Quenya Grammar

Quenya is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his fictional universe, Middle-earth. Here is presented a resume of the grammar of late Quenya as established from Tolkien's writings c. 1951–1973. It is almost impossible to extrapolate the morphological rules of the Quenya tongue from published data because Quenya is a fictional and irregular language that was heavily influenced by natural languages, such as Finnish and Latin, not an international auxiliary language with a regular morphology.

Tolkien wrote several synchronic grammars of Quenya, describing its state at specific moments during its development, but only one has been published in full: ''The Early Qenya Grammar''. J.R.R. Tolkien, Carl F. Hostetter, and Bill Welden. 23 December 2003. ''The Early Qenya Grammar'', ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 14, pp. 37-88 Apart from that, he wrote several diachronic studies of Quenya and its proto-language Common Eldarin, three of which have been published: ''The Qenyaqetsa'' (dealing with early Qenya or Eldarissa), the ''Outline of Phonetic Development'', and the ''Outline of Phonology''.

Late Quenya is a highly inflected language, in which nouns have ten cases and there is a rather regular inflection of verbs. Although the word order is highly flexible, the usual structure is subject–verb–object.

Evolution

The Tolkien scholars Christopher Gilson and Patrick Wynne explore the evolution of Elvish grammar, stating that the Elvish languages including Quenya "form an expanding canvas" that grew during Tolkien's career. In the last stages of this external development, Tolkien imagined a diglossic Elven society with a vernacular language for daily use, "the 'colloquial' form of the language", J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. "Words, Phrases and Passages", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, p. 76. called ''Tarquesta'' High-tongue, and a more formal and conservative language for use in ceremonies and lore, ''Parmaquesta'' or Book-language, "which was originally the spoken language of the Noldor of Túna as it was at approximately period V.Y. 1300". J.R.R. Tolkien, "Outline of Phonology", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 68. Tolkien envisaged that Quenya evolved, internally within Middle-earth, following regular laws or linguistic principles, and that languages, even if different, could interrelate.

Nouns

Numbers

Contrary to many auxiliary languages that have fairly simple systems of grammatical number, in late Quenya nouns can have up to four numbers: singular, general plural (or plural 1), particular/partitive plural (or plural 2), and dual.

In late Quenya Tarquesta, the plural is formed by a suffix to the subjective form of the noun.
:For ''plural 1'', the suffix is or (depending on the type of the noun). In Parmaquesta the is (not always) long (the precise rules have not yet been published).
:For ''plural 2'', the suffix is ( in Parmaquesta).

"Thus in Quenya (not with article!) = Elves, The Elves, All Elves; = (all) the Elves previously named (and in some cases distinguished from other creatures); but , Elves, some Elves. With the definite article is seldom used," J.R.R. Tolkien, "Common Eldarin: Noun Structure", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 21, p. 73.

Not all nouns can have all four numbers since some of them are ''pluralia tantum'' having no singular variant for referring to a single object, such as ; some other nouns, especially monosyllabic ones, use only one of the two plurals judged the most aesthetic by Elves (i.e., Tolkien); with the word "the only plural in use (at any recorded period) was ". J.R.R. Tolkien, "The words for 'hand", ''Vinyar Tengwar'' 47, p. 6. The word has no dual or plural, according to Tolkien. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Declension of Nouns", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 21, p. 40.

Noun declension

Quenya nouns are declined, having cases that often resemble those of Finnish. Declining is the process of inflecting nouns; a set of declined forms of the same word is called a declension. Parmaquesta has ten cases (including short variants). These include the four primary cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and instrumental; three adverbial cases: allative (of which the dative is a shortened form), locative (also with a shortened form), and ablative; and an adjectival case.

Primary cases:

*The nominative is the subject of a verb. It is also used with most prepositions.
*The accusative is the direct object of a verb. It has the same form as the nominative in Tarquesta, but is distinct in Ancient Quenya and in Parmaquesta.
*The genitive is mainly used to mark origin (e.g. ''the best painters'' of ''France''). Its usage sometimes overlaps the ablative, sometimes the adjectival.
*The instrumental marks a noun as a means or instrument.

Adverbial cases:

*The allative expresses motion towards: ''elenna'', 'toward a star, starward(s)'.
*The dative is the indirect object of a verb.
*The locative expresses location or position: ''Lóriendesse'', 'in Lórien'.
*The ablative expresses motion away from: ''earello'', 'from the sea'.

Adjectival case:

*The adjectival case describes qualities, and turns almost any noun into an adjective. It is also used to indicate possession or ownership. In Tarquesta, this usage sometimes overlaps with the genitive.

The declension of the noun in Parmaquesta has been published in the so-called "Plotz Declension" that Tolkien provided in a letter to Dick Plotz in 1967. J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter to Dick Plotz, 1967. First published in the fanzine ''Beyond Bree'' in March 1989. This provides the "classical" declension of two vocalic-stem nouns ''cirya'' "ship" and ''lassë'' "leaf", in four numbers: singular, pl. 1, pl. 2, and dual. The declension has eight chief cases in three groups that Tolkien labelled'' a, b'', and ''c''. Of these cases, Tolkien named only

The allative and locative in turn have (unnamed) short forms (except in the loc. dual), of which the short allative form appears to correspond to the dative case. The third group, c, has only one member (and only in singular and in plural 2), which appears to correspond to the adjectival case as described in the essay "Quendi and Eldar – Essekenta Eldarinwa" written in c. 1960.

The declension of ''cirya'' and ''lasse'' given below is taken from the Plotz Declension and reflects the forms of Classical Quenya. The declensions of ''ondo'' "stone", ''nér'' "man", and ''cas'' "head" are taken from an earlier conceptual period of Quenya (c. 1935). J.R.R. Tolkien. ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 16, p. 113–115

Adjectives

According to Tolkien, adjectives appear only in ''-a, -e, -o'' (rare), and ''-n'' (stem nearly always ''-nd''); ''melin'' "dear", pl. ''melindi''.

Quenya adjectives may be freely used as nouns. J.R.R. Tolkien, "early Qenya Grammar", ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 14, p. 77.

Comparison

The comparative forms of adjectives are in late Quenya normally expressed by the use of the preposition ''lá'', much as in French ''plus'': J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. "Comparative in Eldarin", ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 17, pp. 90–91.

:''A (ná) calima lá B.'' "A is brighter than B."
:.

Note that the use of the copula ''ná'', when in the present tense, is optional.

Some adjectives are irregular. The following table provides the comparative and superlative forms of the adjective ''mára'' "good":

:''A (ná) arya B.'' "A is better than B."

Agreement

An adjective in Quenya '' agrees'' with the noun it describes as regards number, but in general not with respect to case. In other words, the adjectives have specific plural forms, which are used if the corresponding noun is in (ordinary) plural. On the other hand, the case of the noun in general does not influence the form of the adjective.

The historical plural ending for adjectives is -''i''. However, in late Quenya, adjectives ending in -''a'' instead have this -''a'' replaced by -''ë''. Moreover, the adjective ''laurëa'' ("golden") there has the plural form ''laurië'' (in ''laurië lantar lassi'', literary "golden fall (the) leaves", which in singular would have been ''*'laurëa lanta lassë','' "golden falls (the) leaf").

In general, just the noun or pronoun, but not any accompanying adjectives, take case endings. However, sometimes, a case ending on a group consisting of a noun followed by an adjective attribute may be put on the adjective instead of on the noun, as in ''Elendil vorondo voronwe'', "Elendil the faithful's fidelity"; compare this with the noun phrase possessive construction in modern English. The nominative of "Elendil the faithful" would be ''Elendil voronda''.

Verbs

According to Tolkien's own terminology, Quenya verbs are either in a ''personal form'' or an ''impersonal form''. Usually in linguistics, an ''impersonal verb'' is a verb that cannot take a true subject, because it does not represent an action, occurrence, or state-of-being of any specific person, place, or thing. This is not how Tolkien used the term "impersonal". An ''impersonal verb'' form is a verb to which no pronoun is attached, as ''care'' or ''carir''; ''carin'' "I do" is a personal form (''-n'').

The impersonal conjugations provided below were written by J.R.R. Tolkien in the late 1960s, J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 17, p. 77 for ''henta-'' and p. 144 for ''car-'' but only in singular forms. There are apparently two main types of verbs in late Quenya: weak transitive verbs, which are usually 'root' verbs, such as ''car-'' "make; do" from the Elvish base or root KAR-, and derivative intransitive verbs with a strong conjugation, whose stems end mainly in ''-ta'', ''-na'', ''-ya'', formed by putting a verbal suffix to a base or root, like ''henta-'' "to eye", from the Elvish base KHEN- "eye".

Irregular verbs

Some Quenya verbs have irregular conjugations. The verb ''auta-'' comes from the root AWA-, meaning "depart, go away, disappear, be lost, pass away". J.R.R. Tolkien annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 17, p. 63. This verb is used in a sentence in the chapter "Of the Fifth Battle" in ''The Silmarillion'': "Auta i lómë! The night is passing!".

Negation of verbs

As explained by Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, p. 144. verbs in Quenya are negated by prefacing a "negative verb" ''ua-'' (not marked for tense) to the impersonal form of the same tense:

Note that the pronoun is added on the negative verb, not on the main verb, and that the endings are regular. The negative verb concept was apparently borrowed from Finnish.

In Parmaquesta (and in verse) the verb ''ua-'' could be completely conjugated.

Moods

In late Quenya moods (other than the indicative) are expressed by particles, a short function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes:

:''a'' and ''á'' for the imperative mood: ''A laita te!'' "Bless them!", ''Á hyame rámen!'' "Pray for us!".

The Present Imperative of the verb ''auta-'', cited above, is ''á va'' usually written ''áva'' as in ''Áva márië!'' "Go (away) happily!".

The prohibitive mood negates the imperative mood. The two moods have in late Quenya distinct verbal morphology. In late Quenya prohibition is expressed by the particle ''áva''.
:''Áva carë!'' "Don’t do it! Don't make it!"
:''Á carë!'' "Do it!"

When used alone, the particle is ''avá'' (sometimes ''ává'', with two long ''a''s) meaning: "Don't!" (I forbid you to do as you intend). J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. "DLN", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, p. 143.

''Nai'' is used for the optative mood:
:''nai tiruvantes''.

Other particles like ''ce, cé'' are used in the corpus of published Quenya texts, but their precise functions are not known from any of Tolkien's published linguistic papers.

Agreement

The plural forms (suffix ''-r'' in late Quenya) are used only with a detached plural subject. "When the emphatic pronoun is used separately the verb has no inflexion (save for number)". J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, p. 76.

:''Finwë carë.'' ' Finwë is making'.
:''A ar B carir.'' 'A and B are making'.
:''Quendi carir.'' 'The Elves are making'.
:''Carinyë''. 'I am making'.
:''Elyë carë.'' 'He/She is (really) making'.
:''Emme carir''. 'We are (really) making'.

Late Quenya verbs have also a dual agreement morpheme ''-t'':
:''Nai siluvat elen atta.'' "May two stars shine."'' Vinyar Tengwar'', 49, p. 43.

In the imperative mood plurality and duality are not expressed. ''There is no agreement''. The verb stays singular. J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. "Words, Phrases and Passages", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, pp. 93–94. If a plural verb is used as in ''Á carir'' it means "let them do it" referring to persons not present or at any rate not addressed directly.

Copula

The copula in late Quenya is the verb ''na-''. Tolkien stated that it was used only in joining adjectives, nouns, and pronouns in statements (or wishes) asserting (or desiring) a thing to have certain quality, or to be same as another, and also that the copula was not used when the meaning was clear.'' Vinyar Tengwar'' 49, p. 9.
:''Eldar ataformaiti'' can be translated as either "Elves are ambidexters" or "Elves were ambidexters". J.R.R. Tolkien. '' Vinyar Tengwar'', 49, p. 7.
:''A mára.'' "A is good" or "A was good".

The existential aorist/present form ''ëa'' is also used as a noun (with a capital ''E'') as the Quenya name for the Universe, ''Eä'' 'that which is'.

Prepositions and adverbs

In Quenya, there are many similarities in form between prepositions and adverbs since the grammatical case already determines the relation of verb and object.* Many Quenya prepositions have adverb-like uses with no complement. In Common Eldarin, these prepositions were postpositions instead, and later became ''inflectional endings''. Case markings combine primarily with nouns, whereas prepositions can combine with phrases of many different categories. This is why most prepositions in Quenya are used with a noun in the nominative case.

:''an i falmali'' = ''i falmalinna(r)'' "upon the many waves"

The preposition ''an'' is related to the ''-nna'' case ending.

Conjugated prepositions

Quenya has a conjugated preposition formed from the contraction of a preposition with a personal pronoun.

:''ótar'' "(together) with you (Sir or Mam)", and ''ótari'' "(together) with you (Milords or Miladies)". J.R.R. Tolkien. '' Vinyar Tengwar'', 43, p. 29
:''rámen'' "for us".

Pronouns

As with all parts of Quenya grammar, the pronominal system was subject to many revisions throughout Tolkien's life. The following table of late Quenya is taken from two sources of c. 1965–1973, and does not reflect the pronominal system as it stood when Tolkien invented "Qenya" around 1910, which was the early Qenya.

In late Quenya, pronouns have both separate or independent forms, and suffix forms. One source is used for the stressed separate pronouns,"Quenya Pronominal Elements", in '' Vinyar Tengwar'', 49, p. 51. the other for the rest of the table. J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 17, p. 57.

#Printed ''sa'' in the source, it is probably a casual error for ''sá''. But ''te'', not ''té'', was used by the Gondorians: cf. ''a laita te'' in ''The Lord of the Rings''. Maybe both forms (''sa, sá; té, te'') could both be used in Low Quenya.

The separate pronouns have both a short (''lyé'', ''sé'', ''mé'') and long form (''elye'', ''emme'', ''esse'', ''elwe''). Evidence from the published corpus suggests that long separate forms were intensive pronouns, a complete list of which has not been published yet. Tolkien named them "emphatic disjunct pronouns", while short independent pronouns could normally be used in place of enclitic ones.

"I love him" (or "her") can be expressed in Quenya as ''Melinyes'' or ''Melin sé''. J.R.R. Tolkien, '' Vinyar Tengwar'', 49, p. 15. "I love them" would be then ''Melinyet'' or ''Melin té'' (these two forms are reconstructed). As with regular nouns, Quenya lacks a distinction between nominative and accusative case, so the same direct case is used for both; ''melin'' is the first person singular form of the verb, making it clear that ''té'' is the object and not the subject.

The verbal inflexions are subjective but an ''-s'' (singular) and a ''-t'' (plural and dual) may be added to the long subjective pronouns as objectives of the 3rd person: J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. "Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings", ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, p. 110.
:''utúvie-lye-s'', "You have found it/him/her".
:''utúvie-lye-t'', "You have found them".

Noldorin dialect

In the internal development of the language, similar to English, Dutch, and Portuguese, the second person familiar was abandoned in colloquial Noldorin Quenya before the Exile, (see T-V distinction). The following forms became obsolete:
:''-tye, -nce, -xe, -cce''
:''-tya, -nca, -xa, -cca''
:''tyé, tyet''
The ancient polite forms became used in an ordinary context, and so, perhaps at the time when Fëanor was banished from Tirion, a new honorific form was created in Late Noldorin Quenya by adding ''tar'', the Quenya word for ''sir'' and ''madam''. J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 17, p. 58.
:''Carilye tar'', "you do, sir", became ''Cariltar''.

Possessive determiners

The possessive determiners (analogous to English ''my'', ''his'', etc.) are used to indicate the possessor of the noun they determine. They mark the person and number of the possessor, and are inflected to agree with the noun they are attached in number and case. While the English language distinguishes between masculine and feminine singular possessors (''his'' vs. ''her''), late Quenya does not. As in English, possessive determiners do not necessarily express true ''possession''.

Their forms in ''Early colloquial Noldorin Quenya'' are as follows: J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 17, p. 57.

#The i forms, ''-inya'', are used with consonantal nouns: ''atar, atarinya'' 'my father'.
#The e forms, ''-emma'', are used with consonantal nouns: ''atar, ataremma'' 'our father'.

"Since by Quenya idiom in describing the parts of body of several persons the number proper to each individual is used, the plural of parts existing in pairs (as hands, eyes, ears, feet) is seldom required. Thus ''mánta'' "their hand" would be used, (they raised) their hands (one each), ''mántat'', (they raised) their hands (each both), and ''mánte'' could not occur". J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Parma Eldalamberon'', 17, p. 161.

:''Ortanentë mánta.'' They raised their hands.
:''Ortaner mánta.'' They raised their hands.
:''Varda ortanë máryat.'' Varda has uplifted her (two) hands.From the Namárië poem by J.R.R. Tolkien.

So far, according to the published corpus of Quenya texts, ''mánte'' is the sole possessive determiner with a plural ending in ''-ë'' (< ''-ai''). The usual plural ending is ''-r'', ''hildinyar'', "my heirs". This was probably an older device from Parmaquesta.

Syntax

Quenya allows for a very flexible word order because it is an inflectional language like Latin. Nevertheless, it has word order rules. The usual structure is subject–verb–object.

Tolkien explained in his grammar of Common Eldarin the use of the adjective in late Quenya:

"Adjectives normally preceded the qualified noun, and in attributive use were seldom separated from it by other words or elements. A standing exception was made by numerals which usually immediately followed the noun. They he preceding adjectives, not numeralsin fact made "loose compounds" with the qualified noun, and only the qualified noun was inflected. In Quenya attributive adjectives are inflected for number only, if they precede their nouns. If they follow, the situation is reversed. Thus ''Sindar Eldar'', Grey Elves, or ''Eldar sindar'' (abnormal order, only permitted in verse). But ''Sinda Eldo'', a Grey Elf's, ''Sindar Eldaron'', Grey Elves', or (abnormally) ''Eldar sindaron''". J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Christopher Gilson. ''Common Eldarin: Noun Structure.'' in ''Parma Eldalamberon'', n° 21, p. 77.

References

Primary

::''Tolkien's writings''

Mixed

::''Tolkien's writings on Quenya, annotated by other scholars''

Secondary

External links

E. L. F. website



The Vinyar Tengwar site

The Tengwestië site

The Lambengolmor list

Mythopoeic Society, the parent organization of ELF

Quenya Grammar Reexamined
by Anthony Appleyard, 1995

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Middle-earth languages
Grammars of artistic languages