#everythingquenya

"Just A Man" from Epic the Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Just writing random stuff about my day to practice. I can remember most of the letters without having to check now! Tengwar in Norwegian

“Nauvarimme illume as elye. Alaquen na oi naitie vanwa. Húme nosse cuitea imi elye sí.”

“We’ll always be with you. No one’s ever really gone. A thousand generations live in you now.”

“Á cara cea mehtari nem me tuxa.”

“Make ten men feel like a hundred.”

‘Yours ye may break, but I my bond

must keep, and kingdom here forsake.

If hearts here were that did not quake,

or that to Finrod’s son were true,

then I at least should find a few

to go with me, not like a poor

rejected beggar scorn endure,

turned from my gates to leave my town,

my people, and my realm and crown!’

Finrod Felagund, King of Nargothrond

Lay of Leithian 224-232

Beren and Lúthien p.119

Yoooo wow tumblr thank you for never showing me this ask! I hate this hellsite sometimes.

Sorry it took me so long to respond! 🥲

So, according to my books when you have a word with two syllables, then the focus is on the first syllable. E.g. Anor ['a.nor], parma ['par.ma]

With three syllable words there are two options.

A. The second to last syllable is long

In this case the second to last syllable is the main focus. A long syllable contains either a long vowel (á, é, í, o´, ú), a diphtong (ai, oi, ui, au, eu, iu) or multiple consonants after a vowel.

Examples:

Olórin (long vowel: ó)

Úlairi (Diphtong: ai)

Isildur (two consonants after the vowel: ld)

Menelya (the y counts as a consonant: ly)

B. The second to last syllable is short

If the second to last syllable is short, the third to last syllable is emphasized. A short syllable contains a short vowel or one or no consonants.

Examples:

Orome (second to last syllable is -ro: short vowel followed by a consonant)

Anárion (second to last syllable is -ri: short vowel, not followed by a consonant)

By adding endings such as -ndil, -rdur, -rdil, ldur the emphasis can be shifted. Such as the word "isil" (moon, a noun) and "Isildur" (servant of the moon, a name). In "isil" the emphasis is on the first vowel. In "Isildur" the emphasis is on "sil".

Concerning the fun dots, in tengwar the dots and dashes indicate vowels. It's very similar to Arabic in that regard. The larger letters are generally consonants while the dots and dashes are vowels.

I don't have a recording of myself reading the Ainulindale, but I've been speaking it from what I've heard from the movies and listened from songs. There's a German singer/songwriter called Oonagh and a lot of her songs have Quenya in them! Since German pronunciation is very similar to Quenya, that helps quite a bit with pronunciation. Here are three songs of hers that feature quite a bit of Quenya. Song 1. Song 2. Song 3. (You’ll usually have to wait for the chorus, sorry. 😅)

Another thing I would point out is that the elves are very lyrical. They will forgive emphasis if it works better for the song. (At least that's what I remember reading somewhere) I don't think you need to worry to much about emphasis. My personal pet peeve would be pronunciation more than emphasis of the correct syllable.

I was translating a sentence that contained the word generations and couldn’t find an Elvish word for it. It really made me start thinking about how the Elves though.

Quenya is the language of the Elves that went to Valinor. The first ones to emerge in the world and they had no parent besides Illúvatar. They settle the lands of the Valar, basking in the lights of the Two Trees and give birth to their children. Their children age and give birth to their own children and so on. The Vanyar, Teleri and Noldor have words for their parents and grandparents and for kindred and family, but none for generations.

Why would they?

Humans have the concept of generations because we have the idea of the beginning of a generation and the end of a generation. Where the era of one generation ends, another begins. Humans are mortal and have a finite time on Middle-Earth.

The eldar are timeless. They are born and unless killed they spend eternity in their prime. There is no end or beginning of a generation. A man could have a son and a grandson and after enough time they could be mistaken for brothers because they don’t age like humans. The very eldest could grow beards (thank you Círdan, love you bro) and one could sense greater wisdom or power among the elder eldars, but from a distance a family gathering would probably look very odd by our human standards.