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Quenya
 

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 Ñoldorin Quenya or Exilic 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, and later grew very close due to contact.

During the Third Age Quenya was no longer a living language in Middle-earth: most Elves spoke Sindarin, and Men mostly spoke Westron. Quenya was mainly used in official names and writings, much like the Latin language was in mediæval Europe. Cq. the name Elf-Latin for Quenya.

Quenya is usually written in Tengwar, although inside the fiction it was earlier also written in Sarati. The language can also be written in other alphabets: modes for Cirth exist, and it is usually written in the Latin alphabet.

Quenya was made more popular in 2001 when the first installment of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was released in theaters.

Fictional history

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.

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.

Grammar

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.

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

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

Pronouns

Pronouns are seen as both independent words, and enclitics which resemble synthetic verb endings. 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. The effect of having both pseudo-synthetic (with enclitics) and analytic (with independent pronoun) verbs gives Quenya a system strongly resembling that of Irish Gaelic (see Irish verbs). What is known is that for intransitive verbs, the pronoun can appear as either an independent word or an enclitic, with the enclitic form often coming in two different forms, long and short. In the third person, the short form is used for direct objects rather than subjects. 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 Possessive
1st sing. -n -në -nyë ni, nyë -nya
2nd casual (sg. & pl.) -t / / ki, tyë *-tya
2nd sing. formal -l -lë -lyë lë, elyë -lya
3rd sing. masc. -0 -r -ro so /
3rd sing. fem. -0 -r -rë së -rya
3rd sing. neut. -s -sa / sa /
1st dual / / -lvë, -lwë met -lwa, -lva
1st pl. excl. / / -mmë më, emmë -mma
1st pl. incl. / / -lmë (-ngwë?) më -lma
2nd pl. formal -l -lë -llë ellë /
3rd pl. personal -t -të -ntë të *-nta
3rd pl. impersonal -t -ta, -at / ta /
3rd pl. masc. / -ron/-lto / / /
3rd pl. fem. / -ren / / /

  • '-ntë' is used for three or more persons when the subject has not been mentioned.

See also

External links

Middle-earth languages

Квэнья | Quenya | Quenijština | Quenya | Sprachen und Schriften aus Mittelerde#Quenya | Κουένυα | Quenya | Kvenja lingvo | Quenya | 꿰냐 | Quenya | Quenya | קווניה | Lingua Quenya | Quenya | Quenya | Quenya nyelv | Bahasa Quenya | Quenya | クウェンヤ | Quenya | Quenya | Quenya | Квенья | Kvenja | Квенија | Quenya | Quenya | 昆雅语

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Quenya".

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