Middle Primitive Elvish
am
root. mother
Derivatives
am
root. up
Derivatives
Element in
Variations
- AM ✧ Ety/NDŪ
a
root. intensive prefix
Derivatives
Element in
Variations
- a ✧ EtyAC/GOS
amī̆l
noun. mother
Derivations
- ᴹ√AM “mother”
Derivatives
amƀus
noun. breast
Derivatives
- ᴹQ. ambor “breast, breast, *chest” ✧ PE21/33
Variations
- amƀus- ✧ PE21/33
e
root. intensive prefix
Element in
- ᴹ✶Endero “(?virile) young bridegroom” ✧ EtyAC/E
eʒ-
verb. to be
Derivations
- ᴹ√EƷ “be”
Derivatives
- ᴹQ. ea- “to be; to exist, have being, be found extant in the real world” ✧ PE22/122; PE22/122; PE22/122; PE22/122
Variations
- eʒe ✧ PE22/122
- eñe ✧ PE22/122
i
root. intensive prefix
Element in
Variations
- I ✧ Ety/I²; EtyAC/I²
yē
root. to be
Changes
- YE → Ē “to be” ✧ PE22/122
Derivatives
Variations
- Ī ✧ EtyAC/YĒ
- I ✧ PE18/060
- YE ✧ PE18/084 (
YE); PE22/123 (YE)
ē
root. to be
ī
root. to be
An “intensive” root addition described by Tolkien in The Etymologies from the 1930s (EtyAC/A). It was one of two basic intensive mechanisms, along with the (syllabic) prefixed N- (EtyAC/N). The prefixed vowel a- seems to have been used originally in Primitive Elvish when the base vowel was a, and similarly with E and I (EtyAC/E; Ety/I²); whether this was also true of the vowels o, u is unclear, as Tolkien didn’t mention them. These various vocalic intensifications were frequently accompanied by dynamic lengthening (doubling), with the example given by Tolkien being: ᴹ✶parkā “dry” → ᴹ✶apparkā “very dry, arid” (> N. afarch).
In the case of e- and i-, the examples were dero, dise → ᴹ✶Endero, ᴹ✶Indise “groom, bride”; these examples indicate that other kinds of consonant fortifications were possible, in this case nasalization of stops, which often replaced consonant-doubling for voiced stops in Primitive Elvish.
Specifically in the case of a-, however, it seems it could be used as a general intensive that “was distinct in origin, though similar in function, to the prefixed basic vowel”. Why this was true of a- alone is not clear, but there seems to have been some complex interplay between the vocalic intensives and the intensives derived from syllabic initial ṇ-, with the net result that the intensive prefix in Q. became an-, am-, añ-, depending on the initial consonant.
See the entry on the Quenya comparative for a more detailed discussion of the conceptual development of intensives in Eldarin.