Tengwar is the fictional script Tolkien used for many Elvish inscriptions.
Tolkien designed the Tengwar, also called the Fëanorian characters, as a writing system for the languages of Middle-earth. The letters represent consonants and vowel signs are placed around them according to the mode being used. This makes Tengwar a script rather than a single spoken language.
In Tolkien’s fictional history, the script was devised by Fëanor in the First Age and later adapted for several languages. The inscription on the One Ring is a famous example: it is written in Tengwar characters, but the words are in the Black Speech of Mordor.
Readers sometimes call every Elvish writing “Elvish,” which blurs the distinction between language and script. Cirth is a separate runic writing system associated especially with Dwarves, while Sarati is an earlier script Tolkien created. Tengwar’s elegant appearance has also made it popular for modern decorative transcriptions.