Quenya is the fictional Elvish language created by J.R.R. Tolkien and associated with the word for ‘speech’. Tolkien developed Quenya as part of his broader project of inventing languages for the peoples and history of Middle-earth.
Quenya was inspired chiefly by Finnish, with additional influence from Latin and Greek. In Tolkien’s imagined history, it was an ancient and prestigious language of the Elves, especially associated with the Ñoldor and with the Elves of Valinor. It is not the same language as Sindarin, another major Elvish tongue.
Tolkien’s language construction came before and shaped much of his storytelling. He designed sounds, grammar, vocabulary, and historical changes, then built cultures and legends around them. The word Quenya is often translated as “language” or connected with speech, while Tolkien’s fictional linguistic histories distinguish several related forms and stages.