return

1470 the return of the king
(grades). There were also ‘additional letters’, of which 25–36 are
examples. Of these 27 and 29 are the only strictly independent
letters; the remainder are modifications of other letters. There
was also a number of tehtar (signs) of varied uses. These do not
appear in the table. 1
The primary letters were each formed of a telco (stem) and a
lúva (bow). The forms seen in 1–4 were regarded as normal.
The stem could be raised, as in 9–16; or reduced, as in 17–24.
The bow could be open, as in Series I and III; or closed, as in II
and IV; and in either case it could be doubled, as e.g. in 5–8.
The theoretic freedom of application had in the Third Age
been modified by custom to this extent that Series I was generally
applied to the dental or t-series (tincotéma), and II to the labials
or p-series (parmatéma). The application of Series III and IV
varied according to the requirements of different languages.
In languages like the Westron, which made much use of consonants
2 such as our ch, j, sh, Series III was usually applied to
these; in which case Series IV was applied to the normal k-series
(calmatéma). In Quenya, which possessed besides the calmatéma
both a palatal series (tyelpetéma) and a labialized series (quessetéma),
the palatals were represented by a Fëanorian diacritic
denoting ‘following y’ (usually two underposed dots), while
Series IV was a kw-series.
Within these general applications the following relations were
also commonly observed. The normal letters, Grade 1, were
applied to the ‘voiceless stops’: t, p, k, etc. The doubling of the
bow indicated the addition of ‘voice’: thus if 1, 2, 3, 4=t, p, ch,
k (or t, p, k, kw) then 5, 6, 7, 8=d, b, j, g (or d, b, g, gw). The
raising of the stem indicated the opening of the consonant to a
‘spirant’: thus assuming the above values for Grade 1, Grade 3
1 Many of them appear in the examples on the title-page, and in the
inscription on p. 66, transcribed on p. 331. They were mainly used to
express vowel-sounds, in Quenya usually regarded as modifications of
the accompanying consonant; or to express more briefly some of the
most frequent consonant combinations.
2 The representation of the sounds here is the same as that employed
in transcription and described above, except that here ch represents the
ch in English church; j represents the sound of English j, and zh the sound
heard in azure and occasion.