Primitive elvish

tar

root. stand

The root √TAR appeared unglossed in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 as the basis for Q. tára “tall, high” (WJ/417), a word that elsewhere was derived from √TĀ/TAƷ “high” (Ety/TĀ; PE17/186). The root √TAR was glossed “stand” along with derivative tāra “tall” in rough notes on the back of a discussion of the comparitive from around 1967 (PE17/186). The past tense for Q. tarne “stood” appears in other notes from this period, along with Q. astarindo, artarindo or astarmo “bystander” (PE17/70-71). √TAR “stand” seems to be a later iteration of ᴹ√THAR “stand” from the Quenya Verbal System of the 1940s; of this earlier root Tolkien said it “is only used [in describing the location of things] — except, of course, with reference to persons or animals when they are noted especially as ‘standing’ (not sitting or lying) — of mountains, high hills, towers, pillars” (PE22/126).

Derivatives

  • Q. tar- “to stand”
  • Q. tára “lofty, tall, high” ✧ PE17/186; WJ/417
  • ᴺQ. tarmë “state, status, condition”
  • ᴺS. tar- “to stand”

Variations

  • TĂR ✧ PE17/186
  • TĂRA ✧ PE17/186
Primitive elvish [PE17/186; WJ/417] Group: Eldamo. Published by

tāra

adjective. high

Derivations

  • TĀ/TAƷ “high, high, [ᴹ√] lofty; noble”

Element in

Variations

  • tār(a) ✧ PE17/186
Primitive elvish [PE17/067; PE17/186] Group: Eldamo. Published by

taw

root. wood

Tolkien used a similar set of words for “forest” starting with the earliest versions of Elvish, but their derivation evolved somewhat over time. The earliest related root was ᴱ√TAVA “beam” with variant ᴱ√TAFA (the latter marked by Tolkien with a “?” and with no obvious derivatives) from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as the basis for words like ᴱQ. taule “great tree”, ᴱQ. tauno “forest” and ᴱQ. tavar “dale-sprite” (QL/90). It also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. tavros/G. taur “forest” and G. tavor “wood fay” (GL/69).

ᴱQ. taure “forest” did not appear as an independent word until drafts of the Oilima Markirya from around 1930 (PE16/62; MC/213). Thereafter Tolkien mostly stuck with Q. taurë and N./S. taur for “forest”. In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root ᴹ√TAWAR “wood, forest” (Ety/TÁWAR), though in one place it was ᴹ√TAR (EtyAC/TUR). In notes associated with the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 Tolkien gave √TAWA “wood”, and in notes on “large & small” roots from 1968 Tolkien had √TAW “wood” (PE17/115).

Derivatives

  • taurē “forest” ✧ PE17/115
    • Q. taurë “forest, (great) wood” ✧ PE17/115
    • S. taur “forest, wood, forest, wood, [N.] great wood, [G.] dense wood” ✧ PE17/115
  • tawinā “wood” ✧ PE17/115
    • Q. toina “wood, wood, *wooden, made of wood” ✧ PE17/115
    • S. tawen “wood (of material), ?wooden (of make), wood (of material), wooden (of make)” ✧ PE17/115
  • Q. tauca “stiff, wooden” ✧ PE17/115
  • Q. taurë “forest, (great) wood” ✧ VT39/07
  • ᴺQ. tauron “forester”
  • Q. táva “great tree” ✧ PE17/115
  • ᴺQ. tavas “woodland”
  • Q. töa “wood (as material)” ✧ PE17/115
  • S. taug “firm, strong, (?withstand)” ✧ PE17/115
  • S. taw “wood as material” ✧ PE17/115

Element in

Variations

  • TAWA ✧ VT39/07
Primitive elvish [PE17/115; PE17/187; VT39/07] Group: Eldamo. Published by

san-

noun. that

Derivatives

  • S. san “that” ✧ PE17/042
Primitive elvish [PE17/042] Group: Eldamo. Published by

tā/taʒ

root. high, high, [ᴹ√] lofty; noble

This root and ones like it were used for “high” things for much of Tolkien’s life. It first appeared as unglossed ᴱ√TAHA in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. “high; high above, high up”, ᴱQ. tahōra or tayóra “lofty”, and ᴱQ. tāri “queen”; it had a variant form ᴱ√TAʕA where the ʕ might be a malformed Y (QL/87). The corresponding forms in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon were G. “high” and G. dara “lofty” (GL/29), indicating the true form of the root was ᴱ√DAHA, since initial voiced stops were unvoiced (d- > t-) in Early Qenya (PE12/17). Primitive forms like ᴱ✶dagá > ᴱN. /ᴱQ. “high” in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s indicates the root continued to begin with D for the following decade (PE13/141, 161).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave this root as ᴹ√TĀ/TAƷ “high, lofty; noble” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tára “lofty, high”, ᴹQ. tári “queen” and N. taen “height, summit of high mountain” (Ety/TĀ). In Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 Tolkien gave the root as √TAG or Tā- “high”, and in notes from around 1967 Tolkien gave √TAƷ as the explanation of the initial element of Q. Taniquetil and contrasted it with √TĂR “stand” (PE17/186). In 1970 green-ink revisions to the Outline of Phonology (OP2), Tolkien wrote a marginal note giving √TAƷ > “high”, but this note was rejected with a statement “transfer to Gen. Structure. No [ʒ] existed in Eldarin” (PE19/72-73 note #22).

This last rejection seems to be part of Tolkien’s general vacillation on the nature and phonetic evolution of velar spirants in Primitive Elvish in 1968-70. For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I would assume the root form was √TAH or √TAƷ > √ as the basis for “high” words, much like √MAH or √MAƷ > ✶ was the basis for “hand” words.

Derivatives

  • tagra ✧ PE17/186
    • Q. tára “lofty, tall, high” ✧ PE17/186
    • S. taer “lofty, lofty, *high” ✧ PE17/186
  • tāra “high”
  • Q. -tar “honorific”
  • Q. tar “honorific, sir, madam”
  • Q. tar- “high, high; [ᴹQ.] king or queen (in compounds)”
  • Q. tára “lofty, tall, high” ✧ PE17/186
  • S. taer “lofty, lofty, *high” ✧ PE17/186

Variations

  • TAG/Tā- ✧ PE17/186
  • TAƷ ✧ PE17/186; PE17/186; PE19/073 (TAƷ)
  • ✧ PE19/073 ()
Primitive elvish [PE17/186; PE19/073] Group: Eldamo. Published by

tawinā

adjective. wood

Derivations

  • TAW “wood” ✧ PE17/115

Derivatives

  • Q. toina “wood, wood, *wooden, made of wood” ✧ PE17/115
  • S. tawen “wood (of material), ?wooden (of make), wood (of material), wooden (of make)” ✧ PE17/115

Variations

  • tawĭnā ✧ PE17/115
Primitive elvish [PE17/115] Group: Eldamo. Published by

lā̆

preposition/adverb. beyond

Derivations

  • LAƷ “cross, pass over, go beyond” ✧ PE17/065

Derivatives

  • Q. “beyond, over, across, athwart” ✧ PE17/065; PE17/065

Element in

  • orlā “over” ✧ PE17/065
  • pelola “beyond (the boundary)” ✧ PE17/065

Variations

  • laŋa ✧ PE17/065
Primitive elvish [PE17/065] Group: Eldamo. Published by

te

pronoun. they

Derivatives

  • -te-tē̆ “3rd pl reflexive” ✧ VT49/21
    • Q. -ttë “themselves” ✧ VT49/21
  • Q. -ltë “they” ✧ VT49/50
  • Q. -t “they (object suffix)”
  • Q. te “them” ✧ VT49/50
  • Q. -ttë “they (dual)” ✧ VT49/50
  • ᴺS. tin “them”

Variations

  • TE ✧ VT48/24; VT48/25
  • t(e) ✧ VT49/17
  • te/se ✧ VT49/50
Primitive elvish [VT48/24; VT48/25; VT49/17; VT49/21; VT49/37; VT49/50; VT49/52] Group: Eldamo. Published by

kegyā

noun. hedge

Derivations

  • KEG “snag, barb” ✧ UT/282

Derivatives

  • S. cai “hedge” ✧ UT/282
Primitive elvish [UT/282] Group: Eldamo. Published by