Editing Cirth (section)

==External history==

===Concept and creation===

[[File:Ashton_Park_rock_carving.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Rock carving in Cirth in the [[Sydney Harbour National Park]], dating back to the 1980s at least]]

Many letters have shapes also found in the historical [[runic 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 Fuþorc to the [[Younger Fuþark]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Mittelerde: Tolkien und die germanische Mythologie |trans-title=Middle-earth: Tolkien and Germanic Mythology |first=Rudolf |last=Simek |language=de |author-link=Rudolf Simek |pages=155–156 |publisher=C. H. Beck |year=2005 |isbn=3-406-52837-6 }}</ref> 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 divine [[Valar]].<ref>{{cite conference  |last=Smith |first=Arden R. |author-link=Arden R. Smith |title=The Semiotics of the Writing Systems of Tolkien's Middle-earth |book-title=Semiotics Around the World: Synthesis in Diversity. Proceedings of the Fifth Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Berkeley, 1994 |editor-first=Irmengard |editor-last=Rauch |editor-link=Irmengard Rauch |editor2-first=Gerald F. |editor2-last=Carr |pages=1239–1242 |volume=1 |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-3-11-012223-7 }}</ref>