maina

noun. thing of excellence, treasure

A noun for “a thing of excellence, a treasure”, equivalent to Old English máþum of similar meaning, appearing in Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 and based on the root √MAY “excellent, admirable” (PE17/163). There was a faint letter written over the n, possibly k according to Christopher Gilson and thus indicating a revision to maika, but its Sindarin cognate S. maen “a treasure” was not altered.

ma

adverb. interrogative particle

The base element for Quenya interrogatives, used to form questions. Add ma at the beginning of a declarative statement turns it into a question: carnelyes “you did it” becomes ma carnelyes “did you do it?”. See the entry on interrogative pronouns for more details.