One of Tolkien's calligraphy. He wrote a part of the One Ring poem in English using the Tengwar in a "full phonetic English mode".
A "full mode" of the tengwar is a mode with tengwar used both for consonants and vowels. Like on the Doors of Moria.
Some common English words are shortened: 'of' and 'the', written with an extended tengwa.
Tolkien made 3 mistakes.
The Dwarven or Rúmilian numerals.
Above Tolkien's manuscript. Below my interpretation in Tengwar Grotesk Medium.
Regarding the inner history of the Tengwar. Tolkien decided that it was not the first writing system of the Elves of Eldamar but the second. The first script was called "Alphabet of Rúmil" and it had numerals of Rúmil.
Tolkien explained that the Alphabet of Rúmil was not used in Middle-earth. But that does not means it was unknown. The Dwarves used the numerals of Rúmil and passed that habit to the Hobbits.
These numerals of Rúmil will be the "Oldstyle Figures" in my Tengwar Fonts.
Two weeks ago, I published a figure containing a mistake. I have updated my font and made a new figure.
Tolkien was not fond of the alphabetic English modes. He wrote next to one such mode: "The point of the alphabet disappears. The following is a possible usage, however."
3 such modes have been published so far. Each will have a dedicated Font file (probably named English-A Tengwar Alphabetic, English-B Tengwar Alphabetic, English-C Tengwar Alphabetic).
This is from the Font "Tengwar Grotesk" that I am developing and designing.
This is Tolkien's Elvish (tengwar) numeral system.
I find the use of many dots rather ugly. I do not see any easy solution.
The dots of the duodecimal system are set on different line making the eye go up and down.
Using the dots is best left to only when absolutely necessary and instead add the lines over or under the number looks better, in my view.
What do you think? Any advice?
The Fëanorian numerals. I published a few days ago Tolkien's manuscript showing them. https://typo.social/@e_kloczko/115230262821787670
Please, I need comments! 😎 🙏
— Oh! it's super but Y.
— Oh, I see a mistake in Y.
That's what I am here for. 🤔 👍 🤓
And don't tell it is perfect! 😜 Even if I spent like 2 weeks on these Fëanorian numerals. They are not perfect at all! 😭
I am using the Latin keyboard in making my OpenType Tengwar Font. Unicode will never accept the Tengwar and I do not blame them for that.
The Fëaorian zero exists already (see my previous post) and it has already 3 glyphs (plain, with a dot and with a circle).
How to get the Hobbit's zero then, in a logical an easy way to remember?
You type the word "zero" and apply "standard ligature".
I'm designing the numerals.
The tengwa "formen" next to my new Fëanorian numeral 8 in Tengwar Grotesque Medium.
The stylistic alternates of the "mode of Beleriand". I'm developing OpenType Fonts of the Tengwar (the script Tolkien invented).
The tengwa cú is in this mode an alternate of tengwa cí.
The tengwa adew (for "a") can have a square dot or not.
The tengwa idew (for "i") can be without the dot.
The tengwa iau (for i") can be with a tail, looking very much like a Latin j.
The tengwa ydew (written "y" is pronounced like German ü) has 2 shapes.
e_kloczko