Quenya is the ‘High-elven’ tongue of Valinor in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium.
Tolkien based much of Quenya’s sound and structure on Finnish, while also developing it as part of the historical language family of his invented world. It was associated especially with the Ñoldor and other Elves who had lived in Aman, the realm of the Valar.
Quenya remained an important ceremonial and literary language in Middle-earth, even though Sindarin became more widely spoken among many Elves there. Names such as Eärendil, Galadriel, and Númenor reflect Tolkien’s constructed-language work, although individual names can have complex linguistic histories.
Quenya is often confused with Sindarin because both are major Elvish languages in Tolkien’s writings. Sindarin was the common Elvish language of much of Middle-earth, whereas Quenya carried the older, high-language status associated with Valinor and the lore of the Eldar.