Elvish inquiry...
 

I know this is a little silly, and probably not in the riht forum, but okay...
I have this "friend" who likes LOTR like me. I like him and want to let him know subtly, cause I'm shy.
Someone tell me how to say
I love you
in elvish, I can write it myself.
Thanks!

I Love You: Amin mela lle

edit: removed the link since members have put forward that it is not quite reliable, and furthermore, not confuse other members...

[ April 19, 2003: Message edited by: Iargwath ]

ThanksIargwath!

mela is friendly love. there is no proper word for love

Hmmm.
Thanks anyways then.

Not wanting to criticise the link or anything, but this is what the authors of the phrases say themselves:
(oh and I think they meant canon... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] )

Best of luck with your quest, Ainaserkewen!

[ April 17, 2003: Message edited by: Lalaith ]

im mel le is 'I love thou' in Sindarin. ^_^

Not to be a wet blanket, but, as Lailath pointed out, the site linked above is NOT Tolkien elvish or even scholarly elaborations thereof. much of it is [as the authors of it readily if perhaps not quite boldly enough state] the personal inventions of those website owners.

A complete online Sindarin dictionary can be gotten here:Sindarin desktop dictionary

it is awesome.

[ April 18, 2003: Message edited by: lindil ]

*cough*I didn't go to the site, I have The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth by Ruth S. Noel who is also the author of The Mythology of Middle-eath in my bookshelf. It's quite nifty.^^

i am learning quenya on ardalambion.com
it makes more sense to learn it as basically all elves knew it, it was a high speech and common tongue among them. sindarin was only used by the sindar elves, but they also knew quenya.

again: anything with mel, or mela or such is friendly love

Yeah, but as you mentioned before there is no 'love' so friendly love is as close as anyone is going to get to real love, am I wrong?

Well, not to be a nit picker Guy, but Sindarin was the far more widespread Elvish language. It was spoken as the main language everywhere in M-E except perhaps in some isoplated Avari communities, and perhaps in Thranduil's realm where the Silvan tounge may have been pre-dominant. I forget, as JRRT went back and forth on whether Silvan had been abandoned in Lorien/Mirkwood or not.

But regardless, Quenya was only spoken by the remaining Noldor which by the time of the LotR where a small group indeed. And not only where they [and the uppercrust of the Dunedain] the only speakers, they did not use it as an everyday language, but as a sort of Elf-latin.

Be all that as it may be, your point re: which language to learn still stands, as Quenya was developed far more fully by JRRT that Sindarin. Thus it gets far more exposure and usage by latter day linguists.

Good luck with the course! I hope to embark on it one day myself.