nai

interjection. alas

nai

adverb. *may it be

nai hiruvalle valimar; nai elle hiruva

nai hiruvalle Valimar; nai elle hiruva

naina-

verb. to lament, to lament, *mourn

A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing as (nai)naina- “lament” derived from the root ᴹ√NAY of the same meaning (Ety/NAY). In The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road Christopher Tolkien gave the form as naina- (LR/375), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne corrected this to (nai)naina- in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT45/37). The ongoing validity of this verb is indicated by the noun form nainië “lament” in the title of Galadriel’s poem: Altariello nainië Lóriendesse (RGEO/58).

Conceptual Development: A likely precursor is ᴱQ. nyéna- “lament” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√NYE(NE) “bleat” (QL/68).

Neo-Quenya: In a 2024-11-03 post on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), Luinyelle suggested this verb might also mean “✱mourn”.

naike

noun. sharp pain

naikea

adjective. cruel

naikele

noun. *anguish, [ᴱQ.] anguish

naikelea

adjective. painful, painful, [ᴱQ.] agonizing

naire

noun. lament, sorrow, sorrow, *sadness, lament

nairea

adjective. sorrowful, sorrowful, *sad

naite

adjective. *true or thingly

(nai)naina-

verb. to lament

takse

noun. nail

A noun for “nail” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶taksē under the root ᴹ√TAK “fix, make fast” (Ety/TAK).

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. tas (taks-) “nail” under the early root ᴱ√TAKA “fix, fasten” (QL/88), while the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s had takse “nail” (PE15/75).

yat

noun. goat

The word ᴹQ. yat (yak-) “goat” appeared in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s (PE21/24).

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s and Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s, ᴱQ. yakko was “ox” (QL/105; PE16/132). In Common Eldarin: Noun Structure of the early 1950s, Tolkien gave the possibly-related primitive form ✶najak- for “goat”, with masculine and feminine variants ✶najakō “he-goat” and ✶naikē “she-goat” (PE21/82).

Neo-Quenya: Helge Fauskanger used ᴺQ. naico for (male?) “goat” in his NQNT (NQNT) as a derivative of ✶najakō, and I would recommend this over ᴹQ. yat for this purpose. However, I’d recommend ᴺQ. nyéni for a female goat (adapted from ᴱQ. nyéni) since it (a) is more distinctive than ✱naice and (b) does not conflict with ᴹQ. naike “sharp pain”; Helge Fauskanger used nyéni in NQNT as well.

aika

adjective. sharp

ehte

noun. spear

elen

noun. star

elena

noun. star

ellen

noun. star

helle

noun. frost

helor

noun. frost

in

pronoun. that

karka

noun. tooth

laure

noun. gold

lúne

adjective. blue, blue, [ᴱQ.] deep blue

nele

noun. tooth

nelet

noun. tooth

The normal Quenya word for “tooth”, appearing in The Etymologies written around 1937 derived from the root ᴹ√NELEK of the same meaning (Ety/NÉL-EK), where the final k became t. Its plural form nelki [nelci] indicates a stem form of nelk- [nelc-], since in most inflected forms the word would undergo the Quenya syncope and loose the second e. A variant form nelke (EtyAC/NÉL-EK) may reflect a reformation to align with those inflected forms.

Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s Tolkien had ᴱQ. nele (neli-) “tooth” under the early root ᴱ√NELE (QL/65), a word also mentioned in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (PME/65). In Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s Tolkien instead had ᴱQ. nyat “tooth” (PE16/136), but that seems to have been a transient idea. ᴹQ. nelet first appeared in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from 1936 alongside variant nelke, but it was replaced by nele and then later nelke was deleted as well (PE21/56 and note #12). Both nelet and variant nelke were restored in The Etymologies (see above).

Primitive √nelek “tooth” was mentioned in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s, but its Quenya derivatives were not listed.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d use nelet (nelc-) “tooth” as the traditional form of this word, with nelcë as a modern variant with more regular inflections.

nelke

noun. tooth

nisse

noun. woman

nui

noun. lament

nwalka

adjective. cruel

nwalma

noun. pain

nyarro

noun. rat

A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “rat” derived from primitive ᴹ✶nyadrō under the root ᴹ√NYAD “gnaw” (Ety/NYAD). In The Etymologies as published in The Lost Road, the form was incorrectly given as nyano (LR/379), but Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne corrected this to nyarro in their Addenda and Corrigenda to the Etymologies (VT46/7).

ná-

verb. to be

onna

noun. creature

saira

adjective. wise

tama

pronoun. thing

tana

that

tane

pronoun. that

tyel

noun. end

ye-

verb. to be

é

interjection. indeed

él

noun. star