Middle-earth languages: Elvish languages, Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien, Black Speech, Adûnaic, Quenya, Sindarin, Westron, Goldogrin, Entish, Khuzdul, Primitive Quendian, Common Eldarin, Rohirric, Ilkorin, Telerin, Taliska, Oromëan

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 29. Chapters: Elvish languages, Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien, Black Speech, Adûnaic, Quenya, Sindarin, Westron, Goldogrin, Entish, Khuzdul, Primitive Quendian, Common Eldarin, Rohirric, Ilkorin, Telerin, Taliska, Oromëan. Excerpt: Quenya (pronounced ) is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth. Quenya is one of the many Elvish languages spoken by the immortal Elves, called Quendi in Quenya. The tongue actually called Quenya was in origin the speech of two clans of Elves living in Eldamar ("Elvenhome"), the Noldor and the Vanyar. Quenya translates as simply "language", or in contrast to other tongues that the Elves met later in their long history "elf-language". In the Third Age, (the time of the setting of The Lord of the Rings) Quenya was no longer a living language for the Noldor of Middle-earth. Exilic Quenya was learned at an early age by all Elves of Noldorin origin, and it continued to be used in spoken and written form, but their mother-tongue was another Elven-tongue, Sindarin. For Tolkien's constructed languages we must distinguish two timelines of development: The young Tolkien in 1911, aged 19J. R. R. Tolkien began to construct his first Elfin tongue c. 1910¿1911 while he was at the King Edward's School, Birmingham. He later called it Qenya (c. 1915), and even later wrote it Quenya. Tolkien was then already familiar with Latin, Greek, Spanish, and several ancient Germanic languages, Gothic, Old Norse and Old English. He had invented several crypotographic codes (one called Animalic), and two or three constructed languages (as Naffarin). But then he discovered Finnish, and was filled with joy. Tolkien wrote, many years later: "It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me." He had started his study of the Finnish language to be able to read the Kalevala epic. Tolkien with his Quenya pursued a double aesthetic goal: "classical and inflected". This urge, in fact, was the motivation for his creation of a 'mythology'. While the language developed, he needed speakers, history for the speakers and all real dynamics,