Ñoldorin Quenya

This article is about the language. For the Elven people, see Ñoldor.

Ñoldorin Quenya, or Ñoldorin, was the Quenya dialect spoken by the Ñoldor Elves.

History

Ñoldorin Quenya and Vanyarin Quenya started to diverge, both in phonetics and lexicon, when the Vanyar decided to abandon Eldamar for Valmar, in order to live closer to the Valar. In fact, Vanyarin began to be influenced by Valarin, while Ñoldorin changed through the influence of Falmarin. For example, the Vanyar pronounced /f/ very soft, almost like /hw/, but the Ñoldor resisted this change, or also, the Ñoldor seemed to prefer the Falmarin word telpe "silver" instead the Quenya form tyelpë. However, Vanyarin Quenya was generally more conservative than Ñoldorin Quenya.

Because of the Exile of the Ñoldor, the tongue of the Ñoldor that decided to remain in Tirion under Finarfin's started to differ from that of the followers of Fëanor in subtle ways. The first one, conventionally called Valinorean Quenya or Old Quenya, was generally more conservative than the second one, that was known as Exilic Quenya. For example, Exilic Quenya merged the accusative case with the nominative case, changed word-initial w to v and ñ to n and various words changed whereby sequences of -iV- (where V represents any arbitrary vowel) changed to -iyV-. However, Exilic Quenya underwent standardization because it became a language of lore due to its ban from use by Thingol, the High King of the Sindar. In fact, Exilic Quenya was the most known form of Quenya in Middle-earth and it is the form of Quenya known in Númenor and the one that appears in the Red Book of Westmarch. It is likewise unknown if the two forms of Ñoldorin Quenya mingled when the slain Elves became re-embodied in the Undying Lands or when the Exiled Ñoldor returned to Aman after the First Age.

Development

Originally J.R.R. Tolkien conceived the Teleri as the first tribe of the Elves and created for them a Finnish-language conventionally called Qenya. On the other hand the Gnomes, the second tribe of the Elves, were conceived as people speaking a Welsh-like language called Gnomish, or Goldorin. From the early 1920s, Tolkien decided to change the name of the second tribe of the Elves from Gnomes to Noldoli. Thus, the changes that he subsequently introduced were enough to conventionally classify this new stage of development as Early Noldorin.

From the 1930s, Tolkien introduced in the development of the Noldorin language a diachronic approach. In fact, in The Etymologies he stated that Primitive Elvish evolved into Kornoldorin or Old Noldorin, which in turn evolved in Noldorin. However, shortly before the publication of The Lord of the Rings Tolkien created from the early stages of his Welsh-like language the Sindarin, while the Ñoldor should have speak a dialect of Quenya.