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!

Middle Primitive Elvish

nar

root. tell, relate

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

nar

root. flame, fire

Derivatives

  • ᴹ✶Anār “Sun” ✧ Ety/ANÁR
    • ᴹQ. Anar “Sun” ✧ Ety/ANÁR; SD/306
    • N. Anor “Sun” ✧ Ety/ANÁR; SD/302; SD/306
  • ᴹ√NARTA “kindle”
    • ᴹQ. narta- “to kindle, to kindle, *ignite, inflame, set fire to” ✧ EtyAC/NARTA
    • N. Narthas “The Gore” ✧ EtyAC/NARTA
    • N. nartha- “to kindle, to kindle, *ignite, inflame, set fire to” ✧ EtyAC/NARTA
  • ᴹ✶narwā “fiery red” ✧ Ety/NAR¹
    • N. naru “red, [fiery] red” ✧ Ety/NAR¹
  • ᴹQ. Anar “Sun” ✧ Ety/NAR¹
  • ᴹQ. nár(e) “flame” ✧ Ety/NAR¹
  • N. Anor “Sun” ✧ Ety/NAR¹
  • N. naur “flame” ✧ Ety/NAR¹

Element in

  • ᴹQ. Narqelion “Fire-fading, Autumn” ✧ Ety/NAR¹
  • ᴹQ. Narsil
  • N. Egnor ✧ Ety/NAR¹
  • N. Feanor “Radiant Sun” ✧ Ety/NAR¹

Variations

  • ANÁR ✧ Ety/ANÁR
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ANÁR; Ety/NAR¹] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ndar

root. sign

A rejected root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with a single derivative: ᴹQ. narwe “sign, token”, along with an unglossed (and probably incomplete) form nar... (EtyAC/NDAR).

Derivatives

  • ᴹQ. narwe “sign, token” ✧ EtyAC/NDAR
Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/NDAR] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nyar

root. tell, relate

Quenya words for “tell” and “tale” began with nyar- for much of Tolkien’s life, but their derivation shifted over time. The earliest root for such words was ᴱ√NYAŘA [NYAÐA] “relate, tell” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. nyara- “relate, tell” and ᴱQ. nyara “tale” (QL/68), but it had no obvious derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon. In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien first gave this root as ᴹ√NYAR “tell, relate”, then changed it to ᴹ√NAR² with a Quenya-only variant nyar- (Ety/NAR²; EtyAC/NAR²). This change may have been in keeping with Tolkien notion from the 1930s that palatalized dentals might have been a Quenya-only innovation (PE18/44). The root ᴹ√NYAR/NAR had derivatives like ᴹQ. nyáre/N. narn “tale” and ᴹQ. nyar- “tell”.

However, in both the Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) from the 1930s and Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the early 1950s Tolkien indicated the primitive form of the Quenya verb was ñgyar- (OP1: PE19/36, OP2: PE19/76). This may have been in keeping with Tolkien’s later decision that initial palatalized dentals were not a feature of Primitive Elvish at all; see the entry on how [[at|[j] was lost after initial dentals]] in the Welsh-like branch of the Elvish languages for discussion of this transition. Despite this decision, Tolkien continued to use S. narn “tale” regularly in his later writings, despite there being no way it could be derived from ñ(g)yar-.

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I think it is best to ignore Tolkien’s decision to remove initial palatalized dentals from Primitive Elvish, and I recommend retaining √NYAR as the root for “tell” and “tale” in Elvish, this being the only reasonable option for retaining both Q. nyar- and S. narn.

Changes

  • NYARNAR² ✧ Ety/NAR²

Derivatives

  • ᴺQ. nyaira “claim”
  • Q. nyar- “to relate, recite, to relate, recite, [ᴹQ.] tell, talk”
  • ᴹQ. nyar(a)- “to relate, tell, recite (in sing-song voice), talk” ✧ Ety/NAR²
  • ᴺQ. nyarda- “to preach”
  • Q. nyárë “history, account, history, account, [ᴹQ.] tale, saga”
  • Q. nyarna “long epic tale, story, legend, (long epic) tale, story, legend, [ᴹQ.] saga”
  • ᴺQ. nyarvë “fiction”
  • S. narn “tale, tale, [N.] saga”
  • N. narn “tale, saga” ✧ Ety/SI
  • On. nara- “to tell a story” ✧ Ety/NAR²
    • N. nara- “to tell” ✧ Ety/NAR²
  • On. narna “tale, saga” ✧ Ety/NAR²
    • N. narn “tale, saga” ✧ Ety/NAR²

Element in

  • ᴺQ. nyarmë “storytelling (general/abstract)”
  • On. trenar- “to recount, tell to the end” ✧ Ety/NAR²

Variations

  • NAR² ✧ Ety/NAR²; Ety/SI
Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/NAR²; Ety/SI; EtyAC/NAR²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

eʒ-

verb. to be

Derivations

  • ᴹ√ “be”

Derivatives

  • ᴹQ. ea- “to be; to exist, have being, be found extant in the real world” ✧ PE22/122; PE22/122; PE22/122; PE22/122

Variations

  • eʒe ✧ PE22/122
  • eñe ✧ PE22/122
Middle Primitive Elvish [PE22/122] Group: Eldamo. Published by

root. to be

Changes

  • YEĒ “to be” ✧ PE22/122

Derivatives

  • ᴹQ. ye- “to be” ✧ PE22/123
  • ᴹQ. -ie “stative suffix” ✧ EtyAC/YĒ

Variations

  • Ī ✧ EtyAC/YĒ
  • I ✧ PE18/060
  • YE ✧ PE18/084 (YE); PE22/123 (YE)
Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/YĒ; PE18/060; PE18/084; PE22/123] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ē

root. to be

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

ī

root. to be

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by