by, Dan Smith, with special thanks to Arden Smith and Doug Pearson.

Decades ago, when J. R. R. Tolkien wrote his fantasy book series: "The Hobbit" and "The Lord
of the Rings", he described a race of Elves possessing a rich history, language and culture. Not
all Elves spoke the same language. The most important languages were: "Quenya" (the language
of the High-Elves) and "Sindarin" (the language of the Grey-Elves). Early in their history they
devised an alphabet for writing their languages. The oldest Elvish alphabet was the "Tengwar
of Rúmil". Later Fëanor of the Noldor, inspired by the alphabet of Rúmil, created a revised
writing system. The Fëanorean alphabet was designed to be an orderly phonetic writing system
for use with pen or brush.

Consonant sounds were represented by letters called: "Tengwar". There are 24 primary
Tengwar letters. The letters were organized into four series or "Témar" (shown as vertical
columns on the next page). Each series was used to represent sounds created by different
parts of the mouth. Series I and II were almost always used for Dental and Labial sounds.
Series III was generally used for either Palatal or Velar sounds and series IV for either Velar
or Labiovelar sounds, depending on the phonology of the language represented. These four
series were further broken down into six grades or "Tyeller". Each grade was used to
represent sounds created by different ways that air flows through the mouth and nose. Grade
1 and 2 were used for voiceless and voiced plosives. Grade 3 and 4 were used for voiceless and
voiced fricatives. Grade 5 was used for nasals. Grade 6 was used for semi-vowel consonants.
Each Tengwar letter was assigned a phonetic value determined by its position in thi s grid.
People speaking different languages would often re-define this grid, so only a few of the
letters had a fixed phonetic value.

All of the primary letters were composed of (at least) two elements: a vertical stem or
"Telco" (representing air) and a curved bow or "Lúva" (representing voice). There were also
numerous additional letters that supplemented the standard Tengwar primary letters. These
additional letters did not necessarily follow any symbol conventions.

In the earliest forms of the Tengwar, vowel sounds were represented by symbols called:
"Tehtar". The Tehtar symbols were placed above and below (and sometimes inside) the
Tengwar letters. There were five standard Tehtar symbols, representing the five most
commonly used vowel sounds (a, e, i, o & u). They were most frequently placed above the
Tengwar letters. (Tolkien used this style when creating most of his Quenya, Sindarin, and
English language Tengwar inscriptions.) But both the number of vowel symbols used, and where
they were placed depended largely on the preferences of the people using this alphabet.

Later forms of Tengwar used additional letters to represent individual vowel sounds. This
"full" form was developed by the Grey Elves living in Beleriand, and was therefore referred to
as the "Mode of Beleriand".

1
Tengwar became a very flexible writing system that was easily adapted by many different
races to their languages. Unfortunately, since it was so flexible it was possible to have several
different versions of it for each and every language. Also, over the centuries, a great deal of
shorthand developed. Since Tengwar can be so easily modified, customized and mutated, most
people in Middle-earth devised their own version.

Source:

"The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Volume III, "The Return of the King", Appendix E
Houghton-Mifflin
ISBN 0-395-27221-1

2
TENGWAR CHARTS FOR QUENYA:

Below is a table containing the Tengwar letters and their Quenya values:

Additional Letters:

3
Note:

1) Technically, anna does not have the value y when used in the Quenya mode; y is
represented by anna + "following-y" tehta (or ). Anna is not used by itself in the
published Quenya texts.
2) Although this letter is part of the standard set of additional letters, it is not used for
writing Quenya language texts.
3) The long and short carriers are silent letters. They are used in conjunction with vowel
symbols.

TENGWAR CHARTS FOR SINDARIN (STANDARD MODE):

Below is a table containing the Tengwar letters and their Sindarin values:

Primary Letters:

4
Additional Letters:

Note:
1) The long and short carriers are silent letters. They are used in conjunction with vowel
symbols.

5
Below is a table containing the Tehtar symbols and their Sindarin values:

Note:
1) In Sindarin, the a sound occurs so frequently, that it's symbol (three dots) is often
simplified (to look like a circumflex) or if no confusion would occur, eliminated altogether.
2) All of the published Sindarin Tengwar inscriptions by Tolkien (that use this mode) have
used the acute accent mark for the e sound and the single dot for the i sound, but Tolkien
also stated that the reverse could be equally valid.
3) Long vowels have the same sound as short vowels, the only difference is the duration of
the sound. For example: the short u is as the u in bru te, while the long u is as the uu in cool
(English pronunciation).

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WRITING SINDARIN WITH TENGWAR (STANDARD MODE):

There are two ways to write Sindarin with the Tengwar letters, the Standard Mode and the
Mode of Beleriand. At first glance the Standard Mode looks similar to the Quenya usage of
Tengwar. But although the Sindarin and Quenya languages are related to each other, they
often use different Tengwar letters to represent the same sounds. Also, in Sindarin and other
languages that end most words with consonants, the Tehtar are placed above the next
consecutive Tengwar letter. (Unlike Quenya where vowels are places above the previous
Tengwar letter.) To read Sindarin/Tengwar script you would read each Tehtar vowel symbol,
then the Tengwar letter below it (in a downward motion), before going on to the next
Tehtar/Tengwar letter combination. For example:

Written in the style of Quenya (vowel over the previous consonant):

Written in the style of Sindarin Standard Mode (vowel over the next consonant):

Other than placement of Tehtar, and the different Tengwar phonetic value, this mode follows
all of the same rules as Quenya. For example the Sindarin Inscription on the West Gate of
Moria:

first line:

second line:

Could be transcribed (using the Sindarin Standard Mode for writing):

first line:

7
second line:

Source:
"The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Volume III, "The Return of the King", Appendix E
Houghton-Mifflin
ISBN 0-395-27221-1

8
TENGWAR CHARTS FOR SINDARIN (MODE OF BELERIAND):

Below is a table containing the Tengwar letters and their Sindarin values:

Primary Letters:

Additional Letters:

9
TEHTAR CHART FOR SINDARIN DIPHTHONGS (MODE OF BELERIAND)

Tengwar letters are used to represent the five most common vowels sounds, but some tehtar
symbols are used along with these letters to represent complex vowel sounds, or diphthongs.
The single over-dot seems to be used only with the "i" tengwar letters. Double over-dots
represent an "i" or the semi -vowel "y", for example:

The over-bar/tilde represents the semi-vowel "w" and can be used to represent the following
sounds:

WRITING SINDARIN WITH TENGWAR (MODE OF BELERIAND):

The second mode of writing Sindarin is called the "Mode of Beleriand". The best known
example of this mode of writing is the West Gate of Moria inscription. This mode's most
unique characteristic is that it doesn't solely use Tehtar to represent vowel sounds. Instead,
the Tengwar letters are used to represent both consonant and vowel sounds. From the
example given in the book "The Fellowship of the Ring", it appears that the over-dot Tehta is
occasionally used to emphasize the "i" Tengwar or to modify other vowel Tengwar letters to
create complex vowel sounds. Also note the use of the over-bar/tilde to represent a preceding
nasal sound.

Sources:

"The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Volume I, "The Fellowship of the Ring"
Houghton-Mifflin
ISBN 0-395-27223-8

"The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Volume III, "The Return of the King", Appendix E
Houghton-Mifflin
ISBN 0-395-27221-1

10
TENGWAR CHARTS FOR ENGLISH:

Below is a table containing the Tengwar letters and their English values:

Primary Letters:

Additional Letters:

11
Note:
1) The long and short carriers are silent letters. They are used in conjunction with vowel
symbols.

Below is a table containing the Tehtar symbols and their English values:

Note:
1) In "The Lord of the Rings" title page inscription, three dots are consistently uses to
represent the a sound. But in Appendix E of "The Lord of the Rings", Tolkien states that
the circumflex symbol can also be used to represent the a sound.
2) In "The Lord of the Rings" title page inscription, J.R.R. Tolkien used the acute accent
mark for the e sound and the single over-dot for the i sound. But in the "Silmarillion" title
page inscription, Christopher Tolkien consistently used the reverse (acute accent mark for
the i sound and the single over-dot for the e sound). The Tehtar values in this chart
correspond to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" title page inscription.

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3) Long vowels, as Tolkien described them, do not exist in the English language. Instead,
English uses diphthongs, or blend of two vowel or semi-vowel sounds. Due to English
orthography, short and long vowel sounds often do not share the same base vowel. An
example: the short a sound is a as in father, while the long a sound is ei as in eight, rather
than ai as in bite.

WRITING ENGLISH WITH TENGWAR:

In Appendix E of the "Lord of the Rings" Tolkien explains that there is no official mode for
using Tengwar with the English language. But on the title page of the same book Tolkien gives
an example of an English phrase written with Tengwar "in the Westron mode as a man from
Gondor might write it". This is the mode that will be disc ussed here.

It appears that Tolkien adapted the Westron Mode to create a version of Tengwar for use
with English. The phonetic values assigned to each Tengwar letter and Tehtar symbol is similar
to the Sindarin Standard mode. Also the rules for writing are the same for English as they
are in Sindarin, with the Tehtar placed above the next consecutive Tengwar letter. To read
English/Tengwar script you would read each Tehtar vowel symbol, then the Tengwar letter
below it (in a downward motion), before going on to the next Tehtar/Tengwar letter
combination. The primary innovation that Tolkien demonstrates is the use of additional letters
to be used as shorthand for commonly used words.

In the "Lord of the Rings" title page inscription the following additional letters are used:

These commonly used words are used several times in the "Lord of the Rings" and "Silmarilion"
title page inscriptions:

Example: "The Lord of the Rings" - Title Page - Lower Inscription

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Example: "Silmarillion" - Title Page Inscription

Upper Title Page inscription:

Lower Title Page inscription:

TENGWAR MODIFIER SYMBOLS

Modifier symbols are a kind of shorthand. They are used only with consonant letters. They
allow you to add an additional consonant sound without needing to write and additional
consonant letter. They speed-up the writing of common consonant combinations. The most
common modifiers are as follows:

A bar (or tilde) below a Tengwar letter lengthens or doubles the sound of the
letter.

A bar (or tilde) over a Tengwar letter represents a preceding nasal sound ("n"
or "m").

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 If the Tengwar letter is from column I (dental consonants), an "n"
(dental/nasal) sound was used. If the Tengwar letter is from column II (labial
consonants), an "m" (labial/nasal) sound was used.

A downward hook attached to a Tengwar letter represents a following "s"

sound.

It may be possible to represent a word with different combinations of Tengwar letters,

Tehtar symbols, and Modifier Symbols. This can lead to much confusion when trying to read
Tengwar script written by someone else. Think of the modifier symbols as shorthand, and
don't expect others to readily understand them. By limiting yourself to the standard Tengwar
letters, Tehtar signs and Carrier symbols; you can produce elegant calligraphic inscriptions
that can be easily read by other Tengwar-literate people.

TENGWAR PUNCTUATION
Symbology and usage:

Very little punctuation is used with Tengwar. Most punctuation marks seem to be used only to
designate the beginning and the ending of sentences and paragraphs. There are five different
punctuation marks; the dot, the colon, the dash, the exclamation mark, and the question mark.
The dot is more closely the equivalent to the comma, but can also be used to separate words
(like a hyphen). The colon is used to separate sentences and seems to be the equivalent to the
period. The dash is used to mark the ends of paragraphs.

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TENGWAR NUMERALS
Symbology and usage:

Along with a series of alphabetical symbols, a set of numerical symbols were sometimes also
used. Normally Tengwar letters 1 thru 36 were used to represent numbers 1 thru 36. To
distinguish these from regular letters, a dot or a bar could be placed above the symbol. This
was most commonly used when identifying items on a list. For Example:

Also a more sophisticated numbering system was developed. Unique symbols were used to
represent a decimal numbering system (Base-10, numbers 0 thru 9). Here they are listed along
with their Quenya name:

To avoid confusion with other Tengwar letters, strings of decimal numbers were also marked
with over-bars or over-dots.

While our modern numbering system places the least significant value on the right and the
most significant value on the left, the Tengwar number system places the least significant
value on the left and the most significant value on the right. This makes Tengwar numbers
appear to be backwards. So using the decimal numbering system; the number 1995 could be
written:

First, the number is written in the standard, normal manner. Then the order of the numbers
are reversed. Third, Tengwar numerals are substituted for the modern, standard ones. Finally,
over-dots (or over-bars) are added to identify it as an Base-10 numerical string.

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Some cultures adapted the decimal numbering system to make a duodecimal numbering system
(Base-12, numbers 0 thru 11) by adding two more symbols. Here they are listed along with
their Quenya name:

Also to avoid confusion with other Tengwar letters, strings of duodecimal numbers were
marked with under-bars or under-dots. Like the decimal number system, the duodecimal
number system places the least significant value on the left and the most significant value on
the right. A small under-circle was sometimes used (in place of the under-bar or under-dot) to
identify the least significant digit. So using the duodecimal numbering system; the number
1995 could be written:

First, the number is written in the standard, decimal mode. Then it is written in the
duodecimal mode. Third, the order of the numbers are reversed. Fourth, Tengwar numerals
are substituted for the modern, standard ones. Finally, under-dots (or over-bars), and the
least significant digit marker are added to identify it as an duodecimal numerical string.

17