Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Middle Primitive Elvish

ar

root. beside, outside

Derivatives

  • Ilk. ar- “outside, beside” ✧ Ety/AR²
  • ᴹQ. ar “and; but” ✧ Ety/AR²
  • ᴹQ. ar- “outside, beside” ✧ Ety/AR²
  • ᴹQ. ara “outside, beside” ✧ Ety/AR²
  • N. ar “and”
  • N. ar- “outside, beside; without” ✧ Ety/AR²; Ety/AWA

Element in

  • N. arnediad “without reckoning, numberless, innumerable, countless, endless” ✧ Ety/WŌ
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/AR²; Ety/AWA; Ety/WŌ] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ar

root. day

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “day” with various derivatives like ᴹQ. are, N. aur “day” and ᴹQ. arin “morning” (Ety/AR¹). In Tolkien’s later writings, the Quenya word for “day” became aurë (RC/727; S/190), and in 1957 Quenya Notes he devised a new etymology for these day-words from the root √UR “heat” as in ✶auri “heat, period of sun” (PE17/148). That opens the question whether the various 1930s Quenya “morning” words from ᴹ√AR remain valid, but many Neo-Quenya writers (including me) retain them since there aren’t really any good alternatives. They might be salvageable as derivatives of the later root √AS “warmth” (so that “day” = “hot” and “morning” = “warm”).

Derivatives

  • ᴹ✶ari “day” ✧ Ety/AR¹
    • ᴹQ. are “day” ✧ Ety/AR¹
    • N. ar- “day” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • ᴹQ. ára “dawn, day” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • ᴹQ. arie “daytime” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • ᴹQ. arin “morning” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • ᴹQ. arya “day (twelve hours)” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • N. arad “daytime, a day” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • N. aur “day, morning” ✧ Ety/AR¹

Element in

  • ᴹQ. Árien “Sun-maiden” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • ᴹQ. artuile “dayspring, early morn” ✧ Ety/TUY
  • ᴹQ. Aryante “Day-bringer” ✧ Ety/ANA¹
  • N. Eriant “Day-bringer” ✧ Ety/AR¹
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ANA¹; Ety/AR¹; Ety/TUY] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ari

noun. day

Derivations

  • ᴹ√AR “day” ✧ Ety/AR¹

Derivatives

  • ᴹQ. are “day” ✧ Ety/AR¹
  • N. ar- “day” ✧ Ety/AR¹

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
ᴹ√AR¹ > ari-[ari]✧ Ety/AR¹

Variations

  • ari- ✧ Ety/AR¹
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/AR¹; EtyAC/AR¹] Group: Eldamo. Published by

al

prefix. without

Derivations

  • ᴹ√LA “no, not; to be not” ✧ Ety/AR²

Derivatives

  • N. al- “no, not”

Element in

  • N. Alchorin “Not-of-Kôr” ✧ Ety/AR²
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/AR²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

tār(ō)

noun. king

Derivations

  • ᴹ√TĀ/TAƷ “high, lofty; noble” ✧ Ety/TĀ; PE21/55

Derivatives

  • Ilk. tôr “king” ✧ Ety/TĀ
  • ᴹQ. tár “king” ✧ Ety/TĀ
  • N. taur “king (of a whole tribe)” ✧ Ety/TĀ

Variations

  • tārō ✧ Ety/TĀ; Ety/TĀ
  • tā-r ✧ PE21/55
  • tā-ro ✧ PE21/55
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/TĀ; PE21/55] Group: Eldamo. Published by

preposition. at

Derivatives

  • ᴹQ. ye “at” ✧ PE21/27
Middle Primitive Elvish [PE21/27] Group: Eldamo. Published by

sel(d)

root. child, child; *daughter

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s, initially glossed “daughter” but later “child” with derivatives ᴹQ. selde, ᴹQ. seldo, ᴹQ. selda = female, male and neuter “child” (Ety/SEL-D). In Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 Tolkien gave sel-de “daughter” (PE17/170), while S. sel(l) = “daughter” appeared in both the King’s Letter from the late 1940s (SD/129) as well as the Túrin Wrapper from the 1950s (VT50/5). The diminutive form for “daughter” appeared as Q. selyë in notes from the late 1960s (VT47/10).

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I prefer √YEL for “daughter” as a variant of ᴹ√SEL(D) under the influence of √YON “son”, mostly so I can still use the 1930s “child” words for other genders, at least in the Quenya branch. I would still use Q. seldë and S. sell for “daughter”, however, with a bit of semantic drift, with “girl” words becoming Q. nettë and S. neth.

Derivatives

  • sel(dĕ) “*daughter”
    • Q. seldë “daughter, daughter; [ᴹQ.] child [f.], *girl”
    • S. sell “*daughter, daughter; [N.] †girl, maid”
  • ᴹQ. selda “child [n.]” ✧ Ety/SEL-D
  • ᴹQ. selde “child [f.]” ✧ Ety/SEL-D; Ety/SEL-D
  • ᴹQ. seldo “child, child [m.], *boy” ✧ Ety/SEL-D
  • N. sell “girl, maid” ✧ Ety/SEL-D
    • N. iell “daughter” ✧ Ety/SEL-D

Element in

  • ᴹ✶Tindōmiselde “Nightingale, (lit.) Daughter of Twilight” ✧ Ety/SEL-D; Ety/TIN
  • N. -iel “daughter; feminine suffix” ✧ EtyAC/YEL

Variations

  • SEL-D ✧ Ety/SEL-D (SEL-D); Ety/SEL-D; EtyAC/TIN
  • SEL ✧ Ety/TIN
  • SELD ✧ EtyAC/YEL
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/SEL-D; Ety/TIN; EtyAC/TIN; EtyAC/YEL] Group: Eldamo. Published by