien. Some examples from the Etymologies may also seem to support such a view, as when Tolkien mentioned ¤daio as the primitive form of lëo "shade" (entry DAY). The final -o must in all likelihood have been a long -ô at some earlier stage, but here it may seem to have been shortened quite early, before initial d- had become l-. The latter change must in turn have occurred before initial and post-vocalic b, d, g became spirants v, ð (> z > r), 3, respectively, or primitive initial d- would have produced Quenya r- instead of l-. Yet this is totally contradicted by one attested example referred to above: Valinôrê as an early Quenya name of Valinor, with a long final vowel intact as late as after initial b- has become v- (WJ:413). There is hardly any way all the "evidence" can be worked into a single system. We must probably conclude that Tolkien in some cases failed to mark some long final vowels as such. Of course, he may also have changed his mind (repeatedly!) about the precise order of certain phonological changes.

In some sources, Tolkien seems to be toying with the idea that a double consonant is to be simplified before a long, accented vowel. Thus Elerrína *"Star-crowned" (assimilated from *Elenrína) appears as Elerína in LR:355. Likewise, the name of Tuor's ship Eärámë (WJ:352) is probably to be understood as Eär + rámë, i.e. *"Sea-wing", rather than Eä + rámë "Universe-wing". However, Tolkien may have abandoned this idea. Elerrína is so spelt in the published Silmarillion, and I think this form is to be preferred.