Quenya, Language of the High Elves - Tolkien's Languages

[@openalpha01]

Also worth mentioning that all the Kings of Numenor before they were deceived by Sauron, choose their royal names in Quenya as a homage to their elven ancestry.

[@serjorahmormont6124]

Technically this breach in tradition happened a bit earlier in time before Sauron's deception, with Ar-Adunakhor. Though the scrolls were still written in Quenya out of fear for the Valar.

[@anttityykila9384]

In old english they called Finns as Kvens and they spoked kvenya, it makes sense chose quenya is based on finnish language and rules.

[@atanvardo5730]

@@anttityykila9384 Tolkien decided to to base-off Quenya on Finnish because of his love for this language. Evidently, Quenya received its name because Kvenya was the Old English name of the language spoken by the Finnish (Kvens).

[@content...9934]

@@atanvardo5730 My language inspired Quenya?

[@content...9934]

@@atanvardo5730 Neat.

[@samwilson6092]

Hearing Tolkien speaking quenya is the most nerdgasmic thing ever.

[@theophilos2368]

@Ukko Mihaila Talvela yeah

[@theophilos2368]

@Ukko Mihaila Talvela it is :)

[@content...9934]

Ukko pihalla talvella.

[@linajurgensen4698]

Fun fact: his father’s ancestors originate from Saxony (today: Lower Saxony). It is believed that Tolkien’s name derives from the German word „tollkühn“ (pronounced the same way). „tollkühn“ literally means being adventurous, coping with a highly dangerous task and to have the willingness to take risks in order to help someone in need. Really interesting if we take into consideration that characters from two of his greatest works have exactly such characteristics.

[@ThomasK96]

If I ever ended up somewhere in the medieval Century I would want JRR Tolkien, to be my translator I have a feeling he'll be able to pick up the language faster than anyone else.

[@mayalackman7581]

More to the point; he already spoke it (At least in England and Skandinavia.)

[@livedandletdie]

How to learn languages from scratch. Pretend to not know any language. Everyone around you will get so irritated that they will try to teach you. As you progress pretend that you progress slower. Laugh Maniacally inside your head. Language Learned. Done.

[@anttityykila9384]

He tryed to master the mother language of quenya but failed. Listen song called Suurin by Kati Run and hear her fail too. Quenya was named after Finnish and that song is ancient Finnish and in old english they called it kvenya 😊.

[@dominiclabriola5955]

Quenya is beautiful.

[@Bastardson_]

It was amazing to hear Tolkien himself speaking Quenya.

[@qurantino3624]

Funny! In English class we have about fantasy, and I was nerding out the entire time because we talked about the elvish language, and how it evolved! It was so fun!

[@timomastosalo]

Elvish languages. Notice how funny it would be to say we people on the Earth speak the human language - there's not just one human, nor Elvish (I: Elven) language.

[@jackaguirre8576]

@@timomastosalo Humans are the only species intelligent enough to communicate in reality, though. In Tolkien's realm, Elves are a different species from Humans, Orcs, etc and can craft languages separately from the other species. So it honestly makes sense to call them "Elvish" languages.

[@nataliek.5111]

This language is so cool and complex, love you vids big Tolkien fan too!

[@ThePijarro]

Thank you so much Yoystan! Your videos are always well made. I absolutely love Quenya, it's the most beautiful language I have ever heard.

[@atanvardo5730]

Quenya, Sindarin, Telerin, Nandorin, Doriathrin,... All forms of Elvish plus Golic Vulcan are the prettiest fictional languages I know of.

[@housti]

Some quenya words are the same in finnish. Path or course is 'tie'. Iron is 'rauta'. Other words are very close. For example to give is 'anta' in quenya and 'antaa' in finnish, or piercing is 'terewa' in quenya and 'terävä' in finnish.

[@jrpipik]

The Elves awakening at Cuivienen developed Quenya on their own, speaking it for hundreds of mortal years before they had any contact with Valar.

[@forestsburning3324]

Some really cool pictures I'd never seen before in this video

[@lukeskywalkerthe2nd773]

Excellent video Yoystan!!!!! Quenya is honestly one of my most favorite Languages in the Legendarium, and I have always had such a facanation with it. Im still practiceing how to speak it though (I'm doing a lot of research on it its pretty hard tbh LOL) but anyway love this video, and can't wait for the Haradrim one on Sunday!!! :)

[@reformedeightc2978]

I made flashcards that have Sindar and Quenya on them. It really useful! Maybe you could make some flashcards.

[@lukeskywalkerthe2nd773]

RedPandaBoi C Thanks for the advice man!!!! I surely will!!!!! :)

[@DrDingsGaster]

Dude Quenya was one of my first loves in language. I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy in 8th grade for a project but I was engrossed in it before that thanks to the language.

[@brianc9374]

Elrond was raised in the house of Feanor and is famed for being a "lore master". Spent almost his entire life in a leadership position with the Noldor. He translated the writing on Orcist and Glamdring, swords of Gondolin. "Assume he knew quenya"?????

[@jacopgame3068]

Could you please do a video on black speech

[@SirRelith]

oh yes! :D

[@HeliodromusScorpio]

my favorite

[@treatngizzy]

That would be cool!

[@niekbrabers6581]

yeah

[@timomastosalo]

Language of the Puppet Master and his slaves? There's only one comfortable position in that culture - and that's already taken. And even he was not comfortable in his life before he died. But the rest were slaves. That language shouldn't be spoken aloud much, if you don't want to be enslaved by it :) Didn't you listen Gandalf? Though Sauron is gone already, so it's not that bad anymore. But going after that stuff is like a moth going for the flame. That's the Orkish reward for the fan boys - they split your skull. Not much time to speak the Black Speech with them :)

[@januzzell8631]

Beautifully done (as usual :) ) thank you again

[@cam9378]

You're still killing it my man. Still one of my favorite channels to kick back and watch

[@MrThatonebitch]

It’s just mind blowing that Tolkien not only created several languages, he created a language that is basically a “dead”, historically relevant language. Like... 🤯

[@atanvardo5730]

Quenya was only a "dead" language in Middle-Earth (not actually dead, though...). But in the Blessed Realm (Aman) it was still spoken as an everyday Elvish language - by the Vanyar and perhaps also by the Falmari, which were a branch of the Teleri (for the Vanyar and the Noldor, the Falmari spoke a dialect of Quenya, just like the Vanyarin and the Noldorin dialects; but the Falmari considered their own language as a different language: Telerin).

[@notoriousdip5495]

Sweet upload mate. Keep em coming

[@ryanratchford2530]

Great video, can’t wait for your theory video!!

[@saintsrowandmasseffect4lif825]

My favorite KZbinr is back god you deserve a million subscribers but when that does happen I'll be like '' yep I was there when he just had 58 subs''

[@PhinAI]

Thank you for this video. In LotRO, I've been trying to figure out if there'd be any plausibility at all in giving a high-elf minstrel from Ossiriand a Quenyan name. I'm still not sure how that could come to pass. I really haven't wrapped my head around elvish history enough to take an educated stand.

[@jj_the_ent]

Yes! Another one, AND ON QUENYA!

[@jarilaukkanen8487]

I was so glad to hear something about Tolkien and finnish language relations and 30 seconds after that when world map transfers into middle earth map Finland transforms into Mordor XD That is just freaking epic map did you do it yourself or found it somewhere ?

[@vitomania04]

Thank you for this awesome piece of knowledge!

[@berserkergaming0240]

So cool that my language was used in creating this very cool language (im finnish😅)

[@davidreinmiller]

These videos are SO well put together and you tell these story's really well!!! Thanks man!!!!

[@akshayshrim]

Yes Quenya was like the latin - the mother language. Love your videos ! Keep 'em rolling.

[@anttityykila9384]

Based on Finnish and lesser Latin

[@c.jgressman2181]

Ok I'm a simple man. When I see a Men of the West video I click on it.

[@Ryan-rd4kc]

Fantastic as always, I've been binging your videos since I found them, very well made!! Can't wait for more man!

[@ohdannyboy4727]

Always fun to hear your videos.

[@kiddfaith4397]

Takes a brilliant man to make entire languages that evolved from other languages he created.

[@timomastosalo]

And add there some irregular words, so the languages appear more natural.

[@kiddfaith4397]

@@timomastosalo Irregular words?

[@timomastosalo]

@@kiddfaith4397 A grammar expression. They are the tough words when learning a foreign language. Like go - went (?!) (irregular) - compare with want - wanted (regular)

[@kiddfaith4397]

@@timomastosalo Ah, thank you.

[@80budokai]

Awesome video! 💯🙌

[@viniciusyang]

Awesome!

[@bbaileygaming1924]

Great vid! Could you do a video about how the geography of area changed as I see the map you showed in 4:31 is different to the middle earth in the 4th age. Maybe cover how that happened for instance the ice bay of forochel was made during the war for the sake elf the elves.

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

Wow first time I’ve heard Tolkien’s voice, and in QUENYA

[@kfapps]

Can you do a video on how to speak queyna/sindrain. Nice video anyway. It makes me see how by writing a amazing fantisy book, Tolkien made us think more about the real world.

[@Morgil27]

I self-studied Quenya for a bit back when I was in college many years ago.

[@FaeMua]

Awesome!! I love your videos! Only thing is just the pronunciation of certain words :) like Sindarin. Emphasis on works with more then 3 syllables is on the first syllable. So it’s pronounced “SEEN - da - reen” :)

[@atanvardo5730]

You meant the third-to-last syllable. Yes, this is the stressed syllable in words with three or more syllables. But the stress in these words falls upon the second-to-last syllable if the vowel in this syllable is followed by: (a) a consonant cluster; (b) a long/double consonant; (c) a palatalized consonant (represented by the combinations "ny", "ly", "hy", etc.) or a labialized consonant (represented by the combinations "nw", "lw", "hw", etc.). It is always better to say "third-to-last syllable" and "second-to-last syllable", because words can have more than three syllables in Quenya (if a word has, for example, four syllables and you say to someone that the stress falls on the second syllable, that person will put the stress in the wrong syllable).

[@ryan52743]

A Men of the West video on Thursday, suprising. (But great)

[@anthonycourte1384]

I hope you have not forgotten this playlist. There are yet more languages to cover.

[@lordcharlesthomas]

This is why we love this legend

[@tigerpaw23]

Great video.

[@seabass09014]

I want to learn this language. Is it possible to learn? I don't mean like certain phrases, but being fluent in it like how somone can be fluent in English or Spanish.

[@MenoftheWest]

Sebastian Velez It is possible to learn! Best of luck friend!

[@seabass09014]

Men of the West Ok thanks!

[@TheOtherAngle]

There is a PDF you can download from this link: www.tolkien.ro/docs/Quenya-Elvish-Language-Course-Tolkien.pdf Cheers.

[@SirRelith]

Very possible to learn Quenya, however Tolkien changed the language a bit nearly every time he sat down and worked on it. So becoming 'fluent' is not really possible, but you can come close! Check out this site for some great info! www.tolkien.ro/docs/Quenya-Elvish-Language-Course-Tolkien.pdf and this one. www.arwen-undomiel.com/elvish/phrases.html Peditham hi sui vellyn?

[@wintherr3527]

how on earth does one become "fluent" in a fictional language? with whom do you think your going to speak the language? surely, it IS possible to know the grammar, the vocabulary and sounds, but why do you think you'll need to speak it?

[@LeoxandarMagnus]

I had never heard that clip before. Thanks for finding it.

[@ananogueira9078]

Hello there friend, I have been a fan of your videos for a very long time, and I remember when this particular video first came out. Well, years later this same video is helping me complete an assignment on "The Languages of J.R.R. Tolkien" for university, it has answered many questions. At last, I cannot find the video you mention about Sindarin, did you ever publish it? Or has it been lost from youtube? If perhaps you still have the video or have a chance to re-upload it, I would be forever grateful. Thank you!

[@phoule76]

I had never seen that map of Middle Earth superimposed on early Our Earth before.

[@therealdarkwhale7977]

Excellent video dude, I love quenyan it’s such a beautiful language and I will definitely check out Tolkien saying the poem! Also if you could do videos on either, the limwaith, the druedain, the tauredain or maybe the half trolls that would be cool

[@MrSeerV]

Great video, it's very aesthetic pleasing to look at

[@justing1810]

Imagine having this much spare time on your hands. Lol. He created a great work of literature.

[@James-sq7hr]

I've always liked Quenya (& there are some good books available, if people want to learn it) more than Sindarin. Neat to heat the language's creator speaking it.

[@lancedooley7558]

Nice vid man.

[@qurantino3624]

Maybe do a video we’re you explain how the common tongue came to be?

[@ryancruz1876]

Do you mean Westron?

[@26snoopy82]

That was awesome! You should do a video of how we can learn the languages.

[@k9vendettathewolfofmordor529]

hi yoysten do you know the hobbit poem the mewlips. it was meant to scare children from adventuring. i think the poem was based off of what the ones who saw gollum thought he was and was passed down into the ages slowly turning into myth

[@timomastosalo]

Quenya was born about the same time as Sindarin: they departed from a common ancient source language. We can call the language in Cuivienen as 'Common Elvish (Elven?)', or 'Archaic Elvish'. They started to separate on their way West from Cuivienen, but really separated, when the Quenya speakers went West over the Sea, naturally. Though some of the Sindarin went there too, their version of Sindarin became called Teleri. Elven languages change like any other languages in our world. Tolkien presented in his writings how languages behave. Of course Elves have 1000s of years to make this changes slower than we do - but still.

[@mrgodliak]

The Teleri went over and spoke Telerin, the Sindar are the Teleri that stayed behind (along with some other groups). Collectively there were Teleri, not Sindar. Maybe I it read it wrong, but you seemed to have it switched.

[@timomastosalo]

@@mrgodliak Didn't switch - those who went over the sea, became known as Telerin (forgot the language was called different from the people) speakers, some of them Sindarin Elves - though mostly Those Teleri who crossed the Sea before Thingol's realm was established. But actually all the Teleri besides (Elwë) Thingol were Sindar - Grey Elves - Elves of twilight - because they had not been in the light of Valinor, the Westlands. The difference was born when the Teleri came to the West - they were no longer Elves of Twilight. Sindar. So, yeah, they were all Teleri first, and Sindar (except Thingol after visiting Valinor). Then the Noldor started to use the term Sindar of the grey Elves who didn't cross the Sea (kinda legit), some belittling them that way. Then in practice only those in the West were called Teleri. Which is legit also in the sense that their languages grew apart, an ocean between, and later 'a bit' more :)

[@ricklandaubonsai5506]

I always thought the true high elves were the Vanyar.. now what would they have spoken? Quenya, Valarin or Sindarin?

[@williamwebb580]

Rick Landau The Vanyarin dialect of Quenya. “Quendya” if I’m not mistaken.

[@ryancruz1876]

The Vanyar spoke Quenya

[@Erroiak]

Great work!!

[@shirrepoffer]

I love this! Tolkien was such a genious! Would be so awesome to learn all the languages.

[@benskelly1217]

Thank you for this dose of knowledge. (I already knew some of this, still... thanks!)

[@WizardAnimations]

1st!! Again! And also can ya do would if sauron overthrew Morgoth?

[@tar-maironlordofgifts5702]

Hmmm...I like that idea

[@WizardAnimations]

Lol thx sauron

[@tar-maironlordofgifts5702]

+Homie Wizard Why are you laughing?

[@WizardAnimations]

Cuz its ironic that sauron would like a theory about himself

[@tar-maironlordofgifts5702]

+Homie Wizard Meh...

[@GoroScornshard]

If you're interested in learning Quenya or any other of Tolkien's languages the ardalambion website is a great resource

[@sainiharika]

Omg Tolkien speaking Quenya. My heart my heart 😭😭😭😭

[@cybermeth_]

Theres a lot of guesses about Quenya in this video where actual information exists. Usually the research in these videos are really good, but this just seems a bit lazy. I'd actually love to collaborate with you on a remake, and maybe reinstate the whole series, as a lot of people watch these videos.

[@Vinzenzx]

4:28 Where i can find that map? it look soo sick hehe

[@adityatiwari2957]

Great work man,,

[@Firiel19]

Did you ever do a video on Sindarin? I can't find one.

[@stegorex1296]

Love your work😁

[@Jeffery00cox]

Can you do a video about that map?

[@Rasperdan]

I hope you will be interested to find that Tolken taught medieval Welsh at the University of Leeds between 1920 and 1925. So I think his main inspiration is probably Welsh.

[@ryancruz1876]

Welsh inspired Sindarin. Finnish was a large influence on Quenya.

[@DSxBAWA]

Could you do a video on the Prophecy of Mandos and ‘The Battle at the end of time’ please? I can’t find much on it and I watched the witch king video and u said he might have returned at Dagor Dagorlath but I thought that was at the end of the first age?

[@simrannavani6942]

Can you do a video on LOTRO

[@emikayandere7251]

Could you do one on Na’vi

[@nolakatemusic7735]

Hello! I'm currently learning Sindarin and was wondering if you had any knowledge that would be helpful for that. I love watching KZbin videos to learn things but there aren't, unfortunately, a lot of new ones being put out. Thank you!

[@thomas-cq5cv]

could you do a video about the tauredain in far harad?

[@venkats5368]

Can you do a video on Shadowfax? I wonder if there would be enough material for a video though.

[@michaeldavis9190]

I'm pretty sure than the Feanorian letters were Tengwar. I always thought that it implied that their writing was more like Chinese until Feanor simplified it with an alphabet.

[@tar-maironlordofgifts5702]

Great video!

[@jeremievivianagriffin9458]

How do you say Griffin in elvish?

[@tengkualiff]

Ive been trying to learn Sindarin these couple of days !

[@adriataylor7534]

i love Elvish!! it is my favorite language in the Tolkien Universe. i love Tolkien's work as a whole, but the Elves and their culture/language became my favorite very quickly. i would love to learn Elvish. as geeky as this sounds, i would watch all 3 LOTRs movies and follow the Elvish in the films. i had a prints out from each of the films as well to follow along with. got pretty good at it. haven't done it for a while.

[@anttityykila9384]

Learn basics of Finnish and master it...

[@atanvardo5730]

If you are still interested in learning Elvish, either Quenya or Sindarin (or both), I have a good news for you: You can actually learn those languages. There's a number of sites with Elvish courses. I will give you the links for some of the best I know: www.councilofelrond.com folk.uib.no/hnohf/ eldamo.org/ Don't believe when people say Elvish is hard to learn. Actually, it is FAR easier to learn Sindarin or Quenya (the only Elvish languages for which Tolkien conceived grammatical rules and an extensive vocabulary) than learning any natural, foreign language. Let's take Quenya as example. It is the Elvish language that Tolkien developed the most, and was inspired mostly on the Finnish language (or Suomi). As you might know, any language, natural or fictional, has exceptions to its grammatical rules. Only the exceptions in Finnish are equivalent to what Quenya has on grammar... So, there is no comparison! Also, unless you want, you don't need to care about fluency of speech or acquiring a vast vocabulary, because Quenya and Sindarin are not actually spoken languages. They are not fully functional languages. Tolkien didn't have this in mind when he created and developed them. They were created as art languages, only. The holes in grammar and an insuficient offering of words make it impossible to have a proper conversation in Sindarin or even Quenya. So, people rarely speak to each other in Elvish. When people communicate in Elvish, it is almost always in written form, be it on posts on social media, e-mails, WhatsApp, letters, or writing song lyrics, poems, etc. They usually write Quenya or Sindarin using the transliteration of these languages to the Latin alphabet (as they appear written on Tolkien's books, for example), but can also write them in "Tengwar" (the Elvish script).

[@yovow7839]

Can you do a video on eru illuvatar?

[@eluukki2056]

would it be easier to learn Quenya if you speak Finnish as a native language like me. because Tolkien took a lot of inspiration from the Finnish language. I'm pretty late but it doesn't matter

[@atanvardo5730]

Actually, learning either Quenya or Sindarin is far easier than learning any natural, foreign language. Even if you don't speak the natural langauge used as the main inspiration for the Elvish language in question.

[@nishanji8625]

Quenya sounds like Finnish if it had the “Th” consonant

[@anttityykila9384]

Language is named by Finns.. in old english they called Finns as Kvens and they speaked Kvenya 🤫

[@Win090949]

antti tyykilä spoke

[@anttityykila9384]

@@Win090949 ?

[@theophilos2368]

@@anttityykila9384 "...they *speaked* Kvenya 🤫" Win090949 corrected your mistake.

[@timomastosalo]

There's a lot Latin too. There are some sound combinations besides that th, which don't exist in Finnish. The funny thing about that th - it existed in Finnish earlier. Even in the 90's there were old people in Kalanti area, quite close to Rauma, who used the th sounds (both). Like vedhet (dh is the soft th, as in THe) 'waters'. pro vedet (standard Finnish) & metthä (th as in THing, just it's double, relevant in Finnish), meaning 'forest'.

[@Firstborn0Raz]

If I may make a suggestion, I am fascinated by the black speech of Mordor and would like to learn of it's origins and its usage, especially from the Jackson films.

[@dingdong16414]

I think it should be said that the Elves so loved language and speech that they were named "Quendi" which has the same root as "Quenya"

[@Kielimies]

Awakening at "Kwee-way-nien"... LOL!

[@WizardAnimations]

Okie nevermind, I wasn't first. But can you consider my theory?

[@TheTraconia]

its striking to know only now that quenya was based on my language >;>''

[@blaircolquhoun7780]

I like it. Makes me wish I took Latin in high school.

[@7ajhubbell]

Thank you.

[@ludicrousfunone5705]

Still waiting for the Sindarin video.

[@samikaislasalo3947]

i heard that tolkiens language was inspired from old finnish language... sooo finnish= elfs ;D i mean we have good forests for elfs

[@atanvardo5730]

Tolkien created a number of different Elvish languages, but the only ones for which he conceived grammatical rules and an extensive vocabulary were Quenya and Sindarin, specially the first. Quenya was inspired mostly on Finnish (Suomi), but also, in a lesser degree, in Greek, Latin and also Italian. Sindarin was inspired mostly on Welsh, but (as for Quenya), it was inspired in a lesser degree on a few other languages, such as Old Norse (the only one I remember). The stress rules for both Quenya and Sindarin are the same as in Latin.

[@scolopendragon]

I would like to learn Sindarin!

[@Ken19700]

What does math look like with quenyan numbers?

[@SamiP-ik7vj]

is.gd/U2XSUY

[@JohannVF]

"Let them sa-si, if they can speak no better!"

[@nihal2055]

I like quenya more.

[@atanvardo5730]

Quenya is more melodic. Sindarin is more fluid. Each language sounds beautiul on its own manner. But yes, I prefer Quenya, because it is richer than Sindarin, and more complex.

[@anttityykila9384]

In old English they called Finns as Kvens and they speaked Kvenya 😊 sound familar?

[@FlagAnthem]

that map at the end...