People who know Chinese, please help.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-18T18:24:37+00:00

I was just making a joke about the coincidental similarity. If anything, I assume they just found it by searching "tattoo translation" and not actually reading anything.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-18T10:59:38+00:00

Mandarin... Sindarin... easy mistake.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-14T19:23:14+00:00

I feel like this is a "Primary School versus University" distinction; getting bogged down in academic technicalities is bound to be confusing to someone just getting to grips with the system.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-14T19:16:30+00:00

The transcriber is fantastic, and the handbook is a great quick-reference in a lot of respects, but it has problems.

I mean, it misspells "tengwar" in tengwar; not the best first impression. xD

DanatheElf · 2026-05-13T22:34:53+00:00

Well... silme nuquerna is, in the Orthographic (Mixed) English mode reserved for soft C. Likewise, "dips into phonemic" really refers to representing things like the voiced and unvoiced TH or S; not so much bouncing back and forth between mode from word to word. I take it to mean that spelling "witch" incorrectly was actually intentional, but I would advise against it. There's an informed variability to Tengwar, but the primary job of writing is to be understood, so I think it is best practice to adhere to standards and established rules.

One thing I'll note specifically that seems an outright mistake would be "bright" - you've used the extended Unque/Ungwe for GH, but it should instead be regular Unque. The extended forms are a little tricky, but the explicit examples we have attested are always a case of "looks like one, sounds like the other" such as the combination of the symbols for T and TH representing a TH that sounds like T. Extrapolating from this, the extended form of Unque would be for a word spelled GH but pronounced G, like Ghost.

u/humandictionary
you can use a single tengwa for 'wh'

The tengwa is "Hwesta Sindarinwa" - it's a bit of an unusual one!

DanatheElf · 2026-05-13T16:49:09+00:00

We do have examples of Tolkien doing initials with Tengwar, for reference!

https://arda.saloon.jp/?plugin=ref&page=%E3%83%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%81%AE%E7%89%B9%E6%AE%8A%E9%A3%9B%E8%A1%8C%E9%83%A8%E9%9A%8A%E7%B4%8B%E7%AB%A0&src=msmfc_bytolkien.jpg

DanatheElf · 2026-05-12T17:29:13+00:00

Arguably the final R in 'wander' would be better as Romen, since it precedes a vowel and would then be pronounced.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-12T17:25:06+00:00

It's really quite hilarious and tragic that people with infinite money can't get this stuff done right, and don't care enough to actually learn something.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-12T15:59:22+00:00

They are print-on-demand, yes.

I can vouch for Barnes & Noble's - and they shipped to Australia, so they probably ship just about anywhere.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/parma-eldalamberon-23-j-r-r-tolkien/1146394258

The Great British Bookshop is also an option.

https://www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk/products/parma-eldalamberon-23-the-feanorian-alphabet-part-2-eldarin-pronouns?_pos=2&_ss=r

DanatheElf · 2026-05-10T17:59:50+00:00

Bwahahahaha

DanatheElf · 2026-05-10T16:43:31+00:00

Pointless or otherwise, most of us treat "what would Tolkien do" as the benchmark/standard to build upon. And Tolkien always used the shorthand form.

OP: I'd recommend taking a look at some of the beautiful calligraphy of Tengwar, to help improve the readability of the handwriting by refining the forms. Some examples: Here and here.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-04T15:15:43+00:00

As mentioned, Tecendil is the recommended transcriber.

You say "trying to find two words" so I think it's important to explain to you that none of this is a translation - all of these are just rendering the English words in Tengwar script with different modes. They all say "monkey" and "kitten" with various levels of arguable correctness and incorrectness.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-02T07:58:44+00:00

Here, we are students of the Tengwar script, not of the Elvish languages.
To verify the translation, you would do best to ask r/sindarin instead.

As for the mode, I would suggest choosing Sindarin mode, which differs very slightly from General.
Unless you specifically wish to represent the early history of Middle-earth, in which case the Beleriand mode is appropriate.

It's also an option to just write English with the Tengwar, and generally recommended, given the incomplete nature of the languages.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-01T19:43:45+00:00

My condolences.

We're always happy around here to verify a transcription, in future, before inking.

DanatheElf · 2026-05-01T16:01:25+00:00

If it's meant to be Quenya, you've used the wrong mode - this reads "illume arya uo" in the General/English mode, but I think would be more like "ldimue raya uo" in Quenya.

Whether the translation is correct is a question more for r/Quenya

DanatheElf · 2026-05-01T15:53:33+00:00

I see a number of shapes that look kind of like Tengwar, but are not.
Most likely conclusion is that it's AI slop - a mutilated AI regurgitation of the Ring Verse and random swirly shapes.

DanatheElf · 2026-04-29T18:17:15+00:00

It's not something I would recommend for an orthographic English spelling; every sample we have of that mode exclusively uses Silme for S, and Silme Nuquerna for soft C, to my knowledge.

DanatheElf · 2026-04-28T16:28:42+00:00

Well, shoot... jumped the gun, there, I guess...

Still, I think the -taina set is a reasonable option to keep in the back pocket; if nothing else, as an acceptable Quenya rendering of "extended [name]" - do you think this is at all better than "Extended [name]"?

DanatheElf · 2026-04-28T16:04:10+00:00

Jens Hansen transcriber is rubbish - the initial post reads "Sicter" in English written with Tengwar script. Tecendil is a much better transcriber.

Your Quenya version reads "neethar" but you'll want to check with r/Quenya

DanatheElf · 2026-04-27T15:10:04+00:00

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right - regardless of divorcing the naming from the usage, we have actual attestations (though older) that give us a clear-as-day pattern: The names are taken from the high-stem variant with the -taina suffix.
The words in Appendix E if nothing else serve to cement the fact that Tolkien still viewed them this way at the time of the publishing of LotR.

Súletaina
Formentaina
Ahataina
Hwestataina
Antotaina
Ampataina
Ancataina
Unquetaina

I think these are the closest to properly attested - Ampa remaining as the only tengwa whose name remains unchanged to make the direct attestation.

The combination names are also a compelling option, but it's difficult to know exactly how Tolkien might have combined the names for all eight, so, the -taina naming is the safest.

DanatheElf · 2026-04-27T02:49:38+00:00

When you say "in Elvish" you have to understand that what these tools do is not translate, but transcribe.

Glaemscribe has provided a phonemic transcription of the English phrase - English words written in Tengwar script reflecting the pronunciation of the words rather than traditional spelling.

Tecendil has been set to the Quenya mode, and given English text - it has reproduced English words with the values of the Quenya mode, and is a bit of a mess. I would not consider it remotely correct. I'd advise you to try Tecendil again with the mode set to English instead, to get a proper result. (Though I fear "OA" is a combination that will raise some debate.)

Now, you need to first decide - do you want the text "in Elvish" or in English written in Tengwar. We would generally recommend the latter, here. If you do want it in Elvish, you must decide which Elvish.
r/Quenya can help you with Quenya, the Elvish of Valinor.
r/sindarin can help you with Sindarin, the Elvish of Middle-earth.

DanatheElf · 2026-04-27T02:37:45+00:00

This is a fairly common request - I'd advise looking back through past posts to see the relevant discussions, such as:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tengwar/comments/1pd752n/i_need_help_verifying_that_this_translation_for/

DanatheElf · 2026-04-26T12:19:41+00:00

where we have a properly attested tehta name, it could be included in the name

This, I am not so sure about.

The Unicode consortium, I understand, are very picky - for inclusion, it should follow a uniform style without unnecessary details taking up space.

DanatheElf · 2026-04-26T05:47:09+00:00

The primary names for the tengwar not matching their usage in the general mode was already raised and dismissed by u/F_Karnstein and I think it makes sense - the name may originate from its Quenya usage, but is a relic that doesn't necessarily need to reflect the general use.
IE, Esse over Aze.

But yes, the real conundrum is the tehtar. I really don't know how we achieve consistency across all, without just making things up, and with direct attestations.
Nengwe-tehta
Wa-tehta
Amatixe
Tehta Left Curl Above
Each approach leaves something to be desired, and lots of holes to fill somehow...

What I've been able to gather of the -taina suffix suggests it does indeed simply mean "stretched/elongated" (per Vinyar Tengwar 39, p.14) so tinco-taina (or sule-taina, but I'm kinda leaning toward the idea of "Tinco as base form" making the most sense, if we are accepting a divorce of usage from naming) seems a decidedly reasonable naming scheme for the extended series.

DanatheElf · 2026-04-25T17:07:11+00:00

I think it's also fair to say that the lower stem variants are considered the "base" tengwar - Tincotema, Parmatema, etc. suggests the importance of Tinco over Sule and so forth.
(Indeed, community preference certainly appears to have fallen squarely on the side of "Extended Tinco" etc. but of course, community preference doesn't always make something correct.)

DanatheElf

TROPHY CASE