Quenya

 ( Agglutinative Languages ) 

Tolkien never intended Quenya or any of his constructed languages to be used in everyday life as an international auxiliary language, although he was in favour of the idea of Esperanto as an auxiliary language within Europe. With his Quenya, Tolkien pursued a double aesthetic goal: "classical and inflected". This urge was a major motivation for his creation of a 'mythology'. While the language developed, Tolkien felt that it needed speakers, including their own history and mythology, which he thought would give a language its 'individual flavour'.Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings "Foreword to the Second Edition". The Lord of the Rings, according to Tolkien, "was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary background of 'history' for Elvish tongues". This process of first inventing a language and then creating a background setting for its fictional speakers has been described as unique. Dimitra Fimi, a Tolkien scholar, argues that Tolkien's invention of Qenya started as a quest for the ideal language, to match the moral and aesthetic objectives that were part of his project of creating "a mythology for England". Fimi argues that Tolkien deliberately used sound symbolism to unify sound and meaning and make the language appear as an ideal language, fit to be spoken in the utopian realm of the Elves and fairies of Valinor. Tolkien considered Quenya to be "the one language which has been designed to give play to my own most normal phonetic taste".Tolkien, J. R. R. 1997. The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays. p. 212

From the onset, Tolkien used comparative philology and the tree model as his major tools in his constructed languages. He usually started with the phonological system of the proto-language and then proceeded by inventing for each daughter language the necessary sequence of . "I find the construction and the interrelation of the languages an aesthetic pleasure in itself, quite apart from The Lord of the Rings, of which it was/is in fact independent."J. R. R. Tolkien, letter to a reader, Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 61.

The spelling Qenya is sometimes used to distinguish early Quenya from later versions. Qenya differs from late Quenya by having different internal history, vocabulary, and grammar rules as described in the "Qenyaqetsa"."Qenyaqetsa: The Qenya Phonology and Lexicon by J. R. R. Tolkien", published in Parma Eldalamberon No. 12. Examples include a different accusative or the abolition of final consonant clusters in later Quenya. Fimi suggests that Qenya as it appears in the "Qenyaqetsa" was supposed to be a mystic language, as the Lexicon contains a number of words with clear Christian religious connotations, such as anatarwesta "crucifixion" and evandilyon "gospel" – these words were not part of late Quenya.

In the early 1930s, Tolkien decided that the proto-language of the Elves was Valarin, the tongue of the gods or Valar as he called them: "The language of the Elves derived in the beginning from the Valar, but they changed it even in the learning, and moreover modified and enriched it constantly at all times by their own invention." In the Comparative Tables, Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, pp. 18–28 the mechanisms of sound change were described by Tolkien for the following daughter languages: Qenya, Lindarin (a dialect of Qenya), Telerin, Old Noldorin (or Fëanorian), Noldorin (or Gondolinian), Ilkorin (especially of Doriath), Danian of Ossiriand, East Danian, Taliska, West Lemberin, North Lemberin, and East Lemberin. For this proto-language of the Elves, Tolkien appears to have borrowed the five-part Stop consonant system of Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and others; namely, one labial, one coronal, and three velar plosives (palatal, plain, and labial). The first table below provides some of the "Primary Initial Combinations" from the Comparative Tables.

Another characteristic of Quenya reminiscent of ancient natural languages like Old Greek, Old English or Sanskrit is the dual grammatical number which is used in addition to singular and plural. It has been suggested that Tolkien used the dual to give Quenya an "archaic feel" in its role as an ancient language of the Elves.

About ten years later, Tolkien changed his mind about the origin of the Elvish proto-language. Instead of learning from the Valar, the Elves had created an original language Quenderin which had become the proto-language of the Elvish language family.J. R. R. Tolkien, "Lambion Ontale: Descent of Tongues", Tengwesta Qenderinwa 2, Parma Eldalamberon (18), p. 71: "The Elves began to make in the beginning of their being a and it is one with their being, since it was of their nature and the first of all their gift to devise names and words." For this new language, Tolkien kept the many roots he had invented for Valarin in the 1930s, which then became "Quenderin roots". The Eldarin family of languages comprises Quenya, Telerin, Sindarin and Nandorin. The evolution in Quenya and Telerin of the nasalised initial groups of Quenderin is described thus in Tolkien's Outline of Phonology:

In contrast to early Qenya, the grammar of Quenya was influenced by Finnish, an agglutinative language, but much more by Latin language, a synthetic and fusional language, and also Greek language,Tolkien wrote about Quenya: "It might be said to be composed on a Latin basis with two other (main) ingredients that happen to give me 'phonaesthetic' pleasure: Finnish, and Greek". Letter No. 144. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. from which he probably took the idea of the diglossia of Quenya with its highly codified variety: the Parmaquesta, used only in certain situations such as literature. The phonology of Quenya was also inspired by certain aspects of Finnish, but this is not easily recognised.

Tolkien almost never borrowed words directly from real languages into Quenya. The major exception is the name Earendel/Eärendil, which he found in an Old English poem by Cynewulf.

1. seeking to label and describe a unique function for each "grammatical inflection", such as the so-called "respective case"
2. seeking to "fill in gaps" that a linguist of English or Latin might expect
3. seeking to avoid "(supposed) 'clashes' and 'ambiguities'"
4. being willing "to reject or even ascribe to authorial error" grammatical forms that did not seem to fit in
5. seeking to complete or extend the languages by creating new forms
6. being willing to declare Tolkien's early words or forms "obsolete" if later forms seemed to have the same meanings
7. being willing to conflate forms from different Tolkien stages when these seemed to be "useful"

In 2008, the computational linguist Paul Strack created the Elvish Data Model (abbreviated to "Eldamo") to provide a lexicon – both a dictionary and an analysis of language development – of all Tolkien's languages (despite the name, not limited to Elvish). Eldamo groups Tolkien's creative work into three real-world periods: up to 1930 ("Early"); from then to 1950 ("Middle"); and from then to 1973 ("Late"). Forms of Quenya occur in each of these periods, as follows:

The linguist Alexander Stainton published an analysis of Quenya's prosodic structure in 2022.

Quenya and its writing system Tengwar have limited application in hobbyist and public domain works.

The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger observed that the "degree of proximity" to the light of the Valar affected the development of both languages in terms of phonology, morphology and semantics. The division between Light Elves and Dark Elves that took place during the Sundering of the Elves is reflected in their respective languages.

Quenya's older form, first recorded in the sarati of Rúmil, is called Old or Ancient Quenya ( Yára-Quenya in Quenya). In Eldamar, the Noldor and Vanyar spoke two slightly different though mutually intelligible dialects of Tarquesta: Noldorin Quenya and Vanyarin Quenya.J. R. R. Tolkien, "Tengwesta Qenderinwa 2", Parma Eldalamberon (18), p. 75. Later Noldorin Quenya became Exilic Quenya, when most of the Noldor Elves followed their leader Fëanor into exile from Eldamar and back to Middle-earth, where the immortal Elves first awoke.J. R. R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages", Parma Eldalamberon 17, p. 128.

According to "Quendi and Eldar: Essekenta Eldarinwa", Quendya was the usual Vanyarin name given to the Quenya language, since in Vanyarin, the consonant groups ndy and ny remained quite distinct., p. 361. In Noldorin, ndy eventually became ny. Tolkien explained that "the word Quenya itself has been cited as an exempla (e.g. by Ælfwine), but this is a mistake due to supposition that kwenya was properly kwendya and directly derived from the name Quendi 'Elves'. This appears not to be the case. The word is Quenya in Vanyarin, and always so in Parmaquesta.", Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 93.

The Elves of the Third Clan, or Teleri, who reached Eldamar later than the Noldor and the Vanyar, spoke a different but closely related tongue, usually called Telerin. It was seen by some Elves to be just another dialect of Quenya. This was not the case with the Teleri for whom their tongue was distinct from Quenya. After the Vanyar left the city of Túna, Telerin and Noldorin Quenya grew closer.

The rebellious Noldor, who followed their leader Fëanor to Middle-earth, spoke only Quenya. But Thingol, King of the Sindar of Beleriand, forbade the use of Quenya in his realm when he learned of the slaying of Telerin Elves by the Noldor. The Silmarillion, chapter 15 By doing so, he both restricted the possibility of the Sindar to enhance and brighten their language with influences from Quenya and accelerated the "dimininution and spiritual impoverishment" of the Noldorin culture. The Noldor at this time had fully mastered Sindarin, while the Sindar were slow to learn Quenya. Quenya in Middle-earth became known as Exilic Quenya when the Noldor eventually adopted the Sindarin language as their native speech after Thingol's ruling. It differed from Amanian Quenya mostly in vocabulary, having some loanwords from Sindarin. It differed also in pronunciation, representing the recognition of sound-changes which had begun among the Noldor before the exile and had caused Noldorin Quenya to diverge from Vanyarin Quenya. The change of z (< old intervocalic s) to r was the latest in Noldorin, belonging to early Exilic Quenya. The grammatical changes were only small though since the features of their "old language" were carefully taught. Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 129.

From the Second Age on, Quenya was used ceremonially by the Men of Númenor and their descendants in Gondor and Arnor for the official names of kings and queens; this practice was resumed by Aragorn when he took the crown as Elessar Telcontar. Quenya in the Third Age had almost the same status as the Latin had in medieval Europe, and was called Elven-latin by Tolkien.J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix F: "Of the Elves".

Tolkien based Quenya pronunciation more on Latin than on Finnish. Thus, Quenya lacks the vowel harmony and consonant gradation present in Finnish, and accent is not always on the first syllable of a word. Typical Finnish elements like the front vowels ö, ä and y are lacking in Quenya, but phonological similarities include the absence of aspirated unvoiced stops or the development of the syllables ti > si in both languages. The combination of a Latin basis with Finnish phonological rules resulted in a product that resembles Italian in many respects, which was Tolkien's favourite modern Romance language. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, #223: "I remain in love with Italian, and feel quite lorn without a chance of trying to speak it."

The tables below list the consonants (Q. ólamar) and vowels of late colloquial Noldorin Quenya, i.e. Quenya as spoken among the Exiled Noldor in Middle-earth. They are written using the International Phonetic Alphabet, unless otherwise noted.

>

+ 2. Quenya consonantsOnly phonemic consonants are listed. and are phonemic in Tarquesta, being distinguished from/hj/ and/hw/ in that they are not treated as long consonants, but are treated so in Parmaquesta and hence there may be considered the realization of the clusters and >, Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 88. ! ! Labial consonant ! Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar consonant ! Glottal

Quenya orthography (using the Latin script) follows the IPA, but uses as an alternative to , writes not followed by another velar as (in early Quenya when this still can occur, as in Ñoldor; otherwise it is written ), and represents the consonants using the digraphs . Similarly, the digraphs may represent palatal stop allophones of , namely , although they are not independent phonemes. In addition, in the cluster represents after or and after other vowels. In some instances was used for the combination as in Helcaraxë.

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Morphophonemics and allophony

Some consonants are realised differently when they occur in clusters with certain other consonants. This particularly concerns clusters that involve the approximants or the glottal fricative . Clusters where the second consonant was are realised as palatalised consonants, and clusters where the second consonant was are realised as labialised. Consonant clusters where the initial consonant is are realised as preaspirated and devoiced.

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Palatal clusters

The pronunciation of the consonant cluster is in Noldorin Quenya, which is a "strong voiceless y, similar to, but more frictional than the initial sound in English huge"., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 75 In Vanyarin Quenya, is pronounced .

According to Tolkien, the cluster is pronounced as "a 'front explosive' c, as e.g. Hungarian ty, but it is followed by an appreciable partly unvoiced y-offglide".J. R. R. Tolkien, "Quenya Consonants", Parma Eldalamberon (22), p. 66.

Tolkien stated that the cluster is pronounced as in English "new" ., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 74. In the Vanyarin dialect, , , and were realised as , , and respectively. Tolkien wrote about : "In Vanyarin Quenya and among some Ñoldor the cluster was sounded with voiceless y, sc. as , which later in Vanyarin became ";, Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 86. cf. Hungarian lopj 'steal'.

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Labial clusters

The cluster is realised as , a "spirantal voiceless w. It has more tense with closer lip-aperture and more friction than the voiceless wh of English". According to Tolkien, the graph or is pronounced as "a lip-rounded 'k' followed by a partly unvoiced w-offglide", that is .

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Glottal clusters

The clusters and are realised as and , the same as and in Sindarin. These, like their Sindarin equivalents, derived from Primitive Elvish sl- and sr-. The primitive consonant clusters sm- and sn- came out in Quenya as and ; it has been suggested that there was an intermediate stage of and , the voiceless versions and , in Common Eldarin; these soon merged with the voiced and . Voiceless hl and hr have a complex history which Tolkien describes thus: "Among the Noldor hr, hl became voiced to r, l before the Exile, and the use of r, l in these cases was normal in Tarquesta, as spoken, tho' the spelling was usually maintained. Since later the Exiles were familiar with voiceless hr, hl in their Sindarin speech many of them restored this sound in Tarquesta, according to the traditional spelling. The learned had, of course, at all times retained hr, hl in reading or reciting Parmaquesta.", Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 79.

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Simplification of clusters

In the late Ancient Quenya period, when vowels were lost in long compound words, the clusters thus created, or the consonants that became final, were as a rule changed or reduced:

-m > -n;

all stops > -t;

-d > -r;

-th > -t;

-nd > -n;

-mb, -ng > -n;

-ñ > -n;

any combination with s (as -ts, -st, -ss) > -s;

any combination with -ht > -t.

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Vowels

+3. Quenya vowels ! !Front vowel !Back vowel

Quenya has five (Quenya ómar), and a distinction of Vowel length. The short vowels are /a, e, i, o, u/ and the long ones are written with an acute accent as ⟨á, é, í, ó, ú⟩. The precise quality of the vowels is not known, but their pronunciation is likely closer to the "pure" vowels of Italian and Spanish than to the diphthongised English ones. According to Pesch, for the vowels /a, i, u/ the short and long forms have the same vowel quality, similar to the vowels of Finnish or Polish. But for the vowels /e, o/, the short vowels are pronounced slightly lower and closer to and , respectively, whereas the long ones are pronounced as high-mid vowels and .

Helmut W. Pesch (2025). 9783404204984, Bastei Lübbe. ISBN 9783404204984

This interpretation is based on a statement by Tolkien, saying that ⟨é⟩ and ⟨ó⟩, when correctly pronounced by Elves, were just a little "tenser and 'closer'" than their short counterparts: "neither very tense and close, nor very slack and open"., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 106. This interpretation results in a vowel system with 7 different vowel qualities and a length distinction in the high and low vowels only; this system is depicted in table 3.

Matthias Gebhardt (2025). 9783638710879, GRIN Verlag. . ISBN 9783638710879

Late Noldorin Quenya has 6 (Quenya ohloni): /iu, eu, ai, au, oi, ui/. All of these are falling, except for /iu/ () which is rising. In Old Quenya, all diphthongs were falling. Tolkien wrote: "It is probable that before the Exile Vanyarin and Noldorin Quenya in common shifted iu, ui to rising diphthongs,, Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 107. (...) but only is reported as a rising diphthong similar to the beginning of English yule . On the other hand, ui remained in Exilic Quenya a falling diphthong as reported".

+ 4. Late Quenya diphthongs !rowspan=2	!colspan=2Offglide

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Syllables and stress

In Quenya, the stressing of a syllable is predictable and non-phonemic (i.e. the meaning of a word never changes depending on the stress), but it is partly determined by syllable weight. Words of two syllables are stressed on the first syllable. In words of three or more syllables, the stress is on the penult if this is heavy, otherwise on the antepenult, i.e. the third-to-last syllable. This stress rule is the same as the stress-pattern found in Latin. In Quenya, heavy syllables are syllables that contain either a long vowel, a diphthong, or a final consonant (thus an intervocalic consonant cluster: ll, ld, mm, ss, ny, ry, etc.). Medially hy and hw close a syllable in Parmaquesta, but not colloquially in Tarquesta. Quenya has also a secondary accent. The placement of stress and the distinction between heavy and light syllables is important in Quenya verse., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 88.

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Phonotactics

Tolkien also devised phonotactics rules for late Quenya, governing the way in which the sounds could be combined to form words:

• Only the following consonants have phonemically Gemination, i.e. elongated consonants:

: pp, tt, cc, mm, nn, ss, ll, rr. (However, Quenya for "death" is effírië, featuring a geminated f.)

These occur only medially., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 81. The geminated occlusives pp, tt, cc are aspirated.

• Tolkien wrote that in Common Eldarin as final consonants only the "dentals t, s, d, th, n, r, l (all frequent except th) and the labial nasal m (frequent). In addition the combination -nt (though usually a coalescence of more than one inflexional element) seems also to have been permitted; possibly also st. No other consonant groups were tolerated. y, w are not included, since they naturally took the syllabic forms i, u as suffixed elements.", Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 80. These evolved from Common Eldarin to Quenya Tolkien explains on the same page thus: m > n; t, n, r and s remained without change; final C.E. th became Quenya t and final d > r, and so: "the list of 'permissible finals':

: n, r, l, s, t, nt

remained constant in Quenya speech-feeling".

• Quenya tolerates only the following initial consonants:

: p, t, c, f, s, h, hy, hw, m, n, ñ, v, l, hl, r, hr, y, w., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 103.

• Quenya tolerates only the following initial groups:

: x, ps, ty, ny, ly, qu, ñw (became nw in Noldorin Quenya)

• Quenya tolerates only the following medial biconsonantal groups (those especially common are bolded):

: ht, lc, ld, lf, lm, lp, lqu, lt, lv, lw, ly, mb, mn, mp, my, nc, nd, ng, nt, nw ( ñw initial only), ny, ps, pt, qu, rc, rd, rm, rn, rp, rt, rs, rv, rw, ry, sc, st, sw, ts, tw, ty, x.

• Quenya does not tolerate triconsonantal (or longer) combinations, except c, h, g followed by w, or h, t, d followed by y. So, Quenya permits the following 12 triconsonantal groups only:

: nqu, lqu, rqu, squ, ngw, rhw, nty, lty, hty, rty, sty, lhy.

Differences in triconsonant pronunciation:

: hty in Noldorin Quenya, in Vanyarin Quenya,, Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 84.

: sty in Noldorin Quenya, in Vanyarin Quenya (cf. ść vs. szcz in Polish language),, Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 87.

:In all other cases y, and w became syllabic i, u after the consonant groups., Parma Eldalamberon No. 19, p. 82.

• Quenya does not tolerate the combination of two different occlusives. "Where these anciently occurred, as in pt, ct, one of the two, or both, became opened and spirantal."
• As in Sindarin, the combination ft is avoided.

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Grammar

The grammar of Quenya is agglutinative and mostly , i.e. different word particles are joined by appending them. It has basic word classes of , and /determiners, and . Nouns are Inflection for case and number. Verbs are inflected for tense and aspect, and for agreement with subject and object. In early Quenya, adjectives agree with the noun they modify in case and number, but not in later Quenya, where this agreement disappears. The basic word order is subject–verb–object. Unless otherwise noted, samples in this section refer to Late Quenya as conceived by Tolkien after 1951.

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Nouns

Quenya nouns can have up to four numbers: singular, general plural ("plural 1"), particular/partitive plural ("plural 2"), and dual. In late Quenya Tarquesta, the plural is formed by a suffix to the subjective form of the noun: for plural 1 the suffix is -i or -r; for plural 2 the suffix is -li.J. R. R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 135. Quenya nouns are declension for Grammatical case. Parmaquesta Quenya has ten Declension. These include the four primary cases: Nominative case, Accusative case, Genitive case, and instrumental; three adverbial cases: Allative case (of which the Dative case is a shortened form), Locative case (also with a shortened form), and Ablative case; and a possessive or adjectival case. The accusative was however only used for Parmaquesta and had been replaced by nominative in late colloquial Quenya.

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Adjectives

In late Quenya, the singular endings are -a, -ë, -ëa, and a rare form -in that may be seen as a shortened form of -ina. The corresponding plural forms are -ë, -i, ië, and possibly -inë. The latter version is however not attested. Quenya adjectives may be freely used as nouns,J. R. R. Tolkien, "Early Qenya Grammar", Parma Eldalamberon (14), p. 77, in which case they are also inflected like a noun: e.g. vinya, "new", may be used as vinya r, "news".

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Prepositions and adverbs

In Quenya, there are many similarities in form between prepositions and adverbs since the grammatical case already determines the relation of verb and object. Thus:

an i falmali = i falmali nna(r) "upon the many waves"

The preposition an is related to the -nna case ending.

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Pronouns

As with all parts of Quenya grammar, the pronominal system was subject to many revisions throughout Tolkien's life, and the available corpus was not systematic until a list of endings was published in Vinyar Tengwar No. 49 in 2007. In late Quenya, pronouns have both separate or independent forms, and suffix forms."Quenya Pronominal Elements", Vinyar Tengwar (49), p. 51. Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 57.

The separate pronouns have both a short and long form that are used for emphatic and normal pronouns respectively. Examples of the emphatic form include: emmë, elyë, entë (1st to 3rd person plural). Such emphatic disjunctive pronouns, were already present in early Quenya but differed from the later versions (e.g. plural: tûto, sîse, atta).

"I love him" (or "her") can be expressed in Quenya as Melinyes or Melin sé. Vinyar Tengwar (49), p. 15. "I love them" would be then Melinyet or Melin té (these two forms are reconstructed). If a pronoun is the subject of a sentence, it becomes tied to the verb either as separate word directly before the verb, or as a suffix after the inflected verb. In the suffixed form, an -s (singular) and a -t (plural and dual) may be added to the long subjective pronouns as objectives of the 3rd person:J. R. R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 110.

utúvie-nye-s, literally "have found-I-it", "I have found it" ( Aragorn's outcry when he finds the sapling of the White Tree.J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Steward and the King".)

utúvie-lye-s, "You have found it/him/her".

utúvie-lye-t, "You have found them".

It is debated whether certain attested special male and female pronouns that were exclusively used for the description of persons are still applicable to late Quenya as found in The Lord of the Rings.

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Possessive determiners

The possessive determiners (analogous to English my, his, etc.) are used to indicate the possessor of the noun they determine. They mark the person and number of the possessor, and are inflected to agree with the noun they are attached in number and case. While the English language distinguishes between masculine and feminine singular possessors ( his vs. her), late Quenya generally does not.

"Since by Quenya idiom in describing the parts of body of several persons the number proper to each individual is used, the plural of parts existing in pairs (as hands, eyes, ears, feet) is seldom required. Thus mánta "their hand" would be used, (they raised) their hands (one each), mántat, (they raised) their hands (each both), and mánte could not occur". Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 161.

Ortanentë manta. "They raised their hands."

Ortaner manta. "They raised their hands."

Varda ortanë máryat. "Varda has uplifted her (two) hands."From the "Namárië" poem by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The usual plural ending is -r, hildinyar, "my heirs".

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Demonstrative

The demonstrative makes a three-way distinction between entities the speaker is referring to:

sina, "this";

tana, "that (over there)";

enta, "that (over there, away from both of us)".

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Verbs

According to Tolkien, "the inflections of Qenya verbs are always pretty regular",J. R. R. Tolkien, "Early Qenya Grammar", Parma Eldalamberon (14), p. 56. and Quenya verbs are either in a personal form or an impersonal form. Usually in linguistics, an impersonal verb is a verb that cannot take a true subject, because it does not represent an action, occurrence, or state-of-being of any specific person, place, or thing. This is not how Tolkien intended the use of "impersonal." An impersonal verb form is a verb to which no pronoun has been attached, as carë () or carir (); carin, "I do (habitually)", is a personal form (with -n, a short suffix for "I, me"). As explained by Tolkien, verbs in Quenya are negated by using a "negative verb" ua- in front of the proper verb in the impersonal tense form. Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 144.

Tolkien noted that "when the emphatic pronoun is used separately the verb has no inflexion (save for number)." Parma Eldalamberon, (17), p. 76.

Finwë cára. "Finwë is making (right now)."

Quendi cárar. "The Elves are making."

Cáranyë. "I am making."

Cárammë. "We are making."

Essë cára. "He/She is (really) making."

Emmë cárar. "We are (really) making."

Late Quenya verbs have also a dual agreement morpheme -t:

Nai siluva t elen atta. "May two stars shine." Vinyar Tengwar (49), p. 43.

In the imperative mood, plurality and duality are not expressed. There is no agreement. The verb stays singular.J. R. R. Tolkien, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", Parma Eldalamberon (17), pp. 93–94.

The copula in late Quenya is the verb na-. Tolkien stated that it was used only in joining adjectives, nouns, and pronouns in statements (or wishes) asserting (or desiring) a thing to have certain quality, or to be same as another, and also that the copula was not used when the meaning was clear. Vinyar Tengwar (49), p. 9. Otherwise, the copula is zero copula, which may provide for ambiguous tenses when there is no further context:

Eldar ataformaiti, can be translated in English either as "Elves are ambidexters", or "Elves were ambidexters". Vinyar Tengwar (49), p. 7.

A mára. "A is good", or "A was good".

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Syntax

Quenya allows for a flexible word order because it is an inflectional language like Latin. Nevertheless, it has word order rules. The usual syntax structure is subject-verb-object. The adjective can be placed before or after the noun that it modifies.

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Vocabulary

Because many of Tolkien's writings on the Elvish languages remain unpublished it is difficult to know how large a vocabulary he devised. By 2008, about 25,000 Elvish words had been published.

Edward Kloczko (2025). 9782842283254, Le Pré aux Clercs. ISBN 9782842283254

+ 5. Basic vocabulary in Quenya and Sindarin ! English	Sindarin equivalent
amar, ceven
menel
nen
naur
benn
bess
mad-
sog-
beleg, daer
niben, tithen
dû
aur

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Proper nouns

Quenya's proper nouns are names of people and things in Middle-earth. The Silmarillion, "Index" (annotated by Christopher Tolkien as a glossary), pp. 313–365

Estë "Rest"; Indis "Bride"; Melkor]] "He who Arises in Might"; Nessa "Youth"; Varda "Sublime"; Voronwë "Steadfast one."

Aicanáro "Fell Fire"; Ancalimë "Most Bright Lady"; Curumo "Cunning Man"; Fëanáro "Spirit of Fire"; Gandalf]] "(?)Dreamer"; Sauron "The Abhorred."

Ainulindalë "Music of the Ainur"; Eldamar "Home of the Eldar"; Helcaraxë "Jaws of Ice"; Ilúvatar "Father of All"; Taniquetil]] "Ever Snow-white Peak"; Gondolin]] "Rock of Song"; Turambar "Master of Doom"; Valinor "land of the Vali", sc. Valar; Vingilot "Foam-flower"; Yavanna "Giver of fruits."

Mar-nu-Falmar "Land under the Waves"; Mindon Eldaliéva "Lofty Tower of the Elvish-people"; Quenta Silmarillion "Tale of the Silmarils."

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Some prepositions and adverbs

• ala: place beyond; time after.
• ama: up(wards).
• an: towards, upon.
• et: forth, out of with
• haila: static far beyond.
• haiya: far, far off, far away.
• han: addition beyond ; over and above, in addition to.
• ní: not beneath, under.
• no: 1. under. 2. upon. 3. after (of place), behind.
• nu: under, beneath.
• ono: 1. in front of, ahead, before in. 2, after of.

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Greetings

The word used as a form of polite address to an Elf (male or female) is Tar. Among the Númenoreans it became "King/Queen" and used as a form of address for a superior, especially a King or a Queen; cf. Tarinya, used by Prince Aldarion to address his father, King Tar-Meneldur. The Silmarillion, "Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names", tar-.

• Namárië is a reduced form of Quenya á na márië, literally "be well". It is a formula used in Tarquesta for greetings and also for farewell. Parma Eldalamberon (17), p. 162.
• The most usual formula used by the Noldor for greeting each other is (Hara) máriessë! "(Stay) in happiness!"

:In The Lord of the Rings, the hobbit Frodo Baggins used another address of welcome: Elen síla lúmenn' omentielmo!, corrected by Tolkien in the Second Edition to Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo! This was a traditional formula in an elevated style, used between people going on crossing paths: "A star shines upon the hour of the meeting of our ways"., p. 367.

• The most usual formula used by the Noldor in farewells is Áva márië! "Go happily!", or Márienna! "To happiness!".

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Numerals

According to Christopher Tolkien, "the Eldar used two systems of numerals one of sixes (or twelves), and one of fives. (or tens)." Quettar n° 13, p. 9. That is a duodecimal counting (base 12), and a decimal system. The Quenya word made by J. R. R. Tolkien for the 'decimal system of counting' is maquanotië – "hand counting".J. R. R. Tolkien "HFN – The words for 'hand' – The fingers", Vinyar Tengwar, n° 47, p. 10.

The known numbers for 1–20 are presented below; those from early Quenya ("Early Qenya Grammar") are in bold.

+ 6. Numerals from 1 to 20 ! colspan="3"	! colspan="3"	! colspan="3"	Fractional numbers

Other attested number words include esta and inga for 'first'. Tolkien was dissatisfied with esta, the definition is marked with a query in the "Etymologies".J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Etymologies" in The Lost Road, p. 356. Maqua means specifically a group of five objects, like the English word "pentad"; similarly maquat "pair of fives" refers to a group of ten objects. The word yunquenta for thirteen literally means "12 and one more".J. R. R. Tolkien, "NKE: manuscript text on neter 9, kanat 4, and enek 6", Vinyar Tengwar n° 47, p. 15.

One star A single star	Of one star Of a single star
Two stars	Of two stars
Three stars	Of three stars
Four stars	Of four stars

+ 7. "Qenya" numerals 20 onwards & Quenya reconstruction

"Qenya" numerals above twenty show that the smaller units come first, min yukainen "21" being "one-twenty", which reflects how they are written in Tengwar.Omentielva: Arda Philology 2 http://www.omentielva.com/ardaph2.htm

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Writing systems

Most of the time, Tolkien wrote his invented languages using the Latin script, but he devised his own writing systems to match the internal histories of his languages.

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Elvish writing systems

Tolkien imagined many writing systems for his Elves. The best-known is the "Tengwar of Fëanor" but the first one he created c. 1919 was the "Tengwar of Rumil", also called the sarati. He decided that, prior to their Exile, the Noldorin Elves first used the sarati of Rúmil to record Ancient Quenya. In Middle-earth, Quenya appears to have been rarely written using the "Elvish runes" or cirth, named certar in Quenya.

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Latin script

Tolkien's spelling in Latin script of Quenya was largely phonemic, with each letter corresponding to a specific phoneme in the language. However, the vowels varied in pronunciation depending upon their length. Specific rules for consonants were provided in Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings, e.g. the letter c is always pronounced k, qu stands for kw,J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, part I. Orqui is Orkwi. Tolkien's standard orthography for Quenya uses all the letters of the Latin script except j, k, and z, together with the acute accent and diaeresis diacritic on vowels; the letters ñ, þ and z only appear in early Quenya. Occasionally, Tolkien wrote Quenya with a "Finnish-style" orthography (rather than the standard Latin-Romance version), in which c is replaced by k, y with j, and long vowels written double. The acute accent marks long vowels, while the diaeresis indicates that a vowel is not part of a diphthong, for example in ëa or ëo, while final e is marked with a diaeresis to remind English-speakers that it is not silent.See the version E1b of his poem Eärendel, published in Parma Eldalamberon (16), p. 104.

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Corpus

The poem "" is the longest piece of Quenya found in The Lord of the Rings, yet the first sentence in Quenya is uttered by a Hobbit; namely Frodo's greeting to the Elves: . Other examples include Elendil's words spoken upon reaching Middle-earth, and repeated by Aragorn at his coronation: "Out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come. In this place I will abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world!" Treebeard's greeting to Celeborn and Galadriel is also spoken in Quenya: "O beautiful ones, parents of beautiful children". The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, #230. Another fragment is Sam Gamgee's cry when he uses Galadriel's phial against Shelob: "Hail Eärendil, brightest of stars!"The Return of the King, ch. 1 And in The Silmarillion, the phrase "The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!", is cried by Fingon before the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, chapter 20

Other Quenya poems spoken by Tolkien in public but never published in his lifetime are ("The Last Ark"), , and in his lecture A Secret Vice, and published in 1983 in The Monsters and the Critics. A faulty fragment of the poem "Narqelion", written in early Quenya or Elfin between November 1915 and March 1916, was published by Humphrey Carpenter in his Biography. A facsimile of the entire poem was published only in 1999. Vinyar Tengwar No. 40, April 1999

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See also

• Elvish languages (Middle-earth)
• Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Lhammas
• Sarati
• Sindarin

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Primary

The entries in the journals Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar contain Tolkien's previously-unpublished accounts of the language, annotated by scholars, so these are not purely primary sources.

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Secondary

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Sources

• Dimitra Fimi (2025). 9780230219519, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230219519
• Verlyn Flieger (2025). 9780873387446, Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873387446
• Wolfgang Krege (2025). 9783608931853, Klett-Cotta. ISBN 9783608931853
• Helmut W. Pesch (2025). 340420476X, Bastei Lübbe. 340420476X

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Further reading

• Appleyard, Anthony (1992). " Quenya Grammar Re-Examined". Quettar 43, pp. 3–21.
• Derzhanski, Ivan A. (1997). "E man i yulma oi enquanta men?" Vinyar Tengwar 38, pp. 14–18.
• Foster, Robert and Glen GoodKnight (1971). "Sindarin and Quenya Phonology". Mythcon I: Proceedings, 54–56. Los Angeles: Mythopoeic Society.
• Gilson, Christopher and Carl F. Hostetter (1994). "The entu, ensi, enta Declension: A Preliminary Analysis". Vinyar Tengwar 36, pp. 7–29.
• Gilson, Christopher and Patrick Wynne (1991). "The Elves at Koivienéni: A New Quenya Sentence". Mythlore 17(3), pp. 23–30.
• Hostetter, Carl F. (1992). ""Si man i-yulmar n(g)win enquatuva": A Newly-Discovered Tengwar Inscription". Vinyar Tengwar 21, pp. 6–10.
• Carl F. Hostetter (2025). 9780415969420, Routledge. ISBN 9780415969420
• Kloczko, Edward (1995). Dictionnaire des langues elfiques, volume 1 (Quenya-Français-Anglais/Quenya-French-English). Toulon: Tamise.
• Welden, Bill (2001). "Negation in Quenya". Vinyar Tengwar 42, pp. 32–34.
• Wynne, Patrick H. and Christopher Gilson (1993). "Trees of Silver and of Gold: A Guide to the Koiveinéni Manuscript". Vinyar Tengwar 27, pp. 7–42.

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External links

• The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship
• Glǽmscrafu
• Parma Eldalamberon
• Vinyar Tengwar
• [6] – Helge Fauskanger's site on Tolkien languages, with Quenya course and materials
• Thorsten Renk's page on Elvish Languages
• Thorsten Renk's Quetin i lambë eldaiva – a Quenya Course (gz archive)
• "The s-case" – Ales Bican examines the evidence for the shortened form of the locative (-s).
• Quenya–English dictionary

Categories: Agglutinative Languages, Middle-earth Languages, Subject–verb–object Languages, Middle-earth Elves, Constructed Languages Introduced In The 1910s, 1910 Introductions, Constructed Languages