Consonants:
C - The letter “C” is always pronounced as English “K” (Ex: macil is pronounced makil not masil)
CH - This is pronounced silmilarly to the CH in German and Welsh.
F - It represents “F” in all cases except at the end of a word where it receives a “V” sound. (Ex: Fladrif, Nindalf)
G - It is always pronounced as a hard “G” as in English “give.”
H - When this consonant stands alone with no other consonant, it is pronounced like English “hut.” But in Quenya, the “HT” consonant cluster has the sound of cht like in German “echt” and “acht.” (Ex: Telumehtar, Orion.),“HL” is pronounced with the “L” sound in Middle-earth by the Third Age, “HW” is pronounced as a the voiceless “W” in English “white,” “HY” is pronounced as English “hew” and “huge,” and “HR” is pronounced as a voiceless “R.”
I - This can be considered a consonant in a particular case. If “I” is followed directly by another vowel, then it receives a “Y” sound. (Ex: Ioreth would be pronounced Yoreth)
K - This is pronounced as Elvish “C” and is often seen in Qenya and other primitive forms of Elvish.
L - It is pronounced like the “L” in English “let.” But it was also palatalized between E and I, so that the Elves would have pronounced English words such as bell and fill, beol or fiol. “HL” is pronounced with the “L” sound in Middle-earth by the Third Age
NG - This represents the “NG” in English “finger.” It can be pronounced similarly to the Spanish “ñ”
PH - Is pronounced, like English, with the “F” sound.
QU - It is pronounced as “CW” or “KW” and is found frequently in Quenya but is not found in Sindarin (another reason why Quenya is superior).
R - The Quenya “R” should always be trilled. “HR” is pronounced as a voiceless “R.”
S - This letter is always voiceless as in English “so” and “geese.” The “Z” sound does not exist in Quenya.
TH - This consonant cluster does not exist in Quenya. In Vanyarin Quenya, the “TH” sound is represented by the letter “Þ.” Fëanáro advocated this letter, but it is not used in Noldorin Quenya.
V- Has the sound of English “V” but is not used as the last letter of a word. (See letter “F”)
W - It has the sound of English “W.” HW” is pronounced as a the voiceless “W” in English “white”
Y- The Quenya “Y” is pronounced as the consonant “Y” as in English “you.” “HY” is pronounced as English “hew” and “huge,”
Note on Double Consonants: Double consonants are to be pronounced long, thus the “NN” in “Yavanna” is pronounced as English “unnamed” and “penknife.”
Vowels and Diphthongs
A diphthong can be described as a group of vowels pronounced in one syllable. Quenya contains the following diphthongs:
AI - Pronounced as English “eye’ (Ex: “faila”- “just, generous” would be pronounced “file-a”)
OI - Pronounced like English “OI” or “OY” like “oil” and “toy”
UI - Has the sound of English “ooy” as in “too young”
AU - Is pronounced like the “OW” in English “town” and “cow.” (Ex: Aulë is pronounced “owl-e”)
EU - Pronounced like the “O” in (British)English “so.”
IU - Is to pronounced like the “YU” in English “Yule.”
Other Vowels:
IE - Both the “I” and the “E” should be pronounced separately. Therefore Nienna is pronounced “Ni-enna”, not “Neena”.
EA and EO - These vowels are not one syllable like a diphthong but must be pronounced separately as two syllables. (Ex: ëa, Eärendil, ëo, Eönwë)
Ú - This is to be pronounced at “oo.” (Ex: Túrin would be pronounced Toorin.)
ER, IR, UR - “ER” is pronounced like English “air,” “IR” is pronounced like English “eer,” and “UR” is pronounced like English “oor.”
E - The letter “E” in Quenya is always pronounced, even at the end of words. An “E” at the end of the word is always marked with a diaresis (ë) to show that it is a distinct vowel.
Stress
Like English and many of the Western languages, Quenya syllables can stressed or unstressed. The rules on stress for Quenya are the following:
Words With Two Syllables:
-In Quenya, words with two syllables receive the stress of the first syllable.
-There is only one exception in Quenya to this rule. The word “avá” receives the stress on the second syllable. (aVÁ)
-Ex: Aman - AMan
Words With Three or More Syllables
-Words with 3 or more syllables only receive their accent on the second to the last syllable if:
-the vowel is a diphthong
-the vowel is marked with an accent
-the vowel is followed by a consonant cluster (2 consonants)
-If the second to the last syllable does not meet any of these qualifications then the vowel is considered a short vowel and the stress will always falls on third syllable to the end.
-Ex: Vestalë (wedding) would be stressed: VESTalë because the “a” in the second to the last syllable is a short vowel (it does not meet the three qualitifications).
-Ex: Hastaina (marred) would be stressed: hasTAINa because the “ai” in the second to last syllable is a diphthong.
-Ex: Elentári (star-queen)would be stressed: ElenTÁRi because the “á” in the second to last syllable has an accent and is therefore considered a long vowel and receives the stress.
-Ex: Helcaraxë would be stressed: helcarAXë because the “x” in the second to last syllable is considered a consonant cluster (“x” is treated as “ks”) therefore the “a” is considered long and receives the stress.
I will leave you with one last tidbit of information: according to HoMe 12, Fëanáro’s mother Míriel “spoke swiftly and took pride in this skill.” So generally fast Quenya is regarded as good Quenya. But do not panic if you are unable to pronounce words quickly. Practicing pronunciation will help you to improve, but keep in mind that Quenya is primarily a written language. It is far more usefully to be able to write and spell Quenya than to speak it. (Most Quenya scholars normally share their compositions through a written medium, like the internet.)
