Sindarin: The Language of the Grey Elves

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During the Great Journey in the First Age, when the Elves were leaving Middle-earth, Thingol, King of the Teleri, was wandering in the Forest of the Neldoreth when he heard from afar the singing of nightengales. It was then that Thingol first saw Melian, and he loved her. They stood enchanted, as days and years passed them. Thingol had forsaken the journey to Valinor because of his meeting with Melian. Believeing he was lost, many of his friends and subjects searched for him, unwilling to leave until they found their king. Eventually Thingol awoke from the enchantment and he and Melian were wedded. They founded the kingdom of Doriath and many of those who had forsaken Valinor dwelt there.

Throughout the thousands of years the Primitive Quenya dialect spoken in Doriath began to evolve, especially when the Sindar encountered the Dwarves. The soft, melodical sounds of Quenya were changed to match the harsher sounds of Khazdûl, the Dwarvish tongue. When the Noldor reached Middle-earth, Thingol banned Quenya from being spoken in his lands. This furthered the decline of Quenya, which was then only spoken as a ritualistic language.  Students of Sindarin should be warned in advance, Sindarin does not have the extensive vocabulary or grammar of Quenya and it is therefore impossible to become fluent although I will list as many Sindarin wordlists and grammar websites as I know in the Sindarin section.