Quenya is the invented Elvish language J.R.R. Tolkien based largely on Finnish.
Tolkien began developing Quenya before publishing his major Middle-earth novels. Finnish strongly influenced its sound and grammar, while Latin and Greek also contributed inspiration. In Tolkien’s mythology, Quenya was associated especially with the High Elves and was treated as an ancient, prestigious language.
Quenya is not the same as Sindarin, another major Elvish language. Sindarin became the everyday Elvish language of many characters in Middle-earth and was influenced primarily by Welsh. Tolkien designed relationships between his languages, giving them historical development within the fictional world.
The language is sometimes called “High-elven” or “the language of the Eldar.” Tolkien created much more than isolated fantasy words: he worked on phonology, grammar, vocabulary, scripts, and imagined linguistic history. His professional career as a philologist explains why language change and relationships are so important to Middle-earth.