Tengwar is an artificial script which was invented by J. R. R. Tolkien. In his works, the Tengwar script, supposedly invented by Fëanor, was used to write a number of the languages of Middle-earth, including Quenya and Sindarin. However it can also be used to write other languages, such as English (most of Tolkien's tengwar samples we know of are actually in English).
The word tengwar is Quenya for "letters". The corresponding singular is tengwa "letter". The Tengwar were based on the older Sarati alphabet by Rúmil of Valinor.
Spelling and pronunciation
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.
Some modes, called ómatehtar (or vowel tehtar) modes, represent vowels with diacritics called tehtar ("signs"; corresponding singular: tehta "sign"), whilst other modes, called full writing modes, represent vowels by normal letters. Some modes map the basic consonants to /t/, /p/, /k/, and /kʷ/, whilst others use them to represent /t/, /p/, /tʃ/, and /k/. Some modes follow pronunciation, whilst others rather follow traditional orthography. The "full writing" modes are sometimes called Beleriandic modes because a well-known "full writing" mode is called the "mode of Beleriand".
Since the publication of the first official description of Tengwar at the end of The Lord of the Rings, others have created modes for other languages such as Spanish, German, Esperanto, and Lojban.
Tengwar letters
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 letters are constructed by a combination of two basic shapes: a vertical stem (either long or short) and either one or two rounded bows (which may or may not be underlined, and may be on the left or right of the stem).
The principal letters are divided into four 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.
Each series is headed by the basic signs composed of a vertical stem descending below the line, and a single bow. These basic signs represent the voiceless stop consonants for that series. For the classical Quenya mode, they are t, p, c, and qu, and the series are named: tincotéma, parmatéma, calmatéma, and quessetéma, respectively; téma means "series" in Quenya.
In rows of the general use, there are the following correspondences between letter shapes and manners of articulation:
- Doubling the bow turns the voiceless consonant into a voiced one.
- Raising the stem above the line turns it into the corresponding fricative;
- Shortening it (so it is only the height of the bow) creates the corresponding nasal. It must be noted though that in most modes, the signs with shortened stem and single bow don't correspond to the voiceless nasals, but to the approximants.
Here is an example from the parmatéma (the signs with a closed bow on the right side) in the general use:
- The basic sign (with descending stem) represents "p" (it happens to look much like the letter "p").
- With the bow doubled, it represents "b".
- With a raised stem, it represents "f".
- With a raised stem and a doubled bow, it represents "v".
- With a short stem and double bow, it represents "m".
- With short stem and single bow, it represents "w".
In the classical Quenya mode, the rows are used differently:
- With descending stem and double bow, we have "mb"
- With raised stem and double bow, we have "mp".
There are additional letters that don't have regular shapes. They may represent e.g. "r", "l", "s", and "h". Their use varies considerably from mode to mode. Some aficionados have added more letters not found in Tolkien's writings for use in their modes.
As many of the consonants can be rotated to form other valid consonants (as in Shavian), there exists a high potential for dyslexia among users of Tengwar.
Tolkienists have created several Tengwar fonts for various computer systems. A proposal has been made to include Tengwar in the Unicode standard.
Tengwar in the Lord of the Rings films
Peter Jackson's movie trilogy commencing with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring features numerous books and artifacts with Tengwar inscriptions. Even though they were scrupulously researched for accuracy, they still show a couple of peculiarities and inconsistencies not found in Tolkien's own tengwar samples.
Another idiosyncrasy of the films is that the Hobbits are shown writing the sign for Bilbo's Birthday banner in the Latin alphabet, while the books state that the Hobbits used Tengwar. However the Latin calligraphy is written in such a way that it bears resemblance to the Tengwar, including tehtar above their corresponding vowels, and was likely for the audience's benefit to immediately recognize it.
Other conscripts by Tolkien include the Cirth, the Sarati, the Valmaric script , and his New English Alphabet .
External links
Modes
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
