Haew i
thîw na Velroch

Tengwar modes by Melroch

This page presents a number of Tengwar modes which I devised some years ago. My understanding and thinking on Tengwar has evolved since but I’ve decided to put them back online as they may still be of some interest, while still hoping to be able to update them and this site as time may allow. The files are in PDF format.

For general information on what the Tengwar are I recommend the Wikipedia article on Tengwar. For in-depth description of how the Tengwar work I recommend Måns Björkman’s Amanye Tenceli site.

Devanagari transcribed into Tengwar

PDF file describing the mode
(Last changed Highday 26 Blotmath 7471)

For Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Pali etc. Should be easily translated into other North Indian scripts. South Indian scripts, especially Tamil, may be better served by a mode where the tyeller represent the places of articulation and the témar the manners of articulation, since they have many PoAs but few MoAs.

Frisian Tengwar mode

PDF file describing the mode
(Last changed Monday 2 Afterlithe 7471)

Someone showed up on one of the Tengwar-related mailing lists and asked for a mode for Frisian. I got hooked, read what Omniglot a couple of other web pages had to say about Frisian and even a book, and then made a mode for all three dialects: North, West and Saterlandish. It is actually three modes where the consonant assignments are the same but the vowel assignments are different. I revised the vowel markings after reading Sjölins book, so beware, since the old version may still be floating around!

Sindarin ómatehta mode based on the mode of Beleriand

PDF file describing the mode
(Last changed Monday 2 Afterlithe 7471)

This mode uses the consonant values of the mode of Beleriand (as I guessed them at the time) but writes the vowels with ómatehtar.

‘Semiorthographic’ mode for French'

PDF file describing the mode
(Last changed Monday 2 Afterlithe 7471)

Mode français « semi-orthographique » (description anglaise).

Disclaimer

Please note that these modes were not devised by Tolkien (let alone the Eldar! ☺), nor by any committees or groups representing Tolkien or neographies fans, whether those speaking these languages or others. Thus they aren't official or endorsed in any way but represent only the musings of one language, phone*ics, Tolkien and neography buff.1 In fact I can't speak or write most of these languages, but have made use of theoretical knowledge gathered from reading about them. In fact those studying language (as opposed to languages), whether professionals or aficionados seldom can communicate in the languages they study, and they don't need to any more than a veterinarian needs to run like a horse. Still a native speaker has a sense for the fine details which a theoretical student necessary lacks, and any intelligent person can make a point which another equally intelligent person misses entirely. Thus, if you don't like them don't complain but improve them or compete with them as you please!
In fact they are very much open to improvement on wy own part, so please feel free drop me a line if you have any constructive ideas, suggestions or questions.

In response to those frowning on experimenting with theTengwar, allow me to quote Tolkien himself:

This script [the Tengwar] was not in origin an ‘alphabet’, that is, a haphazard series of letters, each with an independent value of its own, recited in a traditional order that has no reference either to their shapes or to their functions.6 It was, rather, a system of consonantal signs, of similar shapes and style, which could be adapted at choice or convenience to represent the consonants of languages observed (or devised) by the Eldar. None of the letters had in itself a fixed value; but certain relations between them were gradually recognized.

(Appendix E)

At any rate your command of Elvish script (not Runes) is quite good enough to read. But there are, of course, no rules for the application to English, so it is impossible to make mistakes, unless according to your own system…

(Letters 168, which shows that Tolkien wasn’t averse to others using the Tengwar or devising their own modes for languages observed (or, presumably, devised ☺) by them.)


  1. who by the way thinks that standardization in language and spelling is overrated anyway and mainly serves as a shibboleth to socially and professionally exclude those born or raised in the 'wrong' places or circumstances. In fact linguistic discrimination is the only form of discrimination which is still not only legal but enforced in most Western European countries!

Other Tengwar-related resources

©Benct Philip Jonsson, Melroch Aestan.