Writing using Tengwar characters

[Linaewen]

I'm about to attempt to learn Tengwar. Next week, I'm on camp. The following weeks are my holidays (vacations) so alongside maths and reading, I'll have a crack at learning it. I've already sort of started - I went to that 'Amanye Tenceli' site, which had the link to the International Phonetic Alphabet, which completely confused me. Never fear, I downloaded another Tengwar Reader file that has all of the pronunciations for translation from English.

[Rían]

Hi Linaewen, and welcome to the Tengwar site! I hope you like it! There's lots of good posts on this thread with samples and discussions of variants of Tengwar, etc., I hope you can get some time and read thru it.

Here are links to my two favorite Tengwar-writing sites - most of us here go by these (the English mode of Tengwar):

passagen site

and

imaginet site

Good luck, and we hope to see some of your writing soon!

[Ornelírë Mistë]

I know the Quenya Tengwar mode, and a little Quenya. Writing it with a caligraphy pen makes it look really good.

[TinuvielChild]

Doesn't it though? I've had some fun when I'm bored in History class (droning teachers = no fun), by writing out the Ash nazg Ring poem in the Ring script, just with my pencil. It looks really shibby...

[Rían]

drat - I just realized I can't post any Tengwar until we get a new printer - the old one died!

[Linaewen]

Thanks very much RÃ*an for the first link and your support. I'm making up a signature (Not a Entmoot-posting one- the type of signature you write down with a pen) that includes the characters for my initials 'L' and 'Ch'

I also found this other site I like:

http://www.geocities.com/tengwar2001/

I don't know about its accuracy, but it seems good to me (a complete Tengwar novice)

[Linaewen]

Can someone help me here? How do you indicate two different vowels, one after the other (non-diphthong)? And how would you indicate one at the start of a word?
Help would be appreciated. (Sorry if the answer is obvious- I haven't really had time to read thru my notes)

[Rían]

(1) If there isn't a consonant around to put the vowel mark over, then the vowel mark goes on a carrier (the little "i"-looking thing). The best example for this is to look at what JRRT himself wrote in the imaginet link - the one starting with "of Westmarch by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien..." - just compare the English with the Tengwar underneath it. Note, however, that he writes "John" as "Jhon", I think because it was phoenetic, altho he writes "Reuel" exactly as spelled. The "Reuel" is a great example of the use of carriers.

(2) Well, in the English mode, that's easy - it just goes over the first consonant of the word. (I can't think of a word that starts with 2 vowels, but if there was such a word, then the first vowel would be over a carrier, and the next over the consonant). Now in the Quenya mode, if the word starts with a vowel, you HAVE to use a carrier, because the vowel marks go over the PRECEDING consonant, not the FOLLOWING, as in English mode. If you look at the very top Tengwar writing on the passagen page, it translates to "The writing systems of Aman. Here is a sample of Feanors Tengwar." Now "Aman" and "Tengwar" are Quenya words, so they are written in the Quenya style, so the first "a" in "Aman" needs a carrier. Also, 'ngw' is one symbol in the Quenya mode for the word "Tengwar".

The best way is to just look at the various samples.

Let me know if that made sense....

[Rían]

Here's a link to the samples page: Tengwar samples

scroll down to where it says "Tengwar Examples" and pick one of the links (there are samples from LoTR, Sil, UT and BoLT), and it gives samples with the translation immediately below - very helpful! Also because it shows both the English translation and the EXACT translation of the letters that were actually used (so you get both the English word and how it was written phonetically)

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
(I can't think of a word that starts with 2 vowels, but if there was such a word, then the first vowel would be over a carrier, and the next over the consonant).

After racking my brain a bit, I did come up with one: Earendil.

[Rían]

Yes, you're right, but I meant an English word. However, you can write words like Earendil in the English mode - I should have thought of that. So use a carrier for the first vowel, then the second vowel over the first consonant.

How's it going, Linaewen? I hope you enjoy it as much as the others on this thread

[Rían]

Here's a little attachment for Ruinel, whom I hope will join this thread

(ps - Ruinel, for the links that I like the best, see my post about 9 posts up, the links are called passagen and imaginet)

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
Here's a little attachment for Ruinel, whom I hope will join this thread

(ps - Ruinel, for the links that I like the best, see my post about 9 posts up, the links are called passagen and imaginet)

How interesting. Before I got to it, it had been downloaded twice. lol. Thank you.

Edit: Wow! That's great... I now have a new hobby. hehehehe. And what is best, no one will know what the heck I'm writing.

[Rían]

Let me know if you can translate it .. there's a couple of shortcut characters in it that are in the links, but not the main letter table...if you like language stuff, be sure to read all the articles. It's very interesting how the sounds are divided into how they are made (lips open/closed, where formed in mouth, etc.)

Yes, it's very fun to write things and no one knows what you're writing!! (very handy when you're upset at your husband/bf .... hee hee!)

[Ruinel]

"North aw-ai-ee, too the swoordz and the seeij, and the walhs of defenis." hehehehe... so cool. Did I get it right.

[Rían]

Originally posted by Ruinel
"North aw-ai-ee, too the swoordz and the seeij, and the walhs of defenis." hehehehe... so cool. Did I get it right.

Very good! You even got the s-curl and the abbrevs. for 'the' and 'of' and 'and'! *is impressed!* Note also that a dot UNDER a tengwa indicates a silent ending 'e' - a concession to the English language (used in seeje and defense).

except I think you are thinking the vowel carrier is an 'i' - it should be "Nor(th) away to (the) swor(ds) (and) (the) seeje (and) (the) wa(lls) of defense"

(things in parenthesis are one symbol, like 'th' and 'of')

[Elf Girl]

Gaaah, I wish my beautiful Tengwar calligraphy would come out right when I scan it. It's so pretty with all the vowels in red and done with a calligraphy pen, but Alas! You can never see it...

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
Very good! You even got the s-curl and the abbrevs. for 'the' and 'of' and 'and'! *is impressed!* Note also that a dot UNDER a tengwa indicates a silent ending 'e' - a concession to the English language (used in seeje and defense).

except I think you are thinking the vowel carrier is an 'i' - it should be "Nor(th) away to (the) swor(ds) (and) (the) seeje (and) (the) wa(lls) of defense"

(things in parenthesis are one symbol, like 'th' and 'of')

Oh, yes, I see... thanks!

{RÃ*an, notice anything different about my posts? Hint: look above my avitar. }

[Rían]

Originally posted by Elf Girl
Gaaah, I wish my beautiful Tengwar calligraphy would come out right when I scan it. It's so pretty with all the vowels in red and done with a calligraphy pen, but Alas! You can never see it...

Yeah, I know - it gets ruined when you scan it.. oh well, it's still fun to read other people's Tengwar! Go ahead and share it anyway

[Rían]

Originally posted by Ruinel
{RÃ*an, notice anything different about my posts? Hint: look above my avitar. }

OMGoodness, which admin did you get to do that! Surely not SGH?!?!

Here's another attachment for you, Ruinel....