alassë (1) noun "joy, merriment" (GALÁS) [VT42:32; a gloss "mirth" was deleted, VT45:14]
Quenya
alassë
hail
alassë
joy, merriment
alassë
noun. happiness, happiness, [ᴹQ.] joy, merriment
alassëa
`Cな#,F`C adjective. happy, joyous
Alassë (joy/merriment) + -a (adjectival suffix)
merin sa haryalyë alassë nó vanyalyë ambarello
I hope that you have happiness before you pass from the world
This sentence appeared in a letter from Tolkien to a girl (woman?) named Dorothy. This sentence was first described publicly by Michael Dawson in 1999 on the Tolkien mailing list. The date of the original letter is unknown, since it was only described indirectly in another letter from Dorothy to Dawson’s (deceased) mother, dated 1968 (see Tolklang/34.99), but it seems likely that it was written after The Lord of the Rings was published. In the literature, this phrase is usually referred to as the “Merin Sentence”.
The sentence was first analyzed by Helge Fauskanger (Tolklang/35.02) and Ales Bican posted a short description of the sentence on the Elfling website. Based on its use of vanya-, Helge Fauskanger suggested the sentence was probably written before the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60, since in that essay the base verb form auta- (WJ/366, Tolklang/35.02). When first published, there was some question on the validity of the sentence, but later independent confirmation of the existence of the Quenya word nó “before” supports its authenticity (as discussed by Bill Welden, VT49/32 note #12).
In the original description of the phrase, the first word is given as meriu, but there is a general concensus is that this is probably a misreading of merin “I hope”, the aorist 1st-singular form of the verb mer- “to hope”. The second word sa “that” is used here as a relative pronoun. The third word haryalye “you have” is the aorist 2nd-singular-polite form of the verb harya- “to have”.
The fourth word is alassë “happiness” followed by nó “before”. The sixth word vanyalye “you pass” is the aorist 2nd-singular-polite form of the verb vanya- which appeared in The Etymologies (Ety/WAN); in late writings this verb is usually given as auta- “to pass away”. The last word Ambarello “from the world” is the ablative form of the noun Ambar “World”.
aia
hail
aia interjection "hail", variant of aiya (VT43:28)
aia
interjection. hail
aiya
hail
aiya interjection "hail", as greeting (LotR2:IV ch. 9, see Letters:385 for translation), or a call "for help and attention" (PE17:89), "only addressed to great or holy persons as the Valar, or to Earendil" (PE17:149). Variant aia (VT43:28)
ala
hail, blessed be (thou)
[ala (6) (also alar! or alla!) interjection "hail, blessed be (thou)". (VT45:5,14)]
ala-
verb. to plant, grow, to grow (of plants) [intr. and trans.], plant; *to thrive, flourish (of other creatures)
A verb glossed “plant, grow” in notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings (WPP) from the late 1950s or early 1960s discussing the derivation of S. galenas “pipeweed” (PE17/100). The verb ala- was used several times in verb charts, such as illustrating pronominal suffixes (PE17/132) or giving the inflections of a-verbs (PE22/164).
Conceptual Development: As suggested by Gilson, Welden and Hostetter, the earliest appearance of this verb might be in the phrase ᴱQ. alildon ornin lassevarnen, which seems to mean something like “✱grow trees leaf-brown” (PE16/80). The word element (and verb?) ᴹQ. ’al appeared under the root ᴹ√GALA “thrive” in The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/GALA). The first iteration of this root had the glosses “grow, thrive, prosper, be healthy, be glad” along with a word element (and verb?) al-, but the gloss “grow” was deleted along with a statement that “grow is ol-” (Ety/GAL(AS)).
Indeed, the verb ᴹQ. ’alā- “grow” appeared in Quendian & Common Eldarin Verbal Structure (EVS1: PE22/98) from the late 1940s and again in the Quenya Verbal System from 1948 (QVS: PE22/106 note #39), but in the latter document it was replaced by ᴹQ. ola- “grow” (PE22/113 note #80). However, in Common Eldarin: Verb Structure (EVS2) from the early 1950s, primitive ✶galā- was restored, but with a more specific sense “grow (of plants)”, as opposed to ✶olā- “become, come into being, turn into (another state)” (PE22/134). This plant-growth meaning seems to have carried forward into Tolkien’s later writings (see above: PE17/100).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would assume the verb ala- only means “grow” when applied to plants, but more generally could mean “✱thrive, flourish” when applied to other living creatures, as in i lótë ala “the flower grows” but i Elda ala “the Elf thrives/flourishes”. Based on its glosses from PE17/100, I would assume it can also be used transitively when applied to plants to mean “cause to grow = plant”, as in i Elda ala lóti “the Elf grows/plants flowers” or álëa lóti “... is planting flowers”.
alar!
hail, blessed be (thou)
[alar! (also ala and alla!) interjection "hail, blessed be (thou)". (VT45:5,14, 26)]
alla!
hail, blessed be (thou)
[alla! (also alar! or ala) interjection "hail, blessed be (thou)". (VT45:5, 14)] PE17:146 cites alla "hail, welcome" as a variant (occurring within the imaginary world) of aiya.
helexë
noun. hail
[alassë (2) interjection "hail" or "bless", evidently a synonym of the greeting alar!, q.v. (VT45:26)]