Elvish alphabet with pronunciation. Elvish writing

No, I'm not talking about children's entertainment. Many of us came up with funny gibberish languages ​​as children. Or they wrote encrypted messages.

Is it possible to imagine that someone invented a whole group of languages ​​and a fictional people with a multi-thousand-year history?

But this was successfully done by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Even as children, they and their friends came up with several languages ​​for secret communication among themselves. The love for learning and constructing languages ​​has grown into a whole wonderful world, familiar to us from the books “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have given their hearts to Middle-earth. They write fan fiction and continuation stories based on the Lord of the Rings, create computer and card games, and organize multi-thousand role-playing battles. And the Elvish language created by Tolkien turned out to be so beautiful and so loved by readers that they began to study it like any other real-life foreign language. And this is not an accident!

According to John Tolkien himself, he created the entire world of Middle-earth so that the ideal language he invented could seem natural in it. "Nobody believes me when I say my book is longis an attempt to create a world in which a language that matches my personal aesthetic could feel natural. However, it is true"(Tolkien's Letters:264). The author worked on the book “The Lord of the Rings” all his life, and the events described in it cover 10,000 years.

The path to The Lord of the Rings or where it all began

It all started with the family: little John learned to read and write early, his mother, a Latin teacher, opened the door to the world of languages ​​for him. At King Edward's School, Tolkien became acquainted with other languages, including Old English and Old Norse. He was interested in the diversity and characteristics of languages. Trying to comprehend the laws of word formation, he divided words into parts and found similarities and differences between them. Together with his cousins, he became interested in the idea of ​​​​creating new languages.

Before Tolkien became a student at Oxford University, he had already created several fictional languages. The university library provided an excellent opportunity to work with dictionaries and textbooks of world languages. Of all the languages, Tolkien was most interested in Finnish, which he became familiar with at school.

He described Finnish grammar as “...the entrance to a wine cellar full of bottles of amazing wine, the taste and aroma of which were never known before”(Tolkien's Letters:163). The Finnish epic “Kalevala” inspired the writer to create the plots of his books.

How many languages ​​did Tolkien know?

A professional philologist, Tolkien was a polyglot, he knew:

• ancient Greek,
• Latin,
• French,
• German,
• Finnish,
• Welsh,
• Norwegian,
• Old Norse,
• Gothic,
• Swedish,
• Danish,
• Anglo-Saxon
• Middle English,
• Dutch,
• Spanish,
• Italian,
• Gaelic.

Glossopeia and what is it eaten with?

The term "glossopoeia" was invented by Tolkien himself; it is currently used to refer to the construction of languages.

Glossopoeia was Tolkien's hobby for most of his life. At age 13, he initiated the creation of a sound-substitution cipher known as Nevbosh. But Nevbosh was not his first attempt at creating a language. And soon after working on the cipher, he developed a real artificial language - Naffarin. The first elements of artificial languages, which appeared in Nevbosh and Naffarina, were refined by Tolkien until his death - more than sixty-five years in a row.

The creation of language has always been accompanied by the creation of mythology. According to Tolkien, a language is incomplete without the history of the people speaking it.

Tolkien's Elvish language became the ancestor for many other artificial languages.

Wonderful translator

The science fiction author himself was well versed in the intricacies of literary translation, especially when it came to epic and mythological works. Probably, if Tolkien himself had started translating his works into other languages, he would have followed certain rules that he himself would have created.

He more than once criticized the work of other translators who aimed at the greatest works, for example, Beowulf. Tolkien complained that translators carelessly transpose ancient writings into a modern, so “clean-shaven” language, and called for paying closer attention to the artistic images chosen by the author.

Creation of the Elvish language

The Elvish language created by Tolkien is not only beautiful and harmonious, but also has a complex structure:

Ancient languages

• Proto-elven
• Avarin
• Eldarin

Eldarin group

• Kor Eldarin
• Ilkorin and Lemberin
• Ancient Quenya and Common Telerin

Nandorin group

• Nandorin
• Wood elf dialect
• Ossiriandian dialect

Sindarin group

• Goldogreen
• Noldorin
• Sindarin

Languages ​​of Aman

• Telerin
• Quenya
• Vanyarin

Other dialects

• Falatrin
• Doriathrine

What does it take to invent a language?

Paragraph 1. Come up with words. The Elvish language consists of several thousand words - for comparison, the Russian language contains about 5,000 words. But it is not enough to come up with words; this will not make the language alive.

Point 2. Need to think about grammar- how words will be assembled into expressions. For example, in Elvish to wash is “allu”, and to wash is “alluen”.

Point 3. We need to come up with something the history of the language, its development over time, depending on the territorial dispersion of the people. Tolkien thought through languages ​​so much that he showed the development of vocabulary over time - for example, the word “kwendi” (people) was transformed into “pendi” in the separated elven clan of Telori, in another elven clan of Avaria the word began to sound like “kindi”.

Point 4. Show how the language developed, improved, and simplified over time. For example, the Elvish dialect Quenya has different forms - classical - Quenya of the First Age and modern - Quenya of the Third Age (this form can even be learned from textbooks). The Sindarin dialect also has differences corresponding to different eras.

Tolkien believed that language reflects the character of a people: in his works, the languages ​​of the elves Quenya and Sindarin differ significantly from the “black speech” of Sauron. The elves loved their language, treated it with care and developed it, while the orcs and goblins “spoke as they wanted” and distorted other languages. Emphasizing the insufficient development of the language of the orcs, Tolkien notes that they did not even have names, and they addressed each other with exclamations.

Point 5. Influence of other languages. In the diagram below you can see the possible influence of other Middle-earth languages ​​on the Elvish branch (left).

Clause 6. Exceptions. Yes Yes! In the Elvish language there are exceptions that you just need to know (for example, by analogy with the English inexplicable know - knew) - “ista”, in the past tense “sinta”.

Tolkien's passion for creating language has been developed by fans over the years. And the Elvish language spoken in the film “The Lord of the Rings” is partly the result of their work.

Elvish dialects

The main dialects that are heard in the film “The Lord of the Rings” and that can be learned from textbooks are Quenya and Sindarin. As mentioned earlier, these two dialects were greatly expanded by fans of Tolkien's work. The most famous Quenya textbook in Russian is Quenya for Russian Beginners by Stepan M. Pechkin; attempts to write a textbook in Russian on the Sindarin dialect have also been made several times, but there is no final generally accepted material yet.

Rice. 1 Example of writing the Sindarin dialect

Sindarin was created by Tolkien based on the Welsh language. If you want to know more about this, read various essays by language researchers (they can be found on the Internet, mostly in English and German).

This is what the greeting looks like in Sindarin: Gi suilon!

Rice. 2 An example of writing the Quenya dialect

According to legend, Quenya is the speech of the Noldor and Vanyar elves.

Quenya is a phonetic language. The word is read the same way as it is written. Quenya was inspired by Tolkien's Finnish language.

This is what the greeting looks like in Quenya: Andaran atish’an.

A couple more facts about the Elvish language and more.

1. Tolkien's Elvish language became the ancestor for many other artificial languages

2. In addition to Elvish, Tolkien created about a dozen more languages ​​and dialects:

• Elvish language. Tolkien created grammar and vocabulary for at least 15 Elvish dialects: Proto-Elven, Common Ildarin, Quenya, Goldogrin, Telerin, Sindarin, Ilkorin, Nandorin, Avarin...
• Languages ​​of the people of Middle-earth. At least 3 were thought out to the level of grammar and vocabulary: Taliska, the Adunaan language and "Sôval Phârë", or "Common Tongue", in English called Westron (spoken by hobbits and people in the Third Age). Other Human Languages: Dalish, Rohan, Rhovanion, Haladin, Dunlending, Friend, Haradrim, and Easterling.
• The secret language of the Dwarves is Khuzdul. The Dwarves also used a sign language called Iglishmêk and the rune script Kirt.
• Ent language
• Language of the Valar
• Orc languages. The language of the First Age, created by Morgoth. The Black Speech, created by Sauron. Many Orc languages ​​of the Third Age, often incorporating corrupted forms of words from the Black Speech and other languages.
• Naffarin
• Gautisk
• Mago, or Magol, is a language based on Hungarian.

3. In 2016, for Tolkien’s birthday, Yandex launched a translator from Elvish

The news about this was announced on the official Yandex blog

You can find the Elvish translator and try it out in the full version of the translator https://translate.yandex.ru/

Conclusion

Elvish languages ​​are spoken by tens of thousands of people around the world. If you want to learn more about these languages, we advise you to join communities of Elvish language lovers on social networks. They are filled with excellent collections of information about Tolkien’s biography and work, studies of his works, and translations of foreign works. For example,

In the Elvish languages, there are two writing systems, two alphabets. Today we will talk about the oldest of them. It's called tengwar. Tengwar was invented by Fëanor ("Fiery Spirit") (according to another version, Rumil of Tirion, a Noldor elf), the inspirer of the Noldor rebellion and the creator of the three Silmaril diamonds. There are 24 signs in the tengwar, which are divided into 4 series (témara) and 6 levels (tyellë). Tengwar signs are called tengwa. Tengvas consist of a “trunk” (telko) and a semicircle (lúvë). Both of these elements are determined by the phonetics of the sound denoted by tengwa. Namely: the barrel lowered down means a short sound; raised up - spirant; the arch is open - the lips are open; the arch is closed - the lips are closed (labial sounds). Doubling the arc means voicing the sound. Vowel sounds were indicated in tengwar by superscripts. These superscripts were called tehts. Tehts were placed above the tengwa preceding the vowel sound (in Quenya), or above the subsequent one (in Sindarin). If a word began with a vowel sound, then a special symbol “andait” was used, which in itself does not mean anything, but is needed only so that a tehta can be placed above it. The technical notes looked like this:

The diphthongs ai, oi, ui were drawn with the corresponding tehts above the tengwa yanta. For the diphthongs au, eu, iu, the tehts a, e and i were placed above the tengwa úrë.

Let's take a closer look at the Tengwar alphabet itself. As already mentioned, it is divided into 4 topics and six rows.

IN first theme - it is called after its upper tengwe tincotéma - the arc is open at the bottom and is located to the right of the trunk. This - dental sounds t, nd, þ, nt, n, r.

In second – parmatema – the same, but arc closed. Here are labial sounds p, mb, f, mp, m, v.

Third – calmatéma – the same as the first, but the arc is located to the left of the trunk and is open at the top. This - postopalatine sounds k, also known as c, s, ng, kh, nk, e (semi-vowel, semi-consonant sound).

AND fourth , quessetéma is an exact copy of the second, only also turned to the left of the trunk and open at the top. This labial posterior palatal– kw, also known as q, ngw, khw, nkw/nq, nw and simply w or v.

As for the horizontal tieller levels, they look like this:

First - tincotyellë, named as you understand, by its first letter - it is, as it were, basic, all the others are its modifications: in it the trunk is directed downward, and there is one arc with it. This - voiceless short– t, p, k, kw (q) .

Second – andotyellë, depicted as a double arc with the trunk down, contains in Quenya tengwar nasal voiced short sounds, namely nd, mb, ng and ngw.

Third – thuletyellë – one arch, but the trunk is up. These are deaf spirants - th, f, kh, khw.

Fourth – antotyellë, trunk up and double arch – nasal And brief same, but deaf: nt, mp, nk and nkw, aka nq.

Fifth – numentyellë – the trunk is short, that is, there is no direction of the trunk, and there is a double arc. These are nasal and sonorant n, m, ng, ngw.

AND sixth – óretyellë, short trunk and one arc – the so-called semi-voiced sounds: r, v, y (our “th short”) and w.

There is also the so-called additional tengwar, which is absolutely necessary for the Elvish languages. It also has four series and three levels, but there is no system in it. Most likely, sounds were included there that both Rumil and Feanor found it difficult to classify according to the scheme of the main tengwar.

It includes the trill r, the sounds rd, l, ld, s, z, hy, it contains tengwa yanta for depicting i-diphthongs and úrë for u-diphthongs, as well as tengwa for voiceless h, such as in the word hlókë.

Tengwar Quenya Main

Tengwar Quenya Additional

An interesting set of concepts was used to name the tengwar letters.

It is possible to divide them into the following groups.

1) Cardinal directions: formen, numen, romen, hyarmen.

2) Words related to language and speech: parma – “book”, anto – “mouth”, anca – “jaw”, ore – “thought”, “inner mind”, hwesta – “breath”, thule (sule) – “spirit”, “breath”, lambe – “language”, esse – “name”.

3) Words related to craftsmanship: tinco – “metal”, calma – “lamp”, harma – “treasure”, anga – “iron”, malta – “gold”.
This may also include ando – “gate”, yanta – “bridge”, ampa – “hook”, quesse – “feather” (which can be an ornament), anna – “gift” (after all, the Noldor usually gave their creations as gifts) .

Other names are difficult to group together according to their meaning. However, I believe that for any of the Eldar such concepts as silme - “starlight”, wilya - “air, sky”, alda - “tree”, arda - “terrain”, “Universe” were important; for any of the Noldor of Aman - ngoldo (“Noldo”) “wise, knowledgeable”, vala “strength”.
The remaining concepts for writing: umbar - "rock", ungwe - "web", ynkwe - "emptiness", ngwalme - "torment", ur - "heat", perhaps associated with the dark times of the exodus of the Noldor.
Explanations for this are either these names appeared already in Middle-earth, and initially the letters were called differently (after all, the name “are” - “sunlight” appeared as an alternative to “esse”); or, if Feanor gave the names, it was a kind of foresight.

They used Tengwar to paint with a brush. This is what the tengwar inscription looks like:

Homework:

1) What are the names of: a) a sign of the Elvish alphabet, b) elements of a letter, c) a sign denoting a vowel sound, d) a special symbol to denote a vowel sound at the beginning of a word?

2) Describe in detail the possible positions of the tengwa elements and their meanings.

3) What is techtar? Why are techs needed?

4) Describe the sounds of any series and any row of tengwar.

5) Why was it necessary to create an additional tengwar?

Additional tasks:

1) Why do you think the names of tengwar signs used words such as umbar - “rock”, ungwe - “web”, ynkwe - “emptiness”, ngwalme - “torment”? (5 points)

2) Translate the inscription given in the lecture from Elvish into Russian, using additional literature. Please indicate where these lines come from. Please indicate which type of Tengwar, Quenya or Sindarin it is. How did you determine this? (10 points)

3) Report “Tengwar Quenya and Tengwar Sindarin. Comparative analysis"

4) Essay - role-playing: “The Invention of the Tengwar” on behalf of Feanor or Rumil.

5) Find an inaccuracy in the lecture and write what it is (5 points).

* tables by Yagami Light & Adeline Delhi-Shafer

Period: Letter direction:

from left to right

Signs:

24 main ones, 12 more additional ones, 2 andaites and 5 techtars

Origin: Unicode range:

U+E000…U+E07F

ISO 15924: See also: Project: Linguistics

Tengwar(sq.  "writing") is one of the types of writing in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.

Origin story

Legend

According to the plot of the Legendarium, the Tengwar was created by Fëanor, an elf of the Noldor people, based on the earlier Sarathi alphabet and was used to write most of the languages ​​of Middle-earth, both Elvish (Quenya, Sindarin) and other peoples (Westron). Depending on the phonology of the language, different uses of tengwar are used.

Word tengwar translated from Quenya means “writing, signs for writing.” So the word tengwa constitutes its singular number and denotes one tengwar symbol.

Structure

The main 24 tengwar signs are combined into 4 row (temar), depending on the place of pronunciation. Rows I and II ( tincotema And parmatema) are almost always used for dental and labial consonants, respectively, row III - for palatal or velar, row IV - for velar or labiovelar.

Four rows divided into six steps (tyeller) depending on the method of articulation and use of the voice. Degrees 1 and 2 are used for voiceless and voiced stop consonants, 3 and 4 for voiceless and voiced fricatives, 5 for nasals and 6 for semivowels.

For convenience, additional signs are also combined into stages, but less regularly. Signs silmë And essë They exist in upright and inverted versions for ease of placement of superscripts.

To indicate vowels, in most variants, superscript vowel marks are used - tehts ( tehtar). Depending on the language, vowels are placed above the previous or next consonant (as can be seen from the examples, in Sindarin the vowels are placed above the next consonant, while in Annatara and Quenya they are placed above the previous consonant). There is also a complete notation that uses andites for vowels, followed by tehts. There are andites for long (long andite, similar to j) and short vowels (short andite, similar to i).

Features of application

Quenya

Quenya uses the following scheme of correspondence between tengwar signs and pronunciation:

• ¹ is used before consonants and at the end of a word
• ² "empty" consonant, with two horizontal dots, used to represent the semivowel [j]
• ³ are used as part of the diphthongs ai, ei, oi, ui, au, eu, ou, iu
• 4 “h”, somewhat deafening subsequent “r” or “l”. For example, "hlare". In Age III Quenya, sound is not deafened, but is recorded in the same way

For vowels, symbols (“tehtar”, singular “tehta”) are used, written above the previous consonant (in Sindarin - above the next one) or above a special “carrier”. You can see them in the picture on the right.

Basic scheme

Most languages ​​use one variation of the tengwar "basic pattern":

t	p	ch	k
d	b	j	g
th[θ]	f	sh [ʃ]	kh[x]
dh [ð]	v	zh [ʒ]	gh[ɣ]
n	m	ñ	ng
[ɾ]	w	y[y]	-
r	rh 4	l	lh 4
s	s	z	z
h	hw[ʍ] 4	e 5	u 5

4 blind options r, l and w
5 are used as part of the diphthongs ai, ei, oi, ui, aw, ew, ow, iw

Scheme of Beleriand

t	p	k	kw?
d	b	g	gw?
th[θ]	f	ch	chw?
dh	v	gh[ɣ]	ghw?
nn	mm	ng [ŋ]	ngw?
n	m	-	w
r	rh 4	l	lh 4
s	y	z	z
h	hw [ʍ] 4	e 5	u 5

4 blind options r, l and w
5 are used as part of the diphthongs ai, ei, oi, ui, aw, ew, ow, iw Note. Halla is used for i

Example text

Below is the text from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English, transliterated in Tengwar.

            ⸬                   ⸬

Translation:

All people are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and must act towards each other in a spirit of brotherhood.

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Links

• - Wikibook in English.

Languages ​​of Middle-earth Elvish languages Languages ​​of people Others Scripts

Consonantal letter Abugids / Indian script Abugids / Other Linear alphabets Nonlinear alphabets Ideas and pictograms Logographic letter Syllabary Transitional syllabic-alphabetic Semantography Knot systems Undeciphered Fictional and hypothetical see also

A posteriori languages and language projects Planned Hieroglyphic Mixed languages ​​and language projects Planned Fictional

Excerpt characterizing Tengwar

You probably heard about the heroic feat of Raevsky, who hugged his two sons and said: “I will die with them, but we will not waver!” And indeed, although the enemy was twice as strong as us, we did not waver. We spend our time as best we can; but in war, as in war. Princess Alina and Sophie sit with me all day long, and we, unfortunate widows of living husbands, have wonderful conversations over lint; only you, my friend, are missing... etc.
Mostly Princess Marya did not understand the full significance of this war because the old prince never talked about it, did not acknowledge it and laughed at Desalles at dinner when he talked about this war. The prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Marya, without reasoning, believed him.
Throughout the month of July, the old prince was extremely active and even animated. He also laid out a new garden and a new building, a building for the courtyard workers. One thing that bothered Princess Marya was that he slept little and, having changed his habit of sleeping in the study, changed his sleeping place every day. Either he ordered his camp bed to be set up in the gallery, then he remained on the sofa or in the Voltaire chair in the living room and dozed without undressing, while not m lle Bourienne, but the boy Petrusha read to him; then he spent the night in the dining room.
On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrei. In the first letter, received shortly after his departure, Prince Andrei humbly asked his father for forgiveness for what he had allowed himself to say to him, and asked him to return his favor to him. The old prince responded to this letter with an affectionate letter and after this letter he alienated the Frenchwoman from himself. Prince Andrei's second letter, written from near Vitebsk, after the French occupied it, consisted of a brief description of the entire campaign with a plan outlined in the letter, and considerations for the further course of the campaign. In this letter, Prince Andrei presented his father with the inconvenience of his position close to the theater of war, on the very line of troop movement, and advised him to go to Moscow.
At dinner that day, in response to the words of Desalles, who said that, as heard, the French had already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered Prince Andrei’s letter.
“I received it from Prince Andrei today,” he said to Princess Marya, “didn’t you read it?”
“No, mon pere, [father],” the princess answered fearfully. She could not read a letter that she had never even heard of.
“He writes about this war,” said the prince with that familiar, contemptuous smile with which he always spoke about the real war.
“It must be very interesting,” said Desalles. - The prince is able to know...
- Oh, very interesting! - said Mlle Bourienne.
“Go and bring it to me,” the old prince turned to Mlle Bourienne. – You know, on a small table under a paperweight.
M lle Bourienne jumped up joyfully.
“Oh no,” he shouted, frowning. - Come on, Mikhail Ivanovich.
Mikhail Ivanovich got up and went into the office. But as soon as he left, the old prince, looking around restlessly, threw down his napkin and went off on his own.
“They don’t know how to do anything, they’ll confuse everything.”
While he walked, Princess Marya, Desalles, m lle Bourienne and even Nikolushka silently looked at each other. The old prince returned with a hasty step, accompanied by Mikhail Ivanovich, with a letter and a plan, which he, not allowing anyone to read during dinner, placed next to him.
Going into the living room, he handed the letter to Princess Marya and, laying out the plan of the new building in front of him, which he fixed his eyes on, ordered her to read it aloud. After reading the letter, Princess Marya looked questioningly at her father.
He looked at the plan, obviously lost in thought.
- What do you think about this, prince? – Desalles allowed himself to ask a question.
- I! I!.. - the prince said, as if awakening unpleasantly, without taking his eyes off the construction plan.
- It is quite possible that the theater of war will come so close to us...
- Ha ha ha! Theater of War! - said the prince. “I said and say that the theater of war is Poland, and the enemy will never penetrate further than the Neman.
Desalles looked with surprise at the prince, who was talking about the Neman, when the enemy was already at the Dnieper; but Princess Marya, who had forgotten the geographical position of the Neman, thought that what her father said was true.
- When the snow melts, they will drown in the swamps of Poland. “They just can’t see,” said the prince, apparently thinking about the campaign of 1807, which seemed so recent. - Bennigsen should have entered Prussia earlier, things would have taken a different turn...
“But, prince,” Desalles said timidly, “the letter talks about Vitebsk...
“Ah, in the letter, yes...” the prince said dissatisfied, “yes... yes...” His face suddenly took on a gloomy expression. He paused. - Yes, he writes, the French are defeated, which river is this?
Desalles lowered his eyes.
“The prince doesn’t write anything about this,” he said quietly.
- Doesn’t he write? Well, I didn’t make it up myself. - Everyone was silent for a long time.
“Yes... yes... Well, Mikhaila Ivanovich,” he suddenly said, raising his head and pointing to the construction plan, “tell me how you want to remake it...”
Mikhail Ivanovich approached the plan, and the prince, after talking with him about the plan for the new building, looked angrily at Princess Marya and Desalles, and went home.
Princess Marya saw Desalles' embarrassed and surprised gaze fixed on her father, noticed his silence and was amazed that the father had forgotten his son's letter on the table in the living room; but she was afraid not only to speak and ask Desalles about the reason for his embarrassment and silence, but she was afraid to even think about it.
In the evening, Mikhail Ivanovich, sent from the prince, came to Princess Marya for a letter from Prince Andrei, which was forgotten in the living room. Princess Marya submitted the letter. Although it was unpleasant for her, she allowed herself to ask Mikhail Ivanovich what her father was doing.

TO To the great desire of the numerous and steadily growing masses of readers, the Professor tells us something about the writing of those languages ​​that we touched upon in this textbook. One must think that each of us, tormented by a hobbit's passion for mysterious letters, spent a lot of time carefully copying elegant letters from disgusting photocopiers or the covers of leftist publications of some publishing house "Zhyldyz" in some city of Yoshkar-Ola and trying to calculate their reading by the most bizarre translations or, if one is lucky, based on the originals. This tradition could not help but lead to what it led to - to the fact that almost everyone now has their own Elvish writing, vividly reminding me of one of my roommates in one cheerful institution, who knew fourteen languages, and ten of them - - single-handedly across the globe.

So, now I will introduce you to the system that was used by a certain John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

According to him, these letters were invented by a certain Rumil ( Rúmil), and after that their writing system was thoroughly edited by the famous genius of all times and peoples Feanor ( Fëanor), who, as it turns out, knew a lot about linguistics.

The letter is sent, exactly like ours, from left to right and from top to bottom. There is a theory that among the peoples who made a historical movement from the southeast to the northwest - among the Indo-Europeans, for example - writing is directed from left to right, while among the Semites who moved from north to south, for example - from right to left, that is, against the course of the sun. This theory believes that the direction of writing depends on which direction the sun shone mainly for this people. Well, the elves confirm it. However, the Japanese and Chinese write from top to bottom, and the Mayan Indians and Cretans of cultures A and B liked to write anything in a spiral. There will always be someone who takes pleasure in ruining a harmonious picture.

The Elvish alphabetic writing, which we will study here, in contrast to the Elven runic writing of Kertar, which we will not study, is something like an alphabet - includes twenty-four letters - tengwa. They are combined into a table - tengwar, in which each vertical is called téma, series, series, and each horizontal - tyellë (note the non-standard plural - tyelle r!), levels, levels. The main, basic tengwar, therefore, contains four themes and six tellers.

Now I will describe the type and content of the Quenya tengwar, since Feanor dealt with it, systematized it better than anyone, and this tengwar served as the basis for all other tengwars, which in each language were slightly modified in accordance with the phonetics of that language.

Tengwa consists of two elements: telco - the trunk and lúvë - the arc. Both of these elements are determined by the phonetics of the sound denoted by tengwa. Namely: the barrel lowered down means a short sound; raised up - spirant; the arch is open - the lips are open; the arch is closed - the lips are closed (labial sounds). Doubling the arc means voicing the sound. There are exceptions to these harmonious rules; They are apparently caused by the fact that we are not entirely strong in Elvish phonology and do not quite correctly imagine the sound and pronunciation of Elvish sounds. In addition, the dog could grow up during the journey.

IN first theme - it is called after its upper tengwe tincotéma - the arc is open at the bottom and is located to the right of the trunk. This -- dental sounds t, nd, þ, nt, n, r postvocalic.

In second -- parmatema -- the same, but arc closed. Here are labial (bilabial) sounds p, mb, f, mp, m, v.

Third -- calmatéma - the same as the first, but the arc is located to the left of the trunk and is open at the top. This -- posterior palatal (velar) sounds k, also known as c, s, ng, kh, nk, e (the sound is apparently similar to one of the Old Russian nasal yuses - half-vowel, half-consonant).

AND fourth , quessetéma - an exact copy of the second, only also turned to the left of the trunk and open at the top. This labial non-occlusive posterior palatal-- kw, also known as q, ngw, khw, nkw/nq, nw and simply w or v.

As for the horizontal tieller levels, they look like this:

First - tincotyellë, named as you understand, by its first letter - it is, as it were, basic, all the others are its modifications: in it the trunk is directed downward, and there is one arc with it. This -- voiceless short-- t, p, k, kw (q).

Third -- thuletyellë - one arch, but the trunk is up. These are voiceless spirants - þ (well, I think it has long been clear to our hedgehog that this is not “th”), f, kh, khw.

Fifth -- numentyellë - the trunk is short, that is, there is no direction of the trunk, and there is a double arc. These are nasal and sonorant n, m, ng, ngw.

If the tengwar were constructed with complete and exact observance of the principle, then the second teller would have to contain voiced shorts of types d and b, the fourth - voiced spirants ð and gh, and the sixth - voiceless nasals of types nh and mh. But the ancient elves either did not know Irish and Welsh, or simply were not strong in theoretical phonetics, and in their own language there were no such sounds, and the need to reserve letters for them did not occur to their wondrous and bright heads. Therefore, even tellers look different, not as they should according to the logic of the continuation of the scheme.

Second -- andotyellë, depicted as a double arc with the trunk down, contains in Quenya tengwar nasal voiced short sounds, namely nd, mb, ng and ngw.

Fourth -- antotyellë, trunk up and double arc -- nasal And brief same, but deaf: nt, mp, nk and nkw, aka nq.

AND sixth -- óretyellë, a short trunk and one arc -- the so-called semi-voiced sounds. I don’t know, again, what exactly was meant here, but these are only the sounds r, v, y (our “th is short”) and w.

There is also the so-called additional tengwar, which is absolutely necessary for the Elvish languages. Apparently, for ease of drawing and mental representation, it also has four series and three levels, but there is no system in it. Most likely, sounds were included there that both Rumil and Feanor found it difficult to classify according to the scheme of the main tengwar. Of course, it is a mystery to me why these are important enough for Q the sounds did not get into the main tengwar, where some additions could have been made for them into the system, but in the end they did not go anywhere, which means everything is in order. This includes the trill r, the sounds rd, l, ld (there are doubts about the latter: did it simply mean a hard, dental “l”, which exists, say, in the Russian language, or some more intricate sound, like the Polish Ł) s, z, hy, there are tengs in it yanta for depicting i-diphthongs and urë for u-diphthongs, as well as tengwa for voiceless h, such as in the word hlókë, which, however, was no longer used in the Third Age.

In principle, based on the material presented here, now everyone can build a tengwar for themselves at home. But there is also some additional information.

It is said that in the Tengwar of Feanor the third and fourth series were palatal (anteropalatal) sounds ty, ky and others like them, and the fifth and sixth levels are aspirated tx (now this means “thx”), kx (“kh”) and others like them. But in the writing of the Third Age these letters were not present, they were transmitted by combinations of other letters, and the tengwar had exactly the type with which I am about to introduce you. For details, I advise you to contact "Vinyar Tengwar" No. 8.

The z sound represented by tengwa áze, in the course of mysterious and nowhere clearly explained historical upheavals, turned into r. But for the sound r there already existed a tengwa (the one that you took for the second, if you followed the enumeration - it is for a completely different sound, which in our language is also represented by the letter “r”). Therefore tengwu áze, already renamed to árë, renamed again to essë and began to use ss for the sound.

In the same additional tengwar there are tengs silmë nuquerna And essë nuquerna, which are tengvas inverted horizontally, respectively, silmë And essë. They do not contain any secret meaning, but were introduced, as the Professor says, only for the convenience of writing. However, they were not superfluous.

Elvish is a fictional language created by JRR Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There are two main dialects of Elvish - Quenya and Sindarin, and therefore you still need to figure out which Elvish to learn. In any case, the matter is difficult, exciting and fun. For details, read this article!

Steps

Part 1

Basics of speaking Quenya

1. Learn a little about Quenya. It is one of the two main languages ​​spoken by elves. Specifically, it is the language of the High Elves.

   • Quenya has undergone several changes since its creation. Early, also known as Classical Quenya or First Age Quenya, was the earliest form of the language.
   • But Quenya, which can be learned online or from books, is the so-called modern Quenya, also known as Quenya of the Third Age. This version of the language has the basic lexicon and grammar laid down by Tolkien... and a little from the fans.

2. Pronunciation of vowels. Vowels in Quenya are pronounced clearly and monovariantly, regardless of the position of the phoneme in the word. Long and short vowels differ in the length of pronunciation and only this; in writing, long vowels are marked with stress.

   • á = long "aaaah"
   • a = short "ah"
   • é = long "eeeh"
   • e = short "eh"
   • í = long "ee"
   • i = short "ih"
   • ó = long "oooh"
   • o = short "o" (almost like short "ah")
   • ú = long "uuuh" (almost like a long "ooo")
   • u = short "uh"

3. Quenya diphthongs. A diphthong is two vowels that form a single sound when read. There are only 6 diphthongs in Quenya; all other vowels, when placed side by side, must be read separately. So, Quenya diphthongs are:

   • ai (as in " ai sle")
   • au (as in "h" ou se")
   • se (as in the British reading of the word "s o»)
   • ie (as in "y" u le")
   • oi (as in " oi l")
   • ui (as in "r" ui n")

4. As a rule, consonants are articulated in the same way as in English. However, there are a few rules that should not be forgotten.

   • h = pronounced as "h" when at the beginning of a word, or as "ch" or "k" when in intervocalic position (between two vowels); and also muted in combinations: hw, hy, hl, hr
   • ng = both sounds are always audible, as in "finger", not as in "singer"
   • r = always vibrant
   • s = always muted
   • y = always pronounced as a hard consonant, regardless of position in the word
   • qu = "kw"; The phoneme "u" in this combination does not behave like a vowel sound

5. Knowing which syllable is stressed is extremely important in the Elvish language.

   • If a word consists of two syllables, the stress falls on the first one.
   • If there are three or more syllables, then the stress falls on the third syllable from the end. The exception is if the second syllable from the end contains a long vowel, diphthong or short vowel in a consonantal cluster (between several consonants), then the stress falls on it.

   Part 2

   1. Greeting phrases. There are several ways to say hello in Quenya, some easier, some more difficult.

      • Aiya (/"aj.ja/) is a call for attention or help.
      • Alla (/"al.la/) is a greeting or blessing.
      • Alatulya (/a.ˈla.tu.lʲa/) means "Welcome".
      • Elen síla lúmenn" omentielvo (/ˈɛ.lɛn ˈsi:.la lu:.ˈmɛn nɔ.mɛn.ti.ˈɛl.vɔ/) means “The star illuminated the hour of our meeting.”

   2. Farewell phrases. There are several ways to say hello in Quenya, and the same is true for saying goodbye.

      • Namarië (/na.ˈma:.ri.ɛ/) means “Be healthy!” (in the context of farewell).
      • Marienna (/ma:.ri.ˈɛn.na/) means "Goodbye" or "Be Happy".
      • Alámenë (/a.ˈla:.mɛ.nɛ/) means "May our blessings be with you."
      • Mauya nin avanië (/ˈmau.ja ˈnin a.ˈva:.ni.ɛ/ means “I must go.”

   3. Ask if anyone speaks Elvish. If you want to practice Quenya or just show off your knowledge, you might want to see if anyone else around you speaks Elvish. If you ask this question in Quenya, then this particular dialect will be implied.

      • Ask: Ma istal quet" Eldarin? (/ˈma ˈis.tal ˈkʷɛ ˈtɛl.da.rin/).
      • If someone asks you this, then you must answer that you speak Elvish by saying: Istan quet" Eldarin (/ˈis.tan ˈkʷɛ ˈtɛl.da.rin/).

   4. Insults. If you want to tease someone with a clever taunt or insult, here's what might come in handy:.

      • Wish you luck by saying: Aica umbar! (/ˈaj.ka ˈum.bar/).
      • Say that “the winds are blowing from your mouth” - Súrë túla cendeletyallo (/ˈsu:.rɛ ˈtu:.la kɛn.dɛ.lɛ.ˈtʲal.lɔ/).
      • Say: “Go French kiss the orc” - Eca, a mitta lambetya cendelessë orcova (/ˈɛ.ka ˌa ˈmit.ta ˈlam.bɛ.tʲa kɛn.dɛ.ˈlɛs.sɛ ˈɔr.kɔ.va/).

   5. Give a compliment in Elvish. Balance your knowledge of elven insults with your knowledge of elven compliments to please the people you like... the elves.

      • Melin tirië hendutya sílalë yá lalat (/ˈmɛ.lin ˈti.ri.ɛ ˈhɛn.du.tʲa ˈsi:.la.lɛ ˈja: ˈla.lat/) means “I love the way your eyes sparkle when you laugh.”
      • To say the phrase “I love you,” say: Melin (/ˈmɛ.lin/), and don't forget to say the name of the person you are addressing.

   6. Acknowledgments To be polite like an Elven, you must know how to thank others for their deeds.

      • A simple “thank you” is Hantanyel (/ˈhan.ta.nʲɛl/).

   Part 3

   Basics of speaking Sindarin

   1. Learn a little about Sindarin. It is one of the two main languages ​​spoken by elves. In particular, it is the language of the gray elves.

      • Sindarin, like Quenya, has undergone several changes since its creation - the forms of the First and Third Era differ
      • Yes, you will be able to find textbooks on First Age Sindarin. However, most Sindarin textbooks generally focus on the Third Age form.

   2. Pronunciation of vowels. In Sindarin, all vowels are short... except "í". However, if there is an accent mark above the letter, then these short sounds become not so short. Vowels are almost always pronounced the same way, regardless of their position in a word, even if they are at the very end of the word.

      • a = pronounced "ay"
      • e = pronounced "eh"
      • i = pronounced "ih"; if the phoneme is at the beginning of a word or before another vowel, then it becomes a hard sound “y”
      • í and î = pronounced "ee"
      • o = pronounced as a short "o", similar to the nasal "ah", but more "rounded"
      • u = pronounced "uh"
      • y = always a vowel, pronounced "ooo" or "uuu"

   3. Don't forget about Sindarin diphthongs. When one of the six Sindarin diphthongs appears, it appears as one sound. Otherwise, the vowels are pronounced separately, even if there are several of them in a row. In diphthongs, the stress always falls on the first element composing the double sound.

      • ai = pronounced "aye" (as in "r" ye»)
      • ei = pronounced "ay" (as in "gr" ey»)
      • ui = pronounced "eeoo" (as in "purs" ui ng")
      • au (sometimes aw) = pronounced "ouw" (as in "l" ou d")
      • ae = pronounced similar to "aye" (as in "r" ye»)
      • oe = pronounced "oy" (as in "b" oh»)

   4. Features of the pronunciation of consonants. As a rule, consonants are articulated in the same way as in English. However, there are a few rules that should not be forgotten. So, some sounds are louder than others, that is, their pronunciation requires tension in the vocal cords, while some, on the contrary, are voiceless. In addition, double consonants take longer to pronounce than single consonants.

      • c = always pronounced "k"
      • ch = always pronounced like "k" and never like English "ch"; treated as a single consonant
      • dh = this is the voiced “th”; treated as a single consonant
      • f = acts as a “v” sound at the end of words
      • g = it is always a hard “g”, this sound never becomes a “j” sound
      • l = voiced "l"
      • lh = silent "l"
      • “ng” = not very clearly pronounced at the beginning or end of a word, but more clearly in the middle of words
      • ph = sound "f"
      • r = always vibrant
      • rh = silent sound "r"
      • s = unsigned "s"
      • th = silent "th"; treated as a single consonant
      • v = unvoiced sound if the phoneme is at the end of a word
      • hw = unsound W

   5. Rules for placing stress. Knowing which syllable is stressed is extremely important in the Elvish language. In the case of Sindarin, there are three basic rules:

      • If a word consists of two syllables, the stress falls on the first one.
      • If there are three or more syllables, then the stress falls on the second syllable from the end if it contains a long vowel, diphthong, or vowel followed by several consonants in a row.
      • If there are three or more syllables, and the second syllable from the end contains a short vowel, followed by only one consonant or no consonant at all, then the stress falls on the third syllable from the end.

   Part 4

   Some useful phrases in Quenya

   1. Farewell phrases. There are several ways to say hello in Sindarin, and the same is true for saying goodbye, and there are both simple and complex methods.

      • No veren (/nɔ ˈvɛ.rɛn/) means "Don't be bored."
      • Novaer (/ˈnɔ.vaɛr/) means "Farewell".
      • Galu (/"ga.lu/) means "Good luck".
      • Boe i "waen (/ˈbɔɛiˈwaɛn/) means “I must go.”
      • Guren *níniatha n"i lû n"i a-govenitham (/ˈgu.rɛn niˑ.ˈni.a.θa ni ˈlu: ni a.gɔ.ˈvɛ.ni.θam/) means “My heart will be in sorrow until our next meeting.”
      • Losto vae (/ˈlɔs.tɔ ˈvaɛ/) means “Sleep soundly.”