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which most words ended in a vowel, the tehta was placed above the preceding consonant; in those such as Sindarin, in which most words ended in a consonant, it was placed above the following consonant. When there was no consonant present in the required position, the tehta was placed above the ‘short carrier’, of which a common form was like an undotted i. The actual tehtar used in different languages for vowel-signs were numerous. The commonest, usually applied to (varieties of) e, i, a, o, u, are exhibited in the examples given. The three dots, most usual in formal writing for a, were variously written in quicker styles, a form like a circumflex being often employed. 1 The single dot and the ‘acute accent’ were frequently used for i and e (but in some modes for e and i). The curls were used for o and u. In the Ring-inscription the curl open to the right is used for u; but on the title-page this stands for o, and the curl open to the left for u. The curl to the right was favoured, and the application depended on the language concerned: in the Black Speech o was rare.

Long vowels were usually represented by placing the tehta on the ‘long carrier’, of which a common form was like an undottedj. But for the same purpose the tehtar could be doubled. This was, however, only frequently done with the curls, and sometimes with the ‘accent’. Two dots was more often used as a sign for following y.

The West-gate inscription illustrates a mode of ‘full writing’ with the vowels represented by separate letters. All the vocalic letters used in Sindarin are shown. The use of No. 30 as a sign for vocalic y may be noted; also the expression of diphthongs by placing the tehta for following y above the vowel-letter. The sign for following w (required for the expression of au, aw) was in this mode the u-curl or a modification of it ˜. But the diphthongs were often written out in full, as in the transcription. In this mode length of vowel was usually indicated by the ‘acute accent’, called in that case andaith ‘long mark’.

There were beside the tehtar already mentioned a number of others, chiefly used to abbreviate the writing, especially by expressing frequent consonant combinations without writing them out in full. Among these, a bar (or a sign like a Spanish tilde) placed above a consonant was often used to indicate that it was preceded by the nasal of the same series (as in nt, mp, or nk); a similar sign placed below was, however, mainly used to show that the consonant was long or doubled. A downward hook attached to the bow (as in hobbits, the last word on the title-page) was used to indicate a following s, especially in the combinations ts, ps, ks (x), that were favoured in Quenya.

There was of course no ‘mode’ for the representation of English. One adequate phonetically could be devised from the Feanorian system. The brief example on the title-page does not attempt to exhibit this. It is rather an example of what a man of Gondor might have produced, hesitating between the values of the letters familiar in his ‘mode’ and the traditional spelling of English. It may be noted that a dot below (one of the uses of which was to represent weak obscured vowels) is here employed in the representation of unstressed and, but is also used in here for silent final e; the, of, and of the are expressed by abbreviations (extended dh, extended v, and the latter with an under-stroke).

The names of the letters. In all modes each letter and sign had a name; but these names were devised to fit or describe the phonetic uses in each particular mode. It was, however, often felt desirable, especially in describing the uses of the letters in other modes, to have a name for each letter in itself as a shape. For this purpose the Quenya ‘full names’ were commonly employed, even where they referred to uses peculiar to Quenya. Each ‘full name’ was an actual word in Quenya that contained the letter in question. Where possible it was the first sound of the word; but where the sound or the combination expressed did not occur initially it followed immediately after