Quenya

Quenya (IPA: [ˈkʷwɛnja]) was the language spoken by the non-Telerin Elves who reached Valinor. Sindarin however, almost like Quenya's simplified form, lasted many ages longer being spoken by Elves - and it is Sindarin, not Quenya, that is referred to by the modern term "Elvish".

Quenya words written in Tengwar lettering (Fëanorian characters)

The written script alphabet of the Elven languages is typically Tengwar, known also as the Fëanorian Characters. An older script alphabet, the Sarati was used also.

History

Quenya descended directly from Ancient Quenya, which developed from an earlier language called Common Eldarin. Of the Three Houses of Elves, the Ñoldor and the Vanyar spoke slightly different, though mutually intelligible, dialects of Quenya (Ñoldorin Quenya and Vanyarin Quenya, respectively). The Vanyarin dialect was also called Quendya; IPA: [ˈkʷeɲɟa]). The language was also adopted by the Valar who also made some new introductions into it from their own original language, though these are more numerous in the Vanyarin dialect than the Ñoldorin one. This is probably the case because of the enduringly close relationship the Vanyar had with the Valar. The Third House, the Teleri, spoke a different, closely related language, Telerin. Quenya and Telerin are so much alike that many thought the latter a dialect of the former, but while linguistically plausible this is historically untrue though, as the languages do not share a common history.

The Ñoldor who fled to Middle-earth following the Darkening of Valinor spoke Quenya among themselves. However, when Elu Thingol of Doriath, who was the king of the Sindar (Elves of the Telerin line who remained in Beleriand instead of journeying to Valinor) learned about their slaying of the Teleri, he forbade the use of Quenya in all his realm. The Sindar, however, had been slow to learn Quenya, while the Ñoldor at this time had fully mastered Sindarin.

The Númenóreans used Quenya for record keeping, for the names of members of the royal House of Elros and Lords of Andúnië. It was not much used in their daily life. After the Downfall, the Kings of Gondor and High Kings of Arnor were given Quenya names, as were the early Stewards of Gondor. However, the Kings of Arthedain, Chieftains of the Dúnedain, and later Stewards switched to Sindarin. The tradition of Quenya names was eventually restored by King Elessar.

The Quenya used in Middle-earth in the Third Age (the time of the setting of The Lord of the Rings) had come to be a scholarly pursuit — something akin to Latin in the real world. (Indeed, Tolkien referred to Quenya as "Elf-Latin".) Quenya was used as a formal language and for writing and record keeping; Sindarin was the vernacular of all Elves. However, the Ñoldor still remembered Quenya and valued it highly, which can be seen in how they treat Frodo's greeting elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo. ("A star shines on the hour of our meeting.") Galadriel is perhaps the only major Elf character in The Lord of the Rings that had learned Quenya as a cradle-tongue: she was born in Valinor in the days of the Two Trees. Ñoldorin (Exilic) Quenya differed somewhat from Valinórean Quenya, because the language continued to evolve after exile, and it underwent some regularisation as it became a language of lore. There were also a few changes in pronunciation.

The poem Namárië is the longest piece of Quenya found in The Lord of the Rings. It is also known as "Galadriel's Lament".

Conceptual history

According to "The Lhammas", the Vala Oromë taught to the Elves the language of the Valar, and for this reason their language family was collectively called Oromëan. The Valar themselves had speech from the beginning. Over time, however, the Eldar changed the language, adding words of their liking and softening its speech from its original manner. The Valar soon adopted this language in order to converse with the Eldar of Valinor. Later, this theory was rejected by Tolkien.

In earlier versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, Teleri first and then Lindar were the names of the first tribe of the Elves. In the earliest stage of development, the Finnish-like language of the the first tribe of the Elves was generally spelled Qenya (pronounced the same as "Quenya" and also known as Eldarissa or Eldar) and is conventionally classified as Early Quenya, while the Gnomes, or Noldoli, spoke a Welsh-like language called Gnomish, or Noldorin. A form of Qenya known as Arktik was used by Tolkien in Letters From Father Christmas. The term "Qenya" is now used to distinguish between the stages of the High Elvish language before and after the publication of the The Lord of the Rings. However, the fluid nature of Tolkien's languages makes such a distinction a highly disputed one.

From the 1930s, Tolkien introduced in the development of the Qenya a diachronic approach. In fact, he stated that from Primitive Elvish evolved a language conventionally called Middle Ancient Quenya, which in turn evolved in Qenya, at this stage conventionally identified as Middle Quenya. In particular, in this period the first tribe of the Elves spoke a dialect known as Lindarin. Shortly before the publication of The Lord of the Rings Tolkien defined the features of the late version of Quenya, which was conceived as the language of both Vanyar and Ñoldor.

Grammar

"Can you see anything?" "Nothing. There's nothing." The descriptive majority of this article's text is unsourced, and should be supported with references.

Quenya is, like many European languages, a nominative-accusative language, which means that the subject of a transitive verb is marked the same as the subject of an intransitive verb.

Nouns

Nouns are declined into ten cases: the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, possessive, locative, allative, ablative, and a tenth "mystery" case sometimes called the "respective".

• The nominative is used mainly to mark the subject of a verb. In spoken Quenya it also functions as the accusative (see below). It is also used with prepositions.
• The accusative marks the direct object of a verb. It is not used in spoken Quenya, after Elves left Aman as it was replaced by the nominative, but appears in writing.
• The genitive is mainly used to mark origin (e. g. the best painters of France). Its usage sometimes overlaps the ablative.
• The dative marks the indirect object of a verb (to).
• The instrumental marks a noun which is used as a tool or instrument.
• The possessive marks possession or ownership (e. g. his rope, Galadriel's hair). This usage sometimes overlaps with the genitive.
• The locative expresses location or position (at).
• The allative expresses motion towards (towards).
• The ablative expresses motion away from (from).
• The "mystery" or respective case may be a figurative equivalent of the locative case (e.g. "about wolves" or "regarding wolves").

There are four numbers: the singular, dual, plural, and partitive plural.

Vocalic declension

	a-, i-, i.e.-, o-, and u-stems				e-stems
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Part. Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Part. Plural
Nominative	yulma	yulmat	yulmar	yulmali	lasse	lasset	lassi	lasseli
Accusative	yulmā	yulmat?	yulmë	yulmalā	lassē	lasset?	lassi	lasselī
Genitive	yulmo	yulmato	yulmaron	yulmalion	lasseo	lasseto	lassion	lasselion
Dative	yulman	yulmant	yulmain	yulmalin	lassen	lassent	lassin	lasselin
Instrumental	yulmanen	yulmanten	yulmainen	yulmalínen	lassenen	lassenten	lassinen	lasslínen
Possessive	yulmava	yulmatwa	yulmaiva	yulmalíva	lasseva	lassetwa	lassiva	lasselíva
Locative	yulmasse	yulmatse	yulmassen	yulmalisse	lassesse	lassetse	lassessen	lasselisse
Allative	yulmanna	yulmanta	yulmannar	yulmalinna	lassenna	lassenta	lassennar	lasselinna
Ablative	yulmallo	yulmalto	yulmallon	yulmalillo	lassello	lasselto	lassellon	lasselillo
Respective	yulmas	yulmates	yulmais	yulmalis	lasses	lassetes	lassis	lasselis

Consonantal declension

	Singular	Dual	Plural	Part. Plural
Nominative	nat	natu	nati	nateli
Accusative	nat	natu	nati	nateli
Genitive	nato	natuo	nation	natelion
Dative	naten	natuen	natin	natelin
Instrumental	natenen	natunen	natinen	natelínen
Possessive	natwa	natuva	nativa	natelíva
Locative	natesse	natusse	natissen	natelisse
Allative	natenna	natenta	natinnar	natelinna
Ablative	natello	natelto	natillon	natelillo
Respective	nates	natus	natis	natelis

Verbs

There are two main types of verbs: basic verbs, those which are formed from the basic verbal base, such as tire (tiri-) "watch" from *TIR, and derivative verbs, which are formed either by putting verbal suffixes to a base like tulta- "summon", from *TUL "come", or derived from non-verbal bases like kúna- "bend", originally an adjective "bent".

	Derivative verbs		Basic verbs
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Infinitive	tulta		tire (tirita-)
Aorist/Simple present	tulta	tultar	tire (tiri-)	tirir
Present continuative	tultea	tultear	tíra	tírar
Past	tultane	tultaner	tirne	tirner
Future	tultuva	tultuvar	tiruva	tiruvar
Perfect	utultie	utultier	itírie	itírier

Pronouns

Pronouns are seen as both independent words and enclitics; however the rules for this are not completely understood, although evidence suggests that independent forms are more emphatic in nature, while enclitics are the forms in use normally. What is known is that for intransitive verbs, the pronoun can appear as either an independent word or an enclitic. The enclitics often come in two different forms, long and short. The following table outlines the different forms attested in Tolkien's material. Hypothetical or reconstructed forms are indicated by either question marks (?) or asterisks. Those forms that cannot be determined are not included and their absence is indicated by an emdash (—).

		Independent		Enclitic		Independent Example		Enclitic Example
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
First Person	Inclusive	ni, inye	*elve, *elwe	-n, -nye	-lve, -lwe	inye tire	elve/elwe tirir	tirinye, tirin	tirilve, tirilwe
	Exclusive		*elme		-lme		elme tirir		tirilme
Second Person		le, elye	le, elle	-l, -lye	-lle?	elye tirar	elle tirir?, elye tirir	tiril, tirilye	tirille?, tirilye
Third Person		—	te	-s, -rye	-t, -nte	—	ente tirir?	tiris, tirirye	tirit, tirinte

Aside from inclusive and exclusive modes in the first person plural, there is also a dual mode, denoted by emme, -mme. The pronouns can be declined much like the regular nouns; for instance, the dative form of emme is emmen. This appears to be mostly regular, except for te, "they", which takes the dative form tien.

Sample phrases

In The Children of Húrin

• Utúlie'n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatarni, utúlie'n aurë! - "The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!"
• Auta i lóme! - "The night is passing!"
• A Túrin Turambar turún' ambartanen. - "O Túrin master of doom by doom mastered."

In The History of Middle-earth

• Valar valuvar. - "The will of the Valar will be done."
• Manen lambë Quendion ahyanë? - "How did the language of Elves change?"

Sample elements

• aina - holy
• áirë - sunlight
• alqua - swan
• anar - Sun
• anga - iron
• eär - sea
• el - star (same as Sindarin)
• fëa - spirit
• laurë - gold
• -ndil - friend (a common suffix)
• nelya - third
• tar - king, lord
• tindómë - twilight of dawn

Background

Quenya was influenced specifically by Welsh, which was used as an agglutination; grammatical inspiration also comes from Latin and Greek. The phonology is also based on Finnish, and to a lesser extent Latin, Italian and Spanish. Some interesting phonological rules are that no consonant cluster can begin or end a syllable (with one exception, the dual dative ending -nt), voiced stops must be preceded by sonorants, and a word may not end in a non-coronal consonant.

The most striking feature of Quenya is that it is a highly agglutinating language, meaning that multiple affixes are often added to words to express grammatical function. It is possible for one Quenya word to have the same meaning as an entire English sentence. For example, one could say "They have seen it." in Quenya in a single word, namely Ecénientes.

Tolkien wrote much more material about Quenya and his other languages than he published in his lifetime. The famous novels might be considered incidental to his further and more passionately developed linguistic hobby. The journals Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon are devoted to editing and publishing Tolkien's linguistic papers.

Quenya is one of many constructed languages introduced over the years by science fiction and fantasy writers, some others being Klingon, Newspeak, Nadsat, and Lapine.

See also

• Elvish
• Neo-Quenya

Translations

Foreign Language	Translated name
Amharic	ቅኡአኛ ?
Arabic	كينيا
Armenian	Քուենյա
Belarusian Cyrillic	Квэнья
Bengali	কুইন্যা
Bosnian	Kvenija
Bulgarian Cyrillic	Куеня
Cambodian	ឃ្វីនយ៉ា
Chinese (Hong Kong)	昆雅語
Croatian	Quenia
Czech	Quenijština
Georgian	ქუენია
Greek	Κουένυα
Gujarati	ક્વેન્યા
Hebrew	קווניה
Hindi	क्वेन्या
Hungarian	Quenya nyelv
Indonesian	Bahasa Quenya
Japanese	クウェンヤ
Kannada	ಕ್ವೆನ್ಯಾ
Kazakh	Құенйа (Cyrillic) Quenya (Latin)
Komi	Квенья
Korean	꿰냐
Macedonian Cyrillic	Квења
Malayalam	ക്യൂനിയ
Marathi	क्वेन्या
Nepalese	क्वेन्या
Pashto	کوینیا
Persian	کوئنیایی
Russian	Квенья
Sanskrit	क़ुएन्य
Serbian	Квенија (Cyrillic) Kvenija (Latin)
Sinhalese	ක්වෙන්යා
Slovak	Quenijčina
Slovenian	Kvenja
Tajik Cyrillic	Қуенyа
Tamil	குவென்யா
Telugu	క్యూన్య
Thai	ภาษาเควนยา
Ukrainian Cyrillic	Квенья
Urdu	قوانیا
Uzbek	Қуеня (Cyrillic) Quenya (Latin)
Yiddish	קוועניאַ

References & primary sources

• The Silmarillion, Appendix: "Elements in Quenya Sindarin names"
• Parma Eldalamberon, "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien"

External links

• Ardalambion: The Tongues of Arda, Lessons, etc.
  • Quenya Course
• "Quenya" in Enciclopedia Libre en Español
• Vinyar Tengwar
• Parma Eldalamberon
• Are High Elves Finno-Ugric?
• Quenya's relation to Finnish
• Generator for Quenya typographical filler text
• Neo-Quenya Wiki
• Aulas de Quenya (Brasil)