Quenya

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{{Infobox Language |name=Quenya |creator=J. R. R. Tolkien |date=1917–1973 |speakers=None, but several hundreds of fans and students around the world. |setting=The fictional world of Arda |fam2=artistic language |iso2=art|iso3=qya |posteriori=a posteriori language with elements of Finnish and Latin |map=Image:Quenya Example.png}}

Quenya is one of the languages spoken by the Elves in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. It was the language developed by those non-Telerin Elves who reached Valinor (the "High Elves") from an earlier language called Common Eldarin. Of the Three Houses of the Elves, the Ñoldor and the Vanyar spoke slightly different, though mutually intelligible, dialects of Quenya (Quenya and Vanyarin Quenya (also Quendya), respectively). The language was also adopted by the Valar, who 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, although this was by some seen as a dialect of Quenya, which is untrue in a historic perspective but plausible in a linguistic one; the languages do not share a common history, but are very much alike.

The written script of the Elven languages is typically Tengwar. An older script, the Sarati was used also.

Quenya was made famous again in 2001 when singer Enya performed in the language.

1 Fictional history
2 Non-fictional development
3 Grammar
4 See also
5 External links

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Fictional history

Image:LayOfLuthien.jpg It was the Vala Oromë who, coming upon the Elves at Cuiviénen, 'The Waters of Awakening', taught them Quenya (although in some of Tolkien's writings it is said that they devised the language before he found them). Over time, however, the Eldar changed the language, adding to it words of their liking and softening it from its origins in Valarin speech. The Valar adopted this language in order to converse with the Eldar in Valinor.

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 his realm. The Sindar, however, had been slow to learn Quenya, while the Noldor at this time had fully mastered Sindarin.

The Quenya used in Middle-earth of 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 our time. (Indeed, Tolkien occasionally refers to Quenya as "Elven-Latin".) Quenya was used as a formal language and for writing; Sindarin was the vernacular of all Elves. However, the Ñoldor still remembered Quenya and valued it highly, which we can see in the way 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 Middle-earth during the events of The Lord of the Rings who learned Quenya as a cradle-tongue: she was born in Valinor, during the days of the Two Trees. Ñoldorin (Exilic) Quenya differed somewhat from Valinórean Quenya, because the language continued to evolve after exile and 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.

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Non-fictional development

Outside the fiction, the grammar of Quenya was influenced by Finnish, which is an agglutinative language; grammatical inspiration also came from Latin and Greek. The phonology was 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 functions. 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. In fact, Tolkien, a professional linguist, insisted that he originally invented Middle-earth and its inhabitants as a means of imposing upon his artificial languages a history of war, migration and suffering. 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, the Ascian language and Lapine.

In Tolkien's early writings (see: The History of Middle-earth), this language was called Qenya (although pronounced the same as Quenya). It underwent countless revisions in both grammar and vocabulary before it reached the form found in The Lord of the Rings and again went through changes before the completion of The Silmarillion. The term Qenya is now used to distinguish between old Qenya and the new Quenya. However, the fluid nature of Quenya (or Qenya, for that matter) makes such a distinction a highly disputed one.

Quenya used by fans for post-Tolkien composition of poems and texts, phrases and names, is usually nicknamed neo-Quenya, or Quenya Vinyakarmë (Q. for "neologism") by scholars, in order to prevent the confusion that authentic Quenya can be used practically.

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Grammar

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Nouns

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

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, having been 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, sometimes the possessive.
The dative marks the indirect object of a verb.
The instrumental marks a noun which is used as a tool or instrument.
The possessive marks possession or ownership. This usage sometimes overlaps with the genitive.
The locative expresses location or position.
The allative expresses motion towards.
The ablative expresses motion away 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.

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Vocalic declension

The Plotz Letter gives the declension of the words 'cirya' and 'lassë'. We have no 'consonant-stem' declension. Moreover, Quenya declension had changed from the Qenya of 1915 to the mature Quenya (post Lord of the Rings).

	e-stems (Plotz Letter)
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Part. Plural
Nominative	lassë	lasset	lassi	lasseli
Accusative	lassé	lasset?	lassi	lasselí
Genitive	lasseo	lasseto	lassion	lasselion
Dative	lassen	lassent	lassin	lasselin
Instrumental	lassenen	lassenten	lassinen	lasselínen
Possessive	lasseva	lassetwa	lassiva	lasselíva
Locative	lassesse	lassetse	lassessen	lasselisse
Allative	lassenna	lassenta	lassennar	lasselinna
Ablative	lassello	lasselto	lassellon	lasselillo
Respective	lasses	lassetes	lassis	lasselis

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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".

These conjugations were not written by J. R. R. Tolkien, they are neo-Quenya reconstruction.

	Derivative verbs		Basic verbs
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Infinitive	tulta		tirë
Aorist/Simple present	tulta	tultar	tirë (tiri-)	tirir
Present continuative	tultëa	tultëar	tíra	tírar
Past	tultanë	tultaner	tirnë	tirner
Future	tultuva	tultuvar	tiruva	tiruvar
Perfect	utultië	utultiër	itírië	itíriër

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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 a slash (/).

Form	---Short---	--Median--	-Long-	Independent
1st sing.	-n	-në	-nyë	ni, nyë
2nd sing.	-t	/	/	tyë
3rd sing.	-(e)s	-së	/	së
3rd sing.	-s	-sa	/	sa
3rd sing. masc.	-r	/	-ro	/
3rd sing. fem.	-r	/	-rë	/
1st pl. inc.	/	/	-lvë, -lwë	/
1st pl. ex.	/	/	-lmë	më
1st dual	/	/	-mmë	met
2nd formal	-l	-lë	-lyë	elyë
2nd pl.	-l	-lë	-llë	ellë
3rd pl. person	-t	-ta, -at	/	ta
3rd pl. abstract or thing	-t	-të	-ntë	të
3rd pl. masc.	/	-ron/-lto	/	/
3rd pl. fem.	/	-ren	/	/