manë

good (moral)

manë adj. "good (moral)" (sc. *"good in a moral sense") (LT1:260, VT49:26)

man

who

man pron. "who" (Nam, RGEO:67, FS, LR:59, Markirya, MC:213, 214); cf. PM:357 note 18, where a reference is made to the Eldarin interrogative element ma, man). However, man is translated "what" in LR:59: man-ië? "what is it?" (LR:59; the stative-verb suffix -ië_ is hardly valid in LotR-style Quenya) _Either Tolkien later adjusted the meaning of the word, or man covers both "who" and "what". Cf. also mana, manen.

man

pronoun. who, who; [ᴹQ.] what

The most common Quenya word for “who”, most notably appearing in the Namárië poem in the phrase sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? “who now shall refill the cup for me?” (LotR/377). It is based on the interrogative element ma (PE17/68). Man might be a general interrogative element “who, what, which”; at one point Tolkien said man was a reduction of mana before vowels (PE23/135). However, in the Markirya, man was used for “who” before consonants, such as man tiruva fána cirya “Who shall heed a white ship?” (MC/222).

In writings from the 1930s and 40s, man was used for “what” (LR/59, 72) or as a general interrogative marker (PE23/99). However, it was used for “who” in the versions of the Oilima Markirya from around 1930 (MC/213-214).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would mostly use man in the sense “who”, before both consonants and vowels. For “what” I would use mana, and as a general interrogative marker I’d use ma. In cases where you want an unambiguous word for “who = what person”, I would use mamo.

manen

adverb. how, how, [ᴹQ.] by what means

A word for “how” in the question manen lambë Quendion ahyanë “How did the language of the Elves change?” (PM/395), a combination of interrogative ma and the instrumental suffix -nen. Similarly formed ᴹQ. mainen or manainen “by what means” appeared in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 (PE23/111).

manen

how

manen interrogative "how" (PM:395)

manen lambë quendion ahyanë

How did the language of the Elves change?

manë

adjective. good (moral, not evil)

@@@ used in NQNT

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.

-ndor

land

-ndor, final element in compounds: "land" (Letters:308, UT:253)

Amarië

good

Amarië fem. name; perhaps derived from mára "good" with prefixing of the stem-vowel and the feminine ending -ië (Silm)

ala-

good

ala- (3), also al-, a prefix expressing "good" or "well" (PE17:146), as in alaquenta (q.v.) Whether Tolkien imagined this ending to coexist with the negative prefix of the same form (#2 above) is unclear and perhaps dubious.

men

who

men (3) pron. "who", evidently a misreading or miswriting for man (MC:221, in Markirya)

mára

adjective. good

nór

land

nór noun "land" (stem nor-, PE17:106) this is land as opposed to water and sea (nor in Letters:308). Cf. nórë.

nór

noun. land

A term for “land” as in “(dry) land as opposed to the sea”, mentioned in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 (WJ/413) and again in notes from around 1968 (PE17/106-107).

Possible Etymology: In the Quendi and Eldar essay this term was derived from primitive ✶ndōro, but in the aforementioned 1968 notes Tolkien clarified that its stem form was nŏr-. This means it was probably derived from ancient ✱ndŏr-, where the long vowel in the uninflected form was inherited from the Common Eldarin subjective form ✱ndōr, a phenomenon also seen in words like nér (ner-) “man”. I prefer this second derivation, as it makes the independent word more distinct from the suffixal form -ndor or -nóre used in the names of countries.

nóre

noun. land

nórë

land

nórë noun "land" (associated with a particular people) (WJ:413), "country, land, dwelling-place, region where certain people live, race, clan" (NŌ, NDOR, BAL), also used = "race, tribe, people" (SA:dôr, PE17:169; however, the normal word for "people" is lië). Early "Qenya" hasnórë "native land, nation, family, country" (in compounds -nor) (LT1:272)

ye

who

ye (1) singular personal relative pronoun "who", maybe also object "whom" (plural form i). Compare the impersonal form ya. Also attested in the genitive and the ablative cases: yëo and yello, both translated "from whom" (though the former would also mean *"whose, of whom"). (VT47:21)

ye

pronoun. who