 Since, however, in commonly used modes, an individual "tengwa" was equivalent to a consonant, the term "tengwar" in popular use became equivalent to "consonant sign", and the vowel signs were known as "ómatehtar".By loan-translation, the tengwar became known as "tîw" (singular "têw") in Sindarin, when they were introduced to Beleriand.The letters of the earlier alphabet native to Sindarin were called "cirth" (singular "certh", probably from "*kirte" "cutting", and thus semantically analogous to Quenya "sarat").