Finnish inspired many sounds and forms in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Quenya.
Quenya is one of Tolkien’s constructed Elvish languages and is associated especially with the High Elves. Tolkien studied Finnish and admired the language’s structure and sound. The Finnish epic Kalevala also influenced his imaginative and linguistic work, particularly during the development of his mythology.
Quenya was not simply Finnish with different vocabulary. Tolkien created its grammar, vocabulary, history, and writing traditions as part of a fictional world. It also developed through different imagined historical stages, so the language appearing in Tolkien’s writings is not completely uniform.
Welsh influenced another major Elvish language, Sindarin, while Old English and Old Norse contributed to aspects of other languages and names in Middle-earth. These influences explain why Tolkien’s languages can sound related to real languages without being direct copies of them.