nin

pronoun. me

nin

pronoun. me

nin

pronoun. me

_ pron. _me.

aglar’ni pheriannath

glory to the halflings

enni

pronoun. to me

ni

pronoun. I

ni

for the

ni (to the). Apparently representing an (for) + i (the).

ni

to the, for the

ni. Apparently representing an (for) + i (the).

ni

to the

ni (for the). Apparently representing an (for) + i (the).

nin

i

”me”, genitive nín ”my”, dative anim or enni ”to me, for me”.

nin

me

(object form of ”I”) nin; as indirect object anim or enni ”for myself, (to) me”.

-il

suffix. feminine suffix

A fairly common feminine suffix appearing as -il in Sindarin, either formed on its own or as a variant of the feminine suffix -iel. This suffix was also common Noldorin words in The Etymologies of the 1930s, along with an alternate form -ril that seems to be a feminine agental suffix, the equivalent of masculine -(r)on, seen in pairs like N. melethril/melethron “lover” and N. odhril/odhron “parent” (Ety/MEL, ONO). The -il suffix and its -ril variant are seen all the way back in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s in pairs like G. gwadhril/gwadhron “inhabitant” (GL/47) and G. ainil/ainos “god”, female and male respectively (GL/18). So it seems this feminine suffix was well established in Tolkien’s mind.

im

pronoun. I

In late writings (see esp. VT/47:37-38), Tolkien reinterpreted this form as a reflexive pronoun (= "self").

sui mín i gohenam di ai gerir úgerth ammen

as we forgive those who trespass against us

The eighth line of Ae Adar Nín, Tolkien’s Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT44/21). The first word is the preposition sui “as”. The second word has the same form as mín “our” but seems to function as men “us” (as it appeared in the first draft of this sentence). The third word is i “who”, followed by gohenam, the 2nd-pl inflection of the verb gohena- “to forgive” with its direct object di, the lenited form of the pronoun ti “them”.

The function of the sixth word ai (“those who”) is difficult to decipher. See the entry for that word for further discussion.

The seventh word gerir is a lenited form of cerir (as it appeared in the draft), which itself is the plural of the verb car- “to do”. This followed by úgerth, the plural of úgarth “trespass, ✱misdeed” and ammen “to us”, a combination of an “to, for” and men “us”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> sui mín i gohena-m di [← ti] ai gerir [← cerir] úgerth am-men = “✱as us who forgive-we them who do-(plural) trespasses to-us”

The sense of this phrase seems to be: “as us, who forgive those who do trespasses to us”.

Conceptual Development: Tolkien wrote a draft version (I) before producing a revised version (II) of this phrase (VT44/22, note on line 8). For “as we [us]”, Tolkien used the preposition sui “as” in both versions, but for “us” Tolkien wrote mín >> men in the draft, and then mí ni >> mín in the revision. Of these, men “us” seems to me to be the most consistent with Tolkien’s use of this pronoun elsewhere. Bill Welden discussed possible interpretations of this pronoun usage on VT44/28.

For “forgive”, Tolkien first wrote dihenam in the draft, which is another form of the verb díhena- “forgive” used in the previous line of the prayer. Tolkien replaced this with góhenam in the draft, which appeared as gohenam in the revised phrase. As pointed out by Bill Welden (VT44/29), it isn’t clear whether Tolkien intended to replace díhena- with gohena- generally as the Sindarin verb for “forgive”, or whether both verbs were valid with slightly different connotations.

See the entry for the word ai “✱those who” for a discussion of the development of that word (ayath >> ay >> ai).

Tolkien reversed the order of úgarth “trespass” and cerir “do-(plural)” between the draft and revised versions, which required changing cerir to its lenited form gerir (which Tolkien first wrote mistakenly as garer in the revised version before correcting it to gerir).

In the draft version, Tolkien wrote ann for “against us”, but as Bill Welden points out (VT44/22), Tolkien almost certainly intended ammen as it appeared in the revised version and elsewhere in the prayer, and simply failed to complete this form in the draft.

|  I  |II| |sui| |{mín >>} men|{mí ni >>} mín| |i| |{dihenam >>} góhenam|gohenam| |di| |{ayath >> ay >>} ai|ai| |ugerth|{garer >>} gerir| |cerir|úgerth| |ann|ammen|

an

preposition. to, towards, for

With suffixed article and elision in aglar'ni Pheriannath

na-

verb. to be

A verb for “to be” based on the root √NĀ of the same meaning. This verb is barely attested in the Sindarin language, and the general consensus is that [for purposes of Neo-Sindarin at least] Sindarin omits the verb “to be” in most phrases, such as in naur an edraith ammen “fire [be] for saving us” (LotR/299) or ✱orchal i adan “tall [is] the man”; see the entry on the copula for further discussion.

The clearest attestation of the verb na- is its imperative form no “be!” in the phrase no aer i eneth lín “hallowed be thy name, (lit.) ✱be holy the name your”, from the Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer from the 1950s (VT44/21). This imperative form was preceded by some hard-to-read deleted forms, perhaps {dôd >> dád >> hae >>} no (VT44/22). The d-forms might be eroded/mutated variants of na-. Compare đa in the phrase inn đa v’im “a mind there is in me = I have a good mind (to do so)” in notes from the late 1960s (PE22/165), where đa could be another eroded form of na-. This phrase was first written as inn no v’im (PE22/165 note #108); see the entry for đa for further discussion.

Another clear attestation of na “be” is an apparent future form natho in the untranslated phrase Sí il chem {na} en i naugrim en ir Ellath {natho} thor den ammen in the so-called “Túrin Wrapper” from the late 1950s (VT50/5). This future[?] form natho was deleted and replaced by thor, and a deleted {na} also appears earlier in the phrase, possibly a false start. Carl Hostetter suggested this phrase might mean something like “✱now all (?hands) of the Dwarves and Elves will be (?against) us” (VT50/22-25). If so, it seems the future of na- “be” was constructed from the bare future suffix (a)tha-, manifesting as tho “✱will be”.

Neo-Sindarin: As noted above, for purposes of Neo-Sindarin the general consensus is that this verb is barely used, and is omitted from most “to be” phrases as in the example orchal i adan given above. The verb’s one widely accepted use is as an imperative, such as in no mae “be well”. Based the Túrin Wrapper, I posit that tho can also be used for a future form “will be”, as in i adan tho orchal “the man will be tall”. I likewise posit a (purely hypothetical) past form [ᴺS.] nî “was”, based on the primitive past-tense element ✶-nē with [[os|long [ē] becoming [ī]]], as in i adan nî orchal “the man was tall”. Neither tho or nî are widely accepted Neo-Sindarin, however.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had the verb G. na- “is” (GL/58), clearly based on the early root ᴱ√NĀ “be, exist” (QL/64). This irregular Gnomish verb had some inflected forms: plural nain, participle ol· and past form {ni >>} thi, the last of these being another inspiration for Neo-Sindarin nî “was”.

im

i

but as subject usually simply the ending -n, as in ónen ”

mad-

verb. to eat

The Sindarin verb for “to eat” derived from the root √MAT of the same meaning (PE17/131; Ety/MAT). In Tolkien’s later writing it appears only in inflected forms, but the verb itself is well established, dating back all the way to G. mad- in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/56). This verb was one Tolkien often used in examples of verb conjugations and as such its inflected forms changed considerably over time, but that is more a topic of the evolution of the Sindarin verb system.

an

for

(prep.) an (+ nasal mutation), with article ni ”for the” (+ nasal mutation in plural).

an

for

(+ nasal mutation), with article ’ni ”for the” (+ nasal mutation in plural).

an

to

(prep.) an (+ nasal mutation), with article ni "to the" (+ nasal mutation in plural).

an

preposition. to, for, to, for; [N. and G.] of

men

pronoun. us

adaneth

mortal woman

(pl. edenith), also firieth (pl. firith).

bess

woman

bess (i vess, construct bes) (wife), pl. biss (i miss). The word etymologically means ”wife”, but the meaning was generalized.

bess

woman

(i vess, construct bes) (wife), pl. biss (i miss). The word etymologically means ”wife”, but the meaning was generalized.

dadbenn

do

(downhill, sloping down, inclined), lenited dhadbenn, pl. dedbinn. Verb

mín

us

mín, presumably usually lenited vín (which is also the genitive ”our”); see WE.

mín

us

presumably usually lenited vín (which is also the genitive ”our”); see

sen

this

*sen, lenited hen. Only attested in lenited pl. form hin* (unlenited sin) ”these” in the Moria Gate inscription (i thiw hin**, ”these letters”).

sen

this

lenited hen. Only attested in lenited pl. form hin (unlenited ✱sin) ”these” in the Moria Gate inscription (i thiw hin, ”these letters”).

-i

suffix. adjectival suffix

huil

noun. bitch, *female dog

inu

noun/adjective. female

adaneth

noun. (mortal) woman

ammen

pronoun. of us, for us, toward us

an

to

_ prep. _to, for. naur an edraith ammen! 'fire [be] for rescue/saving for us'. aglar an|i Pheriannath  'glory to all the Halflings'.

anha-

verb. to give

arwen

noun. noble woman

bess

noun. (young) woman

bess

noun. wife

car-

verb. to do

caro

verb. do! make!

hen

pronoun. this

pl1. hin _ dem. pron. _this.

inu

adjective. female

men

pronoun. us

mín

pronoun. us

na

to

e _ prep. _to, towards (of spacetime). n' before vowels. >> nan 2

na

preposition. to

prep. to Na-chaered palan-díriel lit. "To-distance (remote) after-gazing" >> na-chaered, nan 2

sen

adjective. this

This demonstrative adjective is probably enclitic. We have suggested that this possibility could perhaps explain why the mutated form of tîw on the Doors of Durin is thiw instead of the expected thîw, see HL/69

sen

pronoun. this

pl1. sín {ī}_ dem. pron. _this.

sen

pronoun. this

ammen

for us, to us, of us

ammen

for us

(to us).

an

for

(adverbial prefix) an-

an

for the

(for) + i (the).

an

to

(adverbial prefix) an-. 3)

car

do

car- (i gâr, i cherir), pa.t. agor (make, build) (WJ:415),

car

do

(i gâr, i cherir), pa.t. agor (make, build) (WJ:415)

dess

young woman

(i ness, o ndess, constuct des), pl. diss (i ndiss).

gwanur

kinsman

(i ’wanur) (brother), pl. gwenyr (in gwenyr). Note: a homophone of the sg. means ”pair of twins”.

heria

set vigorously out to do

(i cheria, i cheriar) (have an impulse, be compelled to do something, begin suddenly and vigorously) (VT45:22)

inu

female

inu (analogical pl. iny)

inu

female

(analogical pl. iny)**

se

pronoun. this