arya

adjective. excelling, *better, *best [with definite article + genitive], excelling, *better, *best [with definite article + genitive]; [ᴺQ.] *prefer [with dative]

A word Tolkien said “functions as comparative ... of mára” in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957, derived from the root √AR “good, excellent, noble”, a root whose precise sense is “good of its kind, excels” (PE17/147). In somewhat later notes, arya was glossed “excelling”, again as a comparative of mára, hence also meaning “✱better” (PE17/57). Tolkien also gave a formula for a superlative “✱best” when used in combination with the definite article i and the genitive, as in i arya atanion “the best of men, (lit.) the [most] excelling of men”.

Neo-Quenya: In a post from 2024-08-14 on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), Vyacheslav Stepanov suggested arya might express “prefer” when used in combination with the dative, as in nás arya nin “I prefer it, (lit.) it is better for me”, analogous to nás mára nin “I like it, (lit.) it is good for me”.

-o

suffix. of; genitive ending

i eru i or ilyë mahalmar ëa

(the one/they) who; (that) which

i (2) relative pronoun "(the one/they) who; (that) which" (both article and relative pronoun in CO: i Eru i or ilyë mahalmar ëa: the One who is above all thrones", i hárar "(they) who are sitting"); cf. also the phrase i hamil mára "(that) which you deem good" (VT42:33). Notice that before a verb, i means "the one who", or, in the case of a plural verb, "those who"; e.g. i carir quettar ómainen "those who form words with voices" (WJ:391). According to VT47:21, i as a relative pronoun is the personal plural form (corresponding to the personal sg. ye and the impersonal sg. ya). This agrees with the example i carir..., but as is evident from the other examples listed above, Tolkien in certain texts also used i as a singular relative pronoun, both personal (Eru i...) and impersonal (i hamil). In the sense of a plural personal relative pronoun, i is also attested in the genitive (ion) and ablative (illon) cases, demonstrating that unlike the indeclinable article i, the relative pronoun i can receive case endings. Both are translated "from whom": ion / illon camnelyes "from whom you received it" (referring to several persons) (VT47:21).

o

preposition. from

-va

from

-va possessive ending, presumably related to the preposition va "from". In Eldaliéva, Ingoldova, miruvóreva, Oroméva, rómeva, Valinóreva (q.v. for references), Follondiéva, Hyallondiéva (see under turmen for references). Following a consonant, the ending instead appears as -wa (andamacilwa "of the long sword", PE17:147, rómenwa *"of the East", PE17:59). Pl. -vë when governing a plural word (from archaic -vai) (WJ:407), but it seems that -va was used throughout in late Exilic Quenya (cf. miruvóreva governing the plural word yuldar in Namárië). Pl. -iva (-ivë*), dual -twa, partitive pl. -líva**.

as

with

as prep. "with" (together with), also attested with a pronominal suffix: aselyë "with thee" (VT47:31, VT43:29). The conjunction ar "and" may also appear in assimilated form as before s; see ar #1.

as

with

o (2) prep. "with" (MC:216; this is "Qenya"; WJ:367 states that no independent preposition o was used in Quenya. Writers may rather use as.) See ó- below.

as

preposition. with

car-

with

#car- (2) prep. "with" (carelyë "with thee"), prepositional element (evidently an ephemeral form abandoned by Tolkien) (VT43:29)

ho

from

ho prep. "from" (3O); cf. hó-

lé

with

lé (2) prep. "with" (PE17:95)

lé

preposition. with

The preposition lé “with” was mentioned in a (rejected) etymology of S. di “with” in Tolkien’s notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/94), from the phrase le nallon sí di’nguruthos (LotR/729), usually translated “here overwhelmed in dread of Death, I cry”. In this note, Tolkien eventually decided that S. (n)di actually meant “beneath”, and its Quenya equivalent was Q. nî.

Conceptual Development: Prepositional ᴹQ. le also appeared in the Lament of Atalante from the 1940s, in the phrase ᴹQ. Númeheruvi arda sakkante lenéme Ilúvatáren “the Lords of the West broke the world by [or with] leave of Ilúvatar” (SD/246, 310). Here “with” seems to be used in the instrumental sense “by means of”. The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. le “with (accompaniment)” under the early root ᴱ√LĒ (QL/52). Le was also mentioned in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon as the equivalent of G. li “with (of accompaniment only)”, but also used to mean “and” between nouns GL/54().

Neo-Quenya: I would retain ᴺQ. lé for purposes of Neo-Quenya as a rarely-used instrumental preposition meaning “with, by (means of)”, reconceived as a derivative of √LEÑ “✱way, method, manner” (PE17/74).

ló

from

ló, lo (2) prep. "from", also used = "by" introducing the agent after a passive construction: nahtana ló Turin *"slain by Túrin" (VT49:24). A similar and possibly identical form is mentioned in the Etymologies as being somehow related to the ablative ending -llo, but is not there clearly defined (VT45:28). At one point, Tolkien suggested that lo rather than the ending -llo was used with proper names (lo Manwë rather than Manwello for "from Manwë"), but this seems to have been a short-lived idea (VT49:24).

va

from

va prep. "from" (VT43:20; prefixed in the form var- in var-úra "from evil", VT43:24). In VT49:24, va, au and o are quoted as variants of the stem awa "away from".

ó

with, accompanying