In order to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s 124th birthday on January 15, Russian search engine Yandex has actually improved its online translator by introducing the Elvish language of Sindarin to its database. According to a company statement, the language was restored after the Yandex team carefully “studied Elvish manuscripts”, and users can now translate texts from any of the 66 languages available to the service to Elvish, including English. The language is being displayed using the Tengwar script, which was also created by Tolkien. As for the Sindarin language itself, it was invented by the writer based on the Welsh language, and it borrows certain elements from Old Norse and Old English.
Also known as the “gray dialect”, Sindarin’s alphabet comprises 23 letters, and some of the most impressive dictionaries created by fans of Tolkien’s books include up to 1,500 words. On the Vkontakte social network, Yandex’s representatives have issued the following announcement:
“Now Yandex.Translate will let you know how to say, for example, ‘my precious’ in Sindarin. The team is searching for Sindarin native speakers and any remaining writing in this language that could improve the quality of the translation.”
If you want to access the translator yourself, you can do so right here.
Image courtesy of Marketingland.
