Elvish

Natively known as: Quenian /keˌɪniˈɑn/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
cwech rhiws grirs callof rhe hai cwech myfr rhe ding llid ob diw
Pronunciation: /kweːχ r̥ɪu̯s grirs kaˈɬɔv r̥ɛ hai̯ kweːχ məvr r̥ɛ diːŋ ɬiːd ɔb dɪu̯/
Quenian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k l m n n̥ p r r̥ s t v w ð ŋ ɬ ʃ θ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n n̥			ŋ
Stop	b p			d t			k g
Fricative		v	ð θ	s	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r̥ r
Lateral fricative				ɬ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a ai̯ au̯ aɨ̯ aː ei̯ eɨ̯ eː i iː oː u uː ɔ ɔi̯ ɔɨ̯ ə əu̯ ɛ ɛu̯ ɨ ɨu̯ ɨː ɪ ɪu̯ ʊ ʊɨ̯
Diphthongs: ai̯ au̯ aɨ̯ ei̯ eɨ̯ ɔi̯ ɔɨ̯ əu̯ ɛu̯ ɨu̯ ɪu̯ ʊɨ̯ ?

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i	ɨ ɨː	u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
f	ph
v	f
k	c
ŋ	ng
χ	ch
θ	th
r̥	rh
ɬ	ll
ð	dd
ɪu̯	iw
ɨu̯	uw
ʊɨ̯	wy
ɛu̯	ew
ɔi̯	oi
əu̯	yw
eɨ̯	ey
aː	a
ɔ	o
oː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɛ	e
uː	w
ʊ	w
j	i
ɨː	y
ɨ	y
ə	y
ʃ	si
n̥	n
̯

---

Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix ew /ɛu̯/ boy	No affix crar /krar/ girl
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix dr- Else: Prefix drɨ- drew /drɛu̯/ boys	If starts with vowel: Prefix gl- Else: Prefix glɨː- glycrar /glɨːˈkrar/ girls

Articles

Quenian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

1st singular	cwy /kʊɨ̯/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ia /ja/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	rhiws /r̥ɪu̯s/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	nwy /nʊɨ̯/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	cleyll /kleɨ̯ɬ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	thoint /θɔi̯nt/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	tray /traɨ̯/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	cey /keɨ̯/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	cli /klɪ/ my
2nd singular	crarch /krarχ/ your
3rd singular masc	rhe /r̥ɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	chwb /χʊb/ her
1st plural	plwy /plʊɨ̯/ our
2nd plural	by /bɨː/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	nai /n̥ai̯/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	llw /ɬʊ/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st person	If starts with vowel: Prefix st- Else: Prefix stɨ- stypew /stɨˈpɛu̯/ (I/we) learn	Prefix ɨː- ypew /ɨːˈpɛu̯/ (I/we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛmr- Else: Prefix ɛmrɛ- emrepew /ɛmrɛˈpɛu̯/ (I/we) will learn
2nd person	Prefix ɨ- ypew /ɨˈpɛu̯/ (you/you all) learn	Prefix kɨː- cypew /kɨːˈpɛu̯/ (you/you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɬ- Else: Prefix ɬoː- llopew /ɬoːˈpɛu̯/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd person	If starts with vowel: Prefix ai̯n- Else: Prefix ai̯nʊ- ainwpew /ai̯nʊˈpɛu̯/ (he/she/it/they) learn(s)	Prefix n̥ɨ- nypew /n̥ɨˈpɛu̯/ (he/she/it/they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix kai̯- caipew /kai̯ˈpɛu̯/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Quenian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix bɨ- bypew /bɨˈpɛu̯/ learns/is learning

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Quenian uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate last part of last syllable pewew /pɛu̯ˈɛu̯/ have learned

Numbers

Quenian has a base-10 number system:
1 - dryl
2 - cwyn
3 - wi
4 - crwt
5 - groy
6 - as
7 - bo
8 - wy
9 - arch
10 - coy
100 - las
1000 - thegwy

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix tɪ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix dɛu̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sɪ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nai̯-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix oː-
Noun to verb = Prefix u-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ɬɨː-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix dw-
Else: Prefix dwu-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix oːml-
Else: Prefix oːmliː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix pla-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pɛu̯-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix koː-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix heɨ̯-
Augmentative = Prefix iː-

International Phonetic Alphabet Reader

Dictionary

3032 Words.

Spoken by

• Quenian