n. gift.
Sindarin
anna-
verb. to give, †add to
anha-
verb. to give
ann
noun. gift
ann
noun. gift
The most commonly accepted Sindarin word for “gift” is S. ann, equivalent to Quenya Q. anna “gift”, both derived from ✶annā based on the root √ANA “towards” (PE17/90). It was also an element in the names Melian “Dear Gift” (SA/mel) and Rían “Crown Gift” (Ety/RIG). However, Tolkien experimented with a variety of other forms throughout his life.
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. ôn “gift” related to the verb G. antha- “give” (GL/19, 62), both based on the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/31). The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. {ann >>} ant “gift” under the root ᴹ√ANA “to, towards” (Ety/ANA¹; EtyAC/ANA¹). S. ann “gift” < ✶annā appeared in notes from around 1967 (PE17/90). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969 Tolkien had S. anw as the equivalent of Q. anwa “gift” (PE22/163), perhaps derived from ✱(h)an-mā.
anna-
verb. to thank
A neologism for “to thank” coined by Elaran in 2018, more accurately “to give thanks”, derived from the root √HAN “enrich, honour”, the (hypothetical) basis for Q. hanta- “to thank” (also hypothetical). It can be distinguished from S. anna- “to give” by the fact that this verb is intransitive, whereas “give” is transitive. Thus anna- without a direct object means “give thanks”, whereas anna- with a direct object means “give”. The common way to say “thank you” would be annon allen “I give thanks to you” or annas annin “[he/she] thanked me” (anna- with intransitive past, lit. “gave thanks to”), with the object of the “thanks” in the dative.
For further information on this verb and phrase, see the How to Thank in Sindarin on Parf Edhellen.
Alternate Etymologies: The Sindarin verb for “to thank” is exceptionally controversial. For Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, David Salo coined the word ᴺS. hanna- “to thank” based on Q. hanta-, with hannon le becoming the common (Neo) Sindarin of saying “thanks, (lit.) I thank you”. However, Carl Hostetter criticized this word in his 2006 article Elvish as She Is Spoke, pointing that the likeliest basis for Q. hanta- was the root √HAN, but in Sindarin the initial h would be lost resulting in ✱anna- which could not be used since it conflicts with anna- “to give”.
In 2018, Elaran proposed annon allen as a new phrase for “I thank you”, eventually developing the intransitive/transitive markers to distinguish it from anna- “give”. In 2019, I made a counter proposal of in my own article In Defense of Hannon Le, arguing that ✱hanna- “to thank” might have entered Sindarin as a loan word from Quenya and thus still be usable. Ultimately, though, the community we both spend time in (the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server) settled on using annon allen. Since I firmly believe that languages should be defined by their community of speakers, and annon allen has become the dominant phrase, I eventually caved and in 2022 added anna- “to give thanks” to Eldamo, deprecating David Salo’s older neologism ᴺS. hanna-.
anna
give
anna- (i anna, in annar), pa.t. ?aun (with endings one-)
anna
give
(i anna, in annar), pa.t. ?aun (with endings one-)
hanna-
verb. to thank
aned
give
anno
verb. give!
anw
noun. gift
anw
noun. gift
rían
feminine name. Crown-gift
Wife of Huor and mother of Tuor (S/148), her name seems to be a compound of rî “crown” and ann “gift”, though it could also be rían “queen” used as a name.
Conceptual Development: When it first appeared in Silmarillion drafts from the 1930s, this name was N. Rían (SM/35) but in later drafts it appeared as N. Rian with a short i (LR/131), which was its usual form in this period. In The Etymologies it appeared as N. Rhian glossed “Crown-gift”, which is the source of the gloss and derivation given above (Ety/RIG). In Silmarillion revisions from the 1950s-60s, the form S. Rían with a long í was restored (WJ/52).
ant
gift
ant, pl. aint, coll. pl. annath. Also ann (-an at the end of compounds), pl. ain.
ant
gift
pl. aint, coll. pl. annath. Also ann (-an at the end of compounds), pl. ain.
The most commonly accepted Sindarin verb for “give” is S. anna-, but Tolkien experimented with a variety of other forms throughout his life. Its best known form is its strong past ôn “gave” as in __ónen__ i-Estel Edain “I gave Hope to the Dúnedain” from The Lord of the Rings Appendix A (LotR/1061).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. antha- “give” (GL/19), equivalent to ᴱQ. anta- under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” in the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/31). In the 1910s the medial combination nth survived, but by the 1930s medial *nth* became *nn*, and The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. anno “to give” under the root ᴹ√ANA “to, towards” as the equivalent of ᴹQ. anta- “give” (Ety/ANA¹). The Sindarin version of the Lord’s Prayer from the mid-1950s had imperative anno “give” in anno ammen sír i mbas ilaurui vín “give us this day our daily bread” (VT44/21).
Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 instead had S. anta- “give” (PE17/147), which seems to belong to a (brief?) period where Tolkien abandoned the development of *nt* to *nn*; see my essay on Sindarin Articles and Mutations from Parma Eldalamberon #23 for further discussion. There was a verb form anha- “give” from around 1967 which might represent a conceptual stage where nt became voiceless nh but did not further advance to voiced nn (PE17/147). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, Tolkien the described verb’s derivation as follows:
> The Q. causative anta ... is due to blending AN with the unrelated verbal stem {ƷAN >>} HAN “give”, {which in Q. and S. lost the initial spirant ʒ, that in T. became h- >>} which in S. lost the initial breath h of CE, that in Q., T. remained h- (T hanin “I give”) ... S[indarin] strong verb (lost in Q.) aned, pa.t. ónen, T hanna (PE22/163 and note #99).
This last example implies a basic/strong verb form S. an- “give” [e.g. ✱ân “he gives”, ✱enin “I give”] with gerund aned “✱giving” and strong past ôn “✱gave”. It is possible, though, that only the past and gerund were strong, and the base verb remained S. anna- analogous to T. hanna.
Neo-Sindarin: For purpose of Neo-Sindarin I would stick with S. anna- “give”, since it is a direct equivalent of the well-attested Q. anta- “give” if one assumes *nt* > *nth* > *nn*, which seems to be the rule for most of the 1930s through 1960s.