Word of the Week: Vinquenya
Kris Kowal
Today's word of the week is something new, Vinquenya. One moment...
I just noticed a post by Helge Fauskanger on the elfling mailing list
with "Neo-quenya" in the subject line. Neo-quenya is the offical name
for a language and project that attempts to make Quenya more like a
living language. That is, the people who use it, control its
evolution. This is in contrast to academic study of the Quenya as
described by Tolkien. While Quenya's grammar is nearly exhaustive,
it's vocabulary is quite limiting. Quenya has about 3,000 words. In
Quenya, you can write poetry about how much you love nature and how
much you hate orcs. Through extrapolation, you can also talk about
some other things, like dwarf-tossing and Christianity, by bending and
pidgeon-holeing the existing words. Neo-quenya is a community of
liberation, where you can, if you must, contrive words and grammar as
closely as you can approximate to the form, intent, and sound of
Quenya.
From wikipedia, "Quenya", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya
"Quenya used by fans for post-Tolkien composition of poems and texts,
phrases and names, is usually nicknamed neo-Quenya, or Quenya
Vinyakarmë (Q. for "neologism") by scholars, in order to prevent the
confusion that authentic Quenya can be used practically."
<soap-box>
I think that it should be called Vinquenya. _Vin-_ is the Quenya
prefix for 'new-', whereas Neo- is Latin. I believe that it would be
a poetic testament to the intent of the Neo-quenya movement if the
writers of Neo-quenya deprecated this name in favor of Vinquenya, or
New-Classic-Elvish if it must be expressed in English. I'm not alone
in this; Google did bring up one post on elfling that uses the word
(aside from my own post to this list some time ago).
</soap-box>
As always, I look forward to discussion :-).
Kris.
Quenarth
just a thought I had) I was contemplating how best to teach beginners
and realized that learning the original usage must come first and then
a seperate course for Neo-quenya.
Very interesting.
Now, I just wonder how this would be in Middle-earth. For example, if
writing a Tolkienesque story...would one want to use Quenya or
Neo-Quenya? Personally, I'd go for the former.
Bob Powers
> Yes, I've been reading those Neo-Quenya posts =) As a side note (and
> just a thought I had) I was contemplating how best to teach beginners
> and realized that learning the original usage must come first and then
> a seperate course for Neo-quenya.
Of course, most "scholars" would say that any Quenya that is
regularized enough to teach in inherently Neo-Quenya. It is in the
original usage that we get problems. Quenya purists believe the
language should not be regularized into a speakable, or writable
entity. Thus all who do are in their minds Neo-Quenyaists. Of course we
are all inherently Neo-Quenyaists, unless our only aim is to study and
preserve the tongue. This is in no way a bad thing, but it is a
tightrope walk. To conservative, and you'll drive yourself nuts with
all the revisions and the lack of vocabulary, to liberal, and the
tongue could morphe into another entity altogether. Thus in my opinion
Neo-Quenya is to loose a term, because I am indeed a conservative
Neo-Quenyaist, and am therefore associate with orginizations that do
not know the difference between "elvish" and Quenya and Sindarin.
Therefor, though what you teach must be Neo-Quenya, what you should
uses should never stray far from "pure" Quenya, and to study "pure"
Quenya, it often helps to have a foundation in Neo-Quenya...
> Very interesting.
I find it burdens that people need to fight over this, myself....
> Now, I just wonder how this would be in Middle-earth. For example, if
> writing a Tolkienesque story...would one want to use Quenya or
> Neo-Quenya? Personally, I'd go for the former.
No one on Middle-earth would use Neo-Quenya, it is our attempt in this
world to regularize Tolkien's work, thus always refer to it as
Quenya...
Exhaustedly,
Bob Powers
Quenarth
'fanfics' that use schoarly constructed words that aren't in the
original corpus.
You're responce was very revealing, so therefore, I hail thee...fellow
conservative Neo-Quenya-ist!!