Primitive elvish

kayan

root. ten

Derivatives

Element in

Variations

  • kayan ✧ VT48/12
Primitive elvish [VT48/12] Group: Eldamo. Published by

kway

root. ten

A root Tolkien introduced in the late 1960s as the basis for his latest Elvish word for “ten”: Q. quëan/quain, S. pae, T. pai(n) (VT42/24; VT48/6). It was an extension of √KWA “complete” as in “a complete set of (10) fingers”. Prior this late change, the usual word for “ten” was ᴹQ. kainen (along with other variants beginning with kai- or kea-) from the root ᴹ√KAYAN or ᴹ√KAYAR as it appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/KAYAN). This basis for “ten” dates back to the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/49, PE14/82). Tolkien was still considering √KAYAN for “10” in the late 1960s before replacing it with √KWAY(AM) (VT48/12).

Derivatives

Variations

  • kwaya ✧ VT42/24; VT42/24
Primitive elvish [VT42/24] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ten

root. direction; point (toward); end (in sense of point aimed at)

This root first appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as ᴱ√TENE “touch, feel”, with derivatives like ᴱQ. tende “sense of touch, sense, sensation, feeling” and ᴱQ. tenya- “feel, touch” (QL/91). G. tent “toe” and G. tentha- “feel with the feet, walk on tiptoe” from the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon might be related (GL/70). There were then no further signs of this root for many years, except perhaps the preposition ᴹQ. ten “for” in Fíriel’s Song of the 1930s.

The root √TEN “direction” eventually reappeared in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 with a single derivative, adverb or preposition Q. tenna “to the object; up to, to (reach), as far as”, as in the phrase Q. tenn’ Ambar-metta “unto the ending of the world” (LotR/967). The root √TEN also appeared with gloss “end in sense of point aimed at” (vs. √MET = “finally”) along with derivatives Q. tenna “to the point, until” and Q. †tenya- “arrive, end (not at speaker’s[?] place)” in notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s (VT49/24).

In notes from 1968, √TEN was at first used for “to, arrive (at), reach” along with derivatives Q. tenna “right up to a point (of time/place); go as far as” and a verb Q. ten- “arrive, come to”, but then Tolkien changed {√TEN >>} √MEN and revised all the verb forms of {Q. ten- >>} men- (VT49/23-24). He then gave a new gloss “point” to √TEN and updated derivatives: Q. tenna “to the point” and Q. tenta- “point to, [point] out, indicate” (VT49/24). In another note associated with 1968 drafts of the Ambidexters Sentence, the root √TEN was glossed “toward” (VT49/24).

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I’d ignore Tolkien’s brief interpretation of this root as “arrive”, and stick with the meaning “(up to the) point”, consistent with its non-deleted derivatives. For “arrive”, I’d use Q. anya- from Late Notes on Verbs written in 1969, reserving √MEN for “go” (LVS).

Changes

  • ten-men- ✧ VT49/23

Derivatives

  • Q. ten- “to arrive, come to” ✧ VT49/23
  • Q. tenya- “to arrive, end (not at speaker’s[?] place)” ✧ VT49/24
  • Q. tenna “until, up to, as far as, to the point, to reach” ✧ PE17/187; VT49/23; VT49/24; VT49/24
  • Q. tenta- “to point (to/out), indicate; to direct toward, be directed toward; to go forth towards (with object)” ✧ VT49/24
  • ᴺS. aden “until”
  • ᴺS. tent “toe”

Element in

  • Q. tensi “already, still, up to now/here; yet [from present]”
  • Q. tenta “still, yet [past], still, yet [past], *up until then”
  • ᴺS. naden “until, up to, as far as”

Variations

  • TEN- ✧ PE17/145
  • ten- ✧ VT49/23 (ten-)
  • ten ✧ VT49/24; VT49/24; VT49/24
Primitive elvish [PE17/145; PE17/187; VT49/23; VT49/24] 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

imin

masculine name. One

Element in

Primitive elvish [NM/055; NM/060; WJ/380; WJ/421; WJI/Imin] Group: Eldamo. Published by

min

cardinal. one

Derivations

  • MIN “one, first of a series, one, first of a series; [ᴹ√] stand alone, stick out”

Derivatives

  • Q. min “one, one, [ᴱQ.] one (in a series), the first”

Element in

Variations

  • Min ✧ NM/060
Primitive elvish [NM/060; WJ/421] Group: Eldamo. Published by

kwayam

cardinal. 10

Derivations

  • KWAY “ten” ✧ VT42/24

Derivatives

Variations

  • kway-am ✧ VT42/24
Primitive elvish [VT42/24] Group: Eldamo. Published by