Why do people sometimes spell Quenya with a “Qu” and sometimes just Qenya with a Q, without the “u”?
The earliest form of Quenya which Tolkien invented is spelled Qenya because that’s the way Tolkien spelled it, and it serves to distinguish the early forms of the language from later forms (as appear in the Lord of the Rings), which are really rather different. The pronunciation of the words is the same however, and either spelling of words with q(u) in Quenya is correct. Some texts also use “k” where others use “c” and those two letters are also interchangeable. Other spelling conventions that you might want to know about are the use of double vowels for the vowels marked with either an accent ( ) or those marked with a circumflex ( ), since these letters occur in Tolkien’s invented languages but sometimes cannot be produced on email lists or, if they are used, they are sometimes mangled in transition (just like this sentence!). Tolkien also used (e with diaresis) but we usually leave it out on email lists. And finally, it is gently requested that people not use too many clever word a
