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| Tengwar | |
|---|---|
 The word "Tengwar" written using the Tengwar script in the Quenya mode | |
| Script type | Alternative abugida oralphabet according to the "mode" |
| Creator | J. R. R. Tolkien |
Period | 1930s–present |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | a number ofTolkien's constructed languages,Quenya andSindarin,English |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Sarati
|
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Teng(290), Tengwar |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
TheTengwar (/ˈtɛŋɡwɑːr/) script is anartificial script, one ofseveral scripts created byJ. R. R. Tolkien, the author ofThe Lord of the Rings. Within the context of Tolkien's fictional world, the Tengwar were invented by theElfFëanor, and used first to write the Elvish languagesQuenya andTelerin. Later a great number ofTolkien's constructed languages were written using the Tengwar, includingSindarin. Tolkien used Tengwar to writeEnglish: most of Tolkien's Tengwar samples are actually in English.
Thesarati, a script developed by Tolkien in the late 1910s and described inParma Eldalamberon 13, anticipates many features of the Tengwar: vowel representation bydiacritics (which is found in many Tengwar varieties); different Tengwar shapes; and a few correspondences between sound features and letter shape features (though inconsistent).[1]
Even closer to the Tengwar is the Valmaric script, described inParma 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 one of the primary Tengwar in the classical Quenya "mode".[2]
In hisAn Introduction to Elvish, Jim Allan compared the Tengwar with the London merchantFrancis Lodwick's 1686Universal Alphabet, both on grounds of the correspondence between shape features and sound features, and of the actual letter shapes.[3]
The Tengwar script was probably developed in the late 1920s or in the early 1930s.The Lonely Mountain Jar Inscription, the first published Tengwar sample, dates to 1937.[4] The full explanation of the Tengwar was published in Appendix E ofThe Lord of the Rings in 1955.[5]
TheMellonath Daeron Index of Tengwar Specimina (DTS) lists most of the known samples of Tengwar by Tolkien.[6] There are only a few known samples predating publication ofThe Lord of the Rings (many of them published posthumously):
The following samples presumably predateThe Lord of the Rings, but were not explicitly dated:
Within the context ofTolkien's fictional world, the Tengwar were invented by theElfFëanor inValinor, and used first to write the Elven tonguesQuenya andTelerin. According toJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe War of the Jewels, at the time Fëanor created his script, he introduced a change in terminology. He called a letter, a written representation of a spokenphoneme (tengwë), atengwa. Previously, any letter or symbol had been called asarat (from*sar 'incise'). The alphabet of Rúmil of Tirion, on which Fëanor supposedly based his own work, was known asSarati. It later became known as "Tengwar of Rúmil".[18]
The plural oftengwa istengwar, and this is the name by which Fëanor's writing system became known. Since, however, in commonly used modes, an individualtengwa was equivalent to a consonant, the termtengwa in the fiction became equivalent to "consonant sign", and the vowel signs were known asómatehtar. By loan-translation, the Tengwar became known astîw (singulartêw) in Sindarin, when they were introduced toBeleriand. The letters of the earlier alphabet native to Sindarin were calledcirth (singularcerth, probably from*kirte 'cutting', and thus semantically analogous toQuenyasarat). This term was loaned into exilic Quenya ascerta, pluralcertar.
The most notable characteristic of the Tengwar script is that the shapes of the letters correspond to thedistinctive features of the sounds they represent. The Quenya consonant system has fiveplaces of articulation:labial,dental,palatal,velar, andglottal. The velars distinguish between plain and labialized (that is, articulated with rounded lips, or followed by a[w] sound). Each point of articulation, and the corresponding tengwa series, has a name in the classical Quenya mode. Dental sounds are calledtincotéma and are represented with the Tengwar in column I. Labial sounds are calledparmatéma, and represented by the column II Tengwar; velar sounds are calledcalmatéma, represented by column III; and labialized velar sounds are calledquessetéma, represented by theTengwar of column IV. Palatal sounds are calledtyelpetéma and have no tengwa series of their own, but are represented by column III letters with an added diacritic for following[j].
Similarly shaped letters reflect not only similar places of articulation, but also similar manners of articulation. In the classical Quenya mode, row 1 represents voiceless stops, row 2 voiced prenasalized stops, row 3 voiceless fricatives, row 4 voiceless prenasalized stops, row 5 nasal stops, and row 6 approximants.[19]
Most letters are constructed by a combination of two basic shapes: a verticalstem (either long or short) and either one or two roundedbows (which may or may not be underscored, and may be on the left or right of the stem).
These principal letters are divided into four series (témar) that correspond to the main places of articulation and into six grades (tyeller) that correspond to the mainmanners 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 thevoicelessstop consonants for that series. For the classical Quenya mode, they are/t/,/p/,/k/ and/kʷ/, and the series are namedtincotéma,parmatéma,calmatéma, andquessetéma, respectively;téma means "series" in Quenya.
In rows of thegeneral use, there are the following correspondences between letter shapes and manners of articulation:
In addition to these variations of the Tengwar shapes, there is yet another variation, the use of stems that are extended both above and below the line. This shape may correspond to other consonant variations required. Except for some English abbreviations, it is not used in any of the better known Tengwar modes, but it occurs in aQuenya mode where the tengwa Parma with extended stem is used for/pt/ and the tengwa Calma with extended stem is used for/kt/.[20] The Tengwar with raised stems sometimes occur inglyph variants that look like extended stems, as seen in the inscription of theOne Ring.
An example from theparmatéma (the signs with a closed bow on the right side) in the "general use" of the Tengwar is:
In languages such as Quenya, which do not contain any voiced fricatives other than "v", the raised stem + doubled bow row is used for the common nasal+stop sequences (nt,mp,nk,nqu). In such cases, the "w" sign in the previous paragraph is used for "v". In the mode of Beleriand, found on the door toMoria, the bottomtyellë is used for nasals (e.g.,vala is used for/m/) and the fifthtyellë for doubled nasals (malta for/mm/).
There are additional letters that do not 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.
Atehta (Quenya 'marking') is adiacritic placed above or below the tengwa. They can represent vowels, consonant doubling, or nasal sound.
As Tolkien explained in Appendix E ofThe Lord of the Rings, thetehtar for vowels resemble Latin diacritics: circumflex (î)/a/, acute (í)/e/, dot (i)/i/, left curl (ı̔)/o/, and right curl (ı̓)/u/. Long vowels, excepting/a/, may be indicated by doubling the signs. Some languages from which/o/ is absent or in which compared to/u/ it appears sparsely, such as theBlack Speech, use left curl for/u/; other languages swap the signs for/e/ and/i/.
A vowel occurring alone is drawn on the vowel carrier, which resemblesdotless i (ı) for a short vowel or dotless j (ȷ) for a long vowel.
Just as with anyalphabetic writing system, every specific language written in Tengwar requires a specificorthography, depending on thephonology of that language. These Tengwar orthographies are usually calledmodes. Some modes follow pronunciation, while others follow traditional orthography.
Some modes map the basic consonants to/t/,/p/,/k/ and/kʷ/ (classical mode in chart at right), while others use them to represent/t/,/p/,/tʃ/ and/k/ (general mode at right). The other main difference is in the fourthtyellë below, where those letters with raised stems and doubled bows can be either voiced fricatives, as in Sindarin (general mode at right), or nasalized stops, as in Quenya (classical mode).
In some modes, calledómatehtar (orvowel tehtar) modes, the vowels are represented withdiacritics calledtehtar (Quenya for 'signs'; correspondingsingular:tehta, 'sign'). Theseómatehtar modes can be consideredabugidas rather than truealphabets.[21] In some ómatehtar modes, the consonant signs feature an inherent vowel.
Ómatehtar modes can vary in that the vowel stroke can be placed either on top of the consonant preceding it, as inQuenya, or on the consonant following, as inSindarin, English, and the notorious Black Speech inscription on the One Ring.
In thefull writing modes, the consonants and the vowels are represented by Tengwar. Only one such mode is well known. It is called the "mode ofBeleriand" and one can read it on theDoors of Durin.
Since the publication of the first official description of the Tengwar at the end ofThe Lord of the Rings, others have created modes for other languages such asEnglish,Spanish,German,Swedish,French,Finnish,Italian,Hungarian andWelsh. Modes have also been devised for otherconstructed languages;Esperanto andLojban.
Tolkien had used multiple modes for English, including full writing and ómatehtar alphabetic modes, phonetic full modes and phonetic ómatehtar modes known from documents published after his death.
The contemporaryde facto standard in the Tengwar user community maps the Tengwar characters onto theISO 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, astring of nonsense characters appears.
Since there are not enough places in ISO 8859-1's 191 codepoints for all the signs used in Tengwar orthography, 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 includeJohan Winge's Tengwar Annatar,Måns Björkman's Tengwar Parmaitë,Enrique Mombello's Tengwar Élfica orMichal Nowakowski's Tengwar Formal (note that these differ in some details).
The following sample shows the first article of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights written in English, according to the traditionalEnglish orthography. It should look similar to the picture; if no Tengwar font is installed, it will appear as a jumble of characters because the corresponding ISO 8859-1 characters will appear instead.
j#¸ 9t&5# w`Vb%_ 6EO w6Y5 e7`V`V 2{( zèVj# 5% 2x%51T`Û 2{( 7v%1+- 4hR 7EO 2{$yYO2 y4% 7]F85^ 2{( z5^8I`B5$I( 2{( dyYj2 zE1 1yY6E2_ 5^( 5#4^(7 5% `C 8q7T1T W w74^(692^H --
Note: Some browsers may not display these characters properly.
Michael Everson made a proposal to include the Tengwar in theUnicode standard in 1997.[22] The rangeU+16080 to U+160FF in theSMP was tentatively allocated for Tengwar in the 2023 Unicode roadmap.[23]
| Tengwar | |
|---|---|
| Range | U+E000..U+E07F (128 code points) |
| Plane | BMP |
| Scripts | Artificial Scripts |
| Major alphabets | Tengwar |
| Assigned | 93 code points |
| Unused | 35 reserved code points |
| Source standards | CSUR |
| Note: Part of the Private-Use Area, font conflicts possible[24] | |
Tengwar are included in the unofficialConScript Unicode Registry (CSUR), which assigns codepoints in thePrivate Use Area. Tengwar are mapped to the range U+E000–U+E07F.[25]
The following Unicode sample (which repeats the one above) is meaningful when viewed under a typeface supporting Tengwar glyphs in the area defined in the ConScript Tengwar proposal:
⸬ ⸬
Sometypefaces that support this proposal areEverson Mono, Tengwar Telcontar,[26] Constructium, Tengwar Formal Unicode,[27] and FreeMonoTengwar[28] (James Kass'sCode2000 andCode2001 use an older, incompatible version of the proposal). The eight “Aux” variant fonts of Kurinto (such as Kurinto Text Aux, Book Aux, Sans Aux) also support Tengwar.[29]
| Tengwar[1][2] ConScript Unicode Registry[30] | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+E00x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E01x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E02x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E03x | | | | | ||||||||||||
| U+E04x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E05x | | | | | | | | | | | | | ||||
| U+E06x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |||
| U+E07x | ||||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
| Tengwar[1][2] ConScript Unicode Registry,[31] 2001 draft proposal[32] | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+E00x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E01x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E02x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E03x | | | | | | | | | | |||||||
| U+E04x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+E05x | | | | | | | | | ||||||||
| U+E06x | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||
| U+E07x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
| Name | Image | CSUR | Designation annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| tinco |  | U+E000 | Tengwar LETTER TINCO |
| parma |  | U+E001 | Tengwar LETTER PARMA |
| calma |  | U+E002 | Tengwar LETTER CALMA |
| quessë |  | U+E003 | Tengwar LETTER QUESSE |
| ando |  | U+E004 | Tengwar LETTER ANDO |
| umbar |  | U+E005 | Tengwar LETTER UMBAR |
| anga |  | U+E006 | Tengwar LETTER ANGA |
| ungwë |  | U+E007 | Tengwar LETTER UNGWE |
| súlë / thúlë |  | U+E008 | Tengwar LETTER THUULE (suule) |
| formen |  | U+E009 | Tengwar LETTER FORMEN |
| harma / aha |  | U+E00A | Tengwar LETTER HARMA (aha) |
| hwesta |  | U+E00B | Tengwar LETTER HWESTA |
| anto |  | U+E00C | Tengwar LETTER ANTO |
| ampa |  | U+E00D | Tengwar LETTER AMPA |
| anca |  | U+E00E | Tengwar LETTER ANCA |
| unquë |  | U+E00F | Tengwar LETTER UNQUE |
| númen |  | U+E010 | Tengwar LETTER NUUMEN |
| malta |  | U+E011 | Tengwar LETTER MALTA |
| noldo / ñoldo |  | U+E012 | Tengwar LETTER NOLDO (ngoldo) |
| nwalmë / ñwalmë |  | U+E013 | Tengwar LETTER NWALME (ngwalme) |
| órë |  | U+E014 | Tengwar LETTER OORE |
| vala |  | U+E015 | Tengwar LETTER VALA |
| anna |  | U+E016 | Tengwar LETTER ANNA |
| vilya / wilya |  | U+E017 | Tengwar LETTER VILYA (wilya) |
| rómen |  | U+E018 | Tengwar LETTER ROOMEN |
| arda |  | U+E019 | Tengwar LETTER ARDA |
| lambë |  | U+E01A | Tengwar LETTER LAMBE |
| alda |  | U+E01B | Tengwar LETTER ALDA |
| silmë |  | U+E01C | Tengwar LETTER SILME |
| silmë nuquerna |  | U+E01D | Tengwar LETTER SILME NUQUERNA |
| essë / áre/áze |  | U+E01E | Tengwar LETTER AARE (aaze, esse) |
| essë nuquerna / áre/áze nuquerna |  | U+E01F | Tengwar LETTER AARE NUQUERNA (aaze n., esse n.) |
| hyarmen |  | U+E020 | Tengwar LETTER HYARMEN |
| hwesta sindarinwa |  | U+E021 | Tengwar LETTER HWESTA SINDARINWA |
| yanta |  | U+E022 | Tengwar LETTER YANTA |
| úrë |  | U+E023 | Tengwar LETTER UURE |
| halla |  | U+E024 | Tengwar LETTER HALLA |
| telco |  | U+E025 | Tengwar LETTER SHORT CARRIER |
| ára |  | U+E026 | Tengwar LETTER LONG CARRIER |
| Name | Image | CSUR | Designation annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| U+E027 | Tengwar LETTER ANNA SINDARINWA | ||
| U+E028 | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED THUULE | ||
| U+E029 | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED FORMEN | ||
| U+E02A | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED HARMA | ||
| U+E02B | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED HWESTA | ||
| U+E02C | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED ANTO | ||
| U+E02D | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED AMPA | ||
| U+E02E | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED ANCA | ||
| U+E02F | Tengwar LETTER EXTENDED UNQUE | ||
| U+E030 | Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS OORE (digit zero) | ||
| U+E031 | Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VALA | ||
| U+E032 | Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS ANNA | ||
| U+E033 | Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VILYA (digit one) |
| Name | Image | CSUR | Designation annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| amatixe 3 |  | U+E040 | Tengwar SIGN THREE DOTS ABOVE |
| unutixe 3 | U+E041 | Tengwar SIGN THREE DOTS BELOW | |
| amatixe 2 |  | U+E042 | Tengwar SIGN TWO DOTS ABOVE |
| unutixe 2 |  | U+E043 | Tengwar SIGN TWO DOTS BELOW |
| amatixe 1 |  | U+E044 | Tengwar SIGN AMATICSE (dot above) |
| unutixe 1 |  | U+E045 | Tengwar SIGN NUNTICSE (dot below) |
| tecco |  | U+E046 | Tengwar SIGN ACUTE (andaith, long mark) |
| U+E047 | Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE | ||
| rempe |  | U+E048 | Tengwar SIGN RIGHT CURL |
| U+E049 | Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE RIGHT CURL | ||
| rempenuquerna |  | U+E04A | Tengwar SIGN LEFT CURL |
| U+E04B | Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE LEFT CURL | ||
| amatwe |  | U+E04C | Tengwar SIGN NASALIZER |
| unuatwe |  | U+E04D | Tengwar SIGN DOUBLER |
| U+E04E | Tengwar SIGN TILDE | ||
| U+E04F | Tengwar SIGN BREVE | ||
| U+E050 | Tengwar PUSTA (putta, stop) | ||
| U+E051 | Tengwar DOUBLE PUSTA (putta) | ||
| U+E052 | Tengwar EXCLAMATION MARK | ||
| U+E053 | Tengwar QUESTION MARK | ||
| U+E054 | Tengwar SECTION MARK | ||
| U+E055 | Tengwar LONG SECTION MARK | ||
| thinnas |  | U+E056 | Tengwar SIGN LONG CARRIER BELOW |
| U+E057 | Tengwar SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE BELOW | ||
| U+E058 | Tengwar SIGN RIGHT CURL BELOW | ||
| U+E05A | Tengwar SIGN LEFT CURL BELOW | ||
| sarince |  | U+E05C | Tengwar SIGN LEFT FOLLOWING SILME |
| U+E05D | Tengwar SIGN RIGHT FOLLOWING SILME |
| Name | Image | CSUR | Designation annotation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | U+E030 | Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS OORE (digit zero) | |
| 1 | U+E033 | Tengwar LETTER STEMLESS VILYA (digit one) | |
| 2 | U+E062 | Tengwar DIGIT TWO | |
| 3 | U+E063 | Tengwar DIGIT THREE | |
| 4 | U+E064 | Tengwar DIGIT FOUR | |
| 5 | U+E065 | Tengwar DIGIT FIVE | |
| 6 | U+E066 | Tengwar DIGIT SIX | |
| 7 | U+E067 | Tengwar DIGIT SEVEN | |
| 8 | U+E068 | Tengwar DIGIT EIGHT | |
| 9 | U+E069 | Tengwar DIGIT NINE | |
| 10 | U+E06A | Tengwar DUODECIMAL DIGIT TEN | |
| 11 | U+E06B | Tengwar DUODECIMAL DIGIT ELEVEN | |
| U+E06C | Tengwar DECIMAL BASE MARK | ||
| U+E06D | Tengwar DUODECIMAL BASE MARK | ||
| U+E06E | Tengwar DUODECIMAL LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT MARK |
Tengwar has been used inTolkien fandom since the publication ofThe Lord of the Rings in the 1950s.[33]
With the exception ofJohn Rhys-Davies, the actors playing theFellowship of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy have Tengwar tattoos of the English wordnine.[34]
Footballers such asSergio Agüero[35] andFernando Torres[36] have tattoos with their first name in Tengwar on their forearms.
Like most Tolkien obsessed teens, I used to teach myself writing Tengwar. Nowadays I research writing systems by way of typesetting/typography. It's a field very much connected to Philology.
For a list of linguistic material by Tolkien published in the journalsParma Eldalamberon andVinyar Tengwar, seebibliography in Elvish languages (Middle-earth).
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| Specific languages by group |
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