Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
6 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Quenya, spoken somewhere beyond the Western Sea?
I’m pretty sure I recognise the -llo directional ending and some other characteristic Quenya word shapes: undome, morniello, sinye, ar ciltuvas etc., not to mention Eru “The One”.
Hmm. Beginning verses of Genesis, perhaps, what with all the “Ar Eru…”?
Yup — just found it online. She pronounces it quite well!
Some of it sounded vaguely Finnish but I knew it wasn’t that or Estonian; that would have been too easy. The “prettiness” of it reminded me of an Elvish language, but I couldn’t remember the name “Quenya” to save my life.
At the beginning I thought it might be Hungarian, but then I realized it’s not. Then it started to sound like one of the languages by Tolkien, but I don’t know them enough to recognize them. I tried googling some of the words but that brought up nothing. Then I read Chris Miller’s comment, and took his word for it.
It is indeed the first eight verses of Genesis. There is also a page where the translator comments on the translation: http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/yessesse.htm
The pronunciation is quite nice, but she tends to lengthen some of the short vowels.
Yepp, this is Helge Fauskangers translation of the first chapter of Genesis into Quenya. I immediately recognized many of the words. I feel like such a geek.
The answer is indeed Quenya, one of the Elvish languages invented by J.R.R. Tolkien which is spoken in Eldamar in Middle-earth, and by some fans of Tolkien’s work.
Quenya, spoken somewhere beyond the Western Sea?
I’m pretty sure I recognise the -llo directional ending and some other characteristic Quenya word shapes: undome, morniello, sinye, ar ciltuvas etc., not to mention Eru “The One”.
Hmm. Beginning verses of Genesis, perhaps, what with all the “Ar Eru…”?
Yup — just found it online. She pronounces it quite well!
Some of it sounded vaguely Finnish but I knew it wasn’t that or Estonian; that would have been too easy. The “prettiness” of it reminded me of an Elvish language, but I couldn’t remember the name “Quenya” to save my life.
At the beginning I thought it might be Hungarian, but then I realized it’s not. Then it started to sound like one of the languages by Tolkien, but I don’t know them enough to recognize them. I tried googling some of the words but that brought up nothing. Then I read Chris Miller’s comment, and took his word for it.
When I knew it was Quenya, I consulted an online dictionary, and found out some of the words. Then I googled again, and found this: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Quenya/Texts_in_Quenya/I_Yessess%C3%AB
It is indeed the first eight verses of Genesis. There is also a page where the translator comments on the translation: http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/yessesse.htm
The pronunciation is quite nice, but she tends to lengthen some of the short vowels.
Yepp, this is Helge Fauskangers translation of the first chapter of Genesis into Quenya. I immediately recognized many of the words. I feel like such a geek.
The recording was made by YouTube user Arkxyz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMLeim0tu9Q
The answer is indeed Quenya, one of the Elvish languages invented by J.R.R. Tolkien which is spoken in Eldamar in Middle-earth, and by some fans of Tolkien’s work.
The recording comes from YouTube.
Good job Tolkien on imitating the sound of Finnish, though I knew it couldn’t be!
I should have realized isn’t was Genesis from the poetic structure.