Gloss “-a” by Eldamo Import

-a

suffix. adjectival suffix

This suffix is frequently used to create the adjective form of a noun, especially in the form -ëa for nouns ending in -ë. This function dates back to CE. ✶-ā.

Derivations

  • ✶-ā “adjectival”

Element in

  • Q. airëa “holy (applied to persons)” ✧ PE17/149
  • ᴺQ. aitalëa “reverent, worshipful, religious”
  • Q. Aldëa “*Tuesday, Tree-day (Númenórean)”
  • Q. amaurëa “dawn, early day, morning” ✧ MC/223
  • Q. andúna “western”
  • ᴺQ. aurëa “sunny, sunlit; *daytime”
  • Q. endëa “middle”
  • Q. eressëa “lonely” ✧ LotR/1116
  • Q. fínëa “dexterous”
  • Q. ilaurëa “*daily”
  • Q. ilyarëa “*daily”
  • Q. ilucara “omnificent” ✧ VT39/20
  • Q. laurëa “golden (of hue)”
  • Q. lillassëa “having many leaves”
  • Q. lilótëa “having many flowers”
  • Q. lómëa “shadowed, gloomy, shadowed, gloomy, *dusk-like”
  • Q. mírëa “jewelled, jewelled, *gemmed”
  • Q. nieninquëa “like a snowdrop” ✧ PE16/096
  • Q. nöa “former; yesterday; tomorrow, yesterday; former, *previous; tomorrow”
  • ᴺQ. nornolassëa “having oak-leaves”
  • Q. núla “dark, occult, mysterious”
  • Q. oialëa “eternal”
  • Q. rávëa “roaring”
  • Q. taurëa “forested”
  • Q. túrëa “mighty, masterful, mighty, masterful, *having political power” ✧ PE17/115
  • Q. úfanwëa “not veiled, unveiled”
  • Q. úpahtëa “speechless”
  • Q. vëa “seeming, apparent, seeming, apparent; [ᴱQ.] similar, like”
  • Q. yaimëa “wailing”
Quenya [LotR/1116; MC/223; PE16/096; PE17/115; PE17/149; VT39/20] Group: Eldamo. Published by
Tom Bombadil #544

May -ea be a variation of this suffix? It seems as if -ea can replace the last vowel of a noun, mostly if the last vowel is -a, but also -o. At first I was just confused by number suffixes like

Tolto + -a -> Toltea,

Otso + -a -> Otsea,

Canta + -a -> Cantea,

but there are also many other adjectives.

ala-óma-a -> alómea

ú-pahta-a -> úpahtea

nem-e-sta-a -> nemestea

ú-fanwa-a -> úfanwea

la-ista-a -> laistea

farasta-a -> farastea

So, might -ea be a suffix too?

At least we can say: -a + -a -> -ea. What do you think?

Ríon Gondremborion #545

I wouldn’t say it’s an independent suffix as a rule: in the cases of -a + -a -> ëa it’s due to Quenya phonology: you can’t have an “a” fall immediately behind another “a” in a word. For Co + a -> Cëa... this I wouldn’t view as a rule. We have a few cases of adjectives formed from the suffix -a directly from nouns ending in -o producing -oa: such as noa from Nó + -a.

Edit: Perhaps as nó is a preposition and ends in a long ó it wasn’t the best example, I’ll look into it more later.

Tom Bombadil #546

I wanted to use this example too. Why do some words, which result in -o, become -oa, while others become -ea? Isn't that a clear hint that -ea is another suffix? It is true that most of my examples follow the principle -a + -a -> -ea, and maybe we should not interpret this as a new suffix but as a sort of a "subcondition" of -a. Anyway, the number suffixes are still a mystery. Apparently numbers are nouns, and their cases and numbers follow noun rules (húme/húmi, nelde/neldion, etc.). Thus toltea, cantea and otsea are adjectives, like carna, vanya, naicelea and eteminya. So why is tolto + -a -> toltea and not toltoa whereas nó + -a is noa and not nea? Apparently there are either two interchangable rules (maybe based on the lenght of the vowel) or suffixes.

I don't say: There is this suffix. How could I? I just say that there are enough signs. At least we should consider the possibility.

Tamas Ferencz #547

-ea is a suffix: eldamo.org, it's just not the suffix that appears in all of the examples you listed.

I'd say the ordinal form of toldo is toldea because it does not come from the noun but from the root, i.e it is not toldo + -ea but tolod- + -ea > *tolodea > toldea. Same for otsea etc.

Paul Strack #548

There is another adjectival suffix -ya, and aya in Quenya’s phonetic history generally developed into ëa. So a + a is probably a + ya > ëa