Which language family includes Quenya, one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish languages?

Quenya belongs to Tolkien’s family of Elvish languages. Tolkien developed Quenya as a language of the Elves, drawing inspiration especially from the sounds and structures of Finnish, Latin, and Greek.

Within Tolkien’s linguistic history, Quenya is associated with the High Elves and is related to Sindarin. The two languages are distinct: Quenya has an especially formal and ancient status, while Sindarin became a widely spoken Elvish language in much of Middle-earth during the later histories.

Readers sometimes classify Quenya as simply “Elvish” without recognizing that Tolkien created multiple Elvish languages. Dwarvish, Mannish, and Orcish speech belong to different groups in the legendarium. Quenya is also different from the Black Speech used for the Ring inscription, so these languages should not be treated as interchangeable names for one tongue.