Tengwar

The Tengwar (Quenya. "letters") had been a writing system invented by Fëanor. It has been used for a variety of languages among the Free peoples and became perhaps the most prominent writing system of Arda, used by a variety of Races through the Ages.

History

Fëanor invented the tengwar on the Valian Year 1250 strongly influenced by the Sarati of Rúmil the Loremaster.

Unlike Rúmil, Fëanor considered vowels as indepedent sounds and not just “colours” of the consonants, so he devised the “full writing” (Quanta Sarmë). However he also used a more 'conservative' system which seem to have been proved far more popular. Fëanor held the idea of syllabic analysis of the words by the Sarati, and made also use of signs for vowels (instead of the full letters).

When the Noldor rebelled and came to Middle-earth, they adapted their writing for the new languages they learned. This led to the Mode of Beleriand, a Quanta Sarmë modification for writing Sindarin. It is also possible that the Tengwar influenced the evolution of the Cirth, mainly in their shape and arrangement. In Eregion, the Elves continued to use the Mode of Beleriand, as can be seen in the inscription on the Western Moria Gate. At the end of the Third Age, the Elves of Rivendell probably still used that mode, since a transcription of the Rivendell aerlinn A Elbereth Gilthoniel features it.

Little is known of the origin of the Tengwar Mode Tolkien called the general use at the end of the Third Age because it could be used for a variety of languages including Quenya, Sindarin and the Common Speech. Since this mode is used in the tengwar texts related to Gondor, it had been probably used on Númenor previously. However the Eldar of Eregion used 'General' Modes of the Tengwar that could be used for a variety of languages, and (according to Isildur's Scroll) it was in such a mode that the Inscription of the One Ring was formed by Sauron, a mode which is identical to the Númenorian texts. However the origins of that usage are unclear

1. The "general use" might already have existed in the First Age in Beleriand. From there, the Edain brought it to Númenor.
2. The "general use" might be a Númenorian invention. The Eldar might have adapted it from early Númenorian expeditions back to Middle Earth.
3. The "general use" might have been invented independently by the Númenorians and Eregion based on older Elvish modes.

At the end of the Third Age, the "general use" probably continued to be used in Gondor. In the Northern part of the Westron-speaking regions, however, another mode was used that was based on the "general use" but used full letters for the representation of vowels, perhaps by influence of the Elves of Rivendell.

Spelling and Pronunciation

Structure

The most notable characteristic of the tengwar script is that the shapes of the letters correspond to the features of the sounds they represent.

The shape of the Tengwar were unirofmely consisted of two elements, the telco (stem) to which is attached a lúva (bow). It is noticeable that some of the letters of the Sarati resembled the telco/lúva shape seen on the Tengwar, therefore it is possible that those particular letters influenced stylistically the Tengwar.

The telco could be normal, raised, shortened or heightened. The lúva would be single or doubled, and these could be open or closed.

All the above combinations can create 31 different shapes of letters. These shapes mirrored phonological significances: The basic form of a tengwa was used for the patakar, the voiceless fricatives; telcor determined how the sound was articulated, and the lúvar where in the mouth it was made:

• Doubling the bow turns the voiceless consonant into a voiced one.
• Raising the stem above the line turns it into the corresponding fricative or a corresponding soft version of it.
• Shortening it (so it is only the height of the bow) indicates the corresponding nasal or, mostly, the approximants.

According to their shape, the 32 different glyphs could be arranged and presented consistently on a table. The principal letters are divided into series (témar) that correspond to the main places of articulation and into six rows (tyeller) that correspond to the main manners of articulation. Both vary among modes.

	Labial		Dental		Velar		Labiovelar
Voiceless plosives	q	p	1	t	a	k	z	kw
Voiced plosives	w	b	2	d	s	g	x	gw
Aspirated voiceless plosives	Q	ph	!	th	A	kh	Z	khw
Aspirated voiced plosives	W	bh	@	dh	S	gh	X	ghw
Voiceless fricatives	e	f	3	th	d	ch	c	chw
Voiced fricatives	r	v	4	dh	f	gh	v	ghw
Voiceless nasals	y	hm	6	hn	h	hñ	n	hñw
Nasals	t	m	5	n	g	ñ	b	ñw

Arrangement

By the end of the Third Age, the Tengwar were somehow standardized. Their Quenya names became standard for all modes, and less used ones were not included (although still used), such as those of the extended stems and the Tyelpetéma. The table displayed 36 letters: the 24 standard Tengwar, plus 12 of the additional Tengwar.

Also, the Tengwar were assigned numeric values

	Tincotéma		Parmatéma		Calmatéma		Quessetéma
Grade I	1	Tinco	q	Parma	a	Calma	z	Quesse
Grade II	2	Ando	w	Umbar	s	Anga	x	Ungwe
Grade III	3	Súle	e	Formen	d	Aha	c	Hwesta
Grade IV	4	Anto	r	Ampa	f	Anca	v	Unque
Grade V	5	Númen	t	Malta	g	Noldo	b	Nwalme
Grade VI	6	Óre	y	Vala	h	Anna	n	Vilya
	Additional Tengwar:
	7	Rómen	u	Arda	j	Lambe	m	Alda
	8	Silme	i	Silme nuquerna	k	Esse	,	Esse nuquerna
	9	Hyarmen	l	Yanta	o	Hwesta Sindarinwa	.	Úre
	½	Halla	`	Telco	~	Ára

Values

As mentioned, the tengwar had a generic mode that covered a wide range of phonemes. This mode perhaps originated in Eregion and exemplified in the verse of the One Ring and other Westron tengwar texts.

Tolkien called this usage a "general use mode" and mentioned it could be used for both Quenya and Sindarin.

The following table gives both the formal Quenya and Numenian names of the tengwar. When two values are given (separated with a / slash), the first refers to the Sindarin variation. The dashes indicate when the letter is used initially or finally and/or as a diphthong element.

Parmatéma		Tincotéma		Calmatéma		Quessetéma
1	t Tinco/Tó	q	p Parma/Pí	a	tʃ Calma/Ché	z	k Quesse/Ká
2	d Ando/Dó	w	b Umbar/Bí	s	j Anga/Jé	x	g Ungwe/Gá
3	th Súle/Thó	e	f Formen/Fí	d	sh Aha/Shé	c	ch/h Hwesta/Aha (or Oha)
4	dh Anto/Adhó	r	v Ampa/Ví	f	zh Anca/Izhe	v	gh Unque/Agha
5	n Númen/Nó	t	m Malta/Mí	g	ny Noldo/Nyé	b	ng Nwalme/Ngá
6	-r/r Óre/Ar	y	w, -u/w Vala/Wí	h	-i/y Anna/Yé	n	’? ’á
Additional Tengwar:
7	r Rómen/Aro	u	rh Arda/Rho	j	l Lambe/Alo	m	lh Alda/Lho
8	s Silme/Só	i	s Silme Nuquerna/Ós	k	ss/z Esse/Azo	,	z Oza
9	h Hyarmen/Há	l	i-, -e Yanta/Ai	o	wh Hwesta Sindarinwa/Whí	.	-u? Úre/Au

The following is a full mode variety, related mainly to the north, and uses tengwar (and carriers) as vowels. It was probably created in Arnor, influenced from the Mode of Beleriand used in Rivendell.

Parmatéma		Tincotéma		Calmatéma		Quessetéma
1	t Tinco/Tó	q	p Parma/Pí	a	ch Calma/Ché	z	k Quesse/Ká
2	d Ando/Dó	w	b Umbar/Bí	s	j AngaJé	x	g Ungwe/Gá
3	th Súle/Thó	e	f Formen/Fí	d	sh Aha/Shé	c	ch/h Hwesta/Aha
4	dh Anto/Adhó	r	v Ampa/Ví	f	zh Anca/Izhe	v	gh Unque/Agha
5	n Númen/Nó	t	m Malta/Mí	g	ny Noldo/Nyé	b	ng Nwalme/Ngá
6	-r/r Óre/Ar	y	w, -u/u Vala/Wí	h	o Anna/Yé	n	a 'a
Additional Tengwar:
7	r Rómen/Aro	u	rh Arda/Rho	j	l Lambe/Alo	m	lh Alda/Lho
8	s Silme/Só	i	s Silme Nuquerna/Ós	k	ss/z Esse/Azo	,	z Esse Nuquerna/Oza
9	h Hyarmen/Há	l	i-, -e/e Yanta/Ai	o	wh Hwesta Sindarinwa/Whí	.	w Úre/Au
`B	i	~B	i-/y-	]	a	š	mh

Other modes

Just as with any alphabetic writing system, every specific language written in tengwar requires a specific orthography, depending on the phonology of that language. These tengwar orthographies are usually called modes. All of them, use as a basis the "theoretical values" table above, correspond the letters to the phonemes of each language's phonology, and even drop out the characters that would be useless

All the modes can be divided into two large categories: Some represent vowels with diacritics called tehtar or ómatehtar ("vowel tehtar"), like the Quenya mode while the "full writing" modes, represent vowels by normal letters, such as the Quanta Sarmë or the Mode of Beleriand.

Furthermore, some modes map the basic consonants to /t/, /p/, /k/, and /kʷ/, while others (generally Mannish) use them to represent /t/, /p/, /tʃ/, and /k/.

External History

The sarati, described in Parma Eldalamberon 13, a script developed by Tolkien in the late 1910s, anticipates many features of the tengwar, especially the vowel representation by diacritics (which is found in many tengwar varieties), different tengwar shapes and a few correspondances between sound features and letter shape features (though inconsistent).

Even closer to the tengwar is the Valmaric script, described in Parma Eldalamberon 14, which Tolkien used from about 1922 to 1925. It features many tengwar shapes, the inherent vowel [a]found in some tengwar varieties, and the tables in the samples V12 and V13 show an arrangement that is very similar to the one of the primary tengwar in the classical Quenya "mode".

Jim Allan (An introduction to Elvish, ISBN 0-905220-10-2) compared the tengwar with the Universal Alphabet of Francis Lodwick of 1686, both on grounds of the correspondance between shape features and sound features, and of the actual letter shapes. A corresponance between shape features and sound features is also found in the Korean Hangul alphabet. It is not known whether Tolkien was aware of these previous scripts. However, considering the sarati and the valmaric script, it is conceivable that Tolkien developed the idea of a general correspondance between shape features and sound features by himself.

The tengwar were probably developed in the late 1920s or in the early 1930s. The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription, the first published tengwar sample, dates to 1937 (The Hobbit, most editions). The full explanation of the tengwar was published in Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings in 1955.

Indexing

Mellonath Daeron, the linguistic fan society, devised a system to keep track of all the known original (=made by Tolkien) samples of the Tengwar and create a reference list.

The Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina (DTS) lists 67 known samples of tengwar samples and is still updated. This occurs whenever a new sample is published, revealed or discovered.

The DTS is used as a widely accepted standard in Tolkien studies, whenever an essay or article needs to refer to an example or an attested source.

This is an example of how DTS works. This is a list of few known samples predating publication of The Lord of the Rings (many of them published posthumously):

• DTS1 The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription, published 1937
• DTS 22 - Ilbereth's Greeting from The Father Christmas Letters, dating to 1937
• DTS 50/51 - Edwin Lowdham's Manuscript from The Notion Club Papers has Old English language text written in tengwar (with a few Adûnaic and Quenya words), dating to 1945/6.
• DTS 10 - The Brogan Tengwa-greetings, appearing in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No. 118, tentatively dated to 1948.
• The following samples presumably predate the Lord of the Rings, but they were not explicitly dated: DTS 16, DTS 17, DTS 18 - Elvish Script Sample I, II, III, with parts of the English poems Errantry and Bombadil, first published in the Silmarillion Calendar 1978, later in Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as DTS 23 - So Lúthien, a page of the English Lay of Leithan text facsimiled in HoME 3:299.

A few other samples, e.g. a tengwar mode for Gothic are known to exist, but remain unpublished to date [1].

Encoding Schemes

Non-Unicode

The contemporary de facto standard in the tengwar user community maps the tengwar characters onto the ISO 8859-1 character encoding following the example of the tengwar typefaces by Dan Smith. This implies a major flaw: If no corresponding tengwar font is installed, an awful string of nonsense characters appears.

Since there is not enough place for all the signs, certain signs are included in a "tengwar A" font which also maps its characters on ISO 8859-1, overlapping with the first font.

For each tengwar diacritic, there are four different codepoints that are used depending on the width of the character which bears it.

Other tengwar typefaces with this encoding include Johan Winge's Tengwar Annatar, Måns Björkman's Tengwar Parmaite, Enrique Mombello's Tengwar Élfica or Michal Nowakowski's Tengwar Formal (note that most of these differ in details).

The following sample shows the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in English, according to the traditional English orthography. If no tengwar font is installed, it will look awful since the corresponding ISO 8859-1 characters will appear.

j#¸ 9t&5# w`Vb%_ 6EO w6Y5 e7~V 2{( zèVj# 5% 2x%51T`Û 2{( 7v%1+º 4hR 7EO 2{$yYO2 y4% 7]F85^ 2{( z5^8i`B5$i( 2{( dyYj2 zE1 1`N ]Fa 4^(6 5% `C 8q7T1T W w74^(69~N2º

Unicode

A proposal has been made to include the Tengwar in the Unicode standard.

The following Unicode sample is meaningful when viewed under a typeface supporting Tengwar glyphs in the area defined in the Tengwar proposal for the ConScript Unicode Registry (U+E000–U+E006F; see External links).

At the moments, the only typefaces that support this proposal are James Kass' Code2000 and Code2001.

The following sample repeats the above one according to the Unicode proposal. It will only display correctly if either of James Kass's fonts is installed.

                             

See also

• Sarati
• Cirth

References

• Appendix E to Return of the King.
• Christopher Tolkien, The Tengwar Numerals, in Quettar 13, Feb. 1982, pp. 8-9; a further, untitled, explanation of the Tengwar numerals by Christopher Tolkien appeared in Quettar 14, May 1982, pp. 6-7.
• Report from Marquette by Jim Allan

External Links

• Tengwar tutorials
• History of Elven writing systems Wikibook on the secondary-world history of the Elven writing systems
• Amanye Tenceli - The Tengwar A comprehensive study of the tengwar script
• The Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina — a continuously expanding list of all published tengwar samples
• A comprehensive list of tengwar fonts (in Polish, but still useful even if you can't read the language)
• Omniglot reference
• Tengwar by Dan Smith
• Tolkien Script Publishing
• Real-life Tengwar samples
• Online Tengwar transcriber

Modes

• Tengwar mode for English
• ESR's Tengwar modes for Esperanto and Lojban languages
• Tengwar mode for Spanish
• Tengwar mode(s) for German
• Tengwar mode for Hebrew (PostScript format)
• Tengwar mode for Arabic

Software

• Online Tengwar transcriber
• Tengwar Scribe (Win32)
• YATT (Win32) and YATT lite (Linux, Mac)
• KTT (Linux+KDE)
• Tengwar Macros for Microsoft Word/97 and Word/2000

More of Tengwar software on Tengwar Feanora web-site (in Polish).

Technical

• WikiTeX supports editing Tengwar directly in Wiki articles.
• Official proposal to encode Tengwar in Unicode
• Tengwar proposal for ConScript Unicode Registry
• Critique on the official proposal to encode Tengwar in Unicode