Primitive elvish

ni

pronoun. I, me

Derivatives

  • Q. ni “me, I” ✧ PE17/068; VT49/50
  • Q. -n(yë) “I” ✧ VT49/50
  • ᴺS. ni “I”
  • S. nin “me”
  • S. nín “my”
  • T. ni “me, *I”
  • T. nia “my”

Element in

  • nki “*thou-and-I” ✧ PE17/130; VT49/50

Variations

  • NI ✧ PE17/068; PE17/168
  • ✧ PE22/152
Primitive elvish [PE17/068; PE17/130; PE17/168; PE22/152; VT49/50; VT49/52] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nis

root. woman

This root first appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as ᴹ√NIS “woman”, an extension of ᴹ√ “female” (Ety/NIS). It also had a strengthened form ᴹ√NDIS, unglossed but apparently meaning “bride” based on its derivatives ᴹQ. indis/N. dîs of that meaning (Ety/NDIS). Unstrengthened ᴹ√NIS seems to have survived only in Quenya as the basis for ᴹQ. nis (niss-) “woman”, but this word was also blended with ✱ndis-sē to produce a longer form nisse of the same meaning.

In Tolkien’s later writings, both short Q. nís and longer nissë appeared as words for “woman” (MR/213; VT47/33) and Q. indis reappeared as well, though glossed “wife” (UT/8). As primitive forms, both unstrengthened √nis (VT47/33) and strengthened ✶ndī̆s “woman” also appeared in later writings, the latter given as the feminine equivalent of ✶[[p|n[d]ēr]] “man” (PE19/102).

Derivatives

  • ndī̆s “*bride, [ᴹ✶] bride”
    • Q. indis “wife, [ᴹQ.] bride; [Q.] wife”
  • nīs “woman, female person”
  • Q. nillë “small [woman]” ✧ VT47/33
  • Q. nís “woman” ✧ VT47/18; VT47/33
  • Q. nisto “large woman” ✧ VT47/33

Variations

  • nis- ✧ VT47/18
  • nis ✧ VT47/33
Primitive elvish [VT47/18; VT47/33] Group: Eldamo. Published by

si

root. this, this, [ᴹ√] here, now

Tolkien used √SI as the basis for “near demonstratives” like “here” and “now” from very early in his writings on Elvish. The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had two competing roots ᴱ√HYA “this by us” with derivatives like ᴱQ. hyá “here by us” (QL/41) and ᴱ√KI “this by me” with derivative ᴱQ. tyá (< ᴱ✶kı̯-ā) “now” (QL/41, 49). Indications of the latter can be seen words in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. {“now” >>} “here” and G. cîrin “present (place or time), modern” [gloss deleted] (GL/26). However, Tolkien also introduced a new root ᴱ√si(n) “this here by me” with derivatives like G. “here” and G. sith “hither” (GL/68). Revisions of Gnomish ci- word glosses indicate Tolkien was vacillating on which forms were temporal and which were spatial.

In The Etymologies Tolkien gave the root ᴹ√SI “this, here, now” with derivatives like ᴹQ. or sin “now” and ᴹQ. sinya/N. sein “new” (Ety/SI). The root √SI was mentioned a couple times in Tolkien’s later writings, usually glossed “this” (PE17/67; VT48/25; VT49/18) and in one place with the variant √SIN (PE17/67). This root was not entirely without competition in Tolkien’s later notes, however: in one place he gave primitive ✶khĭn- as the possible basis for Q. “here” and S. “now” in 1968 notes on demonstratives, though it appeared beside primitive ✶si- forms (VT49/34 note #21).

Derivatives

  • “this (by me), now or here” ✧ PE17/067
    • Q. “now” ✧ PE17/067; VT49/18
    • S. “here, in this place (of speaker)” ✧ PE17/067
  • Q. si “this”
  • Q. sië “thus”
  • Q. sin “*thus”
  • ᴺS. se “this”
  • ᴺS. sin “these”

Element in

  • kenásĭta “if it be so, may be, perhaps”
  • Q. sinomë “here, (lit.) in this place” ✧ PE17/067
  • ᴺS. “yet, hither(to), hereto”
  • S. sír “*today, this day”

Variations

  • SĬ/SĬN ✧ PE17/067; PE17/184
  • SI ✧ VT48/25
Primitive elvish [PE17/067; PE17/184; VT48/25] Group: Eldamo. Published by

sin

root. this

sĭnā

adjective. this

Derivatives

  • Q. sina “this” ✧ VT49/18
  • S. sen “this” ✧ PE17/044; VT49/34

Variations

  • sĭna ✧ PE17/044
Primitive elvish [PE17/044; VT49/18; VT49/34] Group: Eldamo. Published by

yenā

adjective. female

Derivations

  • EYE “feminine” ✧ PE21/83

Variations

  • jēnā ✧ PE21/83 (jēnā)
Primitive elvish [PE21/83] Group: Eldamo. Published by