Cirth
The word "Cirth" written using the Cirth in the Angerthas Daeron mode
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	J. R. R. Tolkien
Direction	Varies
Languages	Khuzdul,Sindarin,Quenya,Westron,English
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Cirt(291), ​Cirth
This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

TheCirth (Sindarin pronunciation:[ˈkirθ], meaning "runes"; sg.certh[ˈkɛrθ]) is a semi‑artificial script, based on real‑liferunic alphabets, one ofseveral scripts invented byJ. R. R. Tolkien for theconstructed languages he devised and used in his works.Cirth is written with a capital letter when referring to thewriting system; the letters themselves can be calledcirth.

In the fictional history ofMiddle-earth, the originalCerthas was created by theSindar (or Grey Elves) for their language,Sindarin. Its extension and elaboration was known as theAngerthas Daeron, as it was attributed to the Sinda Daeron, despite the fact that it was most probably arranged by theNoldor in order to represent the sounds of other languages likeQuenya andTelerin.

Although it was later largely replaced by theTengwar, the Cirth was nonetheless adopted by theDwarves to write down both theirKhuzdul language (Angerthas Moria) and the languages ofMen (Angerthas Erebor). The Cirth was also adapted, in its oldest and simplest form, by various races including Men and evenOrcs.

Many letters have shapes also found in the historicalrunic alphabets, but their sound values are only similar in a few of the vowels. Rather, the system of assignment of sound values is much more systematic in the Cirth than in the historical runes (e.g., voiced variants of a voiceless sound are expressed by an additional stroke).

The division between the older Cirth of Daeron and their adaptation by Dwarves and Men has been interpreted as a parallel drawn by Tolkien to the development of the Futhorc to theYounger Futhark.^[1] The original Elvish Cirth "as supposed products of a superior culture" are focused on logical arrangement and a close connection between form and value whereas the adaptations by mortal races introduced irregularities. Similar to the Germanic tribes who had no written literature and used only simple runes before their conversion to Christianity, the Sindarin Elves of Beleriand with their Cirth were introduced to the more elaborate Tengwar of Fëanor when the Noldorin Elves returned to Middle-earth from the lands of the divineValar.^[2]

In the Appendix E toThe Return of the King, Tolkien writes that theSindar ofBeleriand first developed analphabet for their language some time between the invention of theTengwar byFëanor (YT 1250) and the introduction thereof toMiddle-earth by the ExiledNoldor towards the end of theFirst Age.^[3]

This alphabet was devised to represent only the sounds of theirSindarin language and its letters were mostly used for inscribing names or brief memorials on wood, stone or metal, hence their angular shapes and straight lines.^[3] InSindarin these letters were namedcirth (sing.certh), from the Elvishroot*kir- meaning "to cleave, to cut".^[4] Anabecedarium ofcirth, consisting of the runes listed in due order, was commonly known asCerthas ([ˈkɛrθɑs], meaning "rune-rows" in Sindarin and loosely translated as "runic alphabet"^[5]).

The oldestcirth were the following:^[3]

Consonants	p	b	mh	m
	t	d	n
	k	g	ng
	r	l	~h ors	s orh	ss
Vowels	i	u	e	o

The form of these letters was somewhat unsystematic, unlike later rearrangements and extensions that made them morefeatural.^[3] Thecirth and were used for⟨h⟩ and⟨s⟩, but varied as to which was which.^[3] Many of the runes consisted of a single vertical line (or "stem") with an appendage (or "branch") attached to one or both sides. If the attachment was made on one side only, it was usually to the right, but "the reverse was not infrequent" and did not change the value of the letter.^[3] (For example, the variants or specifically mentioned forh ors, also or fort, etc.).

In Beleriand, before the end of theFirst Age, theCerthas was rearranged and further developed, partly under the influence of theTengwar introduced by the Noldor. This reorganisation of the Cirth was commonly attributed to theElf Daeron,minstrel and loremaster of KingThingol ofDoriath. Thus, the new system became known as theAngerthas Daeron^[3] (where "angerthas"[ɑŋˈɡɛrθɑs] is from Sindarin"an(d)"[ɑn(d)] + "certhas"[ˈkɛrθɑs], meaning "long rune-rows"^[6]).

In this arrangement, the assignment of values to eachcerth is systematic. The runes consisting of a stem and a branch attached to the right are used forvoicelessstops, while other sounds are allocated according to the following principles:^[3]

1. adding a stroke to a branch addsvoice (e.g.,[p] →[b]);
2. moving the branch to the left indicates opening to aspirant (e.g.,[t] →[θ]);
3. placing the branch on both sides of the stem addsvoice and nasality (e.g.,[k] →[ŋ]).

Thecirth constructed in this way can therefore be arranged into series, each corresponding to aplace of articulation:

• labial consonants, based on;
• dental consonants, based on;
• front consonants, based on;
• velar consonants, based on;
• labialized velar consonants, based on.

Other letters introduced in this system include: and for⟨a⟩ and⟨w⟩, respectively; runes forlong vowels, evidently originated by doubling andbinding thecerth of the corresponding short vowel (e.g.,⟨oo⟩ →⟨ō⟩); twofront vowels, probably stemming from ligatures of the correspondingback vowel with the⟨i⟩-certh (i.e., →⟨ü⟩, and →⟨ö⟩); somehomorganic nasal + stop clusters (e.g.,[nd]).

Back to the fictional history, since the new-series and-series encompass sounds which do not occur in Sindarin but are present inQuenya, they were most probably introduced by the ExiledNoldor^[3] who spoke Quenya as a language of knowledge.

By loan-translation, the Cirth became known in Quenya asCertar[ˈkɛrtar], while a singlecerth was calledcerta[ˈkɛrta].

After the Tengwar became the sole script used for writing, theAngerthas Daeron was essentially relegated to carved inscriptions. The Elves of the West, for the most part, abandoned the Cirth altogether, with the exception of the Noldor dwelling in the country ofEregion, who maintained it in use^[3] and made it known asAngerthas Eregion.

Note: In this article, the runes of theAngerthas come with the same peculiartransliteration used by Tolkien in the Appendix E, which differs from the (Latin) spelling of both Quenya and Sindarin. TheIPA transcription that follows is applicable to both languages, except where indicated otherwise.

Regularly formedcirth

Labial consonants	Certh
	Transliteration		p	b	f	v	m[i]	mh, mb
	IPA		[p]	[b]	[f]	[v]	[m]	(S.)[ṽ] (Q.)[mb]
Dental consonants	Certh							or
	Transliteration		t	d	th	dh	n	nd[ii]
	IPA		[t]	[d]	[θ]	[ð]	[n]	[nd]
Front consonants[iii]	Certh
	Transliteration		ch[iv]	j[v]	sh[vi]	zh	nj[vii]
	IPA	(N.)	[c⁽ȷ̊⁾]	[ɟj]	[ç]	[ʝ]	ɟ[ɲj] ←[ɲɟj]
		(V.)	[t͡ʃ]	[d͡ʒ]	[ʃ]	[ʒ]		[nd͡ʒ]
Velar consonants	Certh
	Transliteration		k	g	kh	gh	ŋ	ng
	IPA		[k]	[ɡ]	[x]	[ɣ]	[ŋ]	[ŋɡ]
Labiovelar consonants	Certh
	Transliteration		kw[7]	gw[8]	khw	ghw	nw[viii]	ngw[8]
	IPA	(Q.)	[kʷ₍w̥₎]	[ɡʷw]	[ʍ]	[w]	[nʷw]←[ŋʷw]	[ŋɡʷw]

Additionalcirth

Consonants	Certh					or
	Transliteration	r	rh	l	lh	s	ssor z[ix]	h[x]
	IPA	[r]	[r̥]	[l]	[l̥]	[s]	[sː]or[z]	[h]
Approximants	Certh
	Transliteration		w	hw[xi]
	IPA		[w]	[ʍ]
Vowels	Certh
	Transliteration	i, y	u		e	a	o
	IPA	[i],[j]	[u]		[e]	[a]	[o]
Long vowels	Certh						or
	Transliteration		ū		ē	ā	ō
	IPA		[uː]		[eː]	[aː]	[oː]
Fronted vowels	Certh		or				or
	Transliteration		ü				ö
	IPA		[y]				[œ]

Notes:

According toTolkien's legendarium, theDwarves first came to know the runes of the Noldor at the beginning of theSecond Age. The Dwarves "introduced a number of unsystematic changes in value, as well as certain new cirth".^[3] They modified the previous system to suit the specific needs of their language,Khuzdul. The Dwarves spread their revised alphabet toMoria, where it came to be known asAngerthas Moria, and developed both carved and pen-written forms of these runes.^[3]

Many cirth here represent sounds not occurring in Khuzdul^[17] (at least in published words of Khuzdul: of course, our corpus is very limited to judge the necessity or not, of these sounds). Here they are marked with a black star (^★).

Certh	Translit.	IPA'	Certh	Translit.	IPA	Certh	Translit.	IPA'	Certh	Translit.	IPA
	p	/p/★					l	/l/		e	/e/
	b	/b/		z	/z/		lh	/ɬ/★		ê	/eː/
	f	/f/		k	/k/		nd	/nd/		a	/a/
	v	/v/★		g	/ɡ/		h[A]	/h/		â	/aː/
	hw	/ʍ/★		kh	/x/★		ʻ[A]	/ʔ/		o	/o/
	m	/m/		gh	/ɣ/★		ŋ	/ŋ/★	or	ô	/oː/
	mb	/mb/		n	/n/		ng	/ŋɡ/	or	ö	/œ/★
	t	/t/		kw	/kʷ/★	or	nj	/ndʒ/★		n	/n/
	d	/d/		gw	/ɡʷ/★		i	/i/		s	/s/
	th	/θ/★		khw	/xʷ/★		y	/j/	or	[B]	/ə/
	dh	/ð/★		ghw	/ɣʷ/★		hy	/j̊,ç/★	or	[B]	/ʌ/
	r	/ʀ,ʁ,r/		ngw	/ŋɡʷ/★		u	/u/
	ch	/tʃ,c/★		nw	/nʷ/★		û	/uː/
				j	/dʒ,ɟ/★		w	/w/★		+h[C]	/◌ʰ/
	sh	/ʃ/		zh	/ʒ/★	or	ü	/y/★		&[D]

Notes:

A.	^ The Khuzdul language has twoglottal consonants:/h/ and/ʔ/, the latter being "theglottal beginning of a word with an initial vowel".[3] Thus, in need of a reversible certh to represent these sounds, and were switched, giving the former the value/s/ and using the latter for/h/, and its reversed counterpart for/ʔ/.
B.	^ These cirth were a halved form of, used for vowels like those in the word⟨butter⟩/ˈbʌtər/. Thus, represented a/ə/ sound in unstressed syllables, while represented/ʌ/, a somehow similar sound, in stressed syllables. When weak they were reduced to a stroke without a stem (,).[3]
C.	^ This letter denotesaspiration in voiceless stops, occurring frequently in Khuzdul askh andth.[3]
D.	^ This certh is ascribal abbreviation used to represent aconjunction, and is basically identical to theampersand⟨&⟩ used inLatin script.

InAngerthas Moria the cirth/dʒ/ and/ʒ/ were dropped. Thus and were adopted for/dʒ/ and/ʒ/, although they were used for/r/ and/r̥/ in Elvish languages. Subsequently, this script used the certh for/ʀ/(or/ʁ/), which had the sound/n/ in the Elvish systems. Therefore, the certh (which was previously used for the sound/ŋ/, useless in Khuzdul) was adopted for the sound/n/. A totally new introduction was the certh, used as an alternative, simplified and, maybe, weaker form of. Because of the visual relation of these two cirth, the certh was given the sound/z/ to relate better with that, in this script, had the sound/s/.^[3]

At the beginning of theThird Age the Dwarves were driven out of Moria, and some migrated toErebor. As the Dwarves of Erebor would trade with the Men of the nearby towns ofDale andLake-town, they needed a script to write inWestron (thelingua franca of Middle-earth, usually rendered in English by Tolkien in his works). TheAngerthas Moria was adapted accordingly: some new cirth were added, while some were restored to their Elvish usage, thus creating theAngerthas Erebor.^[3]

While theAngerthas Moria was still used to write down Khuzdul, this new script was primarily used for Mannish languages. It is also the script used in the first and third page of theBook of Mazarbul.^[18]

Certh	Translit.	IPA	Certh	Translit.	IPA	Certh	Translit.	IPA	Certh	Translit.	IPA
	p	/p/		zh	/ʒ/		l	/l/		e	/e/
	b	/b/		ks	/ks/
	f	/f/		k	/k/		nd	/nd/		a	/a/
	v	/v/		g	/ɡ/		s	/s/
	hw	/ʍ/		kh	/x/					o	/o/
	m	/m/		gh	/ɣ/		ŋ	/ŋ/
	mb	/mb/		n	/n/		ng	/ŋɡ/	or	ö	/œ/
	t	/t/		kw	/kʷ/					n	/n/
	d	/d/		gw	/ɡʷ/		i	/i/		h	/h/
	th	/θ/		khw	/xʷ/		y	/j/	or		/ə/
	dh	/ð/		ghw	/ɣʷ/		hy	/j̊/ or/ç/	or		/ʌ/
	r	/r/		ngw	/ŋɡʷ/		u	/u/		ps	/ps/
	ch	/tʃ/		nw	/nʷ/		z	/z/		ts	/ts/
	j	/dʒ/		g	/ɡ/		w	/w/		+h	/◌ʰ/
	sh	/ʃ/		gh	/ɣ/	or	ü	/y/		&

Angerthas Erebor also featurescombining diacritics:

• acircumflex used to denotelong consonants;
• amacron below to indicate along vowel sound;
• anunderdot to mark cirth used asnumerals. As a matter of fact, in the Book of Mazarbul some cirth are used as numerals: for 1, for 2, for 3, for 4, for 5.

TheAngerthas Erebor is used twice inThe Lord of the Rings to write in English:

1. in the upper inscription of the title page, where it reads "[dh]ə·lord·ov·[dh]ə·riŋs·translatᵊd·from·[dh]ə·red·b[oo]k' ..." (the sentence follows in the bottom inscription, written in Tengwar: "... of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Herein is set forth/ the history of the War of the Ring and the Return of the King as seen by the Hobbits.");
2. in the bottom inscription ofBalin's tomb—being the translation of the upper inscription, which is written in Khuzdul usingAngerthas Moria.

The Book of Mazarbul shows some additional cirth used inAngerthas Erebor: one for a double⟨l⟩ligature, one for thedefinite article, and six for the representation of the same number of Englishdiphthongs:

Certh	English spelling
∗	⟨ll⟩
∗	⟨the⟩[A]
∗	⟨ai⟩,⟨ay⟩
∗	⟨au⟩,⟨aw⟩
∗	⟨ea⟩
	⟨ee⟩
	⟨eu⟩,⟨ew⟩
∗	⟨oa⟩
	⟨oo⟩
	⟨ou⟩,⟨ow⟩

Notes:

The Cirth is not the only runic writing system used by Tolkien inhislegendarium. In fact, he devised a great number of runic alphabets, of which only a few others have been published. Some of these are included in the "Appendix on Runes" ofThe Treason of Isengard (The History of Middle-earth, vol. VII), edited byChristopher Tolkien.^[19]

According to Tolkien himself, those found inThe Hobbit are a form of "English runes" used in lieu of the Dwarvish runes proper.^[20] They can be interpreted as an attempt made by Tolkien to adapt theFuþorc (i.e., theOld English runic alphabet) to theModern English language.^[21]

These runes are basically the same found in Fuþorc, but their sound may change according to their position, just like the letters of theLatin script: the writing mode used by Tolkien is, in this case, mainly orthographic.^[22] This means that the system has one rune for each Latin letter, regardless of pronunciation.^[22] For example, the rune⟨c⟩ can sound/k/ in⟨cover⟩,/s/ in⟨sincere⟩,/ʃ/ in⟨special⟩, and even/tʃ/ in the digraph⟨ch⟩.^[23]

A few sounds are instead written with the same rune, without considering the English spelling. For example, the sound/ɔː/ is always written with the rune whether in English it is spelt⟨o⟩ as in⟨north⟩,⟨a⟩ as in⟨fall⟩, or⟨oo⟩ as in⟨door⟩. The only two letters that are subject to this phonemic spelling are⟨a⟩ and⟨o⟩.^[22]

Finally, some runes stand for particular English digraphs and diphthongs.^[20][22]

Here the runes used inThe Hobbit are displayed along with their Fuþorc counterpart and corresponding English grapheme:

Rune	Fuþorc	English grapheme		Rune	Fuþorc	English grapheme
	ᚪ	phonemic[i]			ᚱ	⟨r⟩
	ᚫ				ᛋ	⟨s⟩
	ᛒ	⟨b⟩			ᛏ	⟨t⟩
	ᚳ	⟨c⟩			ᚢ	⟨u⟩,⟨v⟩
	ᛞ	⟨d⟩			ᚹ	⟨w⟩
	ᛖ	⟨e⟩			ᛉ	⟨x⟩
	ᚠ	⟨f⟩,⟨ph⟩			ᚣ	⟨y⟩
	ᚷ	⟨g⟩			ᛣ	⟨z⟩[iii]
	ᚻ	⟨h⟩			ᚦ	⟨th⟩
	ᛁ	⟨i⟩,⟨j⟩			ᛠ	⟨ea⟩
	ᛱ[ii]	⟨k⟩			ᛥ	⟨st⟩
	ᛚ	⟨l⟩			ᛟ	⟨ee⟩
	ᛗ	⟨m⟩			ᛝ	⟨ng⟩
	ᚾ	⟨n⟩			ᛇ	⟨eo⟩
	ᚩ	phonemic[i]			ᛳ[ii]	⟨oo⟩
	ᛈ	⟨p⟩			ᛲ[ii]	⟨sh⟩

Notes:

English grapheme	Sound value (IPA)	Rune
⟨a⟩	/æ/
	every other sound
	/ɔː/
⟨o⟩	every sound
⟨oo⟩	/ɔː/
	every other sound

Not all the runes mentioned inThe Hobbit are Dwarf-runes. The swords found in theTrolls' cave bore runes thatGandalf could not read. In fact, the swordsGlamdring andOrcrist (which were forged in the ancient kingdom ofGondolin) bore a type of letters known asGondolinic runes. They seem to have become obsolete and been forgotten by theThird Age, and this is supported by the fact that onlyElrond could still read the inscriptions on the swords.^[20]

Tolkien devised this runic alphabet in a very early stage of his shaping of Middle-earth. Nevertheless, they are known to us from a slip of paper that Tolkien wrote; his sonChristopher sent a photocopy of it to Paul Nolan Hyde in February 1992. Hyde published it, with an extensive analysis, in the 1992 Summer issue ofMythlore, no. 69.^[24] The system was reanalyzed byCarl F. Hostetter, who corrected the reading of the χ̑ rune to anich-laut (voiceless palatal fricative).^[25] Later, in Parma Eldalamberon 15, the original manuscript including a script variety of Gondolinic, the first cursive form of any of Tolkien's runic scripts, was presented.^[26]

The system provides sounds not found in any of the knownElvish languages of theFirst Age, but perhaps it was designed for a variety of languages. However, the consonants seem to be, more or less, the same found inWelsh phonology, a theory supported by the fact that Tolkien was heavily influenced byWelsh when creating Elvish languages.^[27]

Consonants

	Labial			Dentals									Palatal			Dorsal			Glottal
	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA
Plosive		p	/p/					t	/t/								k (c)	/k/
		b	/b/					d	/d/								g	/ɡ/
Fricative		f	/f/		þ	/θ/		s	/s/		š	/ʃ/					χ	/x/		h	/h/
		v	/v/		ð	/ð/		z	/z/		ž	/ʒ/
Affricate											tš (ch)	/t͡ʃ/
											dž (j)	/d͡ʒ/
Nasal		m	/m/					n	/n/								ŋ	/ŋ/
		(mh)	/m̥/														(ŋh)	/ŋ̊/
Trill								r	/r/
								rh	/r̥/
Lateral								l	/l/
								lh	/ɬ/
Approximant														j (i̯)	/j/		w (u̯)	/w/
														χ̑	/ç/?		ƕ	/ʍ/

Vowels

Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA	Rune		IPA
	a	/a/		e	/ɛ/		i	/i/		o	/ɔ/		u	/u/
	ā	/aː/		ē	/eː/		ī	/iː/		ō	/oː/		ū	/uː/
	æ	/æ/								œ	/œ/		y	/y/
	ǣ	/æː/								œ̄	/œː/		ȳ	/yː/

Equivalents for some (but not all) cirth can be found in theRunic block ofUnicode.

Tolkien's mode of writing Modern English in Anglo-Saxon runes received explicit recognition with the introduction of his three additional runes to the Runic block with the release of Unicode 7.0, in June 2014. The three characters represent the English⟨k⟩,⟨oo⟩ and⟨sh⟩ graphemes, as follows:

• U+16F1 ᛱRUNIC LETTER K
• U+16F2 ᛲRUNIC LETTER SH
• U+16F3 ᛳRUNIC LETTER OO

A formalUnicode proposal to encode Cirth as a separate script was made in September 1997 byMichael Everson.^[28]No action was taken by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) but Cirth appears in the Roadmap to the SMP.^[29]

UnicodePrivate Use Area layouts for Cirth are defined at theConScript Unicode Registry (CSUR)^[30] and theUnder-ConScript Unicode Registry (UCSUR).^[31]

Two different layouts are defined by the CSUR/UCSUR:

• 1997-11-03 proposal^[32] implemented by fonts likeGNU Unifont^[33] and Code2000.
• 2000-04-22 discussion paper^[34][35] implemented by fonts like Constructium and Fairfax.

Without proper rendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols below instead of Cirth.

• List of runestones

• Middle-earth writing systems
• Alphabets
• Runology
• Runiform scripts
• Miscellaneous Unicode blocks

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