Tolkien called one of his principal Elvish writing systems Tengwar. The name is usually translated as “letters” or “signs” in the Quenya language.
Tengwar was designed as a flexible script rather than a writing system tied to only one language. Tolkien used it for several languages in his fictional world, including Quenya, Sindarin, and the Common Speech. The shapes and sound values could be adapted according to the language being written.
Tengwar is often confused with Cirth, another script in Tolkien’s legendarium. Cirth consists mainly of angular runes and is strongly associated with the Dwarves, while Tengwar has more rounded and flowing letter forms. Quenya is not a script at all: it is one of Tolkien’s constructed Elvish languages. These distinctions matter because Tolkien created both languages and writing systems as interconnected parts of Middle-earth.