Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Early Primitive Elvish

mara

root. ripe, yellow

A root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “ripe, yellow”, a variant of ᴱ√MALA “yellow” (QL/59). It had derivatives like ᴱQ. marin(a)/G. mar(o)n “ripe” and ᴱQ. marin/G. maros “ripe fruit” (QL/59; GL/56). There are no signs of this root in Tolkien’s later writing; one sign of its abandonment is the change of “orange” from ᴱQ. kulmarin (kul- + marin) to ᴹQ. kuluma (QL/49; Ety/KUL).

Derivatives

  • Eq. maru “pulp” ✧ QL/059
  • Eq. mar- “to get ripe, come to ripeness, get ready, grow up, get mellow” ✧ QL/059; QL/063
  • Eq. marin “(ripe) fruit (of apple type)” ✧ QL/059
  • Eq. marin(a) “ripe, mature” ✧ QL/059
  • G. mar(o)n “ripe”
  • G. maros “ripe fruit”

Variations

  • MARA ✧ QL/063
Early Primitive Elvish [QL/059; QL/063] Group: Eldamo. Published by

mara

root. *sand, soil

A root appearing in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as root {ᴱ√MAŘA² >>} ᴱ√MARA that Tolkien indicated was a dialectical variation or byform of ᴱ√MṚŘṚ [MṚÐṚ] “grind”, with a single derivative: ᴱQ. marilla “pearl” (QL/59). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, G. brithla “pearl” was most likely a derivative of ᴱ√MṚÐṚ (GL/24). However, in the m-section of GL Tolkien said “mar and môr probably conceal two roots and a confusion [with] mbara”, with various apparent derivatives of mar- such as G. mar “Earth, ground, soil”, G. marol “sand” and G. Môr “the Earth” (GL/56). Tolkien also had G. mara- “dwell”, but it appeared before a variant (m)bara and so likely was derived from ᴱ√MBARA “dwell, live” as mentioned in the Qenya Lexicon (QL/60). As for ᴱ√MARA² itself, it may have meant “✱sand, soil”.

Changes

  • MAŘA²MARA ✧ QL/059

Derivatives

  • Eq. marilla “pearl” ✧ QL/059
  • G. mar “Earth, ground, soil” ✧ GL/56
  • G. marol “sand” ✧ GL/56
  • G. Môr “The Earth” ✧ GL/56

Variations

  • mar ✧ GL/56
  • mar- ✧ GL/58
  • MARA ✧ QL/059 (MARA)
  • MAŘA² ✧ QL/059 (MAŘA²)
Early Primitive Elvish [GL/56; GL/58; QL/059] Group: Eldamo. Published by

mṛðṛ

root. grind

A root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s given as ᴱ√MṚŘṚ with derivatives like ᴱQ. mar (mard-) “grit, course grain or powder”, ᴱQ. mard- “grind, pulverize” and ᴱQ. marma “sand” (QL/63). In a list of roots at the end of the M-section, ᴱ√MṚÐṚ was gloss “grind” (QL/63). Early in the M-section Tolkien had the root {ᴱ√MAŘA² >>} ᴱ√MARA as a dialectical variation or byform of ᴱ√MṚŘṚ, with the derivative ᴱQ. marilla “pearl” (QL/59); see that entry for details. The Gnomish cognate of ᴱQ. marilla was given as G. brithla “pearl” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/24), and this Gnomish word probably a derivative of ᴱ√MṚÐṚ. In that document these words served as the base for ᴱQ. Silmaril and its Gnomish equivalent G. Silubrilt (GL/67). There are no signs of this root in Tolkien’s later writing, and Q. Silmaril was given different etymologies later on.

Derivatives

  • Eq. mar “grit, coarse grain or powder” ✧ QL/063
  • Eq. mard(a)- “to grind, pulverize” ✧ QL/063; QL/063
  • Eq. marma “sand” ✧ QL/063

Element in

Variations

  • MṚŘṚ ✧ QL/059; QL/063
Early Primitive Elvish [QL/059; QL/063] Group: Eldamo. Published by

mṛřṛ

root. grind

Early Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by