Fiction has also served to create new alphabets, especially in the field of Norse and Germanic mythology. A clear example is the craze for the films of the Lord of the Rings, based on the books of JRR Tolkien. These works have helped to popularize the learning of elven alphabet, particularly the writing system tengwar, used by the elves, characters of great beauty within the universe of Middle Earth.
What is the Tengwar Elvish alphabet?
The Elvish alphabet created by Tolkien is called tengwarThis complex system is composed of 24 main letters, 12 secondary letters and some signs called TehtarThese letters represent the vowels or the various vowel sounds. Although at first glance it may seem like a simple system, the Tengwar alphabet has considerable complexity that makes it unique. This writing system is not only aesthetically elegant, allowing for refined and stylized calligraphy with a quill pen, but it is also highly adaptable. Many languages of Middle-earth, such as Quenya and the Sindarin, use this alphabet, but it can be adapted to write practically any language, including Spanish.
The logic behind the Tengwar
Tengwar is a phonetic system, where each letter corresponds to a specific sound. This means that, regardless of the language you want to write with Tengwar, the letters must be associated with sounds and not with the letters of a conventional alphabet such as Latin. For example, in Spanish, words like “home” y “hunt” They would be spelled the same way, since both are pronounced identically. way The writing style varies according to the language to be transcribed, adapting to the sounds of that language. Tolkien created different modes for languages such as Quenya, Sindarin, and other invented languages. Spanish mode For Tengwar, although less known, follows the same phonetic logic.
The structure of the Tengwar alphabet
Tengwar letters are arranged in series (temar) and degrees (tyellerThe series represent the different parts of the mouth where sounds are produced, called points of articulation. The degrees, on the other hand, refer to the manners of articulation, that is, how the sound is produced (voiceless, fricative, voiced, etc.). Twenty-four primary letters make up the basic Tengwar alphabet. These letters have consonantal value and are divided into four series:
- Series I – Dental: It represents sounds produced with the tongue behind the teeth, such as t and d.
- Series II – Lipsticks: Includes sounds generated with the lips, such as p y b.
- Series III – Palatals: It represents the sounds produced when the tongue touches the palate, such as the sound ch in Spanish.
- Series IV – Velars/Labiovelars: They are sounds produced in the back of the mouth, such as k and g.
Each series is subdivided into grades that determine further details of the sound. For example:
- The first two rows are usually for deaf consonants (without vocal cord vibration).
- The next two rows represent the voiced consonants (with vibration).
- The last two rows cover nasal y semivocalic.
Tengwar in Spanish
The Tengwar alphabet has also been adapted to represent specific sounds of Spanish, a process known as the Spanish mode of Tengwar script. This mode uses around 34 different letters from the Tengwar alphabet, although other languages might require more. In this mode, the vowels They are represented by the TehtarThese are slight modifications or symbols placed on the consonant letters. Vowel carriers, special lines called short and long carriers, act as supports for these vowels when there is no consonant to which they can be associated. For example, the word “year” will be written with a particular combination of Tehtar and consonants in Tengwar, taking into account pronunciation and phonetic rules.
Writing with Tengwar: Examples and Adaptations
If you want to learn how to write your name in Tengwar or even transcribe entire texts, it’s important to understand that it’s not just about replacing letters with symbols; you need to adapt the words according to their phonetics. A practical example would be the word “house,” which in Spanish can be transcribed in Tengwar as follows. As mentioned previously, this transcription will depend on how the words sound, not how they are written in standard Latin. Furthermore, there are several tools and websites where you can find automatic translators of words and names into the Tengwar system, such as… This name converter in Tengwar, which allows you to obtain the corresponding transcript in just a few seconds.
Matrices of equivalences between letters
The Tengwar system includes phonetic equivalence tables that allow for precise conversion between languages. Some adaptations developed by fans of Tolkien’s work allow for writing in Tengwar with high quality and linguistic precision, even for more complex systems like Quenya or Sindarin. Below is a simplified table that adapts Tengwar characters to specific letters and phonemes in Spanish:
The Tehtar system: How are vowels written in Tengwar?
The Tehtar These are diacritical marks used to represent vowels in the Tengwar writing system. Generally, these marks are placed above consonant letters to indicate which vowel should be pronounced after the consonant. For example:
- Three points: correspond to the sound of the a.
- A point: represents the vowel i.
- Accent or tilde: Indicate the letter e.
- Two points: represent the letter u o o, depending on the mode.
This flexibility allows you to write in Tengwar in a grammatically correct way regardless of the language you choose. The Tengwar Elvish alphabet is a masterpiece of linguistics within the fantasy universe created by Tolkien. Beyond its aesthetic beauty, it offers a rich and detailed structure for representing sounds in languages as varied as Quenya, Sindarin, and even real languages like Spanish. If you are a fan of Tolkien’s work or simply fascinated by linguistics, learning Tengwar can be both a fun and challenging activity. Due to the complexity of its system and the multiple adaptations that exist for different languages, the writing possibilities are virtually limitless. Whether you want to write your name, a meaningful phrase, or an entire text, Tengwar offers a flexible and harmonious method for doing so.