Tengwar
Automated conversion of Latin text into Tengwar codepoints in the Unicode Private Use Area. Primarily targets the Classical Quenya mode, with tenuous support for the Sindarin modes of Beleriand and Gondor.
The codepoints used are the ones defined by the Free Tengwar Font Project, based on the mapping in the ConScript Unicode Registry, and will only correctly render if a font is installed that includes them.
Installation
With Cargo installed, the following command will build and install from crates.io automatically:
cargo install tengwar
Usage
When run directly, reads all command-line arguments and prints them back in Tengwar, separated by spaces:
> tengwar "Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo :"
> tengwar "Utúlie'n aurë ! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári , utúlie'n aurë !."
If no arguments are provided, reads from Standard Input and prints transliteration to Standard Output line by line. All input is assumed to be UTF-8 encoded, and output will also be UTF-8 encoded.
A short summary of the program can be seen by running tengwar -h, and much more detailed help text is available with tengwar --help.
Modes
Alternative "Modes" can be selected via command-line switch:
> tengwar --beleriand "Ennyn Durin aran Moria :. pedo mellon a minno :"
> tengwar --gondor "Ennyn Durin aran Moria :. pedo mellon a minno :"
The full list of available modes can be viewed with tengwar -h.
Ligation
Two forms of ligation are currently supported.
The --ligate-all option will enable both of them at the same time.
Short Carriers
The short carrier () has an alternate "ligating" form (), which extends to the right, connecting to the next character.
When invoked with --ligate-short (or -s), this program will use the ligating form where appropriate.
Unlike with zero-width joiners (where lack of font support is unlikely to be a problem), this variant is an entirely different character, and may not be provided at all by some fonts.
Zero-Width Joiners
In certain typefaces, the Zero-Width Joiner may be used to form ligatures of Tengwar.
When invoked with the --ligate-zwj (or -z) switch on the command line, this program will insert joiners into the output text between certain characters, based on various overly convoluted rules.
These rules are based on the ligature behavior of Tengwar Telcontar, as well as some degree of personal taste.
For typefaces that do not support these ligatures, the presence of the joining characters should not affect the rendering; However, it does increase the number of bytes in the output string by approximately 15%.
Note on punctuation
Tengwar punctuation is essentially impossible to reliably extrapolate from punctuated Latin text. It is therefore probably best to not even try, and instead to punctuate the input text with the output in mind.
This program does convert punctuation marks into Unicode codepoints, but whitespace is passed through verbatim, neither added nor subtracted¹.
As of this writing at version 0.8.0, punctuation is processed as can be seen above and in the following table:
| Input | Output |
|---|---|
', ., ,, · |
|
:, ; |
|
⁝, ︙ |
|
⁘, ⁛, … |
|
⸭ |
|
- |
|
= |
|
? |
|
! |
|
‖* |
|
(, [, “ |
|
), ], ”, „ |
|
The Pipe character (|) is also converted to , but it cannot be included in this table due to a technical limitation of the Markdown format.
It may be important to note that the Tilde (~) is not converted, despite strongly resembling the punctuation character .
This is because the Tilde represents a specific type of whitespace in LaTeX, and running within LaTeX is the motivating use case for the creation of this program.
The Tilde is left alone so that it can safely pass through and be read by LaTeX.
Features
Cargo Features allow very powerful changes to the behavior of a program to be baked in at compile-time.
For my current project, I am using a version of this program compiled with --no-default-features --features "alt-rince long-vowel-double" as arguments to Cargo.
alt-rince
A consonant which is followed by an /s/ sound is often represented by adding an additional hook, known as a sa-rincë, for example turning "" into "".
If this occurs at the end of a word, a larger version may be used, as seen in "".
Because in many typefaces it is not well-supported, this alternate version will not be used by default;
However, it can be enabled by including --features "alt-rince" when installing.
circumflex
In some manuscripts, it is not uncommon to replace the three-dot Tehta () with a simpler one resembling a circumflex ().
This variant may be preferred when transliterating text that is meant to represent a note quickly written by hand.
This can be enabled with --features "circumflex".
Long Vowels
Multiple Cargo features are available to provide alternative treatment of "long" vowels; Some typefaces lack the correct ligatures to properly display doubled diacritics, while others lack forms for the dedicated codepoints. Some may not even support either approach at all.
The default behavior is to double the characters for long vowels, with the feature long-vowel-double set by default.
In order to use the unique diacritical characters, run the compilation with --features "long-vowel-unique".
In order to instead place long vowel marks onto the lengthened ára carrier, do so by disabling the doubling behavior with --no-default-features².
Note: Some diacritical vowels will always use the ára carrier, due to their shape being unsuitable for doubling.
nuquernar
Two of the Tengwar, Silmë () and Essë (), have inverted "Nuquerna" variants.
These variants are often used when a diacritical vowel is to be added, and this is the default behavior of this program.
However, in some typefaces, the normal non-inverted versions may look better.
This behavior can therefore be disabled with --no-default-features².
¹ While this program does not affect whitespace, it can only work with the discrete arguments provided to it by the environment running it.
Most environments will split your input at spaces and provide the surrounding words as unconnected values;
This program cannot distinguish between tengwar asdf qwert and tengwar asdf<TAB>qwert.
It is therefore highly recommended to enclose all of your input text in double quotes.
² If you run the compilation with --no-default-features, it will disable both default features.
This is a limitation of how Cargo resolves the defaults.
If you want to, for example, disable the doubled vowels behavior, but retain the Nuquerna variants, you may disable both but then reenable the one you want by using --no-default-features --features "nuquernar".