nahta- (1) verb "slay" (nahtan "I slay"). Possible variant #nehta- see #nehtar. Passive participle nahtana in the phrase nahtana ló Túrin *"slain by Turin". (VT49:24)
Quenya
nahtana
adjective. *slain
Element in
- Q. nahtana ló Turin “*slain by Túrin” ✧ VT49/24
nahta-
slay
nahta-
verb. slay
nahta-
verb. to slay; to hurt, injure, wound, to slay, [ᴱQ.] slay cruelly; [Q.] to hurt, injure, wound
A verb for “slay” based on the root √NDAK (PE22/156). Conjugations from 1964 (PE17/77) and 1969 (PE22/156-157, 159, 164) indicate it was a half-strong verb with past tense nacante, though it also had an (archaic) strong past nance.
Conceptual Development: This verb dates back to the Early Qenya Phonology of the 1920s where Tolkien had ᴱQ. nahta- “slay cruelly” based on primitive ᴱ✶ndagta- from the early root ᴱ√DAGA (PE14/66). In The Etymologies of the 1930s this root became ᴹ√NDAK “slay”, but this verb was not mentioned (Ety/NDAK). The verb ᴹQ. nahta- “slay” was mentioned again in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948, but there its root shifted back to √NDAG “slay” (PE22/102, 114-115).
In 1959 revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2), the root again became √NDAK “hew, slay”, but Q. nahta- was derived from an unrelated root √SNAG “wound” and was itself glossed “hurt, injure, wound” (PE19/91). A conjugation for nahta- appeared in notes from 1964, but without glosses (PE17/77). The verb nahta- appeared in quite a few examples in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, and in those notes the gloss was again “slay” and its root was again √NDAK “hew” (PE22/156).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d stick to the meaning “to slay” for nahta-, and for “wound” I’d use [ᴹQ.] harna-.
Derivations
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √SNAG > nahta- [snagta-] > [snakta-] > [n̥akta-] > [n̥axta-] > [naxta-] ✧ PE19/091 ✶ndakta > nahtan [ndakta-] > [nakta-] > [naxta-] ✧ PE22/156 √ndak- > nahtan [ndakta-] > [nakta-] > [naxta-] ✧ VT49/24 Variations
- nahta- ✧ PE19/091
- nahta ✧ PE22/164
nanca
slain
nanca adj. *"slain" (PE17:68); see -na
-na
suffix. slain
A shorter ending -na also occurs, e.g. nahtana "slain" (VT49:24); the example hastaina "marred" would suggest that *nahtaina is equally possible. In the example aistana "blessed" (VT43:30), -na may be preferred to -ina for euphonic reasons, to avoid creating a second diphthong ai where one already occurs in the previous syllable (*aistaina). In PE17:68, the ending -ina is said to be "aorist" (unmarked as regards time and aspect); the same source states that the shorter ending -na is "no longer part of verbal conjugation", though it obviously survives in many words that are maybe now to be considered independent adjectives. See -na #4.
A word that seems to be an adjective form of nahta- “to slay”, appearing in the 1969 phrase nahtana ló Turin which itself likely means “✱slain by Túrin” as suggested by Patrick Wynne (VT49/24). It is possible that nahtana is a simple adjective, but it may also be some form of passive participle.