return

1472 the return of the king
used. (For lv, not for lw, many speakers, especially Elves, used lb:
this was written with 27+6, since lmb could not occur.) Similarly,
Grade 4 was used for the extremely frequent combinations nt,
mp, nk, nqu, since Quenya did not possess dh, gh, ghw, and for
v used letter 22. See the Quenya letter-names pp. 1474–5.
The additional letters. No. 27 was universally used for l. No. 25
(in origin a modification of 21) was used for ‘full’ trilled r. Nos.
26, 28 were modifications of these. They were frequently used
for voiceless r (rh) and l (lh) respectively. But in Quenya they
were used for rd and ld. 29 represented s, and 31 (with doubled
curl) z in those languages that required it. The inverted forms,
30 and 32, though available for use as separate signs, were mostly
used as mere variants of 29 and 31, according to the convenience
of writing, e.g. they were much used when accompanied by
superimposed tehtar.
No. 33 was in origin a variation representing some (weaker)
variety of 11; its most frequent use in the Third Age was h. 34
was mostly used (if at all) for voiceless w (hw). 35 and 36 were,
when used as consonants, mostly applied to y and w respectively.
The vowels were in many modes represented by tehtar, usually set
above a consonantal letter. In languages such as Quenya, in 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
1 In Quenya in which a was very frequent, its vowel sign was often
omitted altogether. Thus for calma ‘lamp’ clm could be written. This
would naturally read as calma, since cl was not in Quenya a possible
initial combination, and m never occurred finally. A possible reading was
calama, but no such word existed.