The tengwar are a system of writing created by the writer and linguist J.R.R. Tolkien. The term tengwar is a plural (“  lettres  ”), in the Quenya, language imagined by Tolkien. Its singular is tengwa (“  a lettre  ”). In Sindarin, other built Language invented by Tolkien, these letters is called tîw (singular têw ). In works of fiction of Tolkien, the tengwar would have been invented by Fëanor, which would have taken as a starting point the Sarati of its predecessor Rúmil. They were used to transcribe various languages of the Ground of the Medium.

History

Tolkien probably conceived the tengwar between the end of the year 1920 and the beginning of the year 1930. A short inscription in tengwar figure on one of the illustrations which it carried out for its novel Bilbo the Hobbit , appeared in 1937. But it is especially the Lord of the Rings , published in 1954-1955 (for the first edition), who makes known this form of cursive writing. The tengwar are used in the representation of the poem (in Noir speech) which is reproduced on the Single Anneau forged by Sauron and for the inscriptions (in language sindarine) which runs on the pediment of the doors of Durin to the threshold of the Moria. A detailed description of the system is included in the appendix E of the Seigneur of the Rings . The title pages of the Seigneur of the Rings also include/understand a short English text transcribed in tengwar and Cirth , another alphabet invented by Tolkien, on stringcourses in top and bottom of the page. This idea was taken up by Christopher Tolkien, which included such stringcourses, with each time a suitable text but only in tengwar, on the title pages of the Silmarillion , unfinished Contes and legend and of twelve volumes of the Histoire of the Earth of the Medium.

Characteristics

• is written from left to right or from right to left according to the hand with which one writes in order not to cover the text, in horizontal lines;

• the tengwar are written according to several modes. The Quenya has its own mode (which evolved/moved of the Thirties with the Seigneur of the Rings ), the Sindarin has some several too. A mode was also created for the English, and several amateurs created theirs for French (like this one);
• the vowels are indicated by the diacritics ( tehtar ) which appear above the consonant which precedes them (in the quenya mode) or above the consonant which follows them (in the sindarin mode). If the vowels are insulated or located at the beginning of a word, they appear above a special support. The long vowels are always attached to a support;
• the doubled consonants are noted simply by adding a line in lower part of their tengwa;
• When they are followed of a vowel, the /s/ letters, /ss/ and /r/ are written with the tengwar silme nuquerna , áre nuquerna and rómen respectively. Otherwise these letters are written with the tengwar silme , áre and óre .
• the tengwa thúlë represents in the beginning its /th/. However, /th/ at the beginning of word became /s/ at Ñoldor ( Serindë , the nickname of Míriel, was written in the beginning Therindë or Þerindë ), though /s/ coming from a its /th/ are always written with the tengwa súlë . This tengwa continues to be used for /th/ inside the words.

Count of Tengwar

This table derives from that present in the Appendix E at the Seigneur of the Rings .

Font faces

There exist several police forces making it possible to write in tengwar (with or without footings, more or less cursive or angular…). They respect the coding of the characters in general defined per daN Smith: the order of the characters is thus not that until one would wait for a Latin police force. A software of transcription can be used to facilitate their use.

• '' Elfetica '' by Ronald Kyrmse
• '' Tengwar Annatar '' by Johan Winge
• '' Tengwar Cursive '' by Harri Perälä
• '' Tengwar Elfica '' by Enrique Mombello
• '' Tengwar Formal '' by Michał Nowakowski
• '' Tengwar Galvorn '' by Josh Griffing (Redruth' S Meanly Software)
• '' Tengwar Hereno '' by Paulo A. Otto and Ronald Kyrmse
• '' Tengwar Mornedhel '' by Josh Griffing (Redruth' S Meanly Software)
• '' Tengwar Naive '' by Johan Winge
• '' Tengwar Noldor '' per daN Smith
• '' Tengwar Parmaitë '' by Måns Björkman
• '' Tengwar Quenya '' by daN Smith
• '' Tengwar Sindarin '' per daN Smith

Software of transcription

• '' The Tengwar Scribe '', developed by Måns Björkman for Microsoft Windows.
• '' Yet another Tengwar Tool '' (YaTT), developed by Tomáš Nĕmec, is another application of transcription of tengwar for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
• '' online Tengwar Transcriber '' (oTT), realized by Michał Świątkiewicz (Web application).
• '' TengTeX '' is a package intended to produce a text in tengwar while entering it as it is marked. The bond returns towards the page of CTAN containing information on this package created by Ivan has Derzhanski.

See too

Random links:

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