Post #2693349
2026-04-15 20:24 UTC
@jeroen94704@fosstodon.org Alright, so, how to read Elvish in general is a big question: there are *many* versions, for various languages, and Tolkien himself wrote it differently over time.
This chart shows a few different sets of consonants: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tengwar_modi2_EN.svg
This mode is an abjad: roughlyyyy, each syllable is written as a consonant/cluster, with the following vowel written above as a diacritic.
I'd recommend learning the vowel signs, grabbing that chart, and sitting down with a known text. (Cont'd)
Replies (1)
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@alexglow@chaos.social 2026-04-15 20:38
@jeroen94704@fosstodon.org For authenticity, here I took a known text (I recognized the poem), in the same language (Quenya), written by Tolkien himself (from "The Road Goes Ever On"), and transcribed it to see what was happening. I learned a lot! For example: - Specific signs for "R" at start vs. end of a syllable - Punctuation marks - Capitals for (some) proper nouns - Mark for inserting "y" (na -> nya, ro -> ryo, le -> lye) - Vowel stems for long vowels vs. "orphaned" short vowels (Cont'd.)