toltha-

verb. to fetch, to fetch, *bring; [G.] to carry, lift

A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing in its (Noldorin-style) infinitive form toltho “fetch” under the root ᴹ√TUL “come, approach, move towards”, cognate to ᴹQ. tulta- “send for, fetch, summon” (Ety/TUL). Both N. toltha- and ᴹQ. tulta- appear to be a causative verbs, whose original meaning was “✱to make come”.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. tultha- “lift, carry” (GL/71), clearly based on the early root ᴱ√TULU whose original meaning was “uphold, support, bear, carry”, and only by extension “fetch, bring; move, come” (QL/95). Gnomish of the 1910s did not have the Noldorin/Sindarin sound change whereby short *u* usually became *o*, which is why Tolkien had G. tultha- rather than N. toltha-.

Neo-Sindarin: The base meaning of the root √TUL changed from 1910s “support, carry” to 1930s “come”. Despite this, I think toltha- might still be used in the sense “carry” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, since “fetch” and “carry” are not that different in meaning. I would propose a scenario in which ancient ✱tultā- meant “✱to make come = summon”, evolving into “✱to make bring = fetch” (that is, bring someone or something to someplace or someone), and from there broadening to “carry” in other cases, but with the specific connotation of “fetch = carry towards someone or someplace” = “✱bring”. I envision a similar semantic development for Q. tulya-.

I would therefore assume toltha- lost its original sense “summon” (also absent in The Etymologies) in the Sindarin language branch; for this I would use [ᴺS.] nachav-.

toltha-

verb. to fetch, summon, make come

tul-

verb. to come, to come, [ᴱQ.] move (intr.); to bring, carry, fetch; to produce, bear fruit

The Quenya verb for “to come”, which is very well-attested. It is derived from the root √TUL whose basic sense is “move towards the speaker” (PE17/188), as in “come here”: á tule sís. English may also use “come with” in the sense “accompany” such as “I will come with you”, but Quenya uses men- (“go”) for this purpose (PE22/162), such as menuvan ó le = “I will go with you”.

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. tulu- dates all the way back to the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, where it appeared under the early root ᴱ√TULU, but in that early document it has a much broader set of glosses: “(1) bring, carry, fetch; (2) intr. move, come; (3) produce, bear fruit” (QL/95). By the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s its list of glosses was reduced to “come” (PE14/57), and Tolkien used the verb only to mean “come” thereafter. Tolkien often used this verb in grammatical examples, which is part of the reason it is so well-attested.

tulya-

verb. *to lead; to fetch, *to lead; to fetch; [ᴱQ.] to bring, send

Tolkien used this verb with several similar meanings throughout his life. Its earliest appearance was in the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s where it was glossed “send, bring” (PE14/58), and in Early Qenya Word-lists from the same period it was glossed “bring” (PE16/133). In Quendian & Common Eldarin Verbal Structure (EVS1) from the 1940s, Tolkien had primitive ᴹ✶tulyā- “send hither” along with a statement that “causatives from verbs [verbal roots] more often used yā” (PE22/98).

Primitive ✶tuljā- “fetch” reappeared as another example of a ya-causative in Common Eldarin: Verb Structure (EVS2) from the early 1950s, where it also had a more extensive translation “cause to come, send for, fetch, summon” (PE22/135). The verb appeared again in the phrase Q. álamë __tulya__ úsahtienna “lead us not into temptation” in Quenya prayers from the late 1950s, replacing a verb mittanya- presumably of similar meaning (VT43/22). The verb appeared a final time in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969 as yet another example of a ya-causative verb (PE22/164); in this set of documents the related verbal noun tulyandë was glossed “fetching” (PE22/137).

The relationship between this verb and its root √TUL is somewhat tricky. In the 1910s, the early root ᴱ√TULU had a broad meaning, originally “uphold, support, bear, carry” and thus by extension “fetch, bring” and “move, come” (QL/95). This early meaning of the root may have influenced the 1920s glosses “send, bring” for tulya-. From the 1930s forward, however, √TUL was limited in sense to “come = move toward the speaker” (Ety/TUL; PE17/188). A causative form of this root therefore would mean “cause to come”. This could apply to ya-causative tulya-, as with primitive ✶tulyā- in EVS1 and EVS2 (see above). However, Tolkien often used ta-causative tulta- to mean “send (for), summon = cause to come” instead (Ety/TUL; PE22/114, 156).

Neo-Quenya: It is not clear whether Tolkien intended ya-causative tulya- and ta-causative tulta- to coexist. The only document in which they both appear is 1969 LVS (PE22/164). That package of documents includes many hypothetical examples, so it still is not clear whether both verbs were “real” in the context of in-universe Elvish. For purposes of Neo-Quenya, however, I assume the two verbs coexist with slightly different meanings: tulta- “fetch = cause to come > summon [someone]” and tulya- “fetch = cause to come with > bring [something]”.

This interpretation of tulya- as “bring, fetch” is largely consistent with its use in the 1920s through 1960s. In the Quenya prayer noted above, the translation “bring” also works: álamë __tulya__ úsahtienna “✱bring us not into temptation” as an alternative to “lead us not into temptation”. As such I think tulya- = “lead” only in the sense “bring someone someplace”, and not “lead” in the sense of “give guidance and leadership”.

tulta-

verb. send for, fetch, summon

tulta- vb. "send for, fetch, summon" (TUL). Tultanelyes "you summoned him", changed by Tolkien to leltanelyes "you sent him" (possibly tulta- was meant to have the meaning "send" here, but Tolkien decided to use another word) (VT47:22)

tulu-

verb. fetch, bring, bear; move, come

tulu- vb. "fetch, bring, bear; move, come" (LT1:270; compare tulta- in Tolkien's later Quenya)

tulta-

verb. to send (from point of view of receiver), to send (from point of view of receiver), [ᴹQ.] to send for, send hither, fetch, summon, (lit.) cause to come

tulta-

verb. send; fetch

etelehta-

verb. deliver

etelehta- vb. "deliver" (= "save") (VT43:23)

eterúna-

verb. deliver

eterúna- vb. (also etrúna-, though the cluster tr seems unusual for Quenya) "deliver" (= "save"). Tolkien may have abandoned this verb in favour of etelehta-, q.v. (VT43:23; VT44:9), but the root also appears in #runando "redeemer", so maybe eterúna- can stay with the meaning "redeem".

tul

root. come, approach, move towards (point of speaker), come, approach, [ᴹ√] move towards (point of speaker); [ᴱ√] fetch, bear, bring; (originally) uphold, support, bear, carry

The root √TUL was used for Elvish words having to do with motion towards a speaker for much of Tolkien’s life, but the precise meaning evolved over time. The earliest appearance of this root was as ᴱ√TULU “fetch, bear, bring; move, come”, but with an original sense = “uphold, support, bear, carry” (QL/95). It had a derived verb ᴱQ. tulu- matching the verbal sense of the root along with an added sense “produce, bear fruit”, but it had other derivatives like ᴱQ. tulma “bier, tray” and ᴱQ. tulwe “tall thin pillar, standard, pole; banner” connected to the older “support” sense of the root. It had a similar divergence of meaning in its derivatives from the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, such as G. taul “a pillar” vs. G. tul- “bring; come to” (GL/69, 71). This 1910s root ᴱ√TULU may also have been connected to ᴱ√TḶPḶ which likewise had derivatives having to do with “support” (QL/93).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root ᴹ√TUL had the gloss “come, approach, move towards (point of speaker)” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tul-/N. tol- “come” and ᴹQ. tulta-/N. toltha- “send for, fetch, summon” = “(orig.) make come” (Ety/TUL); in the 1930s the “support” words seem to have been transferred to (probably unrelated) ᴹ√TULUK. √TUL “come” was mentioned regularly in Tolkien’s later writings (PE22/103; PE17/188; PE22/156), in one 1969 note with the extra gloss “approach” (PE22/168), so the 1930s senses for the root seem to have been retained thereafter.

tultā-

verb. to make come, fetch, send (from point of view of receiver)

tulyā-

verb. to cause to come, send for, fetch, summon

toltha

fetch

(make come) toltha- (i doltha, i tholthar)

toltha

fetch

(i doltha, i tholthar)