-va

suffix. possessive or adjectival ending

-wa after consonants

-va

from

-va possessive ending, presumably related to the preposition va "from". In Eldaliéva, Ingoldova, miruvóreva, Oroméva, rómeva, Valinóreva (q.v. for references), Follondiéva, Hyallondiéva (see under turmen for references). Following a consonant, the ending instead appears as -wa (andamacilwa "of the long sword", PE17:147, rómenwa *"of the East", PE17:59). Pl. -vë when governing a plural word (from archaic -vai) (WJ:407), but it seems that -va was used throughout in late Exilic Quenya (cf. miruvóreva governing the plural word yuldar in Namárië). Pl. -iva (-ivë*), dual -twa, partitive pl. -líva**.

va

from

va prep. "from" (VT43:20; prefixed in the form var- in var-úra "from evil", VT43:24). In VT49:24, va, au and o are quoted as variants of the stem awa "away from".

va

preposition/prefix. (away) from, (away) from, [ᴹQ.] away; [ᴱQ.] gone forth; with

A preposition for “[away] from” appearing in some versions of the Átaremma prayer from the 1950s, in phrases like ono va úro aly’ eterúna me “but deliver us from evil” (VT43/9-11). In the final version of the prayer, it was replaced with the ablative suffix -llo (VT43/12). va- “away from” is mentioned in notes associated with the Ambidexters Sentence for the 1960s where it seems to function as a prefix (VT49/24).

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. vā “gone forth, away” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√VAHA (QL/99). In the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s, vá “away” was an adverb, interjection and adjective, but this entry was deleted (PE15/70). Elsewhere in the dictionary va was a preposition “with” in combination with ᴱQ. vesta- “marry”, as in vesta va “marry with (someone)”.

In the Early Qenya Grammar also from the 1920s, va was a preposition “from” in the phrase hwa·telpe ie-rautanéma ompa va húyo “his money had all been stolen from him” (PE14/54). In the 1930s and 40s it appeared as a prefix va- “away” in vahaiya or vahāya “far away” in various iterations of the Lament of Atalante (LR/47; SD/247, 310).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would assume va is a preposition or prefix, serving a similar function to adverb/prefix au “away (from)”, replacing prefixal au- in cases where va- is more euphonic. As a preposition I would assume it is only rarely used, being generally replaced with the ablative suffix -llo, but va can be preferable when the sense “from” is more abstract (stolen from him, delivered from evil) rather than describing actual motion or direction.

-wa

-wa

-wa, variant of the possessive ending -va (as in andamacilwa, PE17:147), used following a consonant.

lissë miruvóreva mí oromardi

of sweet nectar in the high-halls

The 4th phrase of the prose Namárië. Tolkien altered the text from the poetic version as follows:

> mi oromardi lissë miruvóreva >> lissë miruvóreva mí oromardi

Tolkien moved the possessive element lissë miruvóreva “of sweet nectar” forward in the prose version so that it immediately follows the noun it modifies, namely the lintë yuldar “swift draughts” of the previous line. Thus “swift draughts of sweet mead” as in the English translation of the poem.

illöa(va)

adverb/adjective. annual, yearly, per annum (year as item)

@@@ by Röandil on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS) on 2023-04-12, i.e. "a yearly festival", cf. ilaurëa “daily”

qualöa(va)

adverb/adjective. annual, yearly, perennial (year as whole)

@@@ by Röandil on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS) on 2023-04-12, i.e. "yearly income"

-o

of goodness

-o (1) genitive ending, as in Altariello, Oromëo, Elenna-nórëo, Rithil-Anamo, Rúmilo, Lestanórëo, neldëo, omentielvo, sindiëo, Valinórëo, veryanwesto, q.v. In words ending in -a, the genitive ending replaces this final vowel, hence atto, Ráno, Vardo, vorondo as the genitive forms of atta, Rána, Varda, voronda (q.v.) Following a noun in -ië, the ending can have the longer form -no, e.g. *máriéno "of goodness" (PE17:59, but contrast sindiëo "of greyness" in PE17:72). Where the word ends in -o already, the genitive is not distinct in form, e.g. ciryamo (q.v.) = "mariner" or "mariners". Pl. -ion and -ron, q.v.; dual -to (but possibly -uo in the case of nouns that have nominative dual forms in -u rather than -t). The Quenya genitive describes source, origin or former ownership rather than current ownership (which is rather covered by the possessive-adjectival case in -va). The ending -o may also take on an ablativic sense, "from", as in Oiolossëo "from (Mount) Oiolossë" (Nam), sio "hence" (VT49:18). In some of Tolkiens earlier material, the genitive ending was -n rather than -o, cf. such a revision as Yénië Valinóren "Annals of Valinor" becoming Yénië Valinórëo (MR:200).

-rya

his, her

-rya 3rd person sg. pronominal ending "his, her" and probably "its" (VT49:16, 38, 48, Nam, RGEO:67), attested in coivierya *"his/her life", máryat "her hands", ómaryo "of her voice" (genitive of *ómarya "her voice"), súmaryassë "in her bosom" (locative of súmarya "her bosom"); for the meaning "his" cf. coarya "his house" (WJ:369). The ending is descended from primitive ¤-sjā via -zya (VT49:17) and therefore connects with the 3rd person ending -s "he, she, it". In colloquial Quenya the ending -rya could be used for "their" rather than "his/her", because it was felt to be related to the plural ending -r,e.g. símaryassen "in their [not his/her] imaginations" (VT49:16, 17). See -ya #4.

-ya

his

-ya (4) pronominal suffix "his" (and probably also "her, its"), said to be used in "colloquial Quenya" (which had redefined the "correct" ending for this meaning, -rya, to mean "their" because it was associated with the plural ending -r). Hence e.g. cambeya ("k") "his hand", yulmaya "his cup" (VT49:17) instead of formally "correct" forms in -rya. The ending -ya was actually ancient, primitive ¤-jā being used for "all numbers" in the 3rd person, predating elaborated forms like -rya. It is said that -ya "remained in Quenya" in the case of "old nouns with consonantal stems", Tolkien listing tál "foot", cas "head", nér "man", sír "river" and macil "sword" as examples. He refers to "the continued existence of such forms as talya his foot", that could apparently be used even in "correct" Quenya (VT49:17). In PE17:130, the forms talya "his foot" and macilya ("k") "his (or their) sword" are mentioned.

-zya

his, her, its

-zya, archaic form of the pronominal ending -rya "his, her, its", q.v. (VT49:17)

Nando

valley, wide valley

nando (2) "valley, wide valley", variant of nandë #1, q.v. (PE17:80)

au

away

au (2) adv. "away", of position rather than movement (compare oa). PE17:148

au

away from

o (3) prep.? variant (along with au and va) of the stem awa "away from" (VT49:24). It is uncertain whether this o is a Quenya word; Patrick Wynne suggests it could be the first element of the preposition ollo "away from" (ibid.)

ho

from

ho prep. "from" (3O); cf. hó-

hó-

away, from, from among

hó- verbal prefix; "away, from, from among", the point of view being outside the thing, place, or group in thought (WJ:368)

lelya-

verb. go, proceed (in any direction), travel

lelya- (1) vb. "go, proceed (in any direction), travel", pa.t. lendë / elendë (WJ:363, VT14:5, PE17:139) At one point Tolkien assigned a more specific meaning to the underlying root LED: "go away from the speaker or the point in mind, depart" (PE17:52), which would make lelya- a near synonym of auta-. The same source denies that the derivatives of _LED _were used simply for "go, move, travel", but elsewhere Tolkien assigns precisely that meaning to lelya-.

lenna-

verb. go

lenna- vb. "go", pa.t. lendë "went" (LED; cf. lelya-). In the Etymologies as printed in LR, the word lenna- wrongly appears as **linna-; see VT45:27.

ló

from

ló, lo (2) prep. "from", also used = "by" introducing the agent after a passive construction: nahtana ló Turin *"slain by Túrin" (VT49:24). A similar and possibly identical form is mentioned in the Etymologies as being somehow related to the ablative ending -llo, but is not there clearly defined (VT45:28). At one point, Tolkien suggested that lo rather than the ending -llo was used with proper names (lo Manwë rather than Manwello for "from Manwë"), but this seems to have been a short-lived idea (VT49:24).

mal ámë etelehta ulcullo: násië

but deliver us from evil: Amen

The tenth line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The conjunction mal “but” is followed by a combination of imperative particle á and the pronoun me “us”. This is followed by the aorist form of the verb etelehta “deliver” and ulcullo “from evil”, the ablative form of the noun ulco (perhaps a noun form of ulca). The final word násië, corresponding to English “Amen”, seems to be a Quenya word meaning “✱be it thus”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> mal á-më ete-lehta ulcu-llo: násië = “✱but (imperative)-us out-free evil-from: amen”

Conceptual Development: The tenth line underwent more changes than any other line in the prayer. In version III of the prayer, this phrase was first written as a near match to the phrase in version IIb, but was radically altered to a form that persisted to version IV. The analysis below designates these two variations of version III as IIIa and IIIb.

In earlier versions of the prayer, the word for “but” was mostly ono (IIa-IV), though in version I it was {anat >>} one, and it was elided to on’ in version IIIa.

The earlier imperative element was either na (I-IIa) or a (IIIb-IV), and it appeared either before the verb (I-IIa, IIIb-IV) or in the middle of the verb (IIb-IIIa) as et·a·rúna.

The object pronoun me consistently appeared immediately after the verb in the versions I-IV of the prayer rather than before the verb as in version V-VI.

The early versions (I-IV) used a different verb et(e)rúna for “deliver”, still in the aorist tense but in (IIIb-IV) with an embedded imperative et·a·rúna, as noted above.

Tolkien earlier considered several words for “evil”: olca (I deleted), ulca (I), ulco (IIa) and úro (IIa-IV), the last of these possibly a noun form of úra “nasty”. These appeared either with the allative suffix -llo (I) or the preposition va “(away) from” (IIa-IV). In versions IIIb-IV only, the prepositional phrase va úro appeared before the verb rather than after.

Quenya words corresponding to “Amen” appeared only in a few versions: san na (IIa), násan (IIb) and násië (VI), each meaning something like “✱be it thus” or “✱be it so”.

| |  I  |IIa|IIb|IIIa|IIIb|IV|V|VI| |{anat >>}|one|ono|on’|ono|mal| |na etrúna me|et·a·rúna me|va úro|ám’ etelehta|áme etelehta| |{olcallo >>}|ulcallo|va ulco|{var-úra >>} va úro|aly’ eterúna me|ulcullo| | |san na|násan| |násie|

men-

verb. go

#men- (4) vb. "go" (VT47:11, cf. VT42:30, VT49:23), attested in the aorist (menë) in the sentence imbi Menel Cemenyë menë Ráno tië "between Heaven and Earth goes the path of the Moon". In the verb nanwen- "return" (or go/come back), -men- is changed to -wen- following nan- "back" (etymological form cited as nan-men-, PE17:166). In examples from VT49:23, 24, Tolkien used men- in the sense of "go as far as": 1st person sg. aorist menin (menin coaryanna "I arrive at [or come/get to] his house"), endingless aorist menë, present tense ména- "is on point of arrival, is just coming to an end", past tense mennë "arrived, reached", in this tense usually with locative rather than allative (mennen sís "I arrive[d] here"), perfect eménië "has just arrived", future menuva "will arrive". All of these examples were first written with the verb as ten- rather than men-, Tolkien then emending the initial consonant.

miruvor

mead

miruvor, full form miruvórë noun "mead", "a special wine or cordial"; possessive miruvóreva "of mead" (Nam, RGEO:66; WJ:399).In the "Qenya Lexicon", miruvórë was defined "nectar, drink of the Valar" (LT1:261).

miruvórë

noun. mead, nectar, special wine or cordial, drink of the Elves, (lit.) precious juice, mead, nectar, special wine or cordial, drink of the Elves, (lit.) precious juice, [ᴱQ.] sweet drink

The Quenya word for the special Elvish drink of Rivendell, more commonly known by its (Sindarin) name S. miruvor (LotR/290), itself a loan word from Quenya (PE17/37). The Quenya word dates all the way back to the earliest versions of the legendarium, with ᴱQ. miruvōre “nectar, drink of the Valar, sweet drink” appearing in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/61), and the shorter form miruvor appearing The Lost Tales from this same period (LT1/153).

Possible Etymology: In notes from 1967, Tolkien admitted this word was inspired by Germanic među + wōþi = “sweet mead”, which would have become miřuwoři in the English language branch (PE17/64). In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s it was a combination of ᴱQ. miru “wine” and ᴱQ. wóre “sweet” (QL/61, 104). In notes from the late 1950s, Tolkien redefined it as a combination of √MIR “precious” and ✶wōri “juice”, but then declared this was a false etymology (PE17/37-38). Indeed, in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 Tolkien said the Quenya word was based on Valarin mirubhōze (WJ/399), elsewhere glossed “a honey wine” (PE17/38), with the element Val. mirub being “wine”.

nalda

valley

nalda adj. "valley" (used as an adjective), also "lowly" (LT1:261, QL:66)$

nandë

valley

nandë (1) noun "valley" in Laurenandë (UT:253), elided nand in the name Nand Ondoluncava (k") "Stonewain Valley" (PE17:28). Possibly the complete word is here meant to be the variant nando (PE17:80), as suggested by the alternative form Ondoluncanan(do) ("k") "Stonewain Valley". Also nan, nand- noun "valley" (Letters:308); Nan-Tasarion "Vale of Willows" (LotR2:III ch. 4) (Note that this and the next nandë would be spelt differently in Tengwar writing, and originally they were also pronounced differently, since nandë "harp" was ñandë in First Age Quenya.)

nandë

noun. valley

ná-

verb. to be, to be, [ᴱQ.] exist

The basic Quenya verb for “to be”, based on the root √NĀ (PE17/93). It was typically used as the copula equating a noun to another noun or an adjective:

> √NA joining adjs./nouns/pronouns in statements (or wishes) asserting (or desiring) a thing to have a certain quality, or to be the same as another (PE22/147).

In many circumstances this verb was optional:

> As a copula “be, is” is not usually expressed in Quenya where the meaning is clear: sc. in such expressions as “A is good” where the adjective (contrary to the usual order in Quenya of a qualifying adjective) follows: the normal Quenya for this is A mára (PE17/93).

For further discussion see the entry on the Quenya copula.

Conceptual Development: This verb dates back all the way to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, where it was given as the early root ᴱ√NĀ “be, exist” (QL/64). This verb and its root appeared regularly throughout Tolkien’s writings thereafter, but at times Tolkien considered alternative verbs for “to be”; see the entry ëa- for further discussion.

o

preposition. from

A preposition for “from”, especially in the genitival sense “originating from”. For “from” in a positional sense, it is far more common to use the ablative suffix -llo.

Conceptual Development: The preposition ᴱQ. ô was first mentioned in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s as the equivalent of G. a(n·) “from” which had an ablative sense (GL/17). In Primitive Quendian Structure: Final Consonants written in 1936, Tolkien mentioned {o >> ho >>} o as a preposition based on primitive ᴹ✶ʒō̆ “away from, from among” (PE21/60 and note #48). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. ho “from” appeared under the root ᴹ√ƷŌ̆ “from, away, from among, out of” (Ety/ƷŌ̆). This primitive form ʒō̆ was also the basis of the Quenya genitive suffix ᴹQ. -o.

In Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959, Tolkien mentioned the preposition Q. o “from” as a reduction of ancient ✶ăwă “away” (PE17/148). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) written in 1969 Tolkien again mentioned ō < ✶hō “from” with some difficult-to-read qualifications that seem to indicate this was “from” in the genitival sense, as opposed to ✶lō “from” in the positional/ablative sense (PE22/168).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would assume that o is a rarely used preposition, usually replaced by either genitive -o [originating from] or ablative -llo [moving from].

o-

prefix. together

A prefix meaning “together” derived from primitive √WO (WJ/367). The modern Quenya form of the prefix is the result of the sound change whereby “unstressed wo was often reduced to o with loss of w” (PE19/106). Note that “when stressed the [primitive] sequence wo was usually changed > wa”, so in theory Quenya might have a variant prefix ✱va- “together” that was the result of an ancient stressed prefix, much like Sindarin go- vs. gwa-. However, there is no sign of such a prefix va- in Quenya. Instead, the short o- became ó- in those rare cases where it was stressed (WJ/367).

In the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 Tolkien said that o- was “used in words describing the meeting, junction, or union of two things or persons, or of two groups thought of as units”, as opposed to yo- used for three or more things (WJ/361, 367). In examples elsewhere, though, o- “together” seems to have a more general meaning in words like olass(i)ë “foliage, collection of leaves” or ombari “company, dwellers together” (NM/117). I would therefore assume yo- is only used when plurality was emphasized, and o- “together” was the default choice otherwise.

Conceptual Development: The earliest precursor to this suffix appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s as ᴱQ. ma- “together” derived from primitive ᴱ✶ŋu̯a (GL/40). This was part of a paradigm in which G. go- was the result of unstressed ᴱ✶ŋu̯a, and gwa- was the normal phonological result. There was also an apparently related suffix ᴱQ. -ngwe in the Narqelion poem in phrases like ómalingwe lir’ amaldar = “✱(together) with voices singing gently”, which could also be derived from primitive ᴱ✶ŋu̯a. The Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s had ᴱQ. va- as the equivalent of ᴱN. go- “together”, probably reflecting a change to primitive ✱wa- (PE13/162).

The Etymologies of the 1930s had both ᴹQ. ō̆- and N. go- “together” derived from the root ᴹ√WŌ̆ (Ety/WŌ). In this new paradigm, N. gwa- was the result of stressed primitive wó-. In Quenya primitive wō and unstressed wŏ blended to produce o- “together”, which could be either short o or long ó. In the Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) of the 1940s, Tolkien seems to hint that stressed (g)wo- > wá- in Quenya as well (PE19/53). But as noted above there are no examples of prefixal wa-/va- “together” in actual Quenya words from Tolkien’s later writings.

ollo

away from

ollo (2) prep. "away from" (VT49:24)

ollo

preposition. away from

ruc-

verb. feel fear or horror

#ruc- (1) ("k")vb. "feel fear or horror" (1st pers. aorist rucin "I feel fear or horror"); the verb is said to be constructed with "from" (sc. the ablative case, or prepositions like ho or va?) of the object feared. _(WJ:415) _Hence e.g. *rucin i ulundollo* (or, rucin ho/va i ulundo**) for "I fear the monster"?

sindarinwa

grey-elven

sindarinwa (þ) adj. "Grey-elven" in the phrase hwesta sindarinwa "Grey-elven hw" (Appendix E); it may really be "Sindarin" (as a noun) with the possessive ending -va, -wa appended, hence literally "hw of [the] Sindarin [language]"

sív’ emmë apsenet tien i úcarir emmen

as we forgive those who trespass against us

The eighth line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The first word sív’ is an elided form of sívë “as”. It is followed by the emphatic second person plural subject pronoun emmë “us” and apsenet “forgive [them]”, the aorist form of the verb apsen- “forgive” with a plural direct object suffix -t. The fourth word tien “those” is a dative (indirect object) form of tie, apparently a variant of the third person plural pronoun te.

The second half of this phrase is the subordinate clause i úcarir emmen “who trespass against us”, composed of i “who”, úcarir “trespass” (aorist plural of úcar- “to do wrong, to sin”) and emmen “against us” (dative of emmë). The last of these is unusual in that it has an emphatic pronoun used as an object rather than the subject.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> sív(e) emmë apsene-t tie-n i úcari-r emme-n = “✱as we forgive-them those-for who trespass-(plural) us-against”

Taken together, the first half of the phrase has a subject (emmë), verb (apsene), a direct object suffix (-t) and an indirect object (tien). The sense of the phrase is probably something like “✱as we forgive them [the trespasses] for those [the trespassers] who trespass against us”.

Conceptual Development: Earlier versions of the prayer (I-IV) used a different verb avatyar- for “forgive”, as well as different prepositions for “so”: ier (I-IIa) and yan (III-IV). They also lacked any Quenya equivalent of “those who” (tien i in versions V-VI). The literal meaning of this phrase in versions I-IV of the prayer seems to be “✱as we forgive our trespassers”.

Tolkien considered a variety of ways to express “trespassers”. In version I-III, he used a (?verbal) element meaning “trespass” with the agental suffix -ndo: lucando (I), lucindo (IIa-IIb) and rocindë (III), all meaning “trespasser” and all in the plural. In version IV, he used rohtalië “trespass-people”, a compound of the noun rohta “trespass” and lië “people”.

These he combined with either the independent pronoun menya “our” (I-IIb, IV) or the possessive suffix -mma “our” (I deletion, III). Finally, he used an ablative element meaning “from”, either the preposition va (I-IIb) or the ablative suffix -llo (I deletion, III-IV). There was a similar construction for the verb avatyar- in line 6.

In version V of the prayer, Tolkien corrected úcarer to úcarir. This second form is more consistent with the rules Tolkien followed elsewhere in forming the aorist tense of a (basic) verb: it ends in an -e if unsuffixed but has an -i- between it and any suffix (-r in this case). However, Tolkien still used the form úcarer in version IV of the prayer, for reasons unknown.

| |  I  |IIa|IIb|III|IV|V|VI| |ier|yan|sív’| |emme| |{avatyarirat >>}|avatyarir ta|avatyarilta|apsenet| | |tien i| |{lucandollommar >>}|va menya lucandor|va menya lucindor|rocindillomman|menya rohtaliello|úcarer emmen|

For better consistency with Tolkien’s other writings, I have used the more typical aorist form úcarir for the entry of this phrase. As Helge Fauskanger points out (LP-AM), there is a similar issue with apsenet, which might be expected to be ✱✱apsenit, though in this case the variation may be due to the fact that object suffixes are appended directly to the verb instead of to a subject suffix.

uo

together

[uo adv. "together" (PE17:191)]

uo

adverb. together

The adverb uo “together” appeared as a derivative of ✶ówō in a rejected page of notes on the etymology about the prefix o- of the same meaning, probably from around 1959 (PE17/191).

Neo-Quenya: Though the page is rejected, the etymology of ᴺQ. uo “together” remains plausible, so I would retain this adverb for purposes of Neo-Quenya.

vanwa

gone, lost, no longer to be had, vanished, departed, dead, past, past and over, gone on the road, over

vanwa adj. "gone, lost, no longer to be had, vanished, departed, dead, past, past and over, gone on the road, over" (WJ:366, Nam, RGEO:67, WAN, LT1:264; older wanwa, PE17:143). The word was "not applied to _dead persons _except those who would not return, either because of a special doom (as [in the case of] Men) or because of a special will of their own (as Felagund or Míriel) or a special ban of Mandos (as Feanor)" (PE17:143). Also see avanwa.

vanwa

adjective. gone, lost, departed, vanished, past, over, no longer to be had, passed away, dead, gone, lost, departed, vanished, past, over, no longer to be had, passed away, dead, [ᴹQ.] gone for good; [ᴱQ.] on the road

An adjective whose basic sense is “gone, lost”, with numerous other similar translations such as “no longer to be had, vanished, departed, dead, past, over, gone for good”. The word vanwa is a good example of what I call an “anchor word”: a word that Tolkien established early in his development of Elvish and retained unchanged despite numerous changes in related elements of the languages. This word first appeared as part of the name ᴱQ. Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva “Cottage of the Lost Play” from the 1910s (LT1/14). Its most notable use in later writings was in the poem Namárië, where it appeared in the phrase sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar! “now lost, lost to those from the east is Valimar!” (LotR/377).

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, the adjective ᴱQ. vanwa “gone, on the road, past, over, lost” appeared under the early root ᴱ√VAHA (QL/99), itself based on the root ᴱ√AVA “go away, depart, leave” (QL/33). It reappeared in the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s with the gloss “over, gone” (PE15/76). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. vanwa “gone, departed, vanished, lost, past” was derived from the root ᴹ√WAN “depart, go away, disappear, vanish” (Ety/WAN).

In the Quenya Verbal System of the 1948, ᴹQ. vanwa “gone, over” was given as an example of the perfective participle -nwa in combination with the root ᴹ√BĀ/BANA “go, proceed” (PE22/106). Very likely this was the derivation when Tolkien wrote the Namárië poem for the 1st edition of The Fellowship of the Ring published in 1954. However, in 1959 Tolkien abandoned the root √BA(N) “go” (PE17/143). At that point Tolkien coined a new etymology for vanwa based on the invertible root √WĀ/AWA, most fully described in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 (WJ/366). In that document Tolkien described its derivation and meaning as follows:

> This last [vanwa] was an old formation (which is also found in Sindarin), and was the most frequently used part of the verb [auta- “go away, leave”]. It developed the meanings “gone, lost, no longer to be had, vanished, departed, dead, past and over”.

Despite all these changes in its derivation and the associated roots, the adjective vanwa itself retained the same basic form and meaning throughout Tolkien’s life.

vanya-

verb. go, depart, disappear

vanya- (2) vb. "go, depart, disappear", pa.t. vannë (WAN). The verb auta- may have replaced this word in Tolkien's later conception.

var-

verb. var-

var- (2), see va

vá meninyë ó le

I won’t come with you

váquet-

verb. to refuse, forbid, prohibit; (lit.) to say no, to say ‘I will not or do not’

wa-

prefix. together

úva

will not

úva (1) vb. "will not", future tense of a negative verb (present/aorist tense úyë?) in Fíriel's Song. Compare #úva as the future tense of the negative verb ua- (q.v.) in a later source (PE17:144, where the verb is cited with a 1st person sg. ending: úvan).

uo

adverb. together

-ā

suffix. adjectival

-wā

suffix. possessive, adjectival

au-

prefix. away

awa-

prefix. away

awā

adverb. away

gō

preposition. from

led

root. go, proceed, go, proceed, [ᴹ√] fare, travel

This root appeared in The Etymologies (Ety/LED) and in some later writings (PE17/51, 139) with the basic sense “go”. In the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60, Tolkien decided that √LED was a Quenya-only variant of the original root √DEL (WJ/360, 363). Elsewhere, Tolkien said that √LED was “not much used in Sindarin except in compounds with ✶et ‘out’ as edlen(n)” (PE17/51). Its Sindarin derivative S. lembas “way bread” was reassigned to √LEN (PE17/60). See √DEL and √LEN for further discussion.

wo

root. together

This root was the basis for the prefix Q. o- and S. go- “together”. In the 1910s Gnomish Lexicon, G. go- (unaccented) or gwa- “together” was derived from primitive ᴱ✶ŋu̯a and the Qenya form was ᴱQ. ma- (GL/40-41). In the 1920s the Early Noldorin form was still ᴱN. go- or gwa- but the Qenya form was ᴱQ. va- (PE13/162), probably from primitive ✱wa-. In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root as ᴹ√WŌ̆ “together” with derivatives ᴹQ. o- and N. go- or stressed gwa- (Ety/WŌ; EtyAC/WŌ).

In The Etymologies Tolkien explained the go-/gwa- variation in Noldorin as the result of the sound change whereby stressed wŏ became wa in Common Eldarin (Ety/WŌ); Tolkien gave a similar explanation for Sindarin in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 (WJ/367). Despite stressed wŏ > wa being an ancient change, the wa variant did not survive in Quenya. Tolkien explained the sound change whereby wo became o in Quenya several times: in the Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) from the 1940s, in the Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the early 1950s, and in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 (PE19/53, 106; WJ/367). The root √WO itself also appeared several times in Tolkien’s later writings (PE17/16, 191; WJ/361), in one place with the variant √WONO (PE17/191).

wō

prefix. together

ówō

adverb. together

ăwă

preposition. from

ʒō

preposition. from

imloth

noun. flower-valley, flowery vale

This word only occurs in the place name Imloth Melui, a vale where roses grew

im

noun. valley, valley; [N.] dell, deep vale

An archaic element meaning “valley” that survived only in compounds, a derivation of ✶imbi “between” (VT47/14). The basic sense “valley” was transferred to its more elaborate form imlad as in Imladris “Rivendell”, and †im “valley” fell out of use due to its conflicted with other words like the reflexive pronoun im.

Conceptual Development: N. imm “dell, deep vale” was mentioned in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√IMBE, alongside its elaboration N. imlad of the same meaning (Ety/IMBE).

-deid

suffix. his

_3rd sg. poss. suff. his, her.See also the paradigm of poss. suff. in PE17:46. Earlier -ed_. >> -deith, -dyn, -ed, [[]]

-deith

suffix. his

_3rd sg. poss. suff. his, her.See also the paradigm of poss. suff. in PE17:46. Earlier -ed_. >> -deid, -dyn, -ed, [[]]

-dyn

suffix. his

_3rd sg. poss. suff. his, her.See also the paradigm of poss. suff. in PE17:46. Earlier -ed_. >> -deid, -deith, -ed, [[]]

ava-

auxillary verb. will not

go-

together

_pref. _together. Q. o-.

gwa-

prefix. together (only in old compounds, the living form is go-)

gwanwen

proper name. Departed

A term the Sindar used for the Elves who left Beleriand for Aman, derived from the same root as Q. vanwa: √WĀ/AWA (WJ/366, 378). Another variation was Gwanwel (WJ/378), perhaps incorporating †Ell “Elf”.

Conceptual Development: Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 had a similar form Gwenedhel, with deleted variants {gwenieðel} and {gweineðel} ultimately revised to Caleðel “✱Light Elf” (PE17/140).

gwanwen

adjective. departed, departed, *gone, lost [to time], past

A word for “departed” in the Quendi and Eldar (Q&E) essay from 1959-60 (WJ/378), clearly derived from the root √WĀ “away”. It might be related to the verb gwae- from Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) of 1959 (PE17/148). That verb had an irregular passive participle gwawn or gwanu. The word gwanwen may be a modification of (archaic?) gwanu from DLN to more strongly resemble other passive participles like govannen (LotR/209) or onnen (WJ/387). Alternately, it could be a simple adjective, the Sindarin equivalent of Q. vanwa.

Neo-Sindarin: I would assume that, like its Quenya equivalent, gwanwen has the added connotation of “✱gone, lost [to time], past” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. haim or haithin “gone, departed, lost”, the latter based on the verb G. haitha- “hie, go, fare, walk” (GL/47).

imlad

noun. deep valley, narrow valley with steep sides (but a flat habitable bottom)

imrad

noun. a path or pass (between mountains, hills or trackless forest)

imrath

noun. long narrow valley with a road or watercourse running through it lengthwise

na-

verb. to be

A verb for “to be” based on the root √NĀ of the same meaning. This verb is barely attested in the Sindarin language, and the general consensus is that [for purposes of Neo-Sindarin at least] Sindarin omits the verb “to be” in most phrases, such as in naur an edraith ammen “fire [be] for saving us” (LotR/299) or ✱orchal i adan “tall [is] the man”; see the entry on the copula for further discussion.

The clearest attestation of the verb na- is its imperative form no “be!” in the phrase no aer i eneth lín “hallowed be thy name, (lit.) ✱be holy the name your”, from the Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer from the 1950s (VT44/21). This imperative form was preceded by some hard-to-read deleted forms, perhaps {dôd >> dád >> hae >>} no (VT44/22). The d-forms might be eroded/mutated variants of na-. Compare đa in the phrase inn đa v’im “a mind there is in me = I have a good mind (to do so)” in notes from the late 1960s (PE22/165), where đa could be another eroded form of na-. This phrase was first written as inn no v’im (PE22/165 note #108); see the entry for đa for further discussion.

Another clear attestation of na “be” is an apparent future form natho in the untranslated phrase Sí il chem {na} en i naugrim en ir Ellath {natho} thor den ammen in the so-called “Túrin Wrapper” from the late 1950s (VT50/5). This future[?] form natho was deleted and replaced by thor, and a deleted {na} also appears earlier in the phrase, possibly a false start. Carl Hostetter suggested this phrase might mean something like “✱now all (?hands) of the Dwarves and Elves will be (?against) us” (VT50/22-25). If so, it seems the future of na- “be” was constructed from the bare future suffix (a)tha-, manifesting as tho “✱will be”.

Neo-Sindarin: As noted above, for purposes of Neo-Sindarin the general consensus is that this verb is barely used, and is omitted from most “to be” phrases as in the example orchal i adan given above. The verb’s one widely accepted use is as an imperative, such as in no mae “be well”. Based the Túrin Wrapper, I posit that tho can also be used for a future form “will be”, as in i adan tho orchal “the man will be tall”. I likewise posit a (purely hypothetical) past form [ᴺS.] nî “was”, based on the primitive past-tense element ✶-nē with [[os|long [ē] becoming [ī]]], as in i adan nî orchal “the man was tall”. Neither tho or nî are widely accepted Neo-Sindarin, however.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had the verb G. na- “is” (GL/58), clearly based on the early root ᴱ√NĀ “be, exist” (QL/64). This irregular Gnomish verb had some inflected forms: plural nain, participle ol· and past form {ni >>} thi, the last of these being another inspiration for Neo-Sindarin nî “was”.

o

preposition. from, of (preposition (as a proclitic) used in either direction, from or to the point of view of the speaker)

According to WJ/366, the preposition "is normally o in all positions, though od appears occasionally before vowels, especially before o-". With a suffixed article, see also uin

o

preposition. from

_ prep. _from, of. In older S. o had the form od before vowels. o menel aglar elenath ! lit. 'from Firmament glory of the stars !'.

o

preposition. from

_ prep. _from. . This gloss was rejected.

od

preposition. from, of (preposition (as a proclitic) used in either direction, from or to the point of view of the speaker)

According to WJ/366, the preposition "is normally o in all positions, though od appears occasionally before vowels, especially before o-". With a suffixed article, see also uin

sui mín i gohenam di ai gerir úgerth ammen

as we forgive those who trespass against us

The eighth line of Ae Adar Nín, Tolkien’s Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT44/21). The first word is the preposition sui “as”. The second word has the same form as mín “our” but seems to function as men “us” (as it appeared in the first draft of this sentence). The third word is i “who”, followed by gohenam, the 2nd-pl inflection of the verb gohena- “to forgive” with its direct object di, the lenited form of the pronoun ti “them”.

The function of the sixth word ai (“those who”) is difficult to decipher. See the entry for that word for further discussion.

The seventh word gerir is a lenited form of cerir (as it appeared in the draft), which itself is the plural of the verb car- “to do”. This followed by úgerth, the plural of úgarth “trespass, ✱misdeed” and ammen “to us”, a combination of an “to, for” and men “us”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> sui mín i gohena-m di [← ti] ai gerir [← cerir] úgerth am-men = “✱as us who forgive-we them who do-(plural) trespasses to-us”

The sense of this phrase seems to be: “as us, who forgive those who do trespasses to us”.

Conceptual Development: Tolkien wrote a draft version (I) before producing a revised version (II) of this phrase (VT44/22, note on line 8). For “as we [us]”, Tolkien used the preposition sui “as” in both versions, but for “us” Tolkien wrote mín >> men in the draft, and then mí ni >> mín in the revision. Of these, men “us” seems to me to be the most consistent with Tolkien’s use of this pronoun elsewhere. Bill Welden discussed possible interpretations of this pronoun usage on VT44/28.

For “forgive”, Tolkien first wrote dihenam in the draft, which is another form of the verb díhena- “forgive” used in the previous line of the prayer. Tolkien replaced this with góhenam in the draft, which appeared as gohenam in the revised phrase. As pointed out by Bill Welden (VT44/29), it isn’t clear whether Tolkien intended to replace díhena- with gohena- generally as the Sindarin verb for “forgive”, or whether both verbs were valid with slightly different connotations.

See the entry for the word ai “✱those who” for a discussion of the development of that word (ayath >> ay >> ai).

Tolkien reversed the order of úgarth “trespass” and cerir “do-(plural)” between the draft and revised versions, which required changing cerir to its lenited form gerir (which Tolkien first wrote mistakenly as garer in the revised version before correcting it to gerir).

In the draft version, Tolkien wrote ann for “against us”, but as Bill Welden points out (VT44/22), Tolkien almost certainly intended ammen as it appeared in the revised version and elsewhere in the prayer, and simply failed to complete this form in the draft.

|  I  |II| |sui| |{mín >>} men|{mí ni >>} mín| |i| |{dihenam >>} góhenam|gohenam| |di| |{ayath >> ay >>} ai|ai| |ugerth|{garer >>} gerir| |cerir|úgerth| |ann|ammen|

tum

noun. deep valley, under or among hills

tîn

adjective. his

tîn

pronoun. his

Non-lenited form suggested by Carl Hostetter (VT31/21).

în

adjective. his (referring to the subject)

ava

will not

ava- (i ava, in avar).

ava

will not

ava- (i ava, in avar)

bad

go

#bad- (i vâd, i medir), pa.t. bant. Isolated from trevad- ”traverse”.

bad

go

(i vâd, i medir), pa.t. bant. Isolated from trevad- ”traverse”.

bannen

gone

#bannen (pl. bennin). Isolated from govannen ”met”, based on the assumption that this past participle includes a form of the verb #bad- ”go”.

bannen

adjective. gone

A neologism for “gone” derived from ᴹ√BAT proposed by David Salo as part of his theory for the derivation of govannen “met” (GS/241, 260). While I think this theory is correct for the 1940s, I think the relevant forms were abandoned by the late 1950s, and I would recommend attested gwanwen instead for “departed, ✱gone”.

bannen

gone

(pl. bennin). Isolated from govannen ”met”, based on the assumption that this past participle includes a form of the verb #bad- ”go”.

e

away

ed (out, forth); also as adjectival prefix "outer" and preposition "out from, out of" (WJ:367)

go

together

(prefix) go-, gwa- (+ lenition) (co-, com-).

go

together

gwa- (+ lenition) (co-, com-).

godref

through together

(AI:92)

gwa

adverb. away

gwachae

away

1. (adj.) gwachae (remote), lenited wachae, no distinct pl. form. The form occurring in the primary source, #gwahae, must represent the late Gondorian pronunciantion with h for ch (PM:186, isolated from gwahaedir). 2) (adv.) e, ed (out, forth); also as adjectival prefix "outer" and preposition "out from, out of" (WJ:367)

gwachae

away

(remote), lenited ’wachae, no distinct pl. form. The form occurring in the primary source, #gwahae, must represent the late Gondorian pronunciantion with h for ch *(PM:186, isolated from gwahaedir)*.         

gwann

departed

(dead), lenited ’wann; pl. gwain

gwanwen

departed

1. (past participle) gwanwen (lenited wanwen; pl. gwenwin), also as noun: a ”departed” one, one of the Elves of Aman: Gwanwen (i **Wanwen), pl. Gwenwin (in Gwenwin) (WJ:378), 2) gwann (dead), lenited wann; pl. gwain**;

gwanwen

departed

(lenited ’wanwen; pl. gwenwin), also as noun: a ”departed” one, one of the Elves of Aman: Gwanwen (i ’Wanwen), pl. Gwenwin (in Gwenwin) (WJ:378)

imloth

flowering valley

(pl. imlyth) (VT42:18).

imrath

valley

(long narrow valley with a road or watercourse running through it lengthwise) imrath (pl. imraith)

lâd

valley

(lowland, plain), construct lad, pl. laid

mân

departed spirit

(i vân, construct man), pl. main (i main)

nand

valley

1. nand (construct nan) (wide grassland, land at the foot of hills with many streams), pl. naind, coll. pl. nannath (VT45:36), 2) lâd (lowland, plain), construct lad, pl. laid, 3) (long narrow valley with a road or watercourse running through it lengthwise) imrath (pl. imraith).

nand

valley

(construct nan) (wide grassland, land at the foot of hills with many streams), pl. naind, coll. pl. **nannath **(VT45:36)

o

of

(od), followed by hard mutation. With article uin ”from the, of the” (followed by ”mixed” mutation according to David Salo’s reconstuctuons). (WJ:366). Not to be confused with o ”about, concerning”.

talath

wide valley

(i** dalath, o thalath) (flat surface, plane, flatlands, plain), pl. telaith (i** thelaith). *Tolkien changed this word from ”Noldorin” dalath, LR:353 s.v.*

talath

dal

Dirnen or ”Guarded Plain” mentioned in the Silmarillion.

tín

his

*tín (only attested in lenited form dín, following a noun with article). Possibly, the word also covers ”her(s)” and ”its” as a general 3rd person form. If ”his” refers to the same person as the subject, the form ín* is used instead (e.g. i venn sunc i haw ín** ”the man drank his (own) juice”, but *i venn sunc i haw dín ”the man drank his (somebody elses) juice”.

tín

his

(only attested in lenited form dín, following a noun with article). Possibly, the word also covers ”her(s)” and ”its” as a general 3rd person form. If ”his” refers to the same person as the subject, the form ín is used instead (e.g. ✱i venn sunc i haw ín ”the man drank his (own) juice”, but ✱i venn sunc i haw dín ”the man drank his (somebody else’s) juice”.

ín

his

(pronoun referring to the subject, e.g. ✱i venn sunc i haw ín ”the man drank his [own] juice”, as opposed to ✱i venn sunc i haw dín ”the man drank his [= another’s] juice”)

go-

prefix. together

go-

prefix. together

gwa-

prefix. together (only in old compounds, the living form is go-)

gwa-

prefix. together

gwann

adjective. departed, dead

imlad

noun. deep valley, narrow valley with steep sides (but a flat habitable bottom)

o

preposition. from, of (preposition (as a proclitic) used in either direction, from or to the point of view of the speaker)

According to WJ/366, the preposition "is normally o in all positions, though od appears occasionally before vowels, especially before o-". With a suffixed article, see also uin

tog-

verb. to bring

A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “to bring” under the root ᴹ√TUK “draw, bring”, appearing in its (Noldorin-style) infinitive form tegi and its present tense form tôg (Ety/TUK). It was originally glossed as “to lead, bring”, but “lead” was crossed out (EtyAC/TUK).

tum

noun. deep valley, under or among hills

-ô

preposition. from

A prepositional suffix translated “from” (SD/429). In a few places, the suffix appears with the glide-consonant v (pronounced [w]) between it and a preceding u-vowel (SD/247, 249). It is likely related to the Quenya genitive inflection Q. -o.

Conceptual Development: At an earlier conceptual stage, this suffix was a grammatical inflection, the draft-genitive -ō (SD/438).

-ak Reconstructed

preposition. away

A suffix in the word êphalak “far away”, a derivative of êphal “far” (SD/247). Some authors have suggested that -ak is an intensive suffix “very” instead of suffix meaning “away” (LGtAG, NBA/32). However, the corresponding Quenya word vahai(y)a “far away” is a combination va “(away) from” and haiya “far”, so it seems to me that the literal translation “away” is more likely to be correct (this translation of va was published after LGtAG and NBA were written).

duban

noun. valley

-ró

suffix. future suffix

au

adverb. away

au-

prefix. away

avad

adverb. away from

bá

particle. I will not, Do not!

ho

preposition. from

vo-

prefix. together

nand

noun. valley

Isolated from Lindórinand, Lórinand (q.v. for reference). While this word is not given in the Etymologies, it is clearly derived from the stem NAD (LR:374) and hence a close cognate of the similar Doriathrin word nand "field, valley". The Quenya cognate nanda (meaning "water-mead, watered plain") indicates a primitive form *nandâ; as in most cases, the final -â is lost in Nandorin.