Here are some examples of similarities between Finnish and
Quenya words. I found them in a website of a Finnish
Tolkien fan. It seems that Tolkien has specifically taken some words and either altered their meaning a bit and it's especially the stems of the words that are similar. By the way, this ä-letter is pronounced like "a" in American English "can".
Also, double consonats, e.g. 'kk', are to be stressed and not taken for granted, and the same goes for vowels, e.g. 'aa'; all vowels are pronounced, e.g. 'ie' is pronounced '[ee-eh]' etc.; and the letter 'j' is pronounced as a consonantal 'y'. And a single letter 'a' is always pronuonced as in 'arm'.
The first is the
Quenya word and the second is the Finnish one.
Quenya--------------Finnish
-anta-_='gives' | _anta-= 'give'
-aurinka= 'sunlit, sunny' | _aurinko='Sun'
_kantl= 'a large harp', _/ kantele='harp' |
_kava-= 'dig' | _kaiva-= 'dig'
_kulu= 'gold' | _kulta= 'gold'
_kumpo_='pile' | _kumpu= 'hillock, hump'
_kú_='Crescent Moon' | _kuu='moon'
_Ó ='be, exist' | stem _o-= 'be, exist' (olla=be, exist)
_pelto= 'hedge, hedged field' | _pelto= 'field'
_pínea= 'small' | _pieni='small'
_qualme= 'death', _qualma= 'deadly' | _kalma (older a bit archaic word) = 'death, dead person'
_táma='this' | _tämä= 'this'
_tie= 'line, direction, route, road' | _tie='route, road'
_tereva='piercing, acute, shrill, sharp' | _terävä= 'acute, sharp'
_tulu-='move, come' | _tul-(tulla) = 'come'
_tunto='notice, regard, perception' | _tunto='perception'
_vene='small boat, vessel, dish' | _vene= 'small boat'
_ya(n)= 'and' | _ja= 'and'