This alphabet was devised to represent only the sounds of their Sindarin 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. In Sindarin these letters were named "cirth" (sing. "certh"), from the Elvish root "*kir-" meaning "to cleave, to cut". An abecedarium of "cirth", consisting of the runes listed in due order, was commonly known as Certhas (, meaning "rune-rows" in Sindarin and loosely translated as "runic alphabet").