atar noun "father" (SA; WJ:402, UT:193, LT1:255, VT43:37, VT44:12). According to the Etymologies (ATA) the pl. is atari, but contrast #atári in Atanatári "Fathers of Men" (q.v.); possibly the word behaves differently when compounded. Atarinya "my father" (LR:70), atar(inya) the form a child would use addressing his or her father, also reduced to atya (VT47:26). Diminutive masc. name Atarincë ("k") "Little father", amilessë (never used in narrative) of Curufinwë = Curufin (PM:353). Átaremma, Ataremma "our Father" as the first word of the Quenya translation of the Lord's Prayer, written before Tolkien changed -mm- as the marker of 1st person pl. exclusive to -lm-; notice -e- as a connecting vowel before the ending -mma "our". In some versions of the Lord's Prayer, including the final version, the initial a of atar "father" is lengthened, producing #átar. This may be a contraction of *a atar "o Father", or the vowel may be lengthened to give special emphasis to #Átar "Father" as a religious title (VT43:13). However, in VT44:12 Atar is also a vocative form referring to God, and yet the initial vowel remains short.
Quenya
atar
noun. father
atar
father
atar
preposition. *for
atar
noun. father
atarincë
masculine name. Little Father
atar meneldëa eru órava (o)messë
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us
The sixth line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the noun atar “father”. The second word meneldea is the assimilated locative form menelde of menel “heaven”, with an adjective suffix -a added to give the sense “of Heaven”; a similar construction was used in versions IIb-IV of the first line of the Átaremma prayer (VT43/10-11). The third word Eru is Tolkien’s usual Quenya name for God. The phrase órava (o)messe “have mercy on us” is essentially the same as in the first line of this prayer; see that entry for discussion.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> Atar menel-de-a Eru (o)me-sse = “✱Father heaven-in-of God have-mercy us-on”
Conceptual Development: As in the first line, Tolkien first used the dative ómen for “on us” before revising it to the locative (o)messe (VT44/12, notes on line 6).
atartil
noun. thumb [nursery rhymes]
A nursery name for the thumb in rough drafts of Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals from 1968, a combination of Q. atar “father” and Q. til “tip”, and appearing beside alternate form ataryo (VT47/26-27 note #35). In later versions of these notes, the nursery name was atto, atya, ataryo or taryo (VT47/10, VT48/6).
ataryo
daddy
ataryo, also taryo (cited as (a)taryo), noun "daddy", also used as a name for the thumb in children's play, but Tolkien emended it to atto/atya (VT48:4). Compare atar "father".
atarmë
for us
atarmë dative (?) pron. "for us" (VT44:18; Tolkien apparently considered dropping this curious form, which in another text was replaced by rá men, rámen; see rá #1)
atar aranya
*royal father
atya
noun. daddy, (my) father
An affectionate word for one’s own father, a reduction of Q. atarinya “my father” (PE17/170; VT47/26). Tolkien also toyed with alternate forms like atyo and (a)taryo (VT47/10, 27, 32; VT48/19).
atya
daddy
atya (2) noun "daddy", supposedly a word in "actual 'family' use" (VT47:26, PE17:170), also used in children's play for "thumb" and "big toe" (VT47:10, 26, VT48:4, 6); reduction of at(an)ya "my father" (or, as explained in VT48:19, reduction of at-nya of similar meaning). Compare atto.
Návatar
father
Návatar noun a title of Aulë referring to his position as the immediate author of the Dwarvish race, apparently including atar "father", but the first element cannot be related to any known term for "Dwarf" (PM:391 cf. 381)
atartur
noun. patriarch, (lit.) master-father
taryo
taryo
taryo, see ataryo
átaremma i ëa han eä
our Father who art in Heaven
The first line of Átaremma, Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Lord’s Prayer. The first word Átaremma “our Father” is atar “father” with the 2nd-person-plural-exclusive suffix -mma consistent with the 1st edition of The Lord of the Rings (after the 2nd edition of The Lord of the Rings, this suffix would be -lma).
The remainder of the phrase i ëa han Eä “who art in Heaven” is a circumlocution, literally meaning “✱who is beyond Creation [the Material Universe]”. This allowed Tolkien to avoid an explicit name for Heaven, though he did use Eruman for “Heaven” in the fifth line of the prayer.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> Átar-emma i ëa han Eä = “✱Father-our who is beyond Creation [the Material Universe]”
Conceptual Development: The form Ataremma for “our Father” appears in all versions of the prayer, sometimes preceded by the interjection a or Ai “O”. Wynne, Smith and Hostetter suggested that the long Á of Átaremma in versions V to VI of the prayer may be a coalescense with this interjection (VT43/13).
In versions I-IV, Tolkien use menel for the word “Heaven” in various configurations, most involving an assimilated locative, such as meneldea “in Heaven”. In other writings, Tolkien said that menel referred to the dome of the sky or “the firmament”, and therefore was not proper for “Heaven” (MR/387, PE17/152). Perhaps because of this, in version V he switched to the circumlocution i ëa pell’ Eä, with an assimilated form of the preposition pella “before”. In version VI he changed the preposition to han, as above.
In the earliest version (I), Tolkien used the word na for “is”, added at the end of the phrase, but it was omitted later.
| | I |IIa|IIb|III|IV|V|VI| | |A|Ai| | |Ataremma|Átaremma| | |i| |i| |{menellea >>}|menelzea|meneldea|ëa pell’ ëa|ëa han ëa| |na| |
-mma
our
-mma "our", 1st person dual exlusive possessive ending: *"my and one others" (VT49:16). At an earlier conceptual phase, Tolkien apparently intended the same ending to be plural inclusive "our" (VT49:55, RS:324), cf. Mélamarimma "Our Home" (q.v.) In the latter word, Tolkien slips in i as a connecting vowel before this ending; elsewhere he used e, as in Átaremma "our Father" (see atar).
-ya
dad
-ya (3) suffix of endearment, attested in Anardilya as an intimate form of the name Anardil (UT:174, 418), possibly also occurring in atya "dad", emya "mum" (q.v.) The forms ataryo "daddy" and amilyë "mummy" (q.v.) may contain gender-specific variants -yo masc. and -yë fem.
hérincë
little lady
hérincë ("k") noun *"little lady" (UT:195). Concerning the diminutive ending, cf. Atarincë, cirinci.
(a)taryo
noun. daddy
-lma
our
-lma pronominal ending "our", 1st person pl. exclusive (VT49:16), also attested (with the genitive ending -o that displaces final -a) in the word omentielmo "of our meeting" (nominative omentielma, PE17:58). Tolkien emended omentielmo to omentielvo in the Second Edition of LotR, reflecting a revision of the Quenya pronominal system (cf. VT49:38, 49, Letters:447). The cluster -lm- in the endings for inclusive "we/our" was altered to -lv- (VT43:14). In the revised system, -lma should apparently signify exclusive "our".
-lwa
our
-lwa, possessive pronominal ending, 1st person pl. inclusive "our" (VT49:16), later (in exilic Quenya) used in the form #-lva, genitive -lvo in omentielvo (see -lv-).
-ngwa
our
-ngwa "our", 1st person dual inclusive possessive pronominal ending: *"thy and my", corresponding to the ending -ngwë for dual inclusive "we" (VT49:16)
atto
father, daddy
atto noun "father, daddy" (hypocoristic)(ATA, LR:49), supposedly a word in "actual 'family' use" (VT47:26), also used in children's play for "thumb" and "big toe" (VT47:10, 26, VT48:4, 6). The dual form attat listed in VT48:19 seems to be formed from the alternative form atta, though attat was changed by Tolkien from attot. - Compare atya.
menya
our
menya (pl. menyë is attested) possessive pron. "our", 1st person pl. exclusive independent possessive pronoun (VT43:19, 35). Evidently derived from the dative form men "for us" by adding the adjectival ending -ya. Compare ninya, q.v.
ngwin
for us
ngwin dative pronoun ?"for us" _(VT21:6-7, 10, VT44:36). _Apparently belonging to the 1st person pl. It would be pronounced *nwin* at the end of the Third Age, but since Tolkien in another source implies that the 1st pl. exclusive base ñwe had the "independent" stem we- in Quenya (VT48:10), we must assume that the dative pronoun should rather be wen**, or in Exilic Quenya *ven. The form ngwin may reflect another conceptual phase when Tolkien meant the nasal element of ñwe to be preserved in Quenya as well. The vowel i rather than e is difficult to account for if the base is to be (ñ)we. In VT49:55, Carl F. Hosttetter suggests that ngwen rather than ngwin may actually be the correct reading of Tolkiens manuscript.
nápo
thumb
nápo noun "thumb" (VT47:10, VT48:4, 5). Compare nápat.
tatanya
my father
tatanya "my father" or "my daddy" (UT:190)
tollë
noun. thumb
tolmo
thumb
[tolmo noun "thumb", rejected by Tolkien in favour of nápo (VT48:15)]
tolpë
thumb
tolpë noun "thumb" (VT47:28, VT48:8), a form Tolkien may have rejected in favour of nápo, q.v.
tolpë
noun. thumb
toltil
thumb
[toltil noun "thumb" (VT47:26)]
toltil
noun. thumb
véna
for us
véna pron. "for us", (long) dative form of ve # 2, q.v.
The Quenya word for “father”, derived from the root √AT(AR) (PM/324; WJ/402; VT48/19).
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. atar “father” dates all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, though in that document it was “a more solemn word ... usually to 1st Person of the Blessed Trinity”, as opposed to more ordinary ᴱQ. attu “father” (QL/33). In the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s, ᴱQ. atar was the ordinary word for “father”, but with variant archaic form †attar (PE15/72). ᴹQ. atar “father” reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root ᴹ√ATA of the same meaning (Ety/ATA). It appeared again in the Quenya Verbal System of the 1940s in various inflected forms (PE22/118-119). It continued to appear regularly in Tolkien’s later writings. Thus this word was established early and retained its form throughout Tolkien’s life with only minor variations.