Editing Tengwar (section)

=== Precursors ===

The [[sarati]], a script developed by Tolkien in the late 1910s and described in ''[[Parma Eldalamberon]] 13'', anticipates many features of the Tengwar: vowel representation by [[diacritic]]s (which is found in many Tengwar varieties); different Tengwar shapes; and a few correspondences between sound features and letter shape features (though inconsistent).

Even closer to the Tengwar is the Valmaric script, described in ''Parma Eldalamberon 14'', which Tolkien used from about 1922 to 1925. It features many Tengwar shapes, the inherent vowel {{IPA|[a]}} found in some Tengwar varieties, and the tables in the samples V12 and V13 show an arrangement that is very similar to one of the primary Tengwar in the classical Quenya "mode".

In his ''An Introduction to Elvish'', Jim Allan compared the Tengwar with the London merchant [[Francis Lodwick]]'s 1686 ''Universal Alphabet'', both on grounds of the correspondence between shape features and sound features, and of the actual letter shapes.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Allan |editor-first=Jim |title=An Introduction to Elvish |publisher=Bran's Head Books |isbn=0-905220-10-2}}</ref>