What was the dominant writing system in Middle-earth?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Perhaps Frodo's 'um nope can't read it' response to the Ring is similar to how we might look at Cyrillic: a lot of the letters are similar, but some are pretty weird (you've got a B with a hook, a backwards N, an upside-down L...), and if you interpret them as your usual alphabet, you wind up with nonsense.

wouldn't even have to be Cyrillic. Consider the average modern's reaction to Latin script from the 14th century:

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

wouldn't even have to be Cyrillic. Consider the average modern's reaction to Latin script from the 14th century:

That's Latin? :O I thought I knew the Latin letters, but I cannot... read...

Huh. I guess it does make sense after all.

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

And Tolkien ought to have known, since his day job was reading things where "the letters are Latin, of an ancient mode" -- and trying to teach students to comprehend same.

[Galin]

Generally speaking (Appendix E), the runes were "devised and mostly used only for scratched or incised inscriptions" while the Feanorean letters were used for writing with brush or pen. With respect to the Feanorean letters, full modes had been reached, but older modes in which only the consonants were written with full letters, were still in use.

Of Dwarves and Men tells us that the Common Speech "had from its beginning been expressed in the Feanorian Script," and that writing with the Cirth was dependent on the already established usages of the Tengwar (the same text adds that the Dwarves, who preferred the Cirth, used a spelling that was intentionally "a transcription of the current spelling of the Common Speech into Runic terms”, yet this transcription included many words spelt phonetically).


I'd guess that the Hobbits were familiar with a full mode referred to as the "later or Westron convention, in its northern variety" (Pictures By JRRT) used by Ori the Dwarf in the Book of Mazarbul -- and (with slight differences), in the letter from King Elessar to Sam Gamgee (Sauron Defeated, Westron/English version).

Arguably (at least), and with respect to the latter example, this was chosen by a Gondorian as the recipients were Hobbits.

[Ivriniel]

Thanks for the OP, it's a great read, and reminds me of my first discovery of the Elvish in Middle Earth.

I imagine that Bilbo's language knowledge increased over the course of his life, and from contact with other peoples. So that by the time the Red Book of Westmarch was compiled, the latter authors' contributions seem to reflect learning, and where Frodo and Bilbo must, by then, have been familiar with Quenya.

I don't know why Celebrimbor's speech is referred to as the Mode of Beleriand, in that I wondered how widespread it was. As Sindarin goes, I thought vowels were applied to it as Quenya applied, them, or that a change in Sindarin writing followed from the Noldorin presence. I saw a 'Latin' like comment above, and I tend to agree, and add that I imagine Celebrimbor wrote in Quenya, or with the o and u as his people did. The Ring Spell, with its perversion of Elvish included the 'mirror imaging' of vowels, which seems to give it the creepy sense of it, like playing a record backwards. It must have imprinted dread on Celebrimbor and the Elven Ring wielders to see that.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I think that well before the end of the Elder Days, Quenya in Middle-earth had fallen out of everyday use, and Sindarin had become the lingua franca of all the Eldar. (Depending on which note you choose to believe, even the Silvan Nandor had adopted it).Celebrimbor itself is Sindarin, not Quenya.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Galin

Generally speaking (Appendix E), the runes were "devised and mostly used only for scratched or incised inscriptions" while the Feanorean letters were used for writing with brush or pen. With respect to the Feanorean letters, full modes had been reached, but older modes in which only the consonants were written with full letters, were still in use.

Of Dwarves and Men tells us that the Common Speech "had from its beginning been expressed in the Feanorian Script," and that writing with the Cirth was dependent on the already established usages of the Tengwar (the same text adds that the Dwarves, who preferred the Cirth, used a spelling that was intentionally "a transcription of the current spelling of the Common Speech into Runic terms”, yet this transcription included many words spelt phonetically).


I'd guess that the Hobbits were familiar with a full mode referred to as the "later or Westron convention, in its northern variety" (Pictures By JRRT) used by Ori the Dwarf in the Book of Mazarbul -- and (with slight differences), in the letter from King Elessar to Sam Gamgee (Sauron Defeated, Westron/English version).

Arguably (at least), and with respect to the latter example, this was chosen by a Gondorian as the recipients were Hobbits.

It could also be, OTOH, that the "slight differences" indicate the Southern as opposed to Northern mode.