This is by far the most awaited course! People have been urging for that! You know…sometimes they find THE right course, read it, study it…but even though they get all the phonetics information they need, something still lacks! They don’t LISTEN! Here in Quenya101, you can enjoy  audio resources available in Poem & Prose and Ainulindalë Quenyanna, and now here at Smart Course! Check all the phonetic details concerning vowels, consonants, nasalizations of Quenya! As I said…it’s time to listen! (So you know the drill, click on the letters and listen!)

Course Index

• Vowels
• Short Vowels: a, e, i, o, u.
• Long Vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú.
• Diaeresis: ë.
• Diphthongs: ai, oi, ui, au, eu, iu.
• Hiatuses: ëa, uo, ie, ua, ëo, oa.

• Consonants
• 1st row: t, p, k, kʷ.
• 2nd row: ŋd, ŋb, ŋg, ŋgʷ.
• 3rd row: θ, f, -h, hʷ.
• 4th row: ŋt, ŋp, ŋk, ŋkʷ.
• 5th row: n, m, ŋ, nʷ.
• 6th row: ɹ, v, j, v.
• 7th row: ɾ, ɹd, l, ld.
• 8th row: s.
• 9th row: h-.

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Vowels

Short

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Recommended: Offspring – Self Esteem lyrics. Check the a’s!

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 Recommended: U2 – Pride lyrics. Check the e’s!

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 Recommended: Iron Maiden – Aces High lyrics. Check the i’s!

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Recommended: Arwen @ The Fellowship Of The Ring quote. Check the o’s!

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 Recommended: Jacques Brel – Ne Me Quitte Pas lyrics. Check the u’s!

Long

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More open, longer and acuter than its short counterpart

Recommended: Yoda @ The Empire Strikes Back quote. Check the á’s!

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More open, longer and acuter than its short counterpart

Recommended: Sheldon Cooper @ The Big Bang Theory quote. Check the é’s!

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Longer and acuter than its short counterpart

Recommended: Type O’Negative – Love You To Death lyrics. Check the í’s!

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More open, longer and acuter than its short counterpart

Recommended: Zack De La Rocha – Memory Of The Dead lyrics. Check the ó’s!

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Longer and acuter than its short counterpart

Recommended: Eöl @ The Silmarillion quote. Check the ú’s!

Diaeresis

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Microscopically more closed than its regular counterpart, mainly on the end of words. On practical terms, both can be articulated the same way.

Recommended: Weird Al’ Yankovic – White & Nerdy lyrics. Check the ë’s!

Diphthongs

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Always pronounced as a diphthong (within the same syllable)

Recommended: Rammstein – Pussy lyrics. Check the ai’s!

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Always pronounced as a diphthong (within the same syllable)

Recommended: Miranda! – Perfecta lyrics. Check the oi!

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Always pronounced as a diphthong (within the same syllable)

Recommended:  Linkin Park – The Messenger lyrics. Check the ui!

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Always pronounced as a diphthong (within the same syllable)

Recommended:  Frank Sinatra – You Will Be My Music lyrics. Check the au’s!

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Always pronounced as a diphthong (within the same syllable)

Recommended:  Xerxes @ 300 quote. Check the eu!

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Always pronounced as a diphthong (within the same syllable)

Recommended:   N/A

Hiatuses

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Always pronounced as a hiatus (separately, not within the same syllable)

Recommended: Celeborn @ The Fellowship Of The Ring quote. Check the ëa!

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Always pronounced as a hiatus (separately, not within the same syllable)

Recommended: Blind Guardian – Valkyries lyrics. Check the uo!

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Always pronounced as a hiatus (separately, not within the same syllable)

Recommended: Queen – Innuendo lyrics. Check the ie!

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Always pronounced as a hiatus (separately, not within the same syllable)

Recommended: N/A

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Always pronounced as a hiatus (separately, not within the same syllable)

Recommended: V @ V For Vendetta quote. Check the ëo!

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Always pronounced as a hiatus (separately, not within the same syllable)

Recommended: Garbage – Push It lyrics. Check the oa!

There are more hiatuses in Quenya than those shown above, but they are less common and as you can notice they all follow the same pattern of pronunciation. Therefore, they will not be demonstrate here. So, now…we come to a very important issue (but not hard at all) on Quenya phonetics…….

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Consonants

Quenya consonants are easy to get (even if you don’t have a Latin based language background) and some few may pose a challenge to people who are not used with foreign phonemes.
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A regular T similar to its English counterpart. E.g.: take, tie

Recommended: Doors – Light My Fire lyrics. Check the t’s!

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A regular P similar to its English counterpart. E.g.: part, pie

Recommended: Howard Wolowitz @ The Big Bang Theory quote. Check the p’s!

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C is always pronounced like a K, never as an S. E.g.: cart, key

Recommended:  Kyle Broflovski @ South Park quote. Check the c’s!

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This is like a K with a W attached to it, so it sounds like Q. E.g.: quartz, quote

Recommended:  Nightwish – Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan lyrics. Check the q’s!

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D is always preceded by an N and is pronounced just like English. E.g.: handy, bounded

Recommended:  Pantera – Cowboys From Hell lyrics. Check the nd!

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B is always preceded by an M & is pronounced like English. E.g.: mambo, lambeau

Recommended: Offspring – Self Esteem lyrics. Check the mb’s!

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G is always preceded by an N & souns as English middle NG, not final. E.g.: mango, anger

Recommended: Pantera – Cowboys From Hell  lyrics. Check the ng!

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This is a G with a W attached to it. It’s always preceded by an N. E.g.: (Spanish) lengua, (Portuguese) minguante

Recommended: N/A

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The TH almost similar to English TH. Tongue is articulated touching the back of upper teeth. Attention: in Quenya orthography, this is rendered as an s. E.g.: (Icelandic) þakið

Recommended: Yoda @ The Phantom Menace quote. Check the s’s (th sounds)!

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Regular F like English. E.g.: fork, father

Recommended: Metallica – One lyrics. Check the f’s!

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This is the H coming after vowels, pronounced like German phone and allophone. E.g.: (German) acht, (German) ich

Recommended: Eöl @ The Silmarillion quote. Check the -h’s!

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This is a regular H labialized i.e. with a semivocalic U attached to it. E.g.: N/A (at least in non-extinct languages)

Recommended: N/A (a rare sound in Quenya)

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This is a regular T preceded by the nasal N. E.g.: wanted, untouchable

Recommended: Gimli @ The Two Towers quote. Check the nt’s!

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This is a regular P preceded by the nasal M. E.g.: amplify, trump

Recommended: White Stripes – Fell In Love With A Girl lyrics. Check the mp!

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This is a regular K preceded by the nasal N. E.g.: uncle, anchor

Recommended: John Lennon – Working Class Hero lyrics. Check the nc!

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This is like a K with a W attached to it, so it sounds like Q and is preceded by the nasal N. E.g.: uncle, anchor

Recommended: Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast lyrics. Check the nqu’s!

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This is the regular English N. E.g.: note, spoken

Recommended: Radiohead – Creep lyrics. Check the n’s!

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This is the regular English M. E.g.: mother, stomach

Recommended: Aerosmith – I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing lyrics. Check the m’s!

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This is the N in the final of some words. E.g.: king, among

Recommended: Blind Guardian – Noldor lyrics. Check the first n there!

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This is an N with a W attached to it. The sound is modified just like K + W = Q E.g.: anwerne (“we” in Aranda)

Recommended: Sheldon Cooper @ The Big Bang Theory quote. Check the  nw there!

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This is the English R sound that comes after vowels at the end of syllables. E.g.: Mars, bird.

Recommended: U2 – One lyrics. Check the r’s there!

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This is a regular English V. E.g.: vase, visit.

Recommended: Lúthien @ The Silmarillion quote. Check the v’s there!

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This is like a regular English Y always in consonantal position. E.g.: you, yellow.

Recommended: Haldir @ The Lord Of The Rings quote. Check the y’s there!

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This is like a regular German W sound (just like English V).  E.g.: wunderbar, werden.

Recommended: Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip – Thou Shalt Always Kill lyrics. Check the w there!

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This is a flap R very common in Spanish and American English allophone of intervocalic T.  E.g.: rojo, butter

Recommended: Queen – I Want To Break Free lyrics. Check the r’s there!

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This is like any RD would sound in English.  E.g.: hard, murder.

Recommended: Fëanor @ The Silmarillion quote. Check the rd’s there!

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This is a clear L (even in the end of the syllables) like most English and Spanish words.  E.g.: long, lately, papel.

Recommended: Celeborn @ The Fellowship Of The Ring quote. Check the l’s there!

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This is a simple L & D coming together.  E.g.: older, .golden

Recommended: Treebeard @ The Two Towers quote. Check the ld’s there!

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All the 4 tengwar shown above stand for the regular S sound in English. E.g.: set, suicide

Recommended: Virgin Steele – VENI, VIDI, VICI lyrics. Check the s’s there!

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Common regular H sound in most of English words. E.g.: hair, hell

Recommended: Nightwish – Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan lyrics. Check the h’s there!