Mae govannen!
Greetings, mellon! I've just started learning the Elvish tongues lately, and now I'm considering which one to specialize on.
I've heard that Quenya and Sindarin are the two languages with a decent vocabulary so far, so I'm interested in what makes them different. I am aware of the different writing rules between the modes, but what else about them makes them special?
Thanks, A Friend
Of the two, I generally find that Quenya is easier for beginners. It is a more “complete” language in the sense that we know more about it and have a larger vocabulary for it. It’s grammatical rules are more straightforward.
Sindarin has a complex set of sound mutations that can be difficult for English speakers to learn, unless they are familiar with real-world languages that have similar rules, like Welsh. However, within Tolkien’s world, Sindarin was used more commonly than Quenya, being the ordinary daily speech of most Elves of Middle Earth. Sindarin appears more often in Peter Jackson’s movies, for example.
So I generally recommend Quenya first if you just want to learn any Elvish language, but if you want to role play or write fan fiction in Middle Eath, Sindarin is more practical, since Quenya is an ancient scholarly language rarely spoken, like Latin in the real world.
Ah, thank you! As a matter of fact, I am currently learning many other North Germanic languages (such as Swedish), so I can understand the phrasing and grammar rules for it relatively well.
My main motivation for learning one of these two Elvish languages was to transcribe and translate poetry and quotations - I was greatly amazed at the full Quenya translation of the Ring Verse! I thought that as such, learning Sindarin, the more in-universe language, might be more useful/applicable. However, considering the fact that Quenya has a wider vocabulary, and given its simpler grammatical rules, I would probably start with it first.
Thank you!
Cúthalion