Tengwar for English: FAQ
Goal: Address some common questions and misunderstandings about tengwar.
These are questions that actually have come up from time to time, in my experience (well, except for the phonetic spelling one, but I've glossed over that elsewhere and I feel like I should explain myself). I may may add more as I go - and if you have any questions, please ask!
Q: Why can't I just use the font that I downloaded?
The common tengwar fonts are not mapped like "regular" fonts. What that means is that, for example, the letter "A" on your keyboard does not correspond to the tengwar letter "A". There are some fonts that try to match somewhat logically, but there just is no one-to-one correspondence, so you are still going to have to do some work to learn how to use them!
Here's an illustration I made a while back:
Here you can see some text in a common font (Courier New), then that same text converted to tengwar (Tengwar Quenya), plus what those tengwar actually mean. Note that when I typed "S-a-r-a-h" into my word processor, the result was pure gibberish! This is usually (probably always) the case.
There are a few fonts that intend to be more intuitive. You're on your own as far as figuring out what they are and how they work - I'm not familiar with them.
An extra word of advice: Because of the way tengwar writing works, it is extremely obvious to anyone with even a novice's understanding if you are "cheating". Why is this? See those little accents and dots? Those are vowels. You usually have to hit "shift" to get them when you type, so unless you sort of randomly hit shift (I don't really recommend that, but hey, whatever suits ;), you are likely to end up with vowel-less words: a dead giveaway.
Q: Is there an easier way?
Well, you can try asking a friend who does know tengwar to help you. ;) (I am usually willing to help people who contact me, but I've very bad about just forgetting sometimes.)
There are some programs that you should be able to find fairly easiely that are meant to help you to write in tengwar. (You just type and it converts for you.) The trouble with those is that they are never going to be as good as a human (i.e. you!) because (for example) they cannot tell the difference between the different ways to pronounce "th" and "c" and they can't make aesthetic ("what looks better?") judgements. If you are interested in using one of the programs anyway, try a search on Google.
Q: Why don't you write tengwar phonetically for English?
Just to make sure there is no confusion, let me first clear up a few points.
- Tengwar are, indeed, intended to be used phonetically. They are also intended to be adaptable, to correspond with any language.
- It is not incorrect to use tengwar phonetically with English. This is what Tolkien did (sort of).
- I have come to the conclusion that, as far as I personally am an concerned, it is better to spell out words as they are in English, rather than to try to write phonetically.
Since tengwar are meant to be adaptable, a strict spelling interpretation ought to be at least potentially as valid as a phonetic interpretation (especially since the latter is problematic for English).
You can read an entire essay on this subject, in precise detail, on my buttons tutorial details page. Here are the main points:
- English is not a phonetic language (wi du not spel dhe wei wi talk), and most English-speakers are not linguists like Tolkien who can make sense of it, so it's difficult to even figure out the correct sounds to write.
- Once you've figured out the sounds you want, you may have to resort to some fairly obscure methods to write them.
- There will still be some (common) sounds that just won't work (like the "uh" in "Sarah").
- Even if you manage to do it perfectly, someone from the other side of the world (or across the street!) who pronounces English differently may not be able to read what you write.
If, on the other hand, you write English the way it's spelled, anyone who can read tengwar will be able to tell what you are saying.