Finnish was a major inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Quenya, according to his descriptions of the language’s influences.
Quenya is one of Tolkien’s Elvish languages and is associated especially with the Noldor and their high cultural tradition. Tolkien studied languages professionally, and he designed Quenya with a deliberately rich sound and grammatical structure. Finnish provided an important model, particularly through Tolkien’s admiration for the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic.
Quenya was not simply Finnish with changed vocabulary. Tolkien reshaped its grammar, sounds, and word formation as part of a much larger process of language invention. He also drew inspiration from other languages, including Latin and Greek, while Sindarin was strongly influenced by Welsh phonology.
The relationship between Tolkien’s languages and real languages is therefore best described as artistic influence rather than direct copying. Quenya’s role in the stories is also different from Sindarin’s: it functions as a prestigious, ancient language, while Sindarin is more widely spoken among many Elves in Middle-earth.