#quenya — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #quenya, aggregated by home.social.
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Daily Elvish
Today's date
Yavannië 10 (queän), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Eärenya
Yavanna-ness [September] 10 (ten), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Sea-day [Thursday]Word of the day
nossë — singular: kindred, family
nosset — dual: pair of kindreds or families
nosseli — partitive: some kindreds or famlies
nossi — plural: kindreds or familiesThe Tengwar
The fifteenth letter of the tengwar is anca which is used for the letter combination NC. The word anca means "jaws". -
Daily Elvish
Today's date
Yavannië 9 (nertë), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Menelya
Yavanna-ness [September] 9 (nine), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Heavens-day [Wednesday]Word of the day
háno — singular: brother
hánot — dual: pair of brothers
hánoli — partitive: some brothers
hánor — plural: brothersThe Tengwar
The fourteenth letter of the tengwar is ampa which is used for the letter combination MP. The word ampa means "hook". -
Daily Elvish
Today's date
Yavannië 8 (toldo), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Aldúya
Yavanna-ness [September] 8 (eight), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Trees-day [Tuesday]Word of the day
nésa — singular: sister
nésat — dual: pair of sisters.
nésali — partitive: some sisters
nésar — plural: sistersThis word dates from the 1960's and only appears in liguistic papers that were not published in Tolkien's lifetime. Nésa dervied historically (in lore) from the earlier nétha. The dimunitive form is nettë.
The Tengwar
The thirteenth letter of the tengwar is anto which is used for the letter combination NT. The word anto means "mouth".About My Name
My name, as you see, is Moriel, and yes, this is a name in Quenya. The first part of the name, Mor-, comes from the word mornië meaning "darkness" or "blackness". The -iel ending is a feminine ending that means "daughter of". Hence, Moriel is translated as "daughter of darkness". I chose this name because the first several decades of my life were dominated by trauma and severe depression, and so the person I grew up to be is someone who was born from a figurative darkness. -
Today's date
Yavannië 7 (otso), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Ithilya
Yavanna-ness [September] 7 (seven), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Moon-day [Monday]Word of the day
nostar — singular: parent, begetter
nostaru — dual: pair of parents, possibly used for parents of a common child, but may be best avoided in favor of ontari. See below..
nostalli — partitive: some parents
nostari — plural: parents. Can be used for parents of a common child.This is attested in The Lord of the Rings in the phrase Treebeard uses to address Galadriel and Celeborn: a vanimar, vanimálion nostari, which means "O beautiful ones, parents of beauttiful children". It has been suggested, though, that this might be a loose translation to produce phrasing more acceptable in English, because Galadriel and Celeborn had only one child, though through their child they had three grandchildren. In this case a better translation might be "ancestor".
On another note, there is an older term that Tolkien used in the 1930s, ontar, also meaning "parent" which he appears to have kept in some form, since he uses the derivative ontaril as the feminine version of this word to refer to Mary in his translation of the Ave Maria prayer from the 1950s.
The Tengwar
The twelfth letter of the tengwar is hwesta which is used for the letter combination HW. The word hwesta means "breeze". -
You may be wondering where I get the information for these posts, so I will provide here a list of the references I am using. I have, myself, studied Quenya in the past, though I have forgotten much, and this project started as a way to encourage myself to take up the language once again.
The most definitive sources are the Tolkien linguistic journals Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon, which is where most of Tolkien's purely linguistic material was first published.
Vinyar Tengwar — https://elvish.org/VT/
Parma Eldalamberon — http://www.eldalamberon.com/index1.htmlI am not sure if back issues of these journals are actually still available as I bought my copies decades ago when they were first published. However, their content, and more, has been summarized in many other places.
These next websites provide excellent references to the words as they existed in all stages of the development of the languages, as well as discussions and references to the original source material so that you can look things up for yourself.
Quetalli — https://quettali.org/silme/index.html
A very nice quick reference for finding words that also shows how the words are written in the tengwar script, and how the words are conjugated or declined according to the known rules of grammar.Eldamo — https://eldamo.org/index.html
A more detailed site with discussions of the development of the words over time, as well as references to the source material. Also includes suggestions for Neo-Quenya — an attempt at fleshing out Tolkien's unfinished language to make it more complete and usable.Amayë Tenceli — http://at.boktypografen.se/index.html
This site is dedicated purely to the tengwar and the sarati, writing systems that Tolkien invented for his Elvish languages.1/2
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Today's date
Yavannië 6 (enquë), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Anarya
Yavanna-ness [September] 6 (six), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Sun-day [Sunday]Word of the day
amillë — singular: mother
amillet — dual: pair of mothers. See yesterday's post for a discussion of how the dual form might be appropriately used.
amilleli — partitive: some mothers
amiller — plural: mothersThe word for mother changed over time, but for most of Tolkien's life he use amil or amillë. The dimuniutive form ammë can be translated as "mummy" (or "mommy" in the USA).
The Tengwar
The eleventh letter of the tengwar is aha, later called harma, which is used for the letter h. The word aha means "rage", while harma means "treasure". -
Today's date
Yavannië 5 (lempë), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Elenya
Yavanna-ness [September] 5 (five), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Star-day [Saturday]Word of the day
atar — singular: father
ataru — dual: pair of fathers. Since the dual is meant mostly for natural pairs, you might think this a strange form, but consider if you were speaking of a man and his son who also has a child. Both are fathers, and since they are themselves related, they might be regarded as a natural pair. Also, though Prof. Tolkien might have been shocked by the idea, a married gay couple with children might be referred to as the children's ataru as well.
atalli — partitive: some fathers
atari — plural: fathersOne famous place that Tolkien used this word, though not published in his lifetime, is in his translation of the Lord's Prayer, which begins: Átaremma i ëa han ëa, na aire esselya. "Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name". A more literal word for word translation might be rendered as "Father-ours who is beyond the-Universe, is blessed name-yours". The Universe is referred to as Eä, the verb meaning to be. This is the word Eru Ilúvatar, God, spoke when he made the Universe.
The Tengwar
The tenth letter of the tengwar is formen which is used for the letter F. The word formen means "north". -
Today's date
Yavannië 4 (canta), 2026 (yuquain enquë yuquain), Valanya
Yavanna-ness [September] 4 (four), 2026 (twenty six twenty), Vala-day [Friday]Numbers, part 1
Here are the numbers 1 through 10.min — one
atta — two
neldë — three
canta — four
lempë — five
enquë — six
otso — seven
toldo — eight
nertë — nine
queän — tenThe Tengwar
The ninth letter of the tengwar is thúlë or súlë (the pronunciation changed over time) which is used for the letter combination TH, but can also represent the letter S in words where TH had evolved in S over time. The word thúlë or súlë means "spirit".