talta-

verb. to slip, slide down, collapse, fall, to slip, slide down, collapse, fall, [ᴹQ.] slip down, slope

A verb derived from the root √TALAT, with various glosses like “slip, slide down, collapse” (MC/223), “slope, slip, slide down” (Ety/TALÁT), or “slip, fall” (PE22/113). In the Markirya poem of the 1960s it was translated “fall(ing)” in the phrase elenillor pella talta-taltala “beyond the stars falling”, but this seems to be a loose translation since in the glossary of the poem talta- was translated “slip, slide down, collapse” (MC/222-223). However, in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) written in 1969, talta was simply glossed “fall” (PE22/164).

Tolkien used this verb as the primary example for the class of talat-stem verbs.

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had a similar but transitive verb ᴱQ. tilt- “make slope, incline (tr.), decline, shake at foundations, make totter, etc.” under the early root ᴱ√TḶTḶ (QL/80). Its past tense form talte is the result of differing phonetic developments for long ḹ vs. short ḷ in Early Qenya.

talta-

verb. slip, slide down, collapse, slope

talta- vb. "slip, slide down, collapse, slope" (TALÁT); reduplicated stem in the participle talta-taltala in Markirya, simply translated "falling" in MC:215. Strong intransitive conjugation: present talta, aorist talt- [derived from talati > talti, hence presumably *talti*- with endings and taltë without any], past talantë, perfect ataltië. Weak transitive conjugation: present taltëa, aorist talta, past taltanë**. This is said to be the conjugation type of a certain class of verbs, namely "√TALAT stems" (PE17:186).

talta-

verb. slip, fall

talta

adjective. tottering, unsteady, tottering, unsteady, [ᴱQ.] shaky, wobbling; [ᴹQ.] sloping, tilted, leaning, [ᴱQ.] slanting

An adjective variant of the verb talta- “slip or slide down, collapse”, derived from primitive ✶taltā based on the root √TALAT (PE18/89). In the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950 it was glossed “tottering, unsteady” (PE18/89), but in The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. talta was glossed “sloping, tilted, leaning” (Ety/TALÁT). However, in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s ᴱQ. talta was glossed both “shaky, wobbly, tottering” and “sloping, slanting” under the early root ᴱ√TḶTḶ (QL/93), so perhaps this word can incorporate all these meanings. If so, it may mean “tottering, unsteady” when referring to an unfixed object, but “sloping, slanting” when referring to a fixed object like a hill, perhaps due to the unsteadiness induced for those standing on a slant.

talta

sloping, tilted, leaning

talta adj. "sloping, tilted, leaning"; also "incline" as noun (TALÁT)

talta

adjective. inclined

inclined

talat-

verb. slipping, sliding, falling down

talat- vb. a stem used for "slipping, sliding, falling down" (Letters:347), cf. atalta-, talta- and talantië

elenillor pella talta-taltala

beyond the stars falling

The twenty-ninth and thirtieth lines of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is the ablative plural form of the noun elen “star” followed by the postposition pella “beyond”. The noun is modified by adjectival talta-taltala “falling”, a combination of the infinitive (or perhaps just the verb stem) with active participle of the verb talta- “to fall”.

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

> elen-illo-r pella talta-talta-la = “✱star-from-(plural) beyond fall-fall-ing”

nenda

sloping

[nenda] (2) adj. "sloping" (DEN, struck out)

tál

noun. foot, foot; [ᴹQ.] bottom, [ᴱQ.] lowest part

The Quenya word for “foot” derived from the root √TAL of similar meaning (PE19/103; VT49/17; Ety/TAL). Given its Sindarin cognate S. tâl (not ✱✱taul) its ancient stem form must have had a short vowel, with the long vowel in the uninflected form the result of the subjective noun case which lengthened the base vowel of monosyllables (PE21/76). Q. tál could also refer to the bottom of things (PE21/21, 76) analogous to English “foot of the mountain” and similar phrases.

Conceptual Development: The earliest iteration of this word was ᴱQ. tala “foot” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√TALA “support” (QL/88), a form also appearing in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/88). In the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s it became ᴱQ. tál with plural tăli indicating an ancient short vowel (PE14/43, 76). In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, ᴹQ. tāl had inflected forms with tal-, again indicating a short vowel in the stem (PE21/21), and likewise with the (1930s-style) genitive form talen in The Etymologies written around 1937 (Ety/TAL). Most of its later appearances also imply a short vowel in the stem, the main exception being the plural form táli in the 1950s version of the Nieninquë “poem”.