Quenya Old-Elvish influences
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A number of changes in modern Quenya seem rather irregular at first sight, when we look at the evolution from Old-Elvish to Quenya however, they can be explained. Let’s look at an example:
- aran / arani "king"
- elen / eleni "star"
- talan / talami "floor"
Why has talami an m in the plural? On the page Quenya Nouns we have said that talam- was the stem of talan and we find the word as talan (talam-) in the word-lists.
When we look at this word in an Old-Elvish word-list we find simply talam. The stem-form is thus nothing else than the original Old-Elvish form of the word and the nominative-form talan is the irregular one.
The reason for this irregularity is that modern Quenya no longer allows an m to appear at the end of a word. So during the evolution of the language this m turned in the nominative into an n, in the other cases it however remained unchanged.
So where can we find these influences from Old-Elvish? It seems there are 3 places where these influences can still be be seen:
- the perfect tense (and also the passive infinitive)
- the superlative
- the stem-forms
In this page we look at the first two, the stem-forms will be examined on a separate page.
Contents |
Old-Elvish influences on the perfect tense
The problem can be found in the prefixed vowel. Quite a few letters are allowed in the middle of a word but not in the beginning, so they have evolved differently in the perfect tense.
(note: the Passive Infinitive shows the same irregularities as a prefixed a- has the same effect).
The verb tul- "come" has utúlië "has come" as perfect tense. In Old-Elvish this verb was tul and there is no problem here because t is allowed at the beginning of a word.
Verbs with d
Take now the Old-Elvish verbs dant "fall" and dab "allow". The letter d is no longer a separate letter in Quenya, neither in the beginning nor in the middle of a word. In the evolution a d in the beginning of a word changed into an l and in the middle of a word it changed into r.
So these verbs evolved into the Quenya verbs lanta- "fall" and lav- "allow" (the b changed into v but here there is no problem as this letter never appears at the end of a word).
But in the perfect tense the d changed into r:
- lanta- "fall" → arantië
If we apply this to lav- we get a nice consequence: Old-Elvish also had a verb lab "lick". In Quenya this verb also evolved into lav-, but their perfect tenses have remained different:
- lav- "allow" → arávië
- lav- "lick" → alávië
Verbs with mb/nd/ng
These verbs are however not the only ones, in Old-Elvish we had verbs that began with the consonantclusters mb-, nd- or ng-. In Quenya these are no longer allowed in the beginning of a word, but in the middle of words they are still allowed.
The verbs namba- "hammer" and núta- "set (of sun and moon)" have evolved from the Old-Elvish stems ndam en ndú. So in the perfect tense we find:
- namba- "hammer" → andambië
- núta- "set" → undútië
The next verbs had originally a stem beginning with mb-: mar- "dwell" (mbar), manca- "trade" (mbakh), martya- "destine" (mbarat) and masta- "bake" (mbas). So we find following perfect tenses:
- mar- "dwell" → ambárië
- manca- "trade" → ambancië
- martya- "destine" → ambartië
- masta- "bake" → ambastië
The verbs beginning with ng- can in Tengwar script still be recognized as they are even now written with the Tengwa ñoldo or ngoldo (Tengwa 19). In pronunciation there is no difference between ñoldo and the normal n (númen).
At the moment we know two verbs in this category: nol- "smell" (ngol) and nanda- "harp" (nganad):
- nol- "smell" → ongólië
- nanda- "harp" → angandië
Verbs with h
Verbs beginning with h- can show the same problems because this h can have evolved from both kh- as sk-. This last combination gives in Quenya the letter h at the beginning of a word and an x in the middle of a word.
Here we have following verbs: halya- "hide" (skal), harna- "wound" (skar), hat- "split" (skat) and helta- "undress" (skel) and following perfect tenses:
- halya- "hide" → axálië
- harna- "wound" → axarnië
- hat- "split" → axátië
- helta- "undress" → exeltië
When this starting h appears in the combinations hy-, hl- of hr- then we find following forms (at this moment no verbs in hr- are known):
- hyar- "cleave" → aryárië
- hlar- "hear" → allárië
In the combination hw- the changes are like these:
- hwesta- "breathe" → eswestië
- hwinya- "swirl" → iswínië
Verbs with s
The final irregularity is found with verbs starting in s. This s can either be a pure s (Tengwa 29 silmë) or have evolved from th (Tengwa 9 súlë) (see Quenya Tengwar).
In Old-Elvish the pure s was the letter z. In the beginning of a word this z became s, but in the middle it changed into r.
Words with súlë however are not influenced (they are still written with súlë even in modern Tengwar).
- salpa- "sip" → aralpië
- ser- "rest" → erérië
- sil- "shine" → irílië
- sir- "flow" → irírië
- suc- "drink" → urúcië
other influences
A few verbs have changes to Old-Elvish forms that show under influence of the ending -ië:
- feuya- "feel disgust, abhor" → efévië
- mauya- "compel" → amávië
- tiuya- "swell, grow fat" → itíwië
Probably all other verbs that end in a vowel + ya have connecting consonant w:
- aya- "honour, revere" → áwië
Old-Elvish influences on the superlative
We have met the prefix an- for the superlative. We also said that this prefix can change under te influence of the beginning consonant of the adjective. But in all these cases the changes are in the prefix an- itself, the original ad-jective is not influenced.
With the Old-Elvish influences however we are getting the original forms of the adjectives back in the superlative. Most of these forms are analoguous to the changes in the perfect tense.
Adjectives with mb/nd/ng
Let’s first look at adjectives that started with the combinations mb-, nd- en ng- in Old-Elvish:
- mb-:
- marta "fated" → ambarta
- merya "festive" → amberya
- nd-:
- nulla "obscure" → andulla
- númenya "western" → andúmenya
- ng-:
- nóla "learned" → angóla
- nwalca "cruel" → angwalca
Adjectives with d
Also an l- that has evolved from d- has such influences:
- laira "shady" → andaira
- lára "flat" → andára
- lómëa "gloomy" → andómëa
- lóra "dark" → andóra
- lumna "oppressive" → andumna
Adjectives with b/w
A large number of adjectives that begin in v- in Quenya, had a b- in Old-Elvish. Here we find that an + v gives rise to the original amb-:
- vanya "beautiful" → ambanya
- valaina "divine" → ambalaina
- valya "powerful" → ambalya
- vanima "fair" → ambanima
- varna "safe" → ambarna
- varnë "brown" → ambarnë
- verca "wild" → amberca
- verya "bold" → amberya
- vorima "continual" → amborima
- voronwa "enduring" → amboronwa
In some the v- evolved from w-:
- vára "dirty" → anwára
- vëa "manly" → anwëa
- véra "personal" → anwéra
- vindë "blue-grey" → anwindë
The adjective wenya "green, fresh" has evolved from gwen, so it has following superlative:
- wenya "green, fresh" → angwenya
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