Ordinary word order in Quenya is quite similar to English: The ordinary sentence order is subject-verb-object (PE17/72). Adjectives precede the nouns they modify (PE17/93, PM/346). Prepositions and relative pronouns appear at the beginning of subordinate clauses. Some of these rules were described by Tolkien. He stated that “the classical and
Quenya Grammar P8: Prosodic Lengthening
It has long been known that, under some conditions, the final vowel in Quenya words might lengthen when a suffix is added. One notable example is the phrase a vanimar, vanimálion nostari “O beautiful ones, parents of beautiful children” (Let/308, 448; LotR/981): why is the a short at the end
Quenya Grammar P7: Shortened Final Syllables
With rare exceptions, Quenya does not allow long vowels in final syllables. Such long vowels in final syllables were shortened in the history of Quenya’s phonetic development. It seems this remains an active phonetic rule in Quenya, applying to new compounds as well. Probably the best example of this is
Quenya Grammar P6: Stress
To understand stress in Quenya you need to know the difference between “heavy” syllables and “light” syllables; Tolkien often called these “long” syllables and “short” syllables. A “light” syllable is one that contains a single short vowel and is followed by zero or one consonant: ta or tan. A “heavy”
Quenya Grammar P5: Pronunciation and Transcription
Quenya has a rather small inventory of consonants: p, t, k; b, d, g; f, s, h; v; m, n, ñ [ŋ]; l, r, y, w; hl, hr, hy, hw (PE19/80-81). The last set is a group of voiceless consonants, represented in spelling by a preceding “h”. You can approximate
Quenya Grammar P4: Basic Grammar
This entry provides a basic overview of the major features of Quenya grammar. It lists these features with only minimal explanation, to provide a broader context of Quenya grammar as a whole. Knowing these major elements at a general level is helpful for understanding the details of more specific grammatic
Quenya Grammar P3: Conceptual Development
Quenya is probably the first Elvish language Tolkien worked on, and he worked on it throughout his life. Understanding how Tolkien’s ideas on Quenya evolved is critical to understanding the language itself. Students of Tolkien’s languages often distinguish the “Internal History” of the language (how the language evolved within Middle
Quenya Grammar P2: Historical Development
Like all Elvish languages, the primitive precursors of Quenya appeared soon after the awakening of the Elves in Cuivienén, a period when all Elves spoke the same language. Tolkien referred to this period as Primitive Quendian or Common Quenderin [CQ]; most of the literature on Elvish uses CQ to avoid
Quenya Grammar P1: Introduction
Quenya was the native language of the first and second tribes of the Elves, the Vanyar and the Noldor. This language was widely spoken in Valinor and was brought to Middle Earth by the Noldor. As Tolkien described it in the The Lord of the Rings Appendix F: Of the
New Series: Quenya Grammar
I’m starting a new series on Quenya Grammar, cross-posted both here and on Aglardh. This is something I’ve wanted to work on for a long time, but there is a lot of ground work I needed to cover first, most notably the Quenya phonetics analysis I recently completed. This series