Quenya phonology

The pronunciation of the Elvish languages by Elves, Men and Hobbits has been described in a variety of sources by J.R.R. Tolkien. The documentation about late Quenya phonology is contained in the Appendix E of the Lord of the Rings and the "Outline of Phonology", a text written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in Parma Eldalemberon No. 19.

Tolkien based Quenya pronunciation more on Latin than on Finnish. Thus, Quenya lacks the vowel harmony and consonant gradation present in Finnish, and accent is not always on the first syllable of a word. Typical Finnish elements like the front vowels ö, ä and y are lacking in Quenya, but phonological similarities include the absence of aspirated unvoiced stops or the development of the syllables ti > si in both languages. The combination of a Latin basis with Finnish phonological rules resulted in a product that resembles Italian in many respects, which was Tolkien's favorite modern Romance language.

The tables below list the consonants (Q. ólamar) and vowels of late colloquial Noldorin Quenya, i.e. Quenya as spoken among the Exiled Noldor in Middle-earth. They are written using the International Phonetic Alphabet, unless otherwise noted.

Consonants
The Quenya consonant system has 6 major places of articulation: labial (involving the lips), dental (involving the tongue and the back of the teeth), alveolar (involving the tongue and the alveolar ridge of the jaw), palatal (involving the tongue and the middle part of the roof of the mouth), velar (involving the back of the tongue and the back part of the roof of the mouth), and glottal (involving the vocal folds). The dental fricative and the voiced alveolar fricative  occur in the Vanyarin varieties, but were gradually replaced with  and  respectively in Noldorin Quenya. Notably, voiced plosives only occur after nasals and liquids, i.e. there is no simple but only the clusters, and these occur only between vowels. (This may not be true in Vanyarin Quenya, given the word Aldudénië, the name of a lament for the death of the Two Trees of Valinor composed by Elemmírë of the Vanyar.) The following table presents the inventory of classic Noldorin consonants. Grouping of consonants occurs only in the central parts of a word, except for combinations with the semivowels and.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2"| Labial ! rowspan="2" | Dental ! colspan="2"| Alveolar ! rowspan="2" | Palatal ! rowspan="2" | Velar ! rowspan="2" | Glottal ! Bilabial ! Labiodental ! plain ! Postalveolar ! rowspan="2" | Plosive ! voiced ! voiceless ! rowspan="2" | Fricative ! voiced ! voiceless ! colspan="2" | Nasal ! colspan="2" | Liquid ! rowspan="2" | Semivowels ! voiced ! voiceless
 * + 2. Quenya consonants
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

Quenya orthography (using the Latin script) follows the IPA, but uses $\langlec\rangle$ as an alternative to $\langlek\rangle$, writes not followed by another velar as $\langleñ\rangle$ (in early Quenya when this still can occur; otherwise it is written $\langlen\rangle$), and represents the consonants  using the digraphs $⟨hy hw ch⟩$. In addition, $\langleh\rangle$ in the cluster $\langleht\rangle$ represents after $\langlee\rangle$ or $\langlei\rangle$ and  after other vowels.

Morphophonemics and allophony
A number of consonants are realized differently when they occur in clusters with certain other consonants. This particularly concerns clusters that involve the approximants or the glottal fricative. Clusters where the second consonant was are realized as palatalized consonants, and clusters where the second consonant was  are realized as labialized. Consonants clusters where the initial consonant is are realized as preaspirated and devoiced.

Palatal clusters The pronunciation of the consonant cluster $\langlehy\rangle$ is in Noldorin Quenya, which is a "strong voiceless y, similar to, but more frictional than the initial sound in English huge", although the latter sound may occur as weak variant. In Vanyarin Quenya, $\langlehy\rangle$ is pronounced. According to Tolkien, the cluster $\langlety\rangle$ is pronounced as "a very fronted 'k', or a palatalised 't' followed by a fairly distinct 'y'-glide" (see voiceless palatal stop). Tolkien stated that the cluster $\langleny\rangle$ is pronounced as in English "new" (presumably British English, as opposed to American English ). In the Vanyarin dialect, $\langlety\rangle$, $\langledy\rangle$, and $\langlehy\rangle$ were realised as, , and respectively. Tolkien wrote about $\langlepy\rangle$: "In Vanyarin Quenya and among some Ñoldor the cluster $\langlepy\rangle$ was sounded with voiceless y, sc. as, which later in Vanyarin became " (cf. Hungarian lopj 'steal').

Labial clusters The cluster $\langlehw\rangle$ is realized as, a "spirantal voiceless w. It has more tense with closer lip-aperture and more friction than the voiceless wh of English". The graphs $\langleq\rangle$ or $\langlequ\rangle$ represent the consonant cluster. According to Tolkien, it was pronounced as "a slightly rounded 'k' followed by a distinct w" in early Qenya.

Glottal clusters The clusters $\langlehl\rangle$ and $\langlehr\rangle$ are realized as unvoiced l and r ( and ), the same as $\langlelh\rangle$ and $\langlerh\rangle$ in Sindarin. These, like their Sindarin equivalents, derived from Primitive Elvish sl- and sr-. The primitive consonant clusters sm- and sn- came out in Quenya as $\langlem\rangle$ and $\langlen\rangle$; it has been suggested that there was an intermediate stage of $\langlehm\rangle$ and $\langlehn\rangle$, the voiceless versions and, in Common Eldarin; these soon merged with the voiced $\langlem\rangle$ and $\langlen\rangle$. Voiceless hl and hr only merged with their voiced versions much later, in the Third Age.

Other clusters Despite the change of $\langleb\rangle$ to $\langlev\rangle$ from Common Eldarin to Quenya, this change was sometimes undone in the cluster $\langlelv\rangle$ due to confusion between $\langlelv\rangle$ and $\langlelw\rangle$.

Simplification of clusters In the late Ancient Quenya period, when vowels were lost in long compound words, the clusters thus created, or the consonants that became final, were as a rule changed or reduced:
 * -m > -n;
 * all stops > -t;
 * -d > -r;
 * -th > -t;
 * -nd > -n;
 * -mb, -ng > -n;
 * -ñ > -n;
 * any combination with s (as -ts, -st, -ss) > -s;
 * any combination with -ht > -t.

Vowels
Quenya has five vowels (Quenya ómar), and a distinction of length. The short vowels are /a, e, i, o, u/ and the long ones are written with an acute accent as /á, é, í, ó, ú/. The precise quality of the vowels is not known, but their pronunciation is likely closer to the "pure" vowels of Italian and Spanish than to the diphthongized English ones. According to Pesch, for the vowels /a, i, u/ the short and long forms have the same vowel quality, similar to the vowels of German. But for the vowels /e, o/, the short vowels are pronounced slightly lower and closer to and, respectively, whereas the long ones are pronounced as high-mid vowels  and. This interpretation is based on a statement by Tolkien, saying that é and ó, when correctly pronounced by Elves, were just a little "tenser and 'closer'" than their short counterparts: "neither very tense and close, nor very slack and open".

This interpretation results in a vowel system with 7 different vowel qualities and a length distinction in the high and low vowels only; this system is depicted in table 3.

Diphthongs
Late Noldorin Quenya has 6 diphthongs (Quenya ohloni): /iu, eu, ai, au, oi, ui/. All of these are falling, except for /iu/ which is rising. In Old Quenya, all diphthongs were falling. Tolkien wrote: "It is probable that before the Exile Vanyarin and Noldorin [Quenya] in common shifted iu, ui to rising diphthongs, ... but only is reported as a rising diphthong  similar to the beginning of English yule . On the other hand, ui remained in Exilic Quenya a falling diphthong as reported".

Syllables and stress
In Quenya, the stressing of a syllable is predictable and non-phonemic (i.e. the meaning of a word never changes depending on the stress), but it is partly determined by syllable weight. Words of two syllables are stressed on the first syllable. In words of three or more syllables, the stress is on the penultimate syllable if this is heavy, otherwise on the antepenultimate syllable, i.e. the third-to-last syllable. In Quenya, heavy syllables are syllables that contain either a long vowel, a diphthong, or a cluster of two consonants (ll, ld, mm, ss, etc.). Certain combinations of consonants, e.g. ny, ry, are also regarded as heavy. Medially hy and hw are long consonants in Parmaquesta (not colloquially in Tarquesta) and a vowel before them is held to constitute a metrically long syllable. Quenya has also a secondary accent. The placement of stress and the distinction between heavy and light syllables is important in Quenya verse.

Phonotactics
Tolkien also devised phonotactical rules for late Quenya, governing the way in which the sounds could be combined to form words:


 * Only the following consonants have phonemically geminated forms, i.e. elongated consonants: pp, tt, cc (kk); mm, nn; ss, ll, rr, þþ (became ss in Noldorin Quenya). These occur only medially. The geminated occlusives are aspirated.
 * As final consonants, only dentals are tolerated: n, r, l, s, th (þ), t, z. þ and z became s and r respectively in Noldorin Quenya.
 * Quenya tolerates only the following initial consonants: p, t, c (k); f, þ, s, h, hy, hw; m, n, ñ; v, l, r, y, w.
 * Quenya tolerates only the following initial groups: hl, hr; x (ks), ps; ty, ny, ly; qu (kw), ñw (became nw in Noldorin Quenya)
 * Quenya tolerates only the following medial biconsonantal groups (those especially common are bolded): ht, lc, ld, lf, lm, lp, lqu, lt, lv, lw, ly, mb, mn, mp, my, nc (ñc), nd, ng (ñg), nt, nw (not ñw, which only occurs initially), ny, ps, pt, qu (kw), rc, rd, rm, rn, rp, rt, rs, rv, rw, ry, sc, st, sw, ts, tw, ty, x (ks).
 * Quenya does not tolerate triconsonantal (or longer) combinations, except c (k), h, g followed by w, or h, t, þ, d followed by y. So, Quenya permits the following 12 triconsonantal groups only: nqu (ñqu), lqu, rqu, squ, ngw (ñgw) , rhw; nty, lty, hty in Noldorin Quenya,  in Vanyarin Quenya, rty, sty  in Noldorin Quenya,  in Vanyarin Quenya (cf. ść vs. szcz in Polish), and lhy. In all other cases y, and w became syllabic i, u after the consonant groups.
 * Quenya does not tolerate the combination of two different occlusives. "Where these anciently occurred, as in pt, kt, one of the two, or both, became opened and spirantal."
 * As in Sindarin, the combination ft is avoided.