Quenya is the Elvish language associated with the Valinorean Elves in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.
Tolkien developed Quenya as part of his lifelong work in invented languages. Its structure and sound were influenced especially by Finnish, while its vocabulary and history belong to Tolkien’s mythology of the Elves and the wider history of Arda.
Quenya is often described as a high or ancient Elven language. In Middle-earth, it remained important in names, formal speech, poetry, and ritual, even though Sindarin was more widely spoken among many Elves in the later periods.
Readers sometimes use “Elvish” as though it names one language. Tolkien instead created several related Elven tongues, including Quenya and Sindarin, each with its own history and role.