Quenya is the Elvish language in Tolkien’s legendarium that is based largely on Finnish.
Tolkien developed Quenya as a highly structured language, drawing especially on Finnish phonology and grammar, while also incorporating influences from Latin and Greek. In his mythology, Quenya is associated particularly with the High Elves, including the Noldor and Vanyar. It functions as a formal, ancient language rather than the everyday speech of most Elves in Middle-earth.
Sindarin is the other major Elvish language encountered in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien based much of Sindarin’s sound and structure on Welsh, making it distinct from Quenya even though both belong to his Elvish linguistic family. Names such as Galadriel and Eärendil are associated with Tolkien’s constructed languages.
Quenya’s fictional history also reflects Tolkien’s interest in language change. He imagined dialects, sound shifts and historical relationships rather than creating isolated vocabulary lists.