an

preposition. to

na/ana

root. to, towards; at side of, alongside, besides; moreover, in addition, plus

The root √ANA was connected to “giving” and “movement toward” for much of Tolkien’s life. The root first appeared as ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, and in this period was the basis for words like ᴱQ. anta-/G. antha- “give” and ᴱQ. ana “to(wards)” (QL/31; GL/19). The root reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as ᴹ√ANA with an inverted variant ᴹ√NĀ¹ “to, towards”; the most notable derivative of this inverted form was N. na “with, by” (Ety/ANA¹, NĀ¹). In the first version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1), √AN was given as one of the primary examples of the inversion of roots, where √AN(A) was originally a “biconsontal root” (²√) with a vocalic beginning, and the inverted form √NA was an abnormal vocalization of the basic root (PE18/38).

This same example of inversion was used in the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from around 1950 (TQ2: PE18/88), and this invertible root appeared regularly in Tolkien’s later writings almost always with glosses like “to, towards, motion to”. There were a few instances in which Tolkien explored some alternate meanings for the root, however. In Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s Tolkien said that:

> It is true that in Q. na appears with sense “to”, but this at nearest means “towards, to a position near, alongside” ... The original sense of Eldarin ana was plainly “at side of, alongside, besides”, hence also “moreover, in addition, plus” (seen in use of an- as an intensive prefix), and so an or na in some languages has the sense “along with, with, accompanied by, provided with, associated with” and the like (PE21/79).

Likewise in Quenya Notes from 1957 (QN) Tolkien said:

> √ANA/NĀ, to, towards - added to, plu-. Quenya verbal prefix ana, na-, as in napan-, add. an­ “plu-”, intensive prefix, arcalima, preeminently bright, ancalima, very bright ... S an, dative chiefly with pronouns or persons. < ana, hence vocalic mutation, but takes form m before m, b. ✱ to, for (PE17/146-7).

In this note Tolkien went on to explore various non-allative meanings associated with the root such as the conjugation/adverb Q. an “for, then, or, but” and prepositions S. na(n) “with” vs. S. na “to, towards”, differing mainly in the mutations they cause (nasal versus soft). It seems the association of this root with both the intensive an- and words like Q. an “for; moreover” and S. na(n) “with” motivated Tolkien to find a more nuanced meaning for the root. This likewise probably motivated Tolkien to explore an alternate basis for the intensive prefix in 1967, deriving it from √AMA rather than √AN (PE17/90-94).

Neo-Eldarin: For Neo-Eldarin, I prefer to retain an- as the basis for intensives in both Quenya and Sindarin, and thus I think it is best to retain the extended meanings of √AN from the 1950s to include senses like “add to, more” and “up to the side of”, hence by extension “alongside” becoming (in S.) “with, accompanying, possessing, having the trait of” as in S. na(n) “of, with”.

kamta-

verb. to (make) fit, suit, accomodate, adapt

@@@ per Lokyt must be primitive because we don't see mt > nt

etkoiru-

verb. to come to life

koiru-

verb. to come to life

omen-

verb. to move to a common point, meet

thakta-

verb. to pressure or force ([one] to do something against one’s will or conscience)

-na

suffix. to; allative

aklata-

verb. *to shine out, flash

and(ă)

adverb/conjunction. moreover, to go on further, to say more

antā-

verb. to give, cause a thing/person to go to an object, send, to give, cause a thing/person to go to an object, send, [ᴹ✶] present

aþra-

verb. to cross (to and fro)

ebe-

verb. can of mere possibility according to likelihood, natural probability, etc.

et-koiru/et-koilu

verb. come to life

kalas-

verb. begin to shine, get light

kalas-

verb. begin to shine, get light

kalta-

verb. cause to shine, kindle

kelu

verb. well forth, begin to flow

kelutā-

verb. to cause to spring forth, start (water) flowing, tap

koiru

verb. come to life

koitā

verb. bring to life

koitā-

verb. to bring to life

ndilā

verb. love, be devoted to

ndilā-

verb. to love, be devoted to

ndūtā-

verb. to cause to sink

ninkwisya-

verb. to (begin to) grow pale

nuktā-

verb. stunt, prevent from coming to completion, stop short, not allow to continue

sedu

verb. go to rest

sedu-

verb. to go to rest

taltas-

verb. begin to slip down

taltas-

verb. begin to slip down