Tengwar

The Tengwar, also known as the Fëanorian Characters, is a script created during the First Age by an Elf named Fëanor. The Tengwar is being used as the written script for a number of languages in Middle-earth, including Sindarin and Quenya. The word “Tengwar” means “letters” in Quenya. The Tengwar script is considered as one of the more ancient writings being used in Middle-Earth because they were developed by the Noldor. The script was brought to Middle-earth by the Noldor who were exiled. Because of this, the script was also used by the Numenoreans and the Edain. By the Third Age, it has spread and became popular It is considered to be a cursive type of script based on calligraphy handwriting. In fact, it was designed to be written with a pen or brush.

Fëanor created the Tengwar script in the 1250 Year of the Tees. It was said that he was inspired by the Sarati, a written text created by Rúmil, the Loremaster. When Fëanor created the Tengwar, he made special arrangements so that it can be used for all the languages of Valinor. Although profoundly influenced by the work of Rúmil, Fëanor used a more conservative writing system, which later proved to be more popular. Unlike Rúmil, Fëanor saw vowels as independent sounds. He still applied Rúmil’s syllabic analysis and made use of tehtar instead of full letters. When Fëanor created the Tengwar, he also introduced a new terminology. In the War of the Jewels, Fëanor called a letter a written representation of a spoken phoneme called “tengwa.”

Before that, a symbol or later was called “sarat.” Fëanor based his script on the alphabet created by Rúmil of Valinor called the “Sarati.” The text was also known later as the “Tengwar of Rúmil.” “Tengwar” is the plural form of “Tengwa” and this was how Fëanor’s script was known. However, the term “Tengwa” used for an individual letter refers to a consonant. Because of this, the term “tengwar” was associated with a consonant sign; “ómatehtar” was the term used for vowel signs. Because of this, the Tengwar was introduced as “tîw” in Sindarin once it reached the land of Beleriand. The Tengwar writing system is used by the Free peoples of Middle-earth. It is most famous for being the writing system of Arada and is used by different races throughout the ages.

When he was studying at King Edward’s College, Tolkien came across different texts in Old and Middle English, Finnish, Gothic (Introduction to Gothic), and Sanskrit. It is believed that these sources had inspired him to invent his alphabet. Tolkien created the Tengwar script as an English writing system. Still, he later learned the system more towards Quenya, the Elven tongue that he created. Quenya resembled more towards Finnish than English. It was said that Tolkien kept modifying the Tengwar script as the years passed. When he passed away in 1973, there were so many variations and alterations of the script.

The Sarati was introduced in the 13th volume of Parma Eldalamberon by JRR Tolkien as a script in 1910. The Sarati has many features similar to that of the Tengwar. This can be seen mostly in the vowel symbols, letter shapes, and sound elements. Tolkien also used another script which was very similar to Tengwar. This was the Valmaric script described in the 14th volume of Parma Eldalamberon. Tolkien used this script often from 1922 to 1925. The Valmaric text had the constant presence of the vowel [a] and had a lot of Tengwar shapes in its letters.

Jim Allan, the editor of An Introduction to Elvish, compares the Tengwar script to Francis Lodwick’s 1686 (1686) Universal Alphabet (Universal Alphabet of Francis Lodwick). His basis of comparison was the sound features and the letter shapes. A similarity between shape and sound can also be found in the Korean (Korean) alphabet, Hangul (Hangul). It was not confirmed if Tolkien knew of these alphabets when he came up with the Tengwar. But considering the developments he made with the Valmaric and Sarati scripts, it is believable that he came up with the idea all by himself.

Just like any other alphabet writing system [1] a specific orthography is required. This will depend on the phonology [2] of the language. Because of this, you can find a lot of different ways to write the Tengwar script. The Tengwar orthographies are called “modes.” The ómatehtar modes represent vowels that have diacritics known as “tehtar” meaning “signs.” The full writing modes also represent vowels that are made of regular letters. The full writing modes are also called “Beleriandic modes” sometimes. Some modes will map the primary consonants as /k/, /kʷ/, /t/, and /p/ while others will plot the same as /t/, /tʃ/, /p/, and /k/. Some modes do not follow the traditional orthography - they follow pronunciation instead. When the first official Tengwar description was published in The Lord of the Rings novel, modes were also created for other languages such as English, German, Polish, Spanish, Lojban, and Esperanto.

When you check the Tengwar script, the most notable characteristic is the letter shapes. The shapes actually correspond to the sound features each letter has. Two basic shapes are noticed on the construction of the Tengwar letters: a rounded bow and a vertical stem. Some letters have short or long stems, while other letters have one or two rounded bows. Some of the bows may also be underlined and may be located at the right or left side of the vertical stem. The principal letters are grouped into four témar or series corresponding to main articulation places.

They are also divided into six rows or tyeller corresponding to articulation manners. These two categories would vary among different modes. Every series starts with the basic signs that use a single bow and a vertical stem that starts descending underneath the line. These are the basic signs that symbolize the voiceless stop consonants for the series. The classic Quenya mode identifies the voiceless stop consonants as /k/, /kʷ/, /t/, and /p/. The name of their series is calmatéma, quessetéma, tincotéma, and parmatéma, respectively. In the general use of rows, the manner of articulation and the letter shapes have different correspondences. For instance, raising the stem above the line will turn the letter into a fricative.

To set a voiceless consonant into a voiced consonant, the letter gets a double bow. Shortening the height of the bow creates a nasal consonant. Although most of the time, signs with shortened stems and a single bow correspond to approximate. Some letters do not have the usual shapes, such as the letters representing /s/, /r/, /l/, and /h/. Their uses will also vary depending on the mode you are using. There are no capital letters in the Tengwar script. To highlight or do a capital letter, you can either draw it in a larger size, use red or another contrasting color, or double the vertical stroke of the letter.

In the Tengwar script, the punctuation marks (period, comma, semicolon, etc.) are written as different arrangements of dots. The more dots there are, the stronger the pause. One dot in the middle is used to represent a comma. Two dots on top of each other represents a period. Three dots forming a vertical line represents a colon. A semicolon is represented by a wavy horizontal line. The hyphen is represented by two wavy horizontal lines on top of each other, like an equal sign. The exclamation mark is represented by a vertical wavy line. The end of a paragraph is marked by four dots that form a square.

The Tengwar is written in a left-to-right direction in horizontal lines that are ordered from the top left side of the page to the bottom right side of the page. However, there are also records where some Elves would write in the right-to-left direction instead. When this is done, they will use their left hand (Elves can write well with either hand), and the letters are mirrored.

The Tengwar script was developed either in the late 1920s or early 1930s. You can find the complete details of the Tengwar script in 1995 The Lord of the Rings Appendix E. The first published sample of a written Tengwar script dates back to 1937. This was The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription. It can be found in most editions of The Hobbit. A sample of the Tengwar script can be found in Ilbireth’s Greeting on The Father Christmas Letters (1937) (The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien). The Manuscript of The Notion Club Papers by Edwin Lowdham was written in Old English using the Tengwar script (1945).

You can also find the Tengwar script being used in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien in the Brogan Tengwa-greetings (1948). Tolkien also released texts with the Tengwar script before the Lord of the Rings was published. You can find it in the Elvish Script Sample I, II, III that showers English poems Bombadil and Errantry. This was first printed in the 1978 Silmarillion Calendar and later published in Pictures by Tolkien. If you want more examples of Tolkien’s writing in Tengwar, you should consult the Mellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina. It lists down 67 examples of Tolkien’s Tengwar script.

Of course, the most famous example of the Tengwar script is the text etched on the One Ring. The inscription was in the Black Speech of Mordor language written in the Tengwar script. The inscription, when read in Black Speech translated to “Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul” which in English meant “One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them; One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.”

The de facto (de facto) contemporary standard being used maps the Tengwar characters to the ISO 8859-1 with Dan Smith’s Tengwar typefaces (Tengwar Quenya by Daniel Steven Smith) as an example. But this method has a flaw - if there is no corresponding Tengwar font, you just end up encoding a string of characters that do not make any sense. Four different code points are being used for every Tengwar diacritic. These code points are used depending on the character’s width. Other examples of Tengwar typeface are Michal Nowakowski’s Tengwar Formal, Måns Björkman’s Tengwar Parmaite (Tengwar Parmaite), Enrique Mombello’s Tengwar Élfica (Tengwar Elfica by Enrique Mombello), and Johan Winge’s Tengwar Annatar. [3]

There was a proposal to include the Tengwar script in the Unicode standard. The only typefaces that can support this proposal at the moment are Code2000 (Code2000 Font) and Code2001 by James Kass. You can also check the Tengwar Telcontar Unicode font.

The unofficial ConScript Unicode Registry or CSUR included the Tengwar script. It assigns code points in the Private Use Area. The fonts backing the proposal are Free Mono Tengwar, Formal Unicode (Tengwar), Tengwar Telcontar, Everson Mono, and Constructium.

The Dutch metal/rock band used the Tengwar script in their “Stand My Ground” music video, released in 2004. However, it was just used as a random series of letters.

In this computer game released in 1997, the Tengwar script can be found and is used to represent the “ancient writing.”

In this comic book, the Tengwar script is used to represent an arcane language.

1. ^The History of the Alphabet.
2. ^Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language.
3. ^Tengwar Annatar by Johan Winge.