Anyone here speak/writes Elvish in real life?

[Bjarkmundur]

I'm creating a city, and I want to use some tolkien elvish for some of the locations.

I have a 4-tiered city, and I was thinking about having them called something like "Least, Lesser, Over, Superior" or something along those lines.
I also needs some mundane city words and phrases that the locals use, things like foodplace, market, east-end and the like.

I tried some dictionaries, but it's really hard to use a dictionary when you have no understanding of the language :/

[Unoriginal]

D&D Elvish isn't any of Tolkien's Elven languages, so I wouldn't worry about it.

My advice is to just make up words and tell the PCs who speak Elvish what the words mean.

[Arkhios]

D&D Elvish isn't any of Tolkien's Elven languages, so I wouldn't worry about it.

My advice is to just make up words and tell the PCs who speak Elvish what the words mean.

Depending if you like Quenya, you could always use finnish for inspiration. As Tolkien did.

[Zhorn]

D&D Elvish isn't any of Tolkien's Elven languages, so I wouldn't worry about it.

My advice is to just make up words and tell the PCs who speak Elvish what the words mean.
there's no real harm in letting someone use a thematic flavour for their world though.
I know you didn't mean it as such, but it can come across as slapping down someone's idea of fun.

@Bjarkmundur
Sorry that I cannot find any suitable tolkien-elvish translators for this request. Most of the working ones are just font converters :smallannoyed:

[Eldariel]

I'm creating a city, and I want to use some tolkien elvish for some of the locations.

I have a 4-tiered city, and I was thinking about having them called something like "Least, Lesser, Over, Superior" or something along those lines.
I also needs some mundane city words and phrases that the locals use, things like foodplace, market, east-end and the like.

I tried some dictionaries, but it's really hard to use a dictionary when you have no understanding of the language :/

Well, píca (pronounced "pi:ka" in IPA) means "to lessen" and "pitya" is "little". "Velicë" is "great", while "píce" is "Qenyan" (proto-Quenya) for "upon". "am-" is "up"-prefix, while "or-" is "over/upon" in Qenya. Comparative doesn't really exist but "la" is used in that sense. There's also the "an-" prefix (with assimilation) for superlative. With these pieces we could build e.g.:

appíca (the least)
pícala (lesser - should technically be "píca la", but if you want names, it's natural to combine them)
velicela (greater - as above; the diacritic becomes unnecessary with the compounding)
avvelicë (the greatest)

There's also the "yonta-" (more) which could possibly form a proper comparative (never occurs in works) for "yontapíca" and "yontavelicë" instead, if you prefer.

Foodplace - you mean like a place to eat? "Matmen" could be "eatplace", which might fit your intended meaning. Similarly market could be "mancamen" - "tradeplace". The four cardinal directions are:
East: róna
South: hyarmen
West: númë
North: formen

You might notice the "place" used in "mancamen" and "matmen" in "formen" and "hyarmen" - apparently they're like "southplace" and "northplace" but they're glossed by directions all the same. "end" would most naturally be "metta" so "rónametta", "hyarmemmetta" (assimilation), "númemetta", "formemmetta" (assimilation).


What else? Hmm, "townhall" could be like "irimmardë" literally or "irintólë" as "towncenter" or "irissanyë" as "townrule". "sleepplace" (such as inn) could e.g. be "fúmemen", "tanner" might perhaps be "helmamótaro" ("helma" = "skin", "mótaro" is a fanwork for "worker" from "mol-" [labour]), "smith" is "sintamo", etc. If you need more words, just say and I'll try to see if I could produce them.


The best Elvish dictionary for Tolkien's works I know of is https://www.elfdict.com/w/. It includes fanmade words, but those are generally fairly natural derivations.

[Amnestic]

For my elvish stuff I do use a dictionary (specifically this one (https://www.elfdict.com/w/quenya)) and then just tweak words and order them vaguely into sentences and add flourishes that I decide are vaguely elven.

Unless you've got someone fluent in elvish at your table, I don't think it'd be a problem to do the same :P

[Angelalex242]

...If you've got anyone good enough at Tolkien's languages to actually speak and read elvish, you should probably be using The One Ring's system instead :P

[dafrca]

I'm creating a city, and I want to use some tolkien elvish for some of the locations.

I have a 4-tiered city, and I was thinking about having them called something like "Least, Lesser, Over, Superior" or something along those lines.


If after using the dictionaries available you are unhappy, may I suggest maybe breaking away and selecting names that do not link to their status but everyone who lives there knows what they mean.

In my area we have one area called Toluca Lake. Anyone in the area knows that is where you find the more affluent folks and their larger homes. The name might not be "superior" but folks who live in that city know. This might allow more fun with the dictionaries. Raven Hills (Corco Pendë ?) now becomes a real area of your city.

Just a thought. :smallsmile:

[Amechra]

In my area we have one area called Taluka Lake.

So how's life near Silent Hill? I've heard it's a wonderful tourist destination. :p

(Yes, I know that the lake in Silent Hill is Toluca Lake.)

---

Back on topic: there's also the dictionary/grammar resource at Eldamo (https://www.eldamo.org/content/languages/index.html). Or you could just use Esperanto (http://catb.org/~esr/tengwar/esperanto-tengwar.html)... or maybe not (http://jbr.me.uk/ranto/index.html).

[Thunderous Mojo]

So how's life near Silent Hill? I've heard it's a wonderful tourist destination. :p

(Yes, I know that the lake in Silent Hill is Toluca Lake.)

Given dafrca's location in Burbank, I'm guessing they're playing with the spelling.

One can see Hogwarts up on a silent hill from the actual Lake Toluca...(which is just a private golf course).....Universal Studios is right above it.

[dafrca]

Given dafrca's location in Burbank, I'm guessing they're playing with the spelling.

One can see Hogwarts up on a silent hill from the actual Lake Toluca...(which is just a private golf course).....Universal Studios is right above it.

Or that silly dafrca was just hitting keys and blew it. LOL

The correct spelling is "Toluca Lake" :smalleek:

PS: Fixed my stupid mistake in the original post too. :smallbiggrin:

[Peelee]

...If you've got anyone good enough at Tolkien's languages to actually speak and read elvish, you should probably be using The One Ring's system instead :P

Psh. Even Tolkien didn't play that.

[Amechra]

Psh. Even Tolkien didn't play that.

It would've been incredibly tricky for him to have done so, what with being dead when it was published and all.

:smallwink: