Quenya/Phonology

This document uses the International Phonetic Alphabet for phonetic notation, which will be referenced as IPA.

Vowels

Each vowel in Quenya can be represented as a diacritic, an accent that is placed above a tengwa to denote the vowel that comes AFTER the marked consonant. If the vowel doesn't mark a consonant, it uses a short vowel carrier ` instead. There are five vowels in Quenya:

Tengwar	`C	`V	`B	`N	`M
Vowel	a	e	i	o	u
IPA	/a/	/ɛ/	/ɪ/	/ɔ/	/ʊ/

Vowels also have long forms, and ALWAYS uses a long vowel carrier ~. In the Latin Alphabet, this is shown by using an acute accent mark (or, in some sources, a circumflex eg: â, ê, î, ô, û):

Tengwar	~C	~V	~B	~N	~M
Vowel	á	é	í	ó	ú
IPA	/ɑː/	/eː/	/iː/	/oː/	/uː/

One of the most fundamental rules of Neo-Quenya phonology is that a long vowel can never appear before a consonant cluster. Note, however, that ry, ny, ly, ty do not count as consonant clusters when applying this rule; see below).

Diphthongs

Neo-Quenya has 6 diphthongs:

Tengwar	lD	lY	lU	.D	.F	.G
Vowel	ai	oi	ui	au	eu	iu
IPA	/ai̯/	/oi̯/	/ui̯/	/au̯/	/eu̯/	/i̯u/

Any other group of two or more sequential vowels cannot form a diphthong. These vowels consequently always belong to separate syllables:

• `V`C ëa "to exist" → [ɛ.a]

• `H`C oa "away" → [ɔ.a]

• 1T`V tië "path" → [tɪ.ɛ]

• j$`N lëo "shade" → [lɛ.ɔ]

• j^`V2$ loëndë "mid year's day (Númenórean Calendar)" → [lɔ.ɛn.dɛ]

Diaeresis

Spelling Quenya in the Latin alphabet might use diaereses in certain situations. Its use has been to prevent English pronunciation being imposed on a Quenya word, often to make the unfamiliar reader pronounce it more closely to its phonetic spelling. The use of the diaeresis may or may not be used, depending on the writer's preference or audience. It must be noted that it makes no difference to pronunciation and meaning of a Quenya word or sentence.

The diaeresis can be found or used:

• When `V e → ë is the final vowel of a word to denote it's not silent.

• yR2$ vende → vendë

Single syllable words ending in e don't get a diaeresis:

• yR ve

• When vowel combinations don't form diphthongs:

• `V`C ea → ëa.
• `V`N eo → ëo.
• `B`V ie → ië.
• `N`V oe → oë.

• When ea → ëa is capitalized to Ea → Eä:

• `V`C7R2%j Earendil → Eärendil.

Consonants

Single consonants

The pronunciation of most of these is easy as they correspond to the standard pronunciation of these consonants. But let's have a look at them one by one:

• 1 t = /t/

• q p = /p/
• a c = /k/

• 8 - * - i - I - 3 s = /s/

• e f = /f/

• 9 - d h = /h : h - x/

• 5 n = /n/

• t m = /m/

• 7 - 6 r = /r/ (trilled)

• y v = /v/

• h y = /j/

• j l = /l/

Quenya used to have the consonants g ñ (/ŋ/) and 3 th (/θ/). This changed to /n/ and /s/ in Exilic Quenya, and words originating from these letters can either be written by their original pronunciation or modern pronunciation.

• g^m^ - Ñoldo : 5^m^ - Noldo

• 3~M7R - Thúrë : 8~M7R - Súrë

See also Quenya Tengwar.

Double consonants

The double consonants permitted in Quenya are:

Double Consonants
a; a'	j° j¸	t: t"	5: 5"	q; q'	7; 7'	K ,	1; 1'
cc	ll	mm	nn	pp	rr	ss	tt

The two different kinds of bars are just for aesthetic purposes of writing, and uses of both are acceptable. They should be pronounced longer than their single counterparts, so it should be possible to hear a clear difference between e.g. a; cc and a c.

Consonant clusters forming a unit

Even though these groups are considered units, when we want to determine the length of a syllable they count as a consonant cluster:

Consonant Cluster Units
d1	ht	/xt/, /çt/
m	ld	/ld/
w	mb	/mb/
2	nd	/nd/
s	ng	/ŋg/
z	qu	/kw/
u	rd	/rd/
a|	x	/ks/

Following groups are also units, but they only appear at the beginning of words:

Initial Consonant Cluster Units
c	hw	/ʍ/
½j	hl	(/l/) or (/ɬ/)
½7	hr	(/r/) or (/r̥/)
9Í	hy	/ç/
b	nw	/nw/

And finally a special group:

Special Consonant Cluster Units
7Î	ry	[rj]
5Ì	ny	[nj]
j´	ly	[lj]
1Î	ty	[cʲ]

These are slightly different as they always count as a single consonant when preceded by a long vowel, but as a consonant cluster when determining syllable length with a short vowel.

Other consonant groups

Neo-Quenya is very restrictive in the use of consonants as only certain combinations are allowed.

Following list contains the consonant groups that are allowed but aren't considered as a unit:

All Quenya Consonant Combinations
d1Î	hty	ja	lc	jt	lm	jq	lp	jz	lqu
j1	lt	jy	lv	jn	lw	t5	mn	r	mp
tÌ	my	f	nc	x	ngw	v	nqu	4	nt
4Ì	nty	5n	nw	q¡-q8	ps	q1	pt	6a	rc
6t	rm	65	rn	6z	rqu	61	rt	61Î	rty
68	rs	6n	rw	8a	sc	8z	squ	81	st
81Î	sty	8n	sw	1+-1Ç-18	ts	1n	tw	a|	x

From this list we e.g. conlude that np isn't allowed and has to be converted into mp.

These are the only consonants that can be found at the end of the word:

All Final Quenya Consonants
5	6	8	j	1	4
n	r	s	l	t	nt

Stress

To know which syllable is stressed, we first have to understand the length of a syllable:

A short syllable can consist of:

• A short vowel:

a, e, i, o, u

• A single consonant followed by a short vowel:

ta, me, ni, ro, lu, etc.

• A short vowel between two single consonants:

tan, met, nil, ros, lus, etc.

A long syllable can consist of:

• A long vowel:

á, é, í, ó, ú

• A diphthong:

ai, oi, ui, au, eu, iu

• A short vowel followed by a consonant cluster.

ard-, end-, ist-, olv-, umb-, etc.

So the stress rules are:

• A monosyllabic word is stressed on that syllable

• A disyllabic word (two syllables) is stressed on the first syllable

• A word with more than two syllables is stressed on the penultimate (second last syllable) if it is long and on the third last syllable if it is longer than the penultimate syllable.

In these examples the penultimate syllable is short:

yR81Ej$ vestalë "marriage" ves-ta-lë, [ˈvɛs.ta.lɛ]

j.D7R`C laurëa "golden" lau-re-a, [ˈlau̯.rɛ.a]

hÎDyE5"%`V Yavannië "september" Ya-van-ni-ë, [ja.ˈvan.nɪ.ɛ]

In these examples the penultimate syllable is long:

`Vj$4~C7T Elentári "Starqueen" E-len-tá-ri, [ɛ.lɛn.ˈtaː.rɪ]

9C81lD5# hastaina "marred" has-tai-na, [has.ˈtai̯.na]

yEj#7.DaY Valarauco "Balrog" Va-la-rau-co, [va.la.ˈrau̯.kɔ]

`Vj$2%j Elendil "Elendil" E-len-dil, [ɛ.ˈlɛn.dɪl]

The consonants x and qu count as a consonant cluster (cs and cw):

9RjaE7Ea|R Helcaraxë "Helcaraxë" Hel-ca-rac-së, [hel.ka.ˈrak.sɛ]

aG7ÎDzR5 ciryaquen "sailor" cir-ya-quen, [kɪr.ˈja.kwɛn]

The special consonant clusters ry, ly, ny, ty are considered consonant clusters when determining stress (see above):

`Vj$5Ì# Elenya "Sunday" E-len-ya, [ɛ.ˈlɛn.ja]

These rules also imply that it is not always a syllable with long vowel that is stressed (in some languages like Swedish this is always true, so speakers of these languages have to be extra careful when stressing such words):

~MjlD7T Úlairi "Nazgûl" Ú-lai-ri, [uː.ˈlai̯.rɪ]

qEj#4~B6 palantír "seeing-stone" pa-lan-tír, [pa.ˈlan.tiːr]

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