<p>Tolkien took inspirations from lots of existing languages. His inventions bear much resemblance to those languages in phonology and in syntax, but less obviously so in vocabulary.</p>
<p>Ken's answer already presents the two best known languages (Finnish and Welsh) that gave rise to Quenya and Sindarin, but they were not all.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Actually it[Quenya] might be said to be composed on a Latin basis with two
other (main) ingredients that happen to give me 'phonaesthetic'
pleasure: Finnish and Greek. It is however less consonantal than any
of the three. (Letters)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A Latin student can easily recognize the shared stress rule between Quenya and Sindarin in the Appendices.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two (or more) consonants. Where the last syllable but one contains (as often) a short vowel followed by only one (or no) consonant, the stress falls on the syllable before it, the third from the end.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Words in Quenya that begin with ps-, ks-, I think, show some Greek influence.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://pfstrack.github.io/eldamo/content/words/word-38447353.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ksaráre psare súle</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Telerin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Telerin</a>'s phonology is again &quot;of an approximately Latin type&quot;(<a href="http://www.eldalamberon.com/parma19.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PE19</a>).</p>
<p>And there is <a href="http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Danian" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Danian</a> &quot;in general a Germanic type&quot;, Ossiriandic - Old English, East Danian - Old Norse, <a href="http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Taliska" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Taliska</a> - Gothic, West Avarin - Irish, West Lemberin - Finnish, East Lemberin - Lithuanian (<a href="http://www.eldalamberon.com/parma19.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ibid.</a>). Most of the dialects mentioned here only exist in the Comparative Tables though (or remain unpublished).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-26T04:08:34.943Z
2021-07-26T09:29:28.797Z
2021-07-26T09:29:28.797Z
Eugene
<p>As mentioned on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin#Phonology" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>, it was modelled on Welsh and some other Norse languages:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Sindarin was designed with a Welsh-like phonology. It has most of the same sounds and a similar sound structure, or phonotactics. The phonologies of Old English, Old Norse and Icelandic are also fairly close to Sindarin and, along with Welsh, certainly did have an influence on some of the language's grammatical features, especially the plurals (see below).</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-23T13:34:57.160Z
Just to notice, Welsh is not a Nordic language, so "Welsh and other Norse languages" seems to be something like an involuntary confusion.
Luís Henrique
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T20:11:52.977Z
Interesting.  Any official sources for that?
anonymous2
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T20:12:51.337Z
Sorry, I have to downvote. Wikipedia doesn't include any sources or citations for this paragraph, and there are *far* better sources to use for information about Tolkien's languages.
Rand al'Thor
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T20:11:16.693Z
2018-02-06T20:11:16.693Z
Glorfindel
<p>I'm a great fan of Tolkien's books, especially <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> and <em>The Hobbit</em>. One thing I have always wondered about in his books though, is whether the Elvish tongues were actually fully new languages. Were they totally constructed as it were from scratch, or was Tolkien patterning them after some European / other languages that were actually in use (or ancient languages out of use)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T20:14:58.150Z
Wasn't there more than one "Elvish" language in the Tolkien legendarium? Quenya, Sindarin, and several others too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvish_languages_(Middle-earth)
Rand al'Thor
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T20:17:48.017Z
@Randal'Thor good point, but I would assume if he based one off of a particular language or a set of languages, the others would be too, though of course I could easily be mistaken.
anonymous2
<inspiration><tolkien-elvish>
Were Tolkien's Elvish languages based on known natural languages?
# Were Tolkien's Elvish languages based on known natural languages?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-02-06)

I'm a great fan of Tolkien's books, especially *The Lord of the Rings* and *The Hobbit*. One thing I have always wondered about in his books though, is whether the Elvish tongues were actually fully new languages. Were they totally constructed as it were from scratch, or was Tolkien patterning them after some European / other languages that were actually in use (or ancient languages out of use)?

**Tags:** inspiration, tolkien-elvish

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Wasn't there more than one "Elvish" language in the Tolkien legendarium? Quenya, Sindarin, and several others too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvish_languages_(Middle-earth)  
> **username_0**: @Randal'Thor good point, but I would assume if he based one off of a particular language or a set of languages, the others would be too, though of course I could easily be mistaken.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-07-26. Score: 4

Tolkien took inspirations from lots of existing languages. His inventions bear much resemblance to those languages in phonology and in syntax, but less obviously so in vocabulary.

Ken's answer already presents the two best known languages (Finnish and Welsh) that gave rise to Quenya and Sindarin, but they were not all.

> Actually it[Quenya] might be said to be composed on a Latin basis with two
> other (main) ingredients that happen to give me 'phonaesthetic'
> pleasure: Finnish and Greek. It is however less consonantal than any
> of the three. (Letters)

A Latin student can easily recognize the shared stress rule between Quenya and Sindarin in the Appendices.

> In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two (or more) consonants. Where the last syllable but one contains (as often) a short vowel followed by only one (or no) consonant, the stress falls on the syllable before it, the third from the end.

Words in Quenya that begin with ps-, ks-, I think, show some Greek influence.

> [ksaráre psare súle](http://pfstrack.github.io/eldamo/content/words/word-38447353.html)

[Telerin](https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Telerin)'s phonology is again "of an approximately Latin type"([PE19](http://www.eldalamberon.com/parma19.html)).

And there is [Danian](http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Danian) "in general a Germanic type", Ossiriandic - Old English, East Danian - Old Norse, [Taliska](http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Taliska) - Gothic, West Avarin - Irish, West Lemberin - Finnish, East Lemberin - Lithuanian ([ibid.](http://www.eldalamberon.com/parma19.html)). Most of the dialects mentioned here only exist in the Comparative Tables though (or remain unpublished).


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-02-06. Score: 2

As mentioned on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin#Phonology), it was modelled on Welsh and some other Norse languages:

> Sindarin was designed with a Welsh-like phonology. It has most of the same sounds and a similar sound structure, or phonotactics. The phonologies of Old English, Old Norse and Icelandic are also fairly close to Sindarin and, along with Welsh, certainly did have an influence on some of the language's grammatical features, especially the plurals (see below).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Interesting.  Any official sources for that?  
> **username_1**: Sorry, I have to downvote. Wikipedia doesn't include any sources or citations for this paragraph, and there are *far* better sources to use for information about Tolkien's languages.  
> **username_4**: Just to notice, Welsh is not a Nordic language, so "Welsh and other Norse languages" seems to be something like an involuntary confusion.  

---

