anta-

verb. give

anta- (1) vb. "give" (ANA1, MC:215, 221), pa.t. antanë (antanen "I gave", VT49:14) or †ánë, perfect ánië (PE17:147, cf. QL:31). According to VT49:14, Tolkien noted that anta- was sometimes often with an "ironic tone" to refer to missiles, so that antanen hatal sena "I gave him a spear (as a present)" was often used with the real sense of "I cast a spear at him". Usually the recipient of the thing given is mentioned in the dative or allative case (like sena in this example), but there is also a construction similar to English "present someone with something" in which the recipient is the object and the gift appears in the instrumental case: antanenyes parmanen, "I presented him with a book" (PE17:91). The verb occurs several times in FS: antalto"they gave"; strangely, no past tense marker seems to be present (see -lto for the ending); antar a pl. verb translated "they gave", though in LotR-style Quenya it would rather be the present tense "give" (pl.); antaróta "he gave it" (anta-ró-ta "gave-he-it"), another verb occurring in Fíriel's Song, once again with no past tense marker. Also antáva "will give", future tense of anta- "give"; read perhaps *antuva in LotR-style Quenya; similarly antaváro* "he will give" (LR:63) might later have appeared as antuvas (with the ending -s rather than "Qenya" -ro for "he"). Antalë imperative "give thou" (VT43:17), sc. anta "give" + the element le "thou", but this was a form Tolkien abandoned. Apparently ana** was at one point considered as another imperative "give", but Tolkien rewrote the text in question (VT44:13), and the normal patterns would suggest *á anta with an independent imperative particle.

anta-

verb. to give, present; †to add to

The verb anta- was the basic Quenya word for “give” for much of Tolkien’s life, usually associated with the root √AN “towards”. ᴱQ. anta- “gives” first appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” (QL/31). In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. anta- “give” was derived from the root ᴹ√ANA “to, towards” and its primitive form ᴹ✶anta- was glossed “to present, give” (Ety/ANA¹). In this same document Tolkien considered deriving anta- from ᴹ√YAN “give” instead (EtyAC/YAN²).

In Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 anta- was again derived from √ANA/NĀ, but in that note the root and the verb had the extra (archaic?) sense “add to” in connection with the use of an- as the Quenya intensive prefix (PE17/146). In notes from around 1967 Tolkien said it was a blend of ✶an-tā “✱make go towards” and ✶am-tā “enlarge, increase” from √AMA; in this document am- was the intensive prefix (PE17/91). Tolkien seems to have gone back to an-intensives by 1969 (c.f. anírime “most beautiful”, PE23/133) and in Late Notes on Verbs (LVS) from 1969 anta- was again based on ✶antā- “cause a thing/person to go to an object, send”, but develop its sense “give” due the influence of √HAN “enhance, enrich, add to”.

In both the 1967 and 1969 notes, Tolkien indicated the object of the verb anta- could either be the thing given or the recipient. If the object was the thing given, the recipient was in the dative: antanen parma sen “I gave a book to him”. If the object was the recipient, the thing given was in the instrumental: antanenyes parmanen “I presented him with a book”. In other notes from the late 1960s Tolkien said that anta-:

> ... was also often used with an “ironic tone” to refer to missiles, so that the sentence antanen hatal sena “I cast a spear at him” might also [more literally] mean “I gave him a spear (as a present)” (VT49/14).

Tolkien often used the verb anta- as an example for verb inflections and the use of the direct and/or indirect objects, particularly in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 and the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) of the 1920s, though the exact formations varied as Tolkien’s ideas of his languages evolved. Tolkien usually gave anta- a weak past tense antane “gave” (PE17/91; VT49/14), but also gave it an archaic strong past tense †áne which was the basis for its Sindarin past form S. ôn “gave” (PE17/147).

anta-

verb. cause to go to, send; give

anta

face

anta (2) noun "face" (ANA1, VT45:5). Cf. cendelë.

anta

noun. jaw

A noun appearing as ᴹQ. anta “face” in The Etymologies written around 1937 under the root ᴹ√ANA “to, towards” (Ety/ANA¹), based on an extension of this root: ᴹ√ANAT (EtyAC/ANA¹).

Conceptual Development: The earliest appearance of this word was as ᴱQ. anta “jaw” in The Qenya Phonology of the 1910s, where it was derived from ᴱ✶mtā, related to ᴱ√MATA “eat” (PE12/26). It was mentioned again in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon as a cognate to G. ant “cheek” (GL/19), but in the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa it was ᴱQ. anto “jaw” (QL/31; PME/31). ᴱQ. anta reappeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, but there it had the gloss “cheek” and its Gnomish cognate G. ant was “face” (PE13/137, 160). In Early Qenya Word-lists from the 1920s, however, anta retained the gloss “jaw” (PE16/136).

As noted above, in The Etymologies ᴹQ. anta had the gloss “face” and a new derivation from ᴹ√ANA “to, towards” (Ety/ANA¹), perhaps meaning “✱front of the head”. In that document Tolkien introduced ᴹQ. anka for “jaw” based on ᴹ√NAK “bite” (Ety/NAK). In notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from around this time, he revised the gloss of ᴹQ. anta from “jaw” to “face” (PE22/21 note #64), which was followed by a chart that had both anta “face” and anka “jaw” (PE22/22). However, he then wrote “jaw” faintly above anta and marked through the gloss of anka (PE22/22 note #67).

In version of these notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1940s, Tolkien had anta “jaws”, but there it was revised to ᴹQ. anto “mouth” (PE22/50 and note #185). In the version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from around 1950 (TQ2) Tolkien again had Q. anta “jaw” < ✶amtā based on the root √MAT, but he revised the primitive form to ✶ankā and then marked through the entire paragraph (PE18/85 note #72). In the tengwar charts from Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien had Q. anca “jaw” and Q. anto “mouth” (LotR/1123).

To summarize, it seems Tolkien revised the meaning of word anta from “jaw” >> “cheek” >> “face” in the 1910s through 1930s; then in the 1940s and 50s he considered restoring anta “jaw” but ultimately settled on Q. anca “jaw” and Q. anto “mouth”.

Neo-Quenya: Given the ultimate result above, I think it is possible that the sense ᴹQ. anta “face” < √ANA “to(wards)” from The Etymologies remains viable, and I would use the word anta with that meaning for purposes of Neo-Quenya. I would also let it retain its ᴱQ. meaning “cheek”, as we have no other Quenya words with this sense.

anta

noun. jaw, [ᴹQ.] face, *front of the head, [ᴱQ.] cheek; [Q.] jaw

ámen anta síra ilaurëa massamma

give us this day our daily bread

The sixth line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The first word Ámen is a combination of the imperative particle á and the (dative) second person plural pronoun men “[to] us”, followed by the aorist verb form anta “give”. This is followed by síra “this day”, ilaurëa “daily” and massamma “our bread”, the last one being the first person plural exclusive possessive form of massa “bread”.

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

> Á-me-n anta síra ilaurëa massa-mma = “✱(imperative)-us-to give this-day daily bread-our”

Conceptual Development: The imperative element á, the verb anta “give” and the dative pronoun men “us” appear in all versions of the prayer, but are arranged differently. In versions I-IV of the prayer, there is an additional subject pronoun l(y)e “you (polite)” [God], either as a suffix -le of the verb anta (I) or the suffix -lye of the imperative element á (IIa-IV). In versions I-IV, the indirect object men “us” appears after the verb.

In earlier versions of the prayer, the Quenya word for “this day” varied from siarë >> hyárë >> hyázë (I-IIa), and then back hyázë >> hyárë >> siar(ë) (IIb-III). Another form siar appears in version IV, but this may be a slip for siare. The form of the adjective “daily” was ilyarëa (I, IIb-IV) or ilyázëa (II), while the word for “bread” was masta (I-IV). These earlier forms probably reflect Tolkien’s previous words for “day” and “bread”: ᴹQ. are and ᴹQ. masta (Ety/AR¹, MBAS), which later become Q. aurë and Q. massa.

| |  I  |IIa|IIb|III|IV|V|VI| |A|Alye|Ámen| |{anta >>}|antale|anta|anta| |{amen >>}|men| | |{siare >> hyáre >>}|hyáze|{hyáre >>} siare|siar|síra| |ilyarea|ilyázea|ilyarea|ilaurea| |mastamma|massamma|

Versions I-IIa of this line include the phoneme [*z*] (hyáze, ilyázea), which was not seen in Classical Quenya. It was, however, present in Ancient Quenya (LotR/1123) and Vanyarin (PE19/73). It is possible that Tolkien was attempting (at least initially) to write the prayer in a particularly archaic or “high” form of Quenya.

-stir

suffix. face

An element meaning “face” in the name Carnistir “Red-Face” (S. Caranthir), derived from primitive ✶stīrē (PM/353; VT41/10). Its form as an independent word would mostly likely be ✱síre (Classical Quenya þíre), but that would conflict with sírë “river” in spoken Quenya (Tarquesta). There are a number of other Quenya “face” words attested, such as cendelë, so it is probably safer to use one of these for purposes of Neo-Quenya.

canwa

face

#canwa (2) noun "face", isolated from canwarya ("k") *"his face", evidently an ephemeral form Tolkien abandoned in favour of cendelë, q.v. (VT49:21; see VT49:34 regarding uncertainties as to the manuscript reading)

canwa

noun. face

A word appearing as kanwarya in one of the drafts of the Ambidexters Sentence, apparently a 3rd-sg possessive form meaning “✱his face” (VT49/6, 21). Patrick Wynne suggested it might be derived from √KAT “shape” as in katmā > kanwa, patterned after Latin “faciēs” which also originally meant “shape”. It seems the n in this word was revised, but what the change was intended to be is unclear. Tolkien eventually revised this word to cendelë, so canwa was probably abandoned.

cendelë

face

cendelë noun "face" (VT49:21)

cendelë

noun. face, face, *visage

A word for “face” in the Ambidexters Sentence of the late 1960s (VT49/8). Patrick Wynne suggested it is likely an abstract noun formation from the verb cenda- “watch, observe”, and hence similar in origin to English/French “visage” which likewise originated from a Latin verb meaning “to see” (VT49/21). Earlier “face” words ᴱQ. alma and ᴱQ. yéma have similar derivations, as pointed out by Patrick Wynne.

nangwa

jaw

nangwa noun "jaw" (NAK)

nívë

noun. face

A neologism for “face” coined by Petri Tikka in PPQ (PPQ) from the early 2000s, derived from the root ᴹ√NIB “face, front”, but I see no reason not to use attested [ᴹQ.] anta or cendelë “face” for that purpose for that purpose.