A Quenya word for "why"

We can receive most interrogative pronouns by adding case suffixes to ma (masse, manen, man, etc.), but there is still one word missing: A word for why.

I thought that we could use the word casta (reason), to formulate a sentence, but I'm not shure how this sentence should look like. I thought about a combination with the impersonal relative pronoun with the ablative suffix, like: Mana i casta yallo ... (what is the reason "wherefrom"...). Does that work? It sounds pretty wrong in English, but would it work in Quenya?

Well call me odd but personally I just use the dative case of ma, for "why". A construction of "For What?" can seem a little odd to the English speaker, but it mostly makes sense. Take for example Spanish, where there isn't one pronoun, "¿por qué?", which also translates to "For What?"

A similar word is found in Neo-Sindarin: *amman?, a combination of an + man

So while neither is Tolkien-vetted, it is what I use

Savo aur vaer!

Ríon Gondremborion

There are many debates to which word should be used as the de facto word for why, but since there isn't much information to refer to on this particular subject (maybe elves just don't like to question anyone else?), there is no unified word for why, and it is biased based on your native language. There is however a very old neologism credited to Helge Fauskanger which means "why" - manan. Choose whether if it's suitable for you!

Márienna meldonya!

Quilda

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References:

• www.elvish.org
• www.elvish.org

Well, my native language is German. We can say "out of what reason?", respectively "Aus welchem Grund (heraus)?", but I always try not to translate phrases word by word, therefore I asked.

Maybe I'll just use man or manan (both are dative, so I think that it doesn't make any difference). Otherwise I'm still pretty confused because Neo Quenya seems to use the dative for many purposes which would not work at all in German. Anyway, most experts seem to agree with that use, so I won't argue.

PS. Thank you very much for the links!

man is "who" so manan would be your best choice.

I have a further idea, which is not based on a neologism: One could say "What causes (that)", respectively "Man(-a) tyare (sa).". Depending on the context one could change the time of tyar- (especially simple past could be usefull), omit sa or replace it by a real noun.

"Why?" = manan, epema, meter mana.