The secret is to pronouncing Quenya  is simply follow Tolkien's lead; he was very clear about Quenya pronunciation, even through the Language's epochal changes. What he taught is presented below; please take the time to listen to some of the Quenya sound files, linked at the end of this lesson, for dialects that you may mimic to become more lucid in your Quenya speaking and singing.

Vowels

The vowels in Quenya are pronounced distinctly in all positions. The difference between long and short vowels lies mainly in the length, not the quality, of the sound. Long vowels are marked with an acute accent.

á = long “aaaah”, as in “father”
a = short “ah”, as the a in “aisle” (just a shorter version of the “ah” sound in “father”)
é = long “e”, as in German “Mehr” (no exact equivalent in English, but something between “ee” and “eh”)
e = short “eh”, as in “end”
í = long “ee”, as in “machine” (or “see”)
i = short “i”, as in “pit”
ó = long “oooh”, as in “sore”
o = short “o”, as in “box”
ú = long “uuuh”, as in “brute” (or “room”)
u = short “u”, as in “put”

A diphthong is a combination of vowels that represent a single sound. There are 6 diphtongs in Quenya: ai (as in “aisle”), au (“house”), eu (British “so”), iu (“yule”), oi (“oil”), ui (“ruin”). Vowels in all other combinations are to be pronounced separately. This, as well as final e, is often marked by dieresis (two dots). The use of dieresis is optional, and it is not used in Tengwar writing.


Consonants

c = always pronounced as “k” (“come”)
h = pronounced as “h” (hand) in the beginning of words, and as “ch” (German “Bach”) between consonants. Not pronounced at all in the combinations hw, hy, hl, hr in the beginning of words.
l = always like in “let”
ng = both sounds are heard, as in “finger”, not as in “singer”
r = trilled, as in Spanish, Italian, Russian and Scottish English. Not as in French.
s = always unvoiced as in “so”
y = always a consonant, pronounced like in “yes”
qu = “kw”: the “u” in this combination does not count as a vowel; it is just another way to spell the “w” sound
A combination of consecutive consonants is called a consonant cluster.


Word stress

When we speak Quenya (or English), we don’t say the whole word with equal force, unless of course there is only one syllable in that word. In words of two or more syllables, we accentuate one of them.

Some examples from English:
pho-TO-graph-er (stress on “to”)
PRE-sent (the noun meaning “gift” – stress on “pre”)
pre-SENT (the verb, as in “to present something” – stress on “sent”)

Word stress in Quenya is regular, and we can tell which syllable is stressed by looking at the shape of the word. The standard rule is that the stress falls on the penultimate syllable, meaning the second one from the end of the word, the second to last.

In words with two syllables, this is very easy:
Manwë (2 syllables, stress on first: MAN-we)

In words with three or more syllables, the stress falls on the second to last syllable if it meets one of the following criteria:
– it contains a long vowel (long vowels are marked with an accent)
– it contains a diphthong
– it contains a short vowel followed by a consonant cluster
Otherwise, the stress falls on the third to last syllable.
Notice that, as a diphthong counts as one single sound, both vowels are stressed. This is the only case where more than one vowel can receive the stress.

Examples (names):
Manwë (2 syllables, stress on first: MAN-we)
Elerína (4 syllables, stress on second to last (long vowel): e-le-RI-na
Úlairi (3 syllables, stress on second to last (diphtong): u-LAI-ri)
Eärendur (4 syllables, stress on second to last (followed by cons. cluster): e-a-REND-ur)
Aratan (3 syllables, stress on third to last: A-ra-tan)


How does Quenya sound?

You can listen to Quenya vowels and words at this site: Quenya Pronunciation

A sound file of Tolkien reciting “Namárië” (Galadriel’s Farewell) can be found here: Namárië (The page may look strange, but just click the little ‘arrow’ (>) to play the sound file.)...