Writing using Tengwar characters

[Rían]

OK - let's see if this is the right file...

[katya]

oh my gosh, all these attachments are so pretty. my writing is different... i wish i had a scanner. oh well. some other time. i love the s-curls. they are soooo pretty.

[TinuvielChild]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
ps - the word 'are' is one of my favorite-looking words - you drew yours so pretty!

Thank you! Yeah, I really love the way that word looks; I wrote out "May it Be" the first day I was trying to learn Tengwar, and I noticed how cool that word looked, with the beautiful "r", and the triple-dot over it for the a, and the silent e underneath....also, the word "harmony" looks kinda cool (I once wrote out a poem that had that word in it). Soon I shall have another one posted; see if you can post the answer to it in Tengwar!

[Rían]

Fun to compare our two styles - we write letters on different levels, and you like to use 's' while I like 'z', etc. And I like the 's' one direction and you like it the other way. Also, I just gave up trying to hear the difference between dh and th, so just always use the th symbol, where you used dh for 'that' and 'those'. Can you hear a big difference? I just ended up wasting so much time while writing that I chucked dh. However, I can still read it if someone else writes it.

Post another, please, when you get a chance. And happy birthday again!

[TinuvielChild]

Oooh-pretty...Where did you find the thing on double consonants? Or was it on one of the pages that you posted links to back in the first page and I just didn't see it? Same goes for punctuation. Oh, and about the dh/th: I just randomly alternate between the two. *sheepish look* Here's the one I just dashed off, and the quality's kinda crappy, but:

[TinuvielChild]

Grr-I'm being kicked off the computer, and I don't know if I'll be back on tonight, as I have -dare I say it?- homework! Agh! The horror! Have fun with the one I just posted!

(by the way, Rian, I like your z's better than my s's; I think I'll start using the z's!)

[Rían]

Originally posted by TinuvielChild
Oooh-pretty...Where did you find the thing on double consonants? Or was it on one of the pages that you posted links to back in the first page and I just didn't see it? Same goes for punctuation. Oh, and about the dh/th: I just randomly alternate between the two. *sheepish look* Here's the one I just dashed off, and the quality's kinda crappy, but:

Double consonants ref. and preceded-by-nasal is on the first link -
below the letter chart, paragraph starting with "the sound values of the tengwar". Read 2 paragraphs.

dh/th - don't look sheepish, that's part of the fun of the Tengwar (for me, at least). JRR was constantly fiddling with it. He wrote some of his diaries in it, and would change mid-entry.

Thanks for the riddle - here's my answer

oh, and punctuation was a link off one of the two links I posted. Remind me in a few days if you can't find it, and I'll dig it up. No time now

[Rían]

katya - if you have a fairly new printer, it is probably also a scanner. You might want to try the detailed instructions I posted to TC a while back. I would sure like to see yours, too! Keep us posted ...

[Rían]

I re-scanned Tolkien's letter #118, hope this is better.

Translation:

dear hugh: this is just to wish you a very happy christmas in two styles of elvish script. I am sending explanations, and hope you won't find them too conplicated.

[katya]

really? i never thought of that. i can't figure it out though. i will look for the instruction manual. oh ya by the way i could read the message that said "hello entmooters! who can read this?" or whatever it said. i haven't been to this thread for a long time... maybe because i have nothing to say. i drew a picture and the title is really long-ish and written in the tengwar. it seemed wrong to write it in english. by the way, do you write phonetically or (close to) the real spelling? i started out doing it phonetically but now i mostly spell things right, so i dont confure myself. i think this has been mentioned before...oh well.

[Rían]

Hi katya - hey, we're on at the same time!

I generally write phonetically unless I think it isn't clear enough, then I will throw in the extra letters to help out. But, as I wrote to TC, I change all the time! Esp. words like 'you', which I think Tolkien wrote 'yow' in his letter #118, which I scanned and attached a few posts ago. I switch between 'yu' and 'you', depending upon my mood...

If your printer is also a fax/copier, it should definitely work as a scanner. You don't even need the instruction manual, it should just work under programs-accessories-imaging, as I wrote in the detailed post about scanning. Good luck! I would really like to see some of your Tengwar.

[katya]

well i went to programs/accesories and found no sign of "imaging". oh well whatever. by the way, do you ever make capitals? is there a way to do that?

[Rían]

Drat Did you ever find out if your printer was a scanner, too? Maybe you can just use the scanning program that came with it, if it is a scanner. Oh well, sorry it's not easier - I'd like to see some of your writing.

Whoops - Forgot About Capitals - No, I Haven't Seen Anything About Capitals. The only thing remotely relating to capitals is in the calligraphy link, where it says "sometimes names are in writing emphasized with larger initial tengwa. Further emphasis can be added by doubling the stem of the tengwa". However, I don't know if Tolkien did this or it was just the site writer's idea. I did use that idea, however, when I wrote "Gil Galad" (one of the attachments, I think gg1a) - I decorated the tengwar in his name and made them bigger.

*sigh* I hope you can get something going... how frustrating.

[TinuvielChild]

Rian, you posted it backwards; the puncuation was right by the preceded-by-nasal thing in the first link, and the double consonants were in a link off the first link. It's ok, I found them just fine. Thank you for all the help! I totally, totally love Tengwar. Oh, and I absolutely adore your answer to the riddle! The fish is so cool, and the many s's are awesome! The Letter 118 was a little difficult; some places it wasn't quite clear what the letter was supposed to be. I did manage to muddle out a translation that was close enough to the actual one! Go me!

[TinuvielChild]

Oh, and also in the link with the double consonants is an excellent example of the s-curl: the link is to be found here.

(Rian, to do links like I just did, do [url = <insert url here>] random text here [/url])

[Rían]

Go You! and thanks for "talking Tengwar" with me, I've really enjoyed talking over the finer points of s-curls and vowel carriers, etc. I just love writing in it, and am glad you do, too.

The Letter 118 was a little difficult; some places it wasn't quite clear what the letter was supposed to be. I did manage to muddle out a translation that was close enough to the actual one! Go me!

Well, you'll just have to go out and buy "Letters" so you can see it better - too bad After looking over the letter, I noticed that Tolkien did some funny things in it - first, he forgot the 'r' in "dear"; next, he switched his 'i' and 'e' vowel marks around (his son Christopher always wrote them that way in the books he published), and he wrote the word "too" (next to last word) in the Quenyan style - vowels over the preceding consonant. Funny! He was so creative he mixed things up sometimes, apparently! Or he just liked to play around with different styles. And I mainly attached it so you could see his creative s-curls, because the s-curls in the links are SO boring!

Originally posted by TinuvielChild
Rian, you posted it backwards; the puncuation was right by the preceded-by-nasal thing in the first link, and the double consonants were in a link off the first link.

no, no - hang in there and find double consonants in the first passagen link - after the main chart, skip the parag. starting "the two last", start at parag. "the sound values", then look at the examples after the paragraph - they are of double consonants, preced. nasal and s-curl. Then read the following parag. starting "a horizontal bar or tilde" Do you see it? (I just bring this up because it's handier to carry less sheets around when studying) Here's the link again, and a lot nicer thanks to your link hint! passagen top level

Thank you for all the help! I totally, totally love Tengwar. Oh, and I absolutely adore your answer to the riddle! The fish is so cool, and the many s's are awesome!

You're welcome! glad you like the fish and s's, I had fun with them.

[Rían]

Originally posted by TinuvielChild
Oh, and also in the link with the double consonants is an excellent example of the s-curl: the link is to be found here

Well, be careful with that link, though, because it is the Quenyan-mode Tengwar, which is different than English mode, which is what we have been working in (unless of course you want to learn Quenyan, then you would need this). Many of the tengwar have different sound assignments, and the vowels are written over the preceding consonant, not over the following consonant as in English and Sindarin modes (i.e., in Quenyan mode, read from bottom-up).
Look at the writing across the very top. I'll "spoiler out" the translation, if you want to give it a try yourself first.

the writing systems of aman: here is a sample of feanors tengwar

Now look at the Tengwar sentence at the top of the link, at how they write the word "Tengwar" - it is 'e' over 't', 'a' over a single character for 'ngw', then 'r'. Now look at how we have been writing Tengwar in the English mode in our attachments - see the difference? This sentence is in English mode, but the two Quenyan words are in Quenyan mode, which can be confusing because you have to know it is a Quenyan word or you can't figure it out, so I just spell Tengwar in the English mode. Can you find the other Quenyan word?

Does this make sense? It's so hard to type out an explanation sometimes But you're right, it does show the s-curl and double consonants, which are apparently also used in the Quenyan mode.

Well, must toddle off and do some work - I'll look forward to your response, and I hope all these long posts won't irritate/frustrate you. Keep writing that lovely Tengwar

[TinuvielChild]

The other Quenyan word was "Aman"! And I did notice that it was the Quenyan style, but it had the double consonants and s-curls, which was all I was really looking for. I kinda skipped the other stuff. I've been writing all my notes for English class in Tengwar; isn't that fun? I feel happy; my English teacher is not only letting me read The Silmarillion for outside reading (upon which we will write book reports), but she's letting me classify it as "nonfiction"!!! She is acknowledging that The Silmarillion is not a work of fiction, it is a history! I intend to write little quotes in Tengwar around the border of the cover page, and possibly write "The Silmarillion" on the cover in purty Tengwar (with the English underneath, of course, so the poor unenlightened English teacher can tell what it's about )

[Rían]

Silly me - I should have known you knew all that, you so obviously have a great grasp on Tengwar. It's hard to conduct conversations thru a keyboard over many days without forgetting what was said, and I was too lazy to page back and check! I just wanted to be sure you knew the difference between the modes, which you obviously do, because it really confused me for quite awhile when I first started looking at words written in Tengwar.

What a great teacher! WOW! Wasn't someone complaining over in the Venting thread that their teacher wouldn't let them read Sil or LoTR for credit?? (something like that...). If this is your first read of Sil, be prepared - it can be tough at first, but WELL worth the work! Someone just started a thread in the Sil forum "ok, am I the only one who..." about reading the Sil. You might want to bourre over there and check it out. BTW, how many times have you read LoTR?

[katya]

hey! well i am pretty sure my printer is not a scanner, but hey who knows. ill figure it out later. maybe i will use someone elses. anyhow, i usually do double the stem for capitals, if i even do them. hey by the way, i got out my calligraphy set. yay for me. it's fun to write with it.