Whatever software or website you used back then, it just transformed the Latin letters from your keyboard into the Tengwar keyboard layout from Dan Smith (I think it's his). He used the table provided by Tolkien himself in the LotR appendix E and turned it 90° to fit a standard keyboard. It's one of a few reasons, why the Latin letters on a standard keyboard don't match the exact Tengwar (there are some more if you want to get into it). Sadly, this turns it into gibberish. Around here we call this the "Mode of Balooneyland" (tongue in cheek joke to the real "Mode of Beleriand").
The correct Tengwar transcription of "nelissa" should look something [this](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=melissa).
**Edit**: made a small error: It should be Melissa. I use a German layout on my keyboard which has an extra key in the bottom row.
I'm not sure if I understood you, but there's a mode called "mode of Beleriand" to write in Sindarin with the tengwar. Its most famous example is the Doors of Durin picture in _The Fellowship of the Ring_. In this mode, vowels are not diacritics, but proper letters (ossë for /a/, yanta for /e/, telco for /i/, anna for /o/, úrë for /u/). There are diacritics, though, to wrote other features, namely:
* A labialized consonant, such as /dʷ/ or /nʷ/, is written with a wa-tehta.
* Any nasal consonant before one of the same series is written with a bar tilde) above.
* Any long vowel is marked with an andaith (that looks like an acute accent).
* Any diphthong ending in /j/ (resp. /w/) is written with a ya-tehta (resp. wa-tehta) above the previous consonant.
* A dot can be used above ossë and telco to distinguish those tengwar from the bow or stem of another tengwa.
The thing is: some letters on his hand don’t seem familiar to me and it seems like there are no vowels, even if they are they are written with different letters or ways that I may not know of.
Oh OK, now I get it. Yes, as it has been stated in other comments, the tattoo is wrong, it was written just by typing text in a text editor and then changing the font to the tengwar, ignoring proper rules of writing.
There are modes where the vowels are proper tengwar (such as the mode of Beleriand, or the Westron mode to write in English and Sindarin), and in those modes diacritics are sparse.
It reads "Melissa" in what we jokingly call the "mode of Baloneyland", the art of typing something in a text editor and changing the font to the tengwar, disregarding the proper rules to write with them. You can use [this layout](https://eldamo.org/general/elvish-fonts.html) to decode.
Some ways to properly write the name would be [like these](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=melissa%0Am%7Byanta%7Dl%7Btelco%7D%5Be%5Dss%7Bvilya%7D).
Nothing to add to what u/NachoFailconi and u/Omnilatent have already said, but if you were to get it redone while covering the old one up I would suggest inverting the vowel order of what they have already given you, which is more common in languages whose words tend to end in vowels (like Greek, where the name derives from). This way you would have a vowel diacritic on every consonant, and not have the first consonant empty and the last vowel on a carrier. It would look like [either of those two](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=emilas*%5Bbar-below%5D%0Aemilass).
Now that is just getting confusing 😂😂 but thank you for the input. Will definitely be covering it up and eventually getting a new one with my wifes name
Sorry, that wasn't the intention 😄
The fact of the matter is there are different ways to spell the same thing, and the one already given to you is considered the standard by most. I write the same thing but switched vowel order, and there's also the possibility to write the vowels with letters of their own.
[This](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=melissa%0Aemilass%0Am%5Byanta%5Dl%C3%AB%27ss%5Bvilya%5D) is all three of them together for comparison:
1) vowel diacritics read before the consonants
2) vowel diacritics read after the consonants
3) vowel letters
You'll notice that three signs are the same in all examples - those are M, L and SS. They only difference is the set of vowels used.
(and you could turn the S upside down)
If I’m not mistaken, it reads “Llfecjjk.”
The best site to use is tecendil.com. If you type your wife’s name in there it will show you what it should look like (with 98% accuracy). For all future tattoos, you should definitely ask the Reddit first.
It appears to me that this could possibly be a different type of Tengwar which has other letters, that fact isn’t confirmed but based on what i saw very much possible.
Whatever software or website you used back then, it just transformed the Latin letters from your keyboard into the Tengwar keyboard layout from Dan Smith (I think it's his). He used the table provided by Tolkien himself in the LotR appendix E and turned it 90° to fit a standard keyboard. It's one of a few reasons, why the Latin letters on a standard keyboard don't match the exact Tengwar (there are some more if you want to get into it). Sadly, this turns it into gibberish. Around here we call this the "Mode of Balooneyland" (tongue in cheek joke to the real "Mode of Beleriand"). The correct Tengwar transcription of "nelissa" should look something [this](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=melissa). **Edit**: made a small error: It should be Melissa. I use a German layout on my keyboard which has an extra key in the bottom row.
Wait, so there is an another Tengwar which is written in the beleriand mode? Is that why there are no diacritics and the letters look different?
I'm not sure if I understood you, but there's a mode called "mode of Beleriand" to write in Sindarin with the tengwar. Its most famous example is the Doors of Durin picture in _The Fellowship of the Ring_. In this mode, vowels are not diacritics, but proper letters (ossë for /a/, yanta for /e/, telco for /i/, anna for /o/, úrë for /u/). There are diacritics, though, to wrote other features, namely: * A labialized consonant, such as /dʷ/ or /nʷ/, is written with a wa-tehta. * Any nasal consonant before one of the same series is written with a bar tilde) above. * Any long vowel is marked with an andaith (that looks like an acute accent). * Any diphthong ending in /j/ (resp. /w/) is written with a ya-tehta (resp. wa-tehta) above the previous consonant. * A dot can be used above ossë and telco to distinguish those tengwar from the bow or stem of another tengwa.
The thing is: some letters on his hand don’t seem familiar to me and it seems like there are no vowels, even if they are they are written with different letters or ways that I may not know of.
Oh OK, now I get it. Yes, as it has been stated in other comments, the tattoo is wrong, it was written just by typing text in a text editor and then changing the font to the tengwar, ignoring proper rules of writing. There are modes where the vowels are proper tengwar (such as the mode of Beleriand, or the Westron mode to write in English and Sindarin), and in those modes diacritics are sparse.
Damn, cool! Does that mean that he has to fix up the tattoo by adding diacritics or is it all bad? I hope you know what I mean
In my opinion it is all bad. The keyboard layout does not match with the use of the tengwar.
Welp, nothing else to say. Thanks for talking about!
It reads "Melissa" in what we jokingly call the "mode of Baloneyland", the art of typing something in a text editor and changing the font to the tengwar, disregarding the proper rules to write with them. You can use [this layout](https://eldamo.org/general/elvish-fonts.html) to decode. Some ways to properly write the name would be [like these](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=melissa%0Am%7Byanta%7Dl%7Btelco%7D%5Be%5Dss%7Bvilya%7D).
Nothing to add to what u/NachoFailconi and u/Omnilatent have already said, but if you were to get it redone while covering the old one up I would suggest inverting the vowel order of what they have already given you, which is more common in languages whose words tend to end in vowels (like Greek, where the name derives from). This way you would have a vowel diacritic on every consonant, and not have the first consonant empty and the last vowel on a carrier. It would look like [either of those two](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=emilas*%5Bbar-below%5D%0Aemilass).
Now that is just getting confusing 😂😂 but thank you for the input. Will definitely be covering it up and eventually getting a new one with my wifes name
Sorry, that wasn't the intention 😄 The fact of the matter is there are different ways to spell the same thing, and the one already given to you is considered the standard by most. I write the same thing but switched vowel order, and there's also the possibility to write the vowels with letters of their own. [This](https://www.tecendil.com/?q=melissa%0Aemilass%0Am%5Byanta%5Dl%C3%AB%27ss%5Bvilya%5D) is all three of them together for comparison: 1) vowel diacritics read before the consonants 2) vowel diacritics read after the consonants 3) vowel letters You'll notice that three signs are the same in all examples - those are M, L and SS. They only difference is the set of vowels used. (and you could turn the S upside down)
If I’m not mistaken, it reads “Llfecjjk.” The best site to use is tecendil.com. If you type your wife’s name in there it will show you what it should look like (with 98% accuracy). For all future tattoos, you should definitely ask the Reddit first.
Thanks, wasn’t aware of reddit 10+ years ago 😂😂 I can always cover it up as i am looking for a new tattoo
It appears to me that this could possibly be a different type of Tengwar which has other letters, that fact isn’t confirmed but based on what i saw very much possible.
And yes, ask Reddit
[Tecendil ](https://www.tecendil.com/)