Accentuation

To-do

  • Find reference to finally-stressed imperatives

Quenya accent is pitch-dynamic: the stressed syllable is pronounced louder and with higher pitch. It is limited (can only occur in specific positions) and is not lexical: the accent doesn't differentiate words like it does in English or Spanish.

General Rule of Accentuation

Possible Positions of the Accent; 'Long' and 'Short' Syllables

The main accent can only normally fall on one of the two syllables of a word:

  • the penult: the second-to-last syllable of a word (x-x-x);
  • the antepenult: the third-to-last syllable of a word (x-x-x).

Accentuation is determined strongly by the length of the penult syllable of a word. For the purposes of accentuation:

  • a syllable is long if it is closed, or contains a long vowel or a diphthong;
  • a syllable is short if it is open and contains a short vowel.

Note

Such pairs as ty, qu, hy, hw can be considered as a single or a double consonant for this purposea.

For vowel quantity (long/short), → 1.7.

Penultimate Law

Rule 1

The regular main stress falls on a second mora from the end, not counting the last syllable.

If the antepenult is long, it takes two morae:

  • closed syllable: lótesse — lo-[t-e2-s1]-se
  • long vowel: untúpa — un-[t-u2-u1]-pa
  • diphthong: alasaila — ala-[s-a2-i1]-la

If the antepenult is short, it takes one mora:

  • termaruva — ter-[ma2-ru1]-va

Consequently, in words of one or two syllables the stress is always prototonic:

  • [e1]-len, [va1]-la, [o2-o1]-re

Exceptions

Exception 1

A word was stressed on the last syllable if it was:

  • a verb in imperative (@@): quetá — kwe-'ta
  • a functor on -ai: cenai — ke-'naj

Exception 2

If by Rule 1 the stress should fall on a first vowel of hiatus, the stress shifts forwardb:

  • Lómeanor — 'lo-o3-[me2-a1]-'nor
  • But naturally it didn't happen if the syllable was already initial: tie — 'ti1-e

Exception 3

Weak nouns of second declension keep their stress pattern despite the lack of rhythmic lengthening (@@)c:

  • Orome — ['o2-ro1]-ˌme; Oromèo — 'o-[ro2-'me1]-o

Exception 4

Certain prefixes don't take on stressd:

  • ovèa — o-['ve1]-a

Exception 5

Recognized compounds kept independent stress positione:

  • losselie — los-se-['li1]-e (not los-['se2-li1]-e)

Secondary Stress

Rule 2

The secondary stress is placed on alternate syllables in either direction from the main stressf.

  • Calaciryanen — ˌca-la-'cir-ya-ˌnen

Rule 3

Initial syllable received secondary stressc:

  • ómaryo — ˌo-o-'mar-yo

Rule 4

Secondary stress that precedes the main stress and is separated from it by one or more syllables and is on either a) initial or b) long syllable is strongg.

  • oromardi — 'o-ro-'mar-di

Exception 6

The long syllable or initial syllable attracted secondary stress if they were separated from the main stressh:

  • andafalasse — 'an-da-fa-['la2-s1]-se (not an-da-fa-las-se as per Rule 2)

Exception 7

If the initial syllable was light and immediately preceded the main stress, it lost its accenti:

  • namárie — na-['ma-a2-ri1]-e

Tone

In isolation, the main stress is always marked with a high tone. The secondary stress was lower, when equally strong, and low otherwisej:

  • fal˦-ma˧-lin˥-nar˧
  • an˩-[du-u]˥-ne˧

Rhythmic Lengthening

After historic stress shift (@@), the Quenya accent got fixed. As a result, in some inflections to preserve the prosodic pattern, the vowel bearing the secondary accent lengthened and took the main accent instead:

  • I'lúvaˌtar — I'lúva'táro (not *'Ilú'vataˌro)
  • 'máriˌe — 'mári'éno (not *ˌmá'rieˌno)
  • 'tuluˌva — 'tulu'váse (not *tu'luvaˌse)

The only notable exception to this is genitive of paroxytone words in partitive plural (@@). By Exception 2, the main accent shifts forward from li:

  • 'mali'norne — 'mali'norneˌli — 'malinor'néliˌon or 'malinor'neliˌon (not *'maliˌnorne'líon)

In that case, the lengthened vowel would be stressed even by the general rule. Colloquially, it shortened:

  • 'vaniˌma — 'vani'máliˌon or 'vani'maliˌon