Quenya is the Elvish language most associated with J.R.R. Tolkien’s high-elven tradition.
Tolkien modeled Quenya partly on Finnish and developed it with detailed sound patterns, grammar, and vocabulary. In his fictional history, it was associated especially with the Ñoldor and Vanyar, Elves who had lived in Valinor. Its name is related to the idea of speech or language.
Quenya was not generally the everyday language of all Elves in Middle-earth during the later stories. Sindarin was more widely spoken among many Elves there, while Quenya often had a formal, literary, or ceremonial role. This distinction is a common source of confusion when readers refer generally to “the Elvish language.”
Tolkien created multiple Elvish languages rather than one single system. Quenya and Sindarin are the best-known, but they belong to a larger family of related languages whose history reflects his interest in philology and language change.