elennalore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elennalore) wrote2021-04-23 01:41 pm
elennalore) wrote2021-04-23 01:41 pm
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Restarting Quenya studies
I have decided to start studying Quenya again.
This is actually a restart - many years ago I learned the basics from the Ardalambion course. I have actually gone through that course twice during the years. I have certainly forgotten a lot, and I feel like it's best to start this personal project now with an attitude of beginner's mind. Moreover, I have understood that a lot of new material has been published in journals Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon and now there are previously unpublished Tolkien’s linguistic papers available that weren’t around when I studied Quenya last time. I have heard that the Ardalambion course is outdated somehow, but at this point I really can’t tell how.
So, it’s going to be a fresh start! I should perhaps add that I’m not a linguist but a Tolkien fan. I admire professor Tolkien’s worldbuilding where his artificial languages are an important part. I very well know that one can’t become fluent in Quenya (or any other of Tolkien’s languages), but I am also interested in how other people have developed Quenya further, invented neologisms based on Tolkien’s work, made Neo-Quenya, so to speak. As a writer of Silmarillion fan fiction, I can relate to that.
I thought that it could spur me to study if I reported my progress in this blog. Perhaps I can even inspire others to do the same, who knows. I’m going to study a NeoQuenya course called Atanquesta. I have understood that it’s the one available that is most up-to-date. The foreword of that course speaks about a version of Quenya, and it makes me think that perhaps there’s not one truth. Every Quenya student has to make their own choices of what versions of vocabulary and grammar they use, or how to use it, although the decisions should be consistent. But to make valid choices, the basics and the sources should be learned first. That’s what I’m now going to do.
I have also taken a look at another Quenya course, Quetin i lambë eldaiva. In a Tolkien conlang discord group Vinyë Lambengolmor that course was also marked outdated, but I liked the format of the course so perhaps I will return to it, too, as soon as I learn what is the outdated part. That course teaches the Tengwar, too, which is nice.
Although I’m not a linguist, my interest in Tolkien’s conlangs has inspired me to study other things, too. Last year, I took a basic course in linguistics in the open university which is going to be very helpful, I suppose. I have been studying the basics of Latin. Many years ago I tried to learn Welsh online. Also, I’m a native Finnish speaker, which makes studying Quenya extra cool. I shamelessly pronounce Quenya with a Finnish accent.
The Atanquesta course suggests that the learner writes simple everyday texts for practice. I might use this blog to write those. I have a feeling that there might be two helpful elves from Valinor, Maitimo and Findekáno, who could provide me practice sentences if I ask them nicely.
This is actually a restart - many years ago I learned the basics from the Ardalambion course. I have actually gone through that course twice during the years. I have certainly forgotten a lot, and I feel like it's best to start this personal project now with an attitude of beginner's mind. Moreover, I have understood that a lot of new material has been published in journals Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon and now there are previously unpublished Tolkien’s linguistic papers available that weren’t around when I studied Quenya last time. I have heard that the Ardalambion course is outdated somehow, but at this point I really can’t tell how.
So, it’s going to be a fresh start! I should perhaps add that I’m not a linguist but a Tolkien fan. I admire professor Tolkien’s worldbuilding where his artificial languages are an important part. I very well know that one can’t become fluent in Quenya (or any other of Tolkien’s languages), but I am also interested in how other people have developed Quenya further, invented neologisms based on Tolkien’s work, made Neo-Quenya, so to speak. As a writer of Silmarillion fan fiction, I can relate to that.
I thought that it could spur me to study if I reported my progress in this blog. Perhaps I can even inspire others to do the same, who knows. I’m going to study a NeoQuenya course called Atanquesta. I have understood that it’s the one available that is most up-to-date. The foreword of that course speaks about a version of Quenya, and it makes me think that perhaps there’s not one truth. Every Quenya student has to make their own choices of what versions of vocabulary and grammar they use, or how to use it, although the decisions should be consistent. But to make valid choices, the basics and the sources should be learned first. That’s what I’m now going to do.
I have also taken a look at another Quenya course, Quetin i lambë eldaiva. In a Tolkien conlang discord group Vinyë Lambengolmor that course was also marked outdated, but I liked the format of the course so perhaps I will return to it, too, as soon as I learn what is the outdated part. That course teaches the Tengwar, too, which is nice.
Although I’m not a linguist, my interest in Tolkien’s conlangs has inspired me to study other things, too. Last year, I took a basic course in linguistics in the open university which is going to be very helpful, I suppose. I have been studying the basics of Latin. Many years ago I tried to learn Welsh online. Also, I’m a native Finnish speaker, which makes studying Quenya extra cool. I shamelessly pronounce Quenya with a Finnish accent.
The Atanquesta course suggests that the learner writes simple everyday texts for practice. I might use this blog to write those. I have a feeling that there might be two helpful elves from Valinor, Maitimo and Findekáno, who could provide me practice sentences if I ask them nicely.
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