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lb:tl:quenya

Quenya

ī€ƒī±‘ī€īµƒī±ƒ(Quenya) is a constructed language created by J.R.R. Tolkien for his Legendarium. It is the language of the High Elves – the Vanyar and the Noldor. By the Third Age of Middle-Earth, it’s only a scholarly language.
It is primarily written using Tengwar,A) but it’s also written using the Sarati.

Quenya is also known as the ā€˜Elvish Latin’ or the Latin/Finnish Elven language.

I personally prefer Quenya over Sindarin, despite the latter (apparently) being the more popular language.

Notes

Neo-Quenya

I haven’t quite decided yet, but I’m pretty sure that (unless stated otherwise) when I say Quenya, I’ll be referring to Neo-Quenya. Though, again, I haven’t decided yet.

The reason I’m thinking of doing this is for the simple fact that I want to learn Quenya and then integrate Quenya into this wiki somehow. Whether that be thru the articles on linguistics or just for fun.
And because Tolkien never finished Quenya, that naturally means I’d be using Neo-Quenya.
But the reason I’m thinking about whether I should explicitly call it Neo-Quenya or not is that I don’t want to be misleading. Neo-Quenya isn’t really the language that Tolkien envisioned.

I’m considering just calling it something else entirely too, though I’m not sure what.

Dialects

The Quenya that we know the most about is the one spoken by the Noldor, who arrived in Middle-Earth in the First Age. It was from them that the language became the ā€˜elf-latin’ that we all know and love. Third Age Quenya is descended from this Noldorin one.

However! There is at least one other dialect that we don’t know much about and which, by now, I’d guess is a separate language entirely.B)

Vanyarin (Quenya)

Vanyarin Quenya is the dialect spoken by the Vanyar. It’s notable (to me) for being just weird enough that it caught my interest.

Now, to be clear…weC) don’t know much about it. We know a few things, like some sound changes that did and didn’t occur…but that’s about it. I did read this which looks at what we do know.

I may detail a little more about it (and what it may look like) once I learn a little more…and also stop being so lazy.


A) In the Classical Mode.
B) I’m guessing this because it must have experienced some kind of development while Quenya existed in Middle-Earth. Alternatively…it didn’t evolve and Middle-Earth Quenya evolved instead…which would make Vanyarin similar to Icelandic in the primary world.
C) Referring collectively to scholarship and the fanbase because, obviously, I’m a bit behind on all fronts.
lb/tl/quenya.txt Ā· Last modified: 2025-08-24 17:39:37 by ninjasr

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