Artificial Scripts

X.X Tengwar

X.X Tengwar (draft by Michael Everson, 2001-03-07)

Tengwar 1xx00–1xx7F
The Tengwar script was invented by the philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien as
part of the mythological world he created, and was widely popularized throughhis work, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, etc. Along with a family of
artificial languages and a large corpus of etymological data describing theirrelationships, the Tengwar script has attracted the attention of a community oflinguists and other enthusiasts interested in this expression of Tolkien’s expertisein historical and comparative linguistics (tengwar is plural of Quenya tengwa‘letter’; the Sindarin singular and plural are *têw (or *teiw) and tîw). TheTengwar should be treated as a Category D (Attested Extinct) script: there is arelatively limited corpus, and a relatively small scholarly body studying it. Inorder to provide a standard Tengwar character coding for both scholars andenthusiasts (many of whom create new texts with the Tengwar), it has beensuggested that this character set be included in Plane 1 of the UCS. Eightcolumns are reserved to encode the Tengwar. Character names mostly derivefrom Tolkien’s published writings; as usual, long vowels are written double.
General Principles of the Tengwar script. The Tengwar script is a system of
consonantal signs without strictly fixed values; their glyphic structure comprises
a matrix of potential phonetic relationships, rather than a set of fixed relationships
between sound and character. The primary letters (U+1xx00–U+1xx17) areformed of a telco ‘stem’ and a lúva ‘bow’; raising the stem might indicatespirantization of a consonant (Noldorin Ä†~î~ toron ‘brother’, à†~î~ thoron ‘eagle’),or doubling the bow might indicate voicing (Noldorin Ñ†~ î ~ doron ‘oak’).
Consonants are modified by tehtar ‘signs’, described below. A series of “stemlessconsonants” could be encoded. U+1xx31 ± STEMLESS VALA is used in some modesfor English [w]; U+1xx32 ≤ STEMLESS ANNA is used as a vowel in the mode ofBeleriand; *STEMLESS OORE, and *STEMLESS VILYA are as yet unattested, but could
be included because of the inherent structure of the script. On the other hand, thismay not be appropriate, as U+1xx71  DIGIT ZERO is essentially *STEMLESS OORE
and U+1xx72 Ò DIGIT ONE is essentially *STEMLESS VILYA.
Tengwar are written from left-to-right. Tengwar digits are written from right-toleft (the least significant digit is on the left). The DECIMAL BASE MARK andDUODECIMAL BASE MARK are applied to the digits to indicate what the arithmeticalbase is used; U+1xx7E ˇ˝ the DUODECIMAL LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT MARK is usedon the least significant digit in a duodecimal expression. The numeric marks are
not generally considered optional, at least in duodecimal notation.
A related script written in vertical columns (the Sarati script of Rúmil, fromwhich Tengwar was derived according to Tolkien’s mythology) appears to be as
separate from Tengwar as Aramaic is separate from Mongolian. It is not encoded
here.
Rendering. Non-spacing marks, generically called tehtar ‘signs’ (singular tehta),indicate vowels (ómatehtar) or other modifications of consonantal letters. Tehtar
are placed above or below consonants, or atop “carriers” when no consonant ispresent in the required position. Most of these marks, however, are not combining

X.X Tengwar

Artificial Scripts

characters, because it cannot be said that they should always follow the character
to which they are applied, if logical (phonetic) order is to be applied to this script.
The morphological structure of a language determines the “mode” in which theTengwar script is used for it. For instance, the tehtar are placed above or below
the preceding consonant in languages in which words tend to end in a vowel (i.e.
with a CV structure); but they are placed above or below the following consonant
in languages in which words tend to end in a consonant (i.e. with a CVCstructure). Compare Quenya ê∆£∆ nelde ‘three’, ê∆¢Äƒ£ƒ neltildi ‘triangle’ withSindarin ê¢∆Ñ∆ neled ‘three’ and ê¢∆à¢ƒ nelthil ‘triangle’. English is generally
written according to a Sindarin-type mode; Japanese would be written according
to a Quenya-type mode.
Tengwar shaping behaviour is considered to be similar to that of Arabic, in thatcertain sequences of characters combine automatically to produce certain glyphs.
Fonts must be identified as pertaining to one of the two modes. In a Quenya font,
ia i i othe sequence §ƒ¢ë¿†¢ƒ Æƒ— ê~ SLMRL X N will be read silmarillion (the same sequence˜
would be read *islammirllionn in Sindarin). In a Sindarin font, the sequenceia i i o§¢ƒë†¿¢Æƒ— êƒ ~ SLMR L XN will be read silmarillion (a sequence which would be read˜*slimralli-ino in Quenya). Note, however, that in both cases the underlying
encoding is the same: § + ƒ + ¢ + ë + ¿ + † + ƒ + ¢ + ˇ— + ƒ + Æ + ~ + ê
SILMARIL IXON . It is only that the glyph sequences selected are˜[SI][L][MA][RI][L I][XO][N] in the Quenya font but [S][IL][M][AR][IL ][IX][ON] in the˜˜
Sindarin font (X is used here to show the vowel carrier).
In the mode of Beleriand, the tehtar are not generally used to indicate vowels.
Instead, individual tengwar represent them. In this mode, §Æ¢ï≤†Æ¢— Æ µî
silmarillion is written just as presented: [S][I][L][M][A][R][I][L ][I][O][N]. Note that˜the DOUBLER of ¢— L ll is a true combining character here as above in the Quenya
˜and Sindarin modes.
True ligatures also occur in Tengwar; these should be represented with theU+200D ZERO-WIDTH JOINER in plain text. Examples (in a Sindarin-mode font):
Old English ëºƒ êÃ mihton ‘might’ (ë + ƒ + ä + ZWJ + Ä + Ã + ê), Old English
æîÃÄ scort ‘short’ (§ + ZWJ + ä + Ã + î + Ä), Old English †¨¬ª weox ‘grew’ († + ¬ +¨ + É + ZWJ + §), English §É¢~ø¿ skolars ‘scholars’ (§ + É + ~ + ¢ + ¿ + î + ZWJ +§).
Ligation may also occur with tengwar and tehtar in certain instances. In onemode for Old English, the vowel preceding a consonant is written above it, andfollowing a consonant is written after it: àî¿ √ ™ære ‘of it’. This should, in aSindarin font, use ZERO-WIDTH JOINER to force the link between the last two letters(otherwise àî¿ √ will result. This is coded à + ¿ + î + ZWJ + √.

Spelling variants
A certain variation in spelling can occur, but the model remains sound. For theword English animal, the following spellings would obtain:
Romananimalanimalanimal

Tengwar

RepresentationÆ¿êëƒ ¢¿î¿ï¢ƒ ¿∞îÆï∞¢Æ+ ¿+ê+ ƒ+ë+ ¿+¢¿+î+ ƒ+ï+ ¿+¢≤+î+Æ+ï+≤+¢Cursive glyphs (mode)[XA][NI][MA][L] (Quenya)[AN][IM][AL] (Sindarin)[A][N][I][M][A][L] (either)

Artificial Scripts

X.X Tengwar

For some lexical purposes the variation would have to be taken into account,though this is not much different from what has to be done in English withspellings like façade/facade, colour/color, or æsthetic/aesthetic/esthetic.
In the mode of Beleriand, “a dot is sometimes placed over ∞ and Æ to mark theseas separate letters, and not a curl or a stem belonging to an adjacent letter” (Krieg1978). Examples are ≤ƒÜ¢≤† aglar ‘glory’ and î≤ƒä≤™†™Ñ nachaered ‘to a remote
distance’ (in the second example the dot shows that ≤ƒä is ach rather than é gh).
The true combining character U+0307 COMBINING DOT ABOVE should be used forthese instances. Likewise, when in the mode of Beleriand the acute is used atop atengwa used as a vowel, the combining character U+0301 COMBINING ACUTE
ACCENT should be used. It is only when a tehta is vocalic that the cursivity modelapplies. The user has to know which of the dots applies.
Punctuation. Tengwar punctuation characters are considered to be unique to thescript and are coded in the Tengwar block. Some composition of punctuation
occurs in Tengwar. The following combinations are attested:.
‡·
·‡
··
·Ë·È
‚
„
‰
ÂÂ‡
Ê ··

FULL STOPPUSTADOUBLE PUSTADOUBLE PUSTA+ PUSTADOUBLE PUSTA + DOUBLE PUSTADOUBLE PUSTA+ SECTION MARKDOUBLE PUSTA+ DOUBLE SECTION MARKTRIPLE PUSTAQUADRUPLE PUSTA (not ‡·‡ PUSTA + DOUBLE PUSTA + PUSTA)QUINTUPLE PUSTA (not ‡‚‡ PUSTA + TRIPLE PUSTA + PUSTA)
EXCLAMATION MARKEXCLAMATION MARK + PUSTAQUESTION MARK + SPACE + DOUBLE PUSTA + DOUBLE PUSTA

Sometimes word space is not used; word separation may be achieved in that casewith U+200B, ZERO-WIDTH SPACE. Hyphens are not used at linebreaks; words maybe broken before any syllable. One has to know the language to know where thesyllable boundaries are.
The SHORT CARRIER Æ simply bears the vowel tehta; the LONG CARRIER ¨ indicatesthat the vowel is long; this can also be done by doubling the vowel sign (so Æ∆ = e,¨∆ = ê, Æ» = ê). In Quenya fonts, these are coded ¨ + ∆, etc.; in Sindarin fonts, theyare coded ∆ + ¨, etc.

Sources for characters
The characters in this proposal are attested (explicitly or in technical description)in the following sources. Page numbers follow the UCS code positions given.
Tolkien 1965axx53:6Tolkien 1965bxx67:59

Tolkien 1965c
xx30:319, xx32:319

Tolkien 1965d

X.X Tengwar

Artificial Scripts

xx00:396, xx01:396, xx02:396, xx03:396, xx04:396, xx05:396, xx06:396, xx07:396,
xx08:396, xx09:396, xx0A:396, xx0B:396, xx0C:396, xx0D:396, xx0E:396,
xx0F:396, xx10:396, xx11:396, xx12:396, xx13:396, xx14:396, xx15:396, xx16:396,
xx17:396, xx18:398, xx19:398, xx1A:398, xx1B:398, xx1C:398, xx1D:398,
xx1E:398, xx1F:398, xx20:396, xx21:396, xx22:396, xx23:396, xx24:396, xx25:396,
xx26:396, xx27:396, xx28:396, xx29:396, xx2A:396, xx2B:396, xx2C:400,
xx2D:401, xx2E:399, xx42:400, xx45:400, xx4E:400, xx4F:400, xx50:400

Tolkien & Swann 1967
xx40:v, xx43:v, xx44:v, xx46:v, xx48:v, xx4A:v, xx4C:v, xx51:v, xx60:v, xx61:ix,xx63:vi, xx64:vi

Tolkien 1977
xx35:4, xx4B:4

Tolkien 1989
xx34:ii

Tolkien 1992 (pictures)xx31, xx36

Tolkien 1992a (epilogue Sauron defeated)
xx55, xx62, xx65

Tolkien 1992b (notion club Sauron defeated)
xx41:326, xx49:325, xx4D:326, xx52:324,. xx57:326

Used positions (not yet sourced)
xx2F
xx33, xx37
xx54, xx56,xx66, xx68
xx70, xx71, xx72,. xx73, xx74, xx75, xx76, xx77, xx78, xx79, xx7A, xx7B, xx7C,xx7D

Unused positions:xx38, xx39, xx3A, xx3B, xx3C, xx3D, xx3E, xx3F, xx47, xx58, xx59, xx5A, xx5B,xx5C, xx5D, xx5E, xx5F, xx69, xx6A, xx6B, xx6C, xx6D, xx6E, xx6F, xx7E, xx7F

Encoding Structure (This needs to be revised when the code table is fixed)
The Tengwar block is divided into the following ranges:
U+xx01 -> xx3E
Tengwar
U+xx2E -> xx30
unassigned
U+xx31 -> xx32
Tengwar
U+xx33
unassigned
U+xx34 -> xx39
Tengwar
U+xx3A -> xx3F
unassigned
U+xx40 -> xx46
Tehtar
U+xx47
unassigned
U+xx48 -> xx57
Tehtar
U+xx58 -> xx5F
unassigned
U+xx60 -> xx68
Punctuation
U+xx69 -> xx6F
unassigned
U+xx70 -> xx7D
DigitsU+xx7E
Numeric modifiers
U+xx7F
unassigned

Artificial Scripts

X.X Tengwar

Unicode Character Properties(These have not been sorted out yet.)Spacing letters, category “Lo”, bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
xx00–xx37, xx40–xx46, xx48–xx4F, xx52–xx54

Non-spacing marks, category “Mn”, bidi category “ON” (other neutral);combining priorities in parentheses:xx50-xx51, xx55–xx57, xx7D (xxxxxxx)

Symbols, category “Po”, bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
xx60–xx68

Numbers, category “Po”, bidi category “R” (strong right to left)
xx70–xx7C

References
Krieg, Lawrence J. 1978. “The Tengwar of Fëanor”, in Jim Allan, ed. An
introduction to Elvish. Frome: Bran’s Head. Pp. 236–XX.
Tolkien, Christopher. 1992a. “The Epilogue” in Sauron defeated. (The History ofMiddle Earth; 9) London: HarperCollins. Pp. 114-135. ISBN 0-261-10240-0
Tolkien, Christopher. 1992b. Notes to “The Notion Club Papers (Part Two)” inSauron defeated. (The History of Middle Earth; 9) London: HarperCollins. Pp.
307-327. ISBN 0-261-10240-0
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1965a. Title page to The Fellowship of the Ring. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-08254-4
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1965b. “The Ring inscription”, in The Fellowship of the Ring.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin. P. 59. ISBN 0-395-08254-4
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1965c. “The West-Gate inscription”, in The Fellowship of theRing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. P. 319. ISBN 0-395-08254-4
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1965d. “Appendix E: Writing and spelling” in The return of theKing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Pp. 391-404. ISBN 0-395-08256-0
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Donald Swann. 1967. The road goes ever on: a song cycle.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-08258-7
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1977. Title page to The Silmarillion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
ISBN 0-395-25730-1
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1989. Title page to The Lost Road and other writings. London:Unwin Paperbacks. (The History of Middle Earth; 5) ISBN 0-04-440398-4
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1992. Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien. London: HarperCollins. Plate
48. ISBN 0-261-10258-3
Tolkien, J. R. R. 19XX. “SXXX” in The Return of the King. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin.

X.X Tengwar

Annex A. Discussion of the Tengwar number system.

Artificial Scripts

Proposal for the Universal Character Set

Michael Everson

TABLE XX - Row xx: TENGWAR

0123456789ABCDEF

2xx0xx1xx2xx3xx4xx5xx6

Ä
Å
Ç
ÉÑ
Ö
Ü
áà
â
ä
ãåç
é
èê
ë
í
ìî
ï
ñ
óò
ô
öõúùûü

†°¢£§•¶ß®
©
™
´¨≠
Æ

∞±≤≥
¥µ∂
∑
∏π∫

¿

ˇ–¡

ˇ—¬

“√”
ƒ‘≈ˇ’‡ · Ò‚ Ú„ Û‰ ÙÂ ıÊ ˆÁ ˜Ë ¯È ˘˙˚¸ˇ˝∆ ˇ÷« ˇ◊» ÿ…
~ ⁄ÀÃ ‹Õ ›Œœ

xx7

G = 00
P = 01

Michael Everson

Proposal for the Universal Character Set

TABLE XX - Row xx: TENGWAR
dec hex
000
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
014
015
016
017
018
019
020
021
022
023
024
025
026
027
028
029
030
031
032
033
034
035
036
037
038
039
040
041
042
043
044
045
046
047
048
049
050
051
052
053
054
055
056
057
058
059
060
061
062
063
064
065
066
067
068
069
070
071
072
073
074
075
076
077
078
079
080
081
082
083084085086087088000102030405060708090A
0B
0C
0D
0E
0F
101112131415161718191A
1B
1C
1D
1E
1F
20212223242526272829
2A
2B
2C
2D
2E
2F
30313233343536373839
3A
3B
3C
3D
3E
3F
40414243444546474849
4A
4B
4C
4D
4E
4F
505152535455565758

Group 00Name
TENGWAR LETTER TINCOTENGWAR LETTER PARMATENGWAR LETTER CALMATENGWAR LETTER QUESSETENGWAR LETTER ANDOTENGWAR LETTER UMBARTENGWAR LETTER ANGATENGWAR LETTER UNGWETENGWAR LETTER THUULE (suule)TENGWAR LETTER FORMENTENGWAR LETTER HARMA (aha)TENGWAR LETTER HWESTATENGWAR LETTER ANTOTENGWAR LETTER AMPATENGWAR LETTER ANCATENGWAR LETTER UNQUETENGWAR LETTER NUUMENTENGWAR LETTER MALTA
TENGWAR LETTER NOLDO (ngoldo)
TENGWAR LETTER NWALME (ngwalme)
TENGWAR LETTER OORETENGWAR LETTER VALATENGWAR LETTER ANNATENGWAR LETTER VILYA (wilya)
TENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED TINCOTENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED PARMATENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED CALMATENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED QUESSETENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED ANDOTENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED UMBAR
TENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED ANGATENGWAR LETTER EXTENDED UNGUETENGWAR LETTER ROOMENTENGWAR LETTER ARDATENGWAR LETTER LAMBETENGWAR LETTER ALDATENGWAR LETTER SILMETENGWAR LETTER SILME NUQUERNATENGWAR LETTER AARE (aaze, esse)
TENGWAR LETTER AARE NUQUERNA (aaze n., esse n.)
TENGWAR LETTER HYARMENTENGWAR LETTER HWESTA SINDARINWATENGWAR LETTER YANTATENGWAR LETTER UURETENGWAR LETTER LONG CARRIERTENGWAR LETTER HALLATENGWAR LETTER SHORT CARRIER(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)
TENGWAR LETTER STEMLESS VALATENGWAR LETTER STEMLESS ANNA(This position shall not be used)
TENGWAR LETTER LIGATING SHORT CARRIERTENGWAR LETTER ANNA SINDARINWATENGWAR LETTER OPEN ANNATENGWAR LETTER REVERSED PARMATENGWAR LETTER REVERSED FORMENTENGWAR LETTER TALL STEMLESS VALATENGWAR LETTER MH(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)
TENGWAR SIGN THREE DOTS ABOVETENGWAR SIGN THREE DOTS BELOWTENGWAR SIGN TWO DOTS ABOVETENGWAR SIGN TWO DOTS BELOWTENGWAR SIGN AMATICSE (dot above)
TENGWAR SIGN NUNTICSE (dot below)
TENGWAR SIGN ACUTE (andaith, long mark)(This position shall not be used)
TENGWAR SIGN DOUBLE ACUTETENGWAR SIGN DOUBLE ACUTE BELOWTENGWAR SIGN RIGHT CURLTENGWAR SIGN RIGHT CURL BELOWTENGWAR SIGN LEFT CURLTENGWAR SIGN LEFT CURL BELOWTENGWAR SIGN DOUBLE RIGHT CURLTENGWAR SIGN DOUBLE LEFT CURLTENGWAR SIGN NASALIZERTENGWAR SIGN DOUBLERTENGWAR SIGN TILDETENGWAR SIGN BREVETENGWAR SIGN GRAVETENGWAR SIGN YANTA ABOVETENGWAR SIGN THREE INVERTED DOTS ABOVETENGWAR SIGN LONG CARRIER BELOW(This position shall not be used)

dec hex
089090091092093094095096097098099100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126
12759
5A
5B
5C
5D
5E
5F
60616263646566
676869
6A
6B
6C
6D
6E
6F
707172737475767778
79
7A
7B
7C
7D
7E
7F

Plane 01

Name
(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)
TENGWAR PUSTA (putta, stop)
TENGWAR DOUBLE PUSTA (putta)
TENGWAR TRIPLE PUSTA (putta)
TENGWAR QUADRUPLE PUSTA (putta)TENGWAR QUINTUPLE PUSTA (putta)
TENGWAR EXCLAMATION MARKTENGWAR QUESTION MARKTENGWAR PARENTHESIS MARKTENGWAR SECTION MARKTENGWAR DOUBLE SECTION MARK(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)
TENGWAR DIGIT ZEROTENGWAR DIGIT ONE
TENGWAR DIGIT TWOTENGWAR DIGIT THREETENGWAR DIGIT FOURTENGWAR DIGIT FIVETENGWAR DIGIT SIXTENGWAR DIGIT SEVENTENGWAR DIGIT EIGHTTENGWAR DIGIT NINETENGWAR DUODECIMAL DIGIT TENTENGWAR DUODECIMAL DIGIT ELEVENTENGWAR DUODECIMAL DIGIT TWELVETENGWAR DUODECIMAL LEAST SIGNIFICANT DIGIT MARK(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)

Row 023