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Quenya - the Ancient Tongue
Also spelt: Qenya, Qendya, Quendya
Also called: High-elven/High-elvish, the High Speech of the Noldor, the Ancient Speech, the speech of the Elves of Valinor, Elf-latin/Elven-latin, Valinorean, Avallonian, Eressëan, parmalambë (Book-tongue), tarquesta (high-speech), Nimriyê (in Adûnaic), Goldórin or Goldolambë (in Telerin), Cweneglin or Cwedhrin (in Gnomish).
INTERNAL HISTORY
DESIGNATIONS OF THE LANGUAGE
EXTERNAL HISTORY
THE STRUCTURE OF QUENYA: A BRIEF SURVEY
Elementary Phonology
The Noun
The Article
The Verb
The Adjective
The Participles
Pronouns
Quenya Wordlists
APPENDIX: EXAMPLES OF QUENYA NOUNS FULLY INFLECTED

INTERNAL HISTORY
Quenya or High-elven is the most prominent language of the Amanya branch of the Elvish language family. In Aman there were two dialects of Quenya, Vanyarin and Noldorin. For historical reasons, only the latter was used in Middle-earth. The only other Eldarin language spoken in Aman, Telerin, could also be considered a dialect of Quenya, but it was usually held to be a separate language and is not discussed here (see separate article).
Compared to many other Elvish tongues, Quenya was archaic. It preserved the main features of the original Elvish language, invented by the Elves when they first awoke by the mere of Cuiviénen - a tongue with "many...beautiful words, and many cunning artifices of speech" (WJ:422). In fact, the Silmarillion Index refers to Quenya as "the ancient tongue, common to all Elves, in the form it took in Valinor" in Aman - as if Quenya was so similar to Primitive Elvish that it was merely as a later form of it, not a new language. Indeed Primitive Elvish and Quenya may have been mutually intelligible, but it must not be thought that they were almost identical. In Valinor, the ancient Elvish tongue underwent certain changes: "Its altering ...[came] in the making of new words (for things old and new) and in the softening and harmonizing of the sounds and patterns of the Quendian tongue to forms that seemed to the Noldor more beautiful" (WJ:20). The sounds b and d became v and l (or n) initially, final long vowels were shortened, unstressed medial vowels often disappeared, and many consonant clusters underwent metathesis or other changes, generally making them easier to pronounce. Quenya also adopted and adapted a few words from the language of the rulers of Aman - the Valar, the Angelic Powers guarding the world on behalf of its Creator. However, the Valar themselves encouraged the Elves to "make new words of their own style, or...translate the meaning of names into fair Eldarin forms" instead of retaining or adapting Valarin words (WJ:405). It is stated that the Noldor "were changeful in speech, for they had great love of words, and sought ever to find names more fit for all things that they knew or imagined" (Silm. ch. 5).

In Aman, Quenya was spoken not only by the Vanyar and the Noldor, but also by the Valar: "The Valar appear quickly to have adopted Quenya" after the arrival of the Elves, and their own tongue, Valarin, was not often heard by the Eldar: "Indeed it is said that often the Valar and Maiar might be heard speaking Quenya among themselves" (WJ:305). Pengolodh the sage of Gondolin notes: "In the histories the Valar are always presented as speaking Quenya in all circumstances. But this cannot proceed from translation by the Eldar, few of which knew Valarin. The translation must have been made by the Valar or Maiar themselves. Indeed those histories or legends that deal with times before the awakening of the Quendi, or with the uttermost past, or with things that the Eldar could not have known, must have been presented from the first in Quenya by the Valar or the Maiar when they instructed the Eldar." He mentions the Ainulindalë as an example: "It must...have been from the first presented to us not only in the words of Quenya, but also according to our modes of thought." Indeed even Melkor learnt Quenya, and learnt it well. "Alas," Pengolodh notes, "in Valinor Melkor used the Quenya with such mastery that all the Eldar were amazed, for his use could not be bettered, scarce equalled even, by the poets and the loremasters." (VT39:27)
When Rúmil invented letters, Quenya became the first language to be recorded in writing (Silm. ch. 6, LotR Appendix F). But outside the Blessed Realm of Aman, Quenya would never have been known if it had not been for the rebellion of the Noldor in the First Age. Most of this clan left Aman and went into exile in Middle-earth, bringing the High-elven tongue with them. In Middle-earth the Noldor were greatly outnumbered by the native Sindar or Grey-elves, who spoke a clearly related, yet quite different language. The Sindarin tongue had long since dropped the case inflections that were still preserved in Quenya, and the general sound of the two languages differed much - Quenya was much more vocalic than Sindarin and had a very limited distribution of the voiced stops b, d, g, that were frequent in Sindarin. As it turned out, "the Noldor...learned swiftly the speech of Beleriand [i.e. Sindarin], whereas the Sindar were slow to master the tongue of Valinor [i.e. Quenya]". Twenty years after the coming of the Noldor to Middle-earth, "the tongue of the Grey-elves was most spoken even by the Noldor" (Silm. ch. 13). When King Thingol of Doriath finally learnt that the Noldor had killed many of his kinsfolk among the Teleri and stolen their ships when they left Valinor, he banned the use of Quenya throughout his realm. Consequently, "the Exiles took the Sindarin tongue in all their daily uses, and the High Speech of the West was spoken only by the lords of the Noldor among themselves. Yet that speech lived ever as a language of lore, wherever any of that people dwelt" (Silm. ch. 15).

Thus Quenya did survive, even in the dark First Age. In fact, the vocabulary was expanded: The Noldor adopted and adapted some words from other tongues, such as Casar "dwarf" from Dwarvish Khazad and certa "rune" from Sindarin certh (WJ:388, 396). Some words already in use developed new or modified meanings in Exilic Quenya, such as urco, a word that in Valinorean Quenya was used of "anything that caused fear to the Elves, any dubious shape or shadow, or prowling creature" that was remembered in ancient tales of the March from Cuiviénen. In Exilic Quenya, however, urco was recognized as a cognate of Sindarin orch and was used to translate it; hence the meaning of urco was now simply "Orc" (WJ:390; the Sindarin-influenced form orco was also used). When the Edain arrived in Beleriand, they learned not only Sindarin, but "to a certain extent Quenya also" (WJ:410). Though Quenya "was never a spoken language among Men" (Plotz Letter), High-elven names like Elendil became popular among the Edain. Túrin gave himself the Quenya name Turambar or "Master of Doom", and his sister Nienor cried some High-elven words before she killed herself (Silm. ch. 21).
There are also numerous examples of Quenya being used or remembered by the Noldorin Exiles themselves: When Turgon built his hidden city, "he appointed its name to be Ondolindë in the speech of the Elves of Valinor", though the Sindarin-adapted form Gondolin became the usual name of the city. Even in Gondolin, Quenya "had become a language of books" for most people, "and as the other Noldor they used Sindarin in daily speech". Nonetheless, Tuor heard the Guard of Gondolin speak "in the High Speech of the Noldor, which he knew not". It is also stated that "Quenya was in daily use in Turgon's house, and was the childhood speech of Eärendil" (UT:44, 55). PM:348 confirms that "Turgon after his foundation of the secret city of Gondolin had re-established Quenya as the daily speech of his household". Aredhel left Gondolin and was captured by Eöl, to whom she bore a son, and "in her heart she gave him a name in the forbidden tongue of the Noldor, Lómion, that signifies Child of the Twilight" (Silm ch. 16). Eöl later called his son by the Sindarin name Maeglin, but Aredhel "taught Maeglin the Quenya tongue, though Eöl had forbidden it" (WJ:337).

However, Quenya as spoken by the Exiles early underwent some minor changes, probably before Thingol's edict against its use largely froze all processes of linguistic change. In a letter to Dick Plotz, Tolkien described the noun declension of an old form of Quenya, so-called "Book Quenya". Tolkien writes that "as far as was known to [mortal] men - to the Númenorean scholars, and such of these as survived in Gondor in [the Third Age] - these were the forms used in writing". But he further notes: "Quenya as a spoken language had changed to a certain extent among the Noldor before it ceased to be a birth tongue [i.e. early in their exile]... In this 'colloquial' form it continued to be spoken among Elves of Noldorin origin, but was preserved from further change since it was learned anew from writing by each generation." The implication seems to be that also this "colloquial" form of Quenya could be used in writing, and that this was the Quenya of the writings from which each generation learned the language anew. These would be writings written by the Noldor during their exile, after their language had diverged slightly from Amanian Quenya (in particular by the loss of the accusative case): "Exilic conditions...made necessary the writing down anew from memory of many of the pre-Exilic works of lore and song" (PM:332). The Númenorean scholars may have picked up a more archaic form of Quenya because they were in contact with the Eldar of Eressëa and Valinor, not only the Noldorin Exiles in Middle-earth. Today, most writers do not use Book Quenya, but the Exilic Noldorin form of High-Elven, the language of Galadriel's Lament (LotR1/II ch. 8).
The First Age ended in the War of Wrath. At the beginning of the Second Age, some of the Noldor returned to Aman, "but some lingered many an age in Middle-earth" (Silm. ch. 24). Thus, native speakers of Quenya were still present in the Hither Lands. Indeed even their greatest enemy made a Quenya name for himself when he appeared to the Elves in a fair form to deceive them: Annatar, the Lord of Gifts (Of the Rings of Power in Silm). His real name was also Quenya, but one may well understand that he did not like it: Sauron, the Abhorred (see Silm. Index). Later, the Smiths of Eregion gave Quenya names to their greatest works: Narya, Nenya, and Vilya, the greatest of the Rings of Power save the One Ring itself.

However, the history of the Second Age is dominated by the saga of Númenor, the great isle given to the Edain by the Valar. Originally all the Edain were Elf-friends, and most of them knew Sindarin (though the daily speech of the Númenóreans was Adûnaic, a Mannish tongue). We are told that "the lore-masters among them learned also the High Eldarin tongue of the Blessed Realm, in which much story and song was preserved from the beginning of the world... So it came to pass that, beside their own names, all the lords of the Númenóreans had also Eldarin [Quenya and/or Sindarin] names; and the like with the cities and fair places that they founded in Númenor and on the shores of the Hither Lands" (Akallabêth). Examples of Quenya names in Númenor include Meneltarma, Armenelos, Rómenna and the name Númenor itself. Yet the fact remained that "Quenya was not a spoken tongue in Númenor. It was known only to the learned and to the families of high descent, to whom it was taught in their early youth. It was used in official documents intended for preservation, such as the Laws, and the Scroll and the Annals of the Kings..., and often in more recondite works of lore. It was also largely used in nomenclature: the official names of all places, regions, and geographical features in the land were of Quenya form (though they usually had also local names, generally of the same meaning, in either Sindarin or Adúnaic [Númenorean]. The personal names, and especially the official and public names, of all members of the royal house, and of the Line of Elros in general, were given in Quenya form" (UT:216). The Kings took Quenya names because High-Elven was "the noblest tongue in the world" (UT:218). However, times would change.
The Númenoreans began to envy the immortality of the Elves, and the friendship with Aman gradually became cold. When the twentieth King of Númenor ascended the throne in the year 2899 of the Second Age, he broke with the ancient custom and took the sceptre with a title in Adûnaic instead of Quenya: Ar-Adûnakhôr, Lord of the West. In his reign "the Elven-tongues were no longer used, nor permitted to be taught, but were maintained in secret by the Faithful; and the ships from Eressëa came seldom and secretly to the west shores of Númenor thereafter" (UT:222). In 3102 Ar-Gimi
lz
ôr became the twenty-third King, and "he forbade utterly the use of the Eldarin tongues, and would not permit any of the Eldar to come to the land, and punished those that welcomed them" (UT:223). Indeed "the Elvish tongues were proscribed by the rebel Kings, and Adûnaic alone was permitted to be used, and many of the ancient books in Quenya or in Sindarin were destroyed" (PM:315).

However, Gimilzôr's son Inziladûn proved to be of a very different character when he became King in 3177 (or 3175 according to one source - see UT:227). He repented of the ways of the Kings before him and took a title in Quenya according to the ancient custom: Tar-Palantir, the Far-Sighted. Tar-Palantir "would fain have returned to the friendship of the Eldar and the Lords of the West", but it was too late (UT:223). His only child, a daughter, he named Míriel in Quenya. She should have been Ruling Queen after his death in 3255, but she was forced to marry Pharazôn, son of Tar-Palantir's brother Gimilkhâd. Pharazôn took her to wife against her will to usurp the sceptre of Númenor. Evidently he could not stand her Quenya name and changed it to Zimraphel in Adûnaic. Proud and arrogant, Ar-Pharazôn challenged Sauron in Middle-earth. The evil Maia cunningly pretended to surrender, whereupon Pharazôn "in the folly of his pride carried him back as a prisoner to Númenor. It was not long before he had bewitched the King and was master of his counsel; and soon he had turned the heart of all the Númenoreans, except the remnant of the Faithful, back towards the darkness" (LotR Appendix A). Sauron made the King believe that he would become immortal if he managed to wrest the rulership of Aman from the Valar, and eventually Pharazôn did attempt to invade the Blessed Realm. As Sauron well knew, the Númenoreans could never conquer the Powers, and as he had foreseen, Pharazôn's armada was utterly defeated. However, Sauron had not foreseen that the Valar would call upon the One Himself, and that He would use His power to change the entire shape of the world. The Blessed Realm was removed from the visible world into the realm of hidden things, and with it went all native speakers of Quenya save those of the Noldor who lingered in Middle-earth. Númenor itself disappeared in the sea, and we shall never know the number of the books written in Quenya that were lost in the ruin of the Isle of the Kings. The sunken isle was given new High-elven names: Mar-nu-Falmar, Land (lit. Home) under Waves, and Atalantë, the Downfallen.
The only survivors of the Downfall were Elendil, Isildur, Anárion and those who followed them on their ships. As their Quenya names give away, they were Elf-friends and had no part in the rebellion against the Valar. In Middle-earth they founded the Realms in Exile, Arnor and Gondor. Sauron soon attacked Gondor, but he was defeated in the Battle of Dagorlad, and after seven years of siege he had to leave the Barad-dûr and was slain by Gil-galad, Elendil, and Isildur; only the last of these survived. So ended the Second Age of the World, but the Realms in Exile survived into the Third Age, and among the scholars of Arnor and Gondor the knowledge of Quenya was preserved.

Designations of the Language
The word Quenya, in the Vanyarin dialect Quendya, is an adjective formed upon the same stem as Quendi "Elves"; the basic meaning is thus "Elvish, Quendian". But the word Quenya was also associated with the stem quet- "speak", and indeed the stems quet- and quen- may be related: Tolkien speculated that "the oldest form of this stem referring to vocal speech was *KWE, of which *KWENE and *KWETE were elaborations" (WJ:392). The Elvish loremasters held that Quendi meant "those who speak with voices", and according to Pengolodh, Quenya meant properly "language, speech" (WJ:393). However, this may simply reflect the fact that Quenya was the only known language when the adjective Quen(d)ya "Quendian" was first applied to Elvish speech (elliptically for Quenya lambë "Quendian tongue"). Later the word Quenya was used exclusively as a name of this language, not as a general adjective meaning "Elvish, Quendian". The Noldor, however, "did not forget its connection with the old word Quendi, and still regarded the name as implying 'Elvish', that is the chief Elvish tongue, the noblest, and the one most nearly preserving the ancient character of Elvish speech" (WJ:374).
Quenya is also called parmalambë "the book-tongue" and tarquesta "high-speech" (LR:172; cf. "the High Speech of the Noldor" in UT:44). As Quenya originated in Valinor, it could also be termed Valinorean (LotR3/V ch. 8) or "the speech of the Elves of Valinor" (Silm. ch. 15). After the end of the First Age, many Noldor dwelt on the isle of Tol Eressëa, near to the coast of Aman. Therefore, Quenya is also known as Eressëan, or Avallonian after the Eresseän city of Avallónë (LR:41, SD:241). To the Amanian Teleri, Quenya was Goldórin or Goldolambe, evidently meaning "Noldoic" and "Noldo-tongue", respectively (WJ:375). In Gnomish, Tolkien's first attempt to reconstruct the language that much later turned out to be Sindarin, the word for Quenya ("Qenya") was Cweneglin or Cwedhrin, but these words are certainly not valid in LotR-style Sindarin (Parma Eldalamberon No. 11 p. 28).The Elf Gildor referred to Quenya as "the Ancient Tongue" (LotR1/I ch. 3), and being the most prestigious language in the world, it is also called "the High Speech of the West", "the high Eldarin tongue" (Silm. ch. 15, Akallabêth) or "High Ancient Elven" (WR:160). By the Númenóreans, Quenya was called Nimriyê or "Nimrian tongue", as the Dúnedain called the Elves Nimîr, the Beautiful. (SD:414, cf. WJ:386). Later, Frodo referred to Quenya as "the ancient tongue of the Elves beyond the Sea" and "the language...of Elven-song". (LotR1/II ch. 8) In English, Tolkien also used designations like "High-elven" (occasionally in Letters: "High-elvish") and "Elf-Latin, Elven-Latin" (Letters p. 176). In Middle-earth, Quenya eventually became a language of ceremony and lore, so Tolkien deemed it comparable to Latin in Europe.

EXTERNAL HISTORY
Quenya, originally spelt "Qenya", goes back to at least 1915. It seems that it was this year 23-year-old Tolkien compiled the "Qenya Lexicon", one of the very first Elvish word-lists (see LT1:246). Countless revisions affecting both grammar and vocabularly separate the earliest "Qenya" from the more-or-less final form that is exemplified in The Lord of the Rings, but the general phonetic style was present from the beginning. More developed forms of Quenya emerged in the thirties, but minor revisions were being done even while LotR was being written, such as changing the genitive ending from -n to -o. There are also a few changes in the revised second edition of LotR, like when Tolkien decided that the word vánier in Galadriel's Lament should rather be avánier.
Throughout his life, Tolkien continued to refine the High-Elven tongue, that according to his son Christopher was "language as he wanted it, the language of his heart" (from the TV program J.R.R. Tolkien - A Portrait by Landseer Productions). In one of his letters, Tolkien himself wrote: "The archaic language of lore is meant to be a kind of 'Elven-latin', and by transcribing it into a spelling closely resembling that of Latin...the similarity to Latin has been increased ocularly. Actually it might be said to be composed on a Latin basis with two other (main) ingredients that happen to give me 'phonaesthetic' pleasure: Finnish and Greek. It is however less consonantal than any of the three. This language is High-elven or in its own terms Quenya (Elvish)" (Letters:176). Quenya was the ultimate experiment in euphony and phonaesthetics, and according to the taste of many, it was a glorious success. The grammatical structure, involving a large number of cases and other inflections, is clearly inspired by Latin and Finnish.

The longest sample of Quenya in The Lord of the Rings is Galadriel's Lament, sc. the poem Namárië near the end of the chapter Farewell to Lórien (LotR1/II ch. 8, starting Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen...) Many of the examples referred to in the following discussion are drawn from this poem. Other important Quenya texts include the Markirya poem in MC:222-223 and Fíriel's Song in LR:72, though the grammar of the latter differs somewhat from LotR-style Quenya; it represents one of Tolkien's earlier "Qenya" variants. (Markirya is very late and hence presumably meant to be entirely LotR-compatible.)
In recent years millions of people have been exposed to Tolkien's languages not only in the written medium provided by Tolkien himself, but also through the Peter Jackson movies. Most of the Elvish heard in these movies (including all the subtitled exchanges) is Sindarin, the Elvish vernacular, rather than Quenya, the ancient ceremonial tongue. Yet there are at least three prominent examples of spoken Quenya in the movies: Saruman's invocation when he tries to bring down the mountain on the Fellowship (nai yarvaxëa rasselya taltuva notto-carinnar, "may your bloodstained horn collapse upon enemy heads"), Frodo "speaking in tongues" in Shelob's Lair (aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima, "hail Eärendil brightest of stars"), and Aragorn's coronation formula, originally the oath of Elendil when he came to Middle-earth from the ruin of Númenor (et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinomë maruvan, ar hildinyar, tenn' Ambar-metta, "out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come. In this place will I abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world"). The first of these three samples was composed by Tolkien-linguist David Salo using Tolkienian grammar and words; the other two are taken directly from the book.

THE STRUCTURE OF QUENYA: A BRIEF SURVEY
Elementary Phonology
Quenya has five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, short and long; the long vowels are marked with an accent: á, é, í, ó, ú. The vowel a is extremely frequent. The quality of the vowels resembles the system in Spanish or Italian rather than English. To clarify the pronunciation for readers used to English orthography, Tolkien sometimes adds a diaeresis over some vowels (e.g. Manwë rather than Manwe to indicate that the final e is not silent, or Eärendil to indicate that the vowels e and a are pronounced separately and not drawn together as in English ear - the dots are not necessary for the meaning and can safely be left out in e-mail). The diphthongs are ai, au, oi, ui, eu, iu. (A seventh diphthong ei seems to occur in one or two words, but its status is uncertain.) The consonants are for the most part the same as in English, with the sibilants as the main exception: Ch as in church does not occur, neither does j as in joy, and instead of sh, zh (the latter like s in pleasure), Quenya has a sound like the German ich-Laut, spelt hy by Tolkien (e.g. hyarmen "south"). The h of English huge, human is sometimes pronounced as a weak variant of the sound in question. Quenya also lacks th (unvoiced as in thing or voiced as in the); unvoiced th did occur at an earlier stage, but merged with s shortly before the rebellion of the Noldor (see PM:331-333).
It should also be noted that the voiced plosives b, d, g only occur in the clusters mb, nd/ld/rd and ng (some varieties of Quenya also had lb instead of lv). There are no initial consonant clusters, except qu (= cw), ty, ny and nw if we count the semi-vowels y, w as consonants. Normally there are no final clusters either; words end either in one of the single consonants t, s, n, l, r or in a vowel, more often the latter. Medially between vowels, a limited number of consonant clusters may occur; those described by Tolkien as "frequent" or "favoured" are in italics: cc, ht, hty, lc, ld, ll, lm, lp, lqu, lt, lv, lw, ly, mb, mm, mn, mp, my, nc, nd, ng, ngw, nn, nqu, nt, nty, nw, ny, ps, pt, qu (for cw), rc, rd, rm, rn, rqu, rr, rt, rty, rs, rw, ry, sc, squ, ss, st, sty, sw, ts, tt, tw, ty, x (for ks). A few other combinations may occur in compounds. Quenya phonology is quite restrictive, giving the language a clearly defined style and flavour.
Note that in Quenya spelling, the letter c is always pronounced k (so cirya "ship" = kirya). Tolkien was inconsistent about this; in many sources the letter k is used, but in LotR he decided to spell Quenya as similar to Latin as possible. In some cases, k in the sources has been regularized to c in the following discussion.

Then there is the possessive, by some called the "associative" or "adjectival case"; Tolkien himself speaks of it as a "possessive-adjectival...genitive" in WJ:369. This case has the ending -va (-wa on nouns ending in a consonant). Its general function is like the English genitive, to express ownership: Mindon Eldaliéva "Tower of the Eldalië". The function of the possessive was long poorly understood. In Namárië it occurs in the phrase yuldar...miruvóreva, "draughts...of mead". This one example, that for more than twenty years was the only one we had, made many conclude that the function of this case was to show what something is composed of - indeed the case itself was called "compositive". Luckily, The War of the Jewels p. 368-369 finally gave us Tolkien's own explanation of the more normal functions of this case, and how it differs from the genitive. The possessive can, as already stated, denote possession or ownership. Tolkien gives the example róma Oroméva, "Oromë's horn", used of a horn that belonged/belongs to Oromë at the time that is being narrated (past or present). Genitive róma Oromëo would also translate as "Oromë's horn", but properly it would mean "a horn coming from Oromë", implying that the horn had left Oromë's possession at the time that is being narrated. However, the genitive intruded on the functions of the possessive in later ages. Cf. genitive Vardo tellumar, not possessive *tellumar Vardava, for "Varda's domes" in Namárië (if the genitive does not imply that the domes originated with Varda rather than that she owns them).
The dative has the ending -n. This ending generally translates as the preposition "for" or "to"; the dative pronoun nin "for me" (from ni "I") is found in Namárië: Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? "Who now will refill the cup for me?" Often the dative corresponds to an indirect object in English: *I nís antanë i hínan anna, "the woman gave the child a gift" (gave a gift to the child).
The locative has the ending -ssë, that carries the meaning "on" or "in". In the Tengwar version of Namárië that is found in RGEO, the poem has the superscript Altariello Nainië Lóriendessë, "Galadriel's Lament in Lóriendë (Lórien)". In the plural, this ending has the form -ssen, seen in the word mahalmassen "on thrones" in UT:305 cf. 317 (mahalma "throne"). This ending also occurs on the relative pronoun ya in Namárië: yassen "wherein, in which" (Vardo tellumar...yassen tintilar i eleni, *"Varda's domes...in which the stars tremble"). Refering back to a singular word, "in which" would presumably be yassë. The use of case endings rather than prepositions to express "in, from, to, with" (cf. the next paragraphs) is a characteristic feature of Quenya grammar.
Nouns ending in -l or -n can have locative forms in -dë, e.g. meneldë, cemendë as the locative forms of menel "heaven", cemen "earth" (VT43:13,17). This -dë apparently descends from older -zë (the forms menelzë, cemenzë are also attested), and -zë would in turn come from *-së, a shorter variant of the full ending -ssë.

The ablative has the ending -llo, that carries the meaning "from" or "out of". An example from Namárië is sindanóriello, "out of a grey country" (sinda-nórie-llo: "grey-country-from"). There is also the word Rómello, *"from (the) East", contraction of *Rómenello (Rómen "[the] East"). Cf. also the word Ondolindello "from Ondolindë (Gondolin)" in J. R. R. Tolkien - Artist and Illustrator p. 193.
The allative has the ending -nna, meaning "to", "into" or "upon". Both the ablative and the allative are exemplified in the words spoken by Elendil when he came to Middle-earth after the Downfall of Númenor, repeated by Aragorn at his coronation (LotR3/VI ch. 5): Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. "Out of [lit. out from] the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come" (Endor(e)-nna "Middle-earth-to"). The allative may also carry the meaning "upon"; cf. i falmalinnar "upon the foaming waves" in Namárië (-linnar being the ending for partitive plural allative; see below).
The instrumental case has the ending -nen and marks the instrument with which something is done, or simply the reason why something happens. Examples from Namárië are laurië lantar lassi súrinen, "like gold fall [the] leaves in [or by] the wind", i eleni [tintilar] airetári-lírinen, "the stars tremble in her song, holy and queenly", literally *"the stars tremble by holyqueen-song". An example of a more typical "instrumental" instrumental is provided by the sentence i carir quettar ómainen, "those who form words with voices" (WJ:391), ómainen being the plural instrumental of óma "voice".
Respective (?): This is what some have called a case that is listed in a letter Tolkien sent to Dick Plotz in the second half of the sixties (the so-called Plotz Letter is indeed our main source of information about the Quenya cases). The ending is -s (plural -is), but Tolkien did not identify this case by any name, nor have we ever seen it used in a text. Its function is therefore wholly unknown; it has indeed been called the Mystery Case. Some writers have used it simply as an alternative locative ending. They have had no nightly visits by Tolkien afterwards, so perhaps this is acceptable to him.
If case endings are added to a noun ending in a consonant, an e is often inserted between the noun and the ending to prevent a difficult cluster from arising: Elendil with the allative ending -nna "to" becomes Elendilenna "to Elendil" (PM:401), not **Elendilnna. However, if the noun is plural, an i is inserted between the noun and the ending: elenillor "from (the) stars" (elen "star") (MC:222).

The numbers are singular, plural, partitive plural and dual. The singular needs no explanation. The simple plural, with no definite article (i "the") in front of it, will often refer to the entire "race" denoted by the noun in question: Eldar is not simply "Elves" in a vague indeterminate sense, but rather "(all) Elves", the Elvish race. In English it is then natural to include the article and speak of "the Eldar" (as is done throughout Tolkien’s narratives). But in Quenya, i Eldar with the article rather means "the Elves" referring to some specific group of Elves previously mentioned, not the whole race (VT49:8).
The function of the partitive plural (so called by Tolkien in WJ:388) is to denote "some" out of a larger group. It seems this is the plural form used to first introduce something: If one were to say "I saw some Elves in the forest", the phrase "some Elves" would be represented by the partitive plural Eldali in Quenya. The form thus identifies these Elves as a group distinct from all Elves (= Eldar, without article). Once these particular Elves have been established as a distinct group, they would be referred to as i Eldar, "the Elves" (that is, the ones previously mentioned or otherwise known).
Tolkien noted that with a partitive plural like Eldali, "the definite article is seldom used" (VT49:8). In is possible, though unconfirmed, that a partitive plural form combined with the article implies "many" of the thing in question. The element li in the phrase i falmalinnar "upon the foaming waves" in Namárië was translated "many" by Tolkien in his interlinear translation in RGEO:66-67. Since -li is the ending for partitive plural, it was long called "multiple plural" by researchers; indeed it was thought that it simply meant "many" of the thing in question (whereas the normal plural only meant "several"). We now know that this is not quite what Tolkien intended, but it still seems possible that a construction like i falmalinnar implies *"upon the (many) foaming waves". The Elvish stem LI, related to the partitive plural ending, does have the basic meaning "many" (LR:369).
The dual is used with reference to a natural pair, like two hands belonging to one person (cf. the word máryat "her hands" in Namárië, -t being a dual ending: literally "her pair of hands").
The nominative plural is formed with one of two endings. The ending -r is used if the noun ends in any vowel except -ë; well-known examples are Vala pl. Valar, Elda pl. Eldar, Ainu pl. Ainur. If the noun ends in a consonant or in -ë, the plural ending is -i, and it displaces the final -ë: Atan pl. Atani, Quendë pl. Quendi. (But if the noun ends in -ië, it forms its plural in -r to avoid one i following another: tië "path", tier "paths" - not **tii.) In the other cases, the plural ending is either -r or -n; for instance, the allative ending -nna has a plural form -nnar, the locative ending -ssë becomes -ssen, and ablative -llo can form its plural both in -llon and -llor. In the dative, instrumental and "respective", the plural is indicated by the element i, inserted between the stem of the noun and the same case ending as in the singular. (See the full list of endings below.)

The Article
Quenya has a definite article i = "the", e.g. i eleni "the stars" in Namárië. There is no indefinite article like English "a, an"; the absence of the article i usually indicates that the noun is indefinite: Elen "star" must be translated "a star" when English grammar requires an article, as in the famous greeting Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo "a star shines at the hour of our meeting" (LotR1/I ch. 3). But sometimes Tolkien's translations introduce a "the" where there is no i in the original, cf. the first line of Namárië: Ai! laurië lantar lassi... "Ah! like gold fall the leaves..." rather than just "(some) leaves". It could be that lassi here refers to leaves in general, all leaves, rather than some specific leaves (compare Eldar meaning all Elves, Elfkind, not some specific Elves).
The 'n seen in the phrase utúlie'n aurë, "the day has come" or literally *"has-come the day" (Silm. chapter 20), appears to be a variant of the article. This 'n may be used (instead of i) in a phonological environment already dominated by vowels. The article i may also appear as in (PM:403), maybe especially when the next word begins in e- or i- (but as demonstrated by the example i eleni, there is no definite rule to this effect).

The Verb
Most Quenya verbs can be divided into two categories. The smallest group may be termed basic (or primary) verbs. The stem of such a verb represents a basic root with no additions. For instance, the verb mat- "eat" comes directly from the Eldarin root-word MAT- of similar meaning (LR:371); the verb tul- "come" is simply a manifestation of the root-word TUL "come, approach" (LR:395).
The second, larger group of Quenya verbs may be termed A-stems, or derived verbs. They all show the final vowel -a, but it is not part of the basic root; their stems have added some ending to this root. The endings -ya and -ta are by far the commonest. For instance, the root TUL "come" yields not only the basic verb tul- "come", but also the longer A-stems tulta- "to summon" and tulya- "to bring". Here the endings are seen to modify the root meaning; in this case both -ta and -ya are causative, since "to summon" and "to bring" are variations of the idea "to make come". But often, the endings seem to make no difference for the meaning (the root SIR "flow" produces the Quenya basic verb sir- of the same sense, but in a related language the derived verb sirya- is used for the same meaning: LR:384). Some A-stem verbs show less frequent endings like -na (e.g. harna- "to wound", apparently derived from the adjective or participle harna "wounded"); there are also a few A-stems that end in the simple ending -a, e.g. ora- "to urge".
Five Quenya tenses are known: Aorist, present, past, perfect, and future. (In all likelihood, Tolkien also imagined yet other tenses, like the pluperfect - but such forms are not exemplified in our material.)
The aorist is the simplest form both by its meaning and shape. The basic meaning of the verb is not modified or limited in any particular way. The aorist may express general, timeless truths, as when Elves are described as i carir quettar "those who make words" (WJ:391). However, it can equally well describe a simple, ongoing action, as in the battle-cry heard before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad: Auta i lómë! "The night is passing!" In this context the translation "is passing" is the most natural English rendering, but the aorist auta as such simply means "passes" and does not explicitly mark the action as on-going (as does the Quenya present tense, see below). Generally speaking, the Quenya aorist apparently corresponds to the simple English present tense (as opposed to the "is ...-ing" construction). So Tolkien often translated it, e.g. in the first line of Namárië: Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen, "ah! golden fall the leaves in the wind".

The aorist of a basic verb originally showed the ending -i. In Quenya, the final short -i of earlier stages of Elvish had changed into -ë, so now the aorist of a primary verb like car- "make, do" appeared as carë instead (this form may be translated "makes" or "does"). However, since the vowel had only changed when it occurred at the end of a word, we still see -i- whenever any kind of further ending is added. When a finite Quenya verb occurs with a plural subject, the verb receives the plural ending -r, so the aorist carë "makes" correspond to carir "make" in the sentence "those who make words" cited above. We also see -i- before all pronominal endings; indeed Tolkien very often cites Quenya primary verbs as aorist forms with the ending -n "I" attached (e.g. carin "I make", LR:362, tulin "I come", LR:395). A-stem verbs show no variation, but end in -a whether or not any further ending follows (e.g. lanta "falls", lantar "fall" with a plural subject, lantan "I fall", etc.)
What is sometimes called the Quenya present tense is also referred to as the continuative form. It refers to an action that is explicitly identified as on-going, and it is often best translated by means of the English "is ...-ing" construction. The present tense of a basic verb is formed by adding the ending -a and lengthening the vowel of the verbal stem itself (the long vowel being marked by an accent). Thus the verb sil- "shine" has the present-tense form síla "is shining"; the verb mat- "eat" has the present-tense form máta "is eating" (or with plural subjects sílar "are shining", mátar "are eating"). Sometimes Tolkien translates Quenya present-tense forms by means of the English simple present tense, as in the famous greeting elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo = "a star shines on the hour of our meeting". It seems that the aorist and the present tense are to some extent interchangeable; in one draft version of this greeting, Tolkien indeed used the aorist silë "shines" instead of the present-tense form síla "is shining" (see RS:324).

As for the present tense of A-stem verbs, the traditional interpretation of Quenya grammar had it that the ending -a simply merged with the final -a already present at the end of the verbal stem, so that (say) lanta- "fall" would have the present tense lanta "is falling". This form appeared to be attested in the first line of Namárië (with the ending -r to go with the plural subject lassi "leaves"): Laurië lantar lassi, "golden fall leaves", or "golden leaves are falling". However, it seems that the form lantar is actually an aorist (cf. above). In July 2000, new examples appeared in Vinyar Tengwar #41: The A-stem verb ora- "urge" is shown to have the present tense órëa "is urging". This would seem to indicate that A-stem verbs actually have present-tense forms in -ëa: Apparently the final -a of the stem undergoes dissimilation to -ë- to avoid two a's in sequence when the ending -a associated with the present tense is added. Where there is no consonant cluster following the stem-vowel,