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BakerBurns
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Post Which language should I learn first?
on: October 23, 2013 09:56
I've always been interested in learning Elvish. I learned there are 2 major dialects, and I was instantly interested. I was wondering, which one should I learn first, Quenya or Sindarin? I will probably only learn one, but if I have enough time/like it enough, I might try the other. I'm kind of leaning towards Quenya because it sounds so much more elegant and impressive, but Sindarin is the language Aragorn speaks (I believe), which is a huge upside.

Which should I choose? Unless there is a huge difference in difficulty, don't take that into account. And I only speak English and a little bit of Spanish, if that matters at all.

P.S. I apologize if this isn't the right place to post this! I literally made my account like 5 minutes ago, and I'm not used to navigating this site.
gondolinian
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Heruvinlië - Lord of the New Folk
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on: October 23, 2013 11:38
Hello BakerBurns. There is no 'should' in this question . All depends on your personal preference. Quenya is what is often compared to our Latin: an older, more formal language. Sindarin is a more 'common' tongue. More information can be found by checking out the details in our Language Section, or Googling a bit. Feel free to ask any language-related questions in the Language forums as well (they are better suited there than in the Newbies forum).
I don't think any of Tolkien's languages have a relation to a modern day language like English or Spanish (at most with some of the Scandinavian languages, correct me if I'm wrong). So your pre-knowledge doesn't matter, the only thing that may matter is how easy it is for you to learn a new language.

A tip concerning your PS : when joining a website, it's not a bad idea to check out the site and forum rules, as well as browse the site itself. That way you'll instantly know where to post things. Your question is mostly language related and should go in the Languages forum, but since many newbies have a similar problem I'll leave it up here for others to see.

[Edited on 10/24/2013 by gondolinian]
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skittlejg
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on: November 03, 2013 01:52
Hello. You can choose whichever language you prefer, although, I am learning Quenya, simply because there are more Quenya words. If you go to the dictionary, there are 2519 Quenya words, and 1887 Sindarin words.

I think that the Elvish languages are based on Welsh(Sindarin) or Finnish and Latin(Quenya). So, I also speak some Spanish, and find that Quenya is easier, because it is based partially off Latin, which Spanish is also based off of. Although, I haven't even tried to learn Sindarin, so I don't know how it is to learn.
findemaxam48
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on: November 04, 2013 04:22
I came here originally to learn Sindarin, becasue thats the one that I liked best. It's all preference!
We were one in the same, running like moths to the flame. You'd hang on every word I'd say, but now they only ricochet.
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