nangwa noun "jaw" (NAK)
Quenya
anta
noun. jaw
Changes
- anta → anca “jaw” ✧ LotR/1123
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ✶amtā > anta [amtā] > [antā] > [antā] ✧ PE18/085
nangwa
jaw
anca
noun. jaws
jaws, (animal's) mouth
anca
noun. jaws, jaws; [ᴹQ.] jaw, row of teeth
A noun for “jaws” appearing in The Lord of the Rings Appendix E as the name for tengwa #15 (f). ᴹQ. anka was first introduced in The Etymologies of the 1930s with the glosses “jaw, row of teeth” and derived from primitive ᴹ✶ankā under the root ᴹ√(A)NAK “bite” (Ety/ÁNAK, NAK).
Conceptual Development: In tengwar charts and other earlier documents from the 1930s up through the early 1950s, anca was in competition with an earlier word anta “jaw” < ✶amtā (earlier ᴱ✶ṃtā) based on the root √MAT “eat” (PE22/22, 51; PE18/85 note #72), but Tolkien ultimately settled on anca. Another early word that might be a precursor to anca is ᴱQ. kâ, cognate to G. gag “jaw” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/37).
Derivations
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.
Derivations
- √KAT “shape, shape, [ᴹ√] make”
Element in
- Q. úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya “on the contrary, for if one turned the face westward, as was usual” ✧ VT49/21
cá
kâ
cá ("kâ") "jaw" noun(GL:37; later sources give anca)
-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.
Cognates
- S. thîr “face, face, [N.] look, expression, countenance”
Derivations
Element in
- Q. Carnistir “Red-face” ✧ PM/353
anca
jaws, row of teeth
anca noun "jaws, row of teeth" _(ÁNAK [there spelt anca in Etym as printed in LR, but according to VT45:5, Tolkien's own spelling in the Etym manuscript was anka], NAK [there spelt anka], Appendix E, SA - despite what Christopher Tolkien says in the entry _anca in SA, the Quenya word anca_ as such does NOT appear in the Sindarin dragon-name Ancalagon, but its Sindarin cognate anc does. See ÁNAK in the Etymologies.) Also name of tengwa #15 (Appendix E). _Despite its English gloss, anca is a singular word (in Etym the gloss is indeed "jaw", not "jaws").
anta
face
anta (2) noun "face" (ANA1, VT45:5). Cf. cendelë.
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.
Element in
- Q. úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya “on the contrary, for if one turned the face westward, as was usual” ✧ VT49/21
Elements
Word Gloss cenda- “to watch (intensively), observe (for some time); to read” -lë “abstract noun, adverb” Variations
- kendele ✧ VT49/21
anta
noun. jaw, [ᴹQ.] face, *front of the head, [ᴱQ.] cheek; [Q.] jaw
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.
Derivations
- ᴹ√NIB “face, front”
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.