Quenya is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his fictional universe, Middle-earth.
Here is presented a resume of the grammar of late Quenya as established from Tolkien's writings c. 1951–1973.
The Tolkien scholars Christopher Gilson and Patrick Wynne explore the evolution of Elvish grammar, stating that the Elvish languages including Quenya "form an expanding canvas" that grew during Tolkien's career.
[M 3] Tolkien envisaged that Quenya evolved, internally within Middle-earth, following regular laws or linguistic principles, and that languages, even if different, could interrelate.
With Eldali the definite article is seldom used,"[M 4] Not all nouns can have all four numbers since some of them are pluralia tantum having no singular variant for referring to a single object, such as armar (goods; things for sale, or the things that you own); some other nouns, especially monosyllabic ones, use only one of the two plurals judged the most aesthetic by Elves (i.e., Tolkien); with the word má 'hand' "the only plural in use (at any recorded period) was máli".
[T 1] This provides the "classical" declension of two vocalic-stem nouns cirya "ship" and lassë "leaf", in four numbers: singular, pl.
The third group, c, has only one member (and only in singular and in plural 2), which appears to correspond to the adjectival case as described in the essay "Quendi and Eldar – Essekenta Eldarinwa" written in c. 1960.
The declensions of ondo "stone", nér "man", and cas "head" are taken from an earlier conceptual period of Quenya (c.
[M 10] The comparative forms of adjectives are in late Quenya normally expressed by the use of the preposition lá, much as in French plus:[M 11] Note that the use of the copula ná, when in the present tense, is optional.
The verb auta- comes from the root AWA-, meaning "depart, go away, disappear, be lost, pass away".
In late Quenya moods (other than the indicative) are expressed by particles, a short function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes: The Present Imperative of the verb auta-, cited above, is á va usually written áva as in Áva márië!
[M 16] Late Quenya verbs have also a dual agreement morpheme -t: In the imperative mood plurality and duality are not expressed.
[M 18] If a plural verb is used as in Á carir it means "let them do it" referring to persons not present or at any rate not addressed directly.
Tolkien stated that it was used only in joining adjectives, nouns, and pronouns in statements (or wishes) asserting (or desiring) a thing to have certain quality, or to be same as another, and also that the copula was not used when the meaning was clear.
[M 19] The existential aorist/present form ëa is also used as a noun (with a capital E) as the Quenya name for the Universe, Eä 'that which is'.
In Quenya, there are many similarities in form between prepositions and adverbs since the grammatical case already determines the relation of verb and object.
As with all parts of Quenya grammar, the pronominal system was subject to many revisions throughout Tolkien's life.
[M 23] The separate pronouns have both a short (lyé, sé, mé) and long form (elye, emme, esse, elwe).
As with regular nouns, Quenya lacks a distinction between nominative and accusative case, so the same direct case is used for both; melin is the first person singular form of the verb, making it clear that té is the object and not the subject.
The verbal inflexions are subjective but an -s (singular) and a -t (plural and dual) may be added to the long subjective pronouns as objectives of the 3rd person:[M 25] In the internal development of the language, similar to English, Dutch, and Portuguese, the second person familiar was abandoned in colloquial Noldorin Quenya before the Exile, (see T-V distinction).
While the English language distinguishes between masculine and feminine singular possessors (his vs. her), late Quenya does not.
Their forms in Early colloquial Noldorin Quenya are as follows:[M 27] "Since by Quenya idiom in describing the parts of body of several persons the number proper to each individual is used, the plural of parts existing in pairs (as hands, eyes, ears, feet) is seldom required.
[M 28] So far, according to the published corpus of Quenya texts, mánte is the sole possessive determiner with a plural ending in -ë (< -ai).