Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Middle Primitive Elvish

ana

root. ANA

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

ana

root. be, exist

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

anat

root. ANAT

An extended root in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from ᴹ√ANA “to, towards”, the apparent basis for the word ᴹQ. anta “face” (EtyAC/ANA¹), probably from the sense “face towards”.

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/ANA¹] Group: Eldamo. Published by

anak

root. ANAK

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

andā

adjective. long

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ÁNAD; Ety/MBUD] Group: Eldamo. Published by

anār

noun. Sun

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ANÁR; SD/302; SD/306] Group: Eldamo. Published by

anad

root. *long

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ÁNAD; Ety/MBUD; Ety/RAMBĀ; Ety/SPÁNAG] Group: Eldamo. Published by

tainā

adjective. long

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE18/057] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nā/ana

root. be, exist

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ANA²; Ety/N²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nā/ana

root. to, towards

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ANA¹; Ety/AR¹; Ety/N¹; Ety/RIG; Ety/YAB; EtyAC/YAB; PE18/037; PE18/038] Group: Eldamo. Published by

yan

root. give

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “give” with derivatives ON. yanta- “give” and ᴹQ. Ariante “Day-bringer” (EtyAC/YAN²). Tolkien marked this entry with a “?”, and elsewhere in The Etymologies he derived ᴹQ. anta-/N. anna- “give” from ᴹ√ANA (Ety/ANA¹), so I suspect this root was a transient idea.

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/YAN²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nar

root. flame, fire

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/ANÁR; Ety/NAR¹] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ta

root. that

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/TA; PE18/033; PE18/060] Group: Eldamo. Published by

bányā

adjective. beautiful

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/BAN] Group: Eldamo. Published by

a

root. intensive prefix

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.

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/A; EtyAC/GOS; EtyAC/N; EtyAC/TALÁT] Group: Eldamo. Published by

auluta-

verb. [unglossed]

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE19/058] Group: Eldamo. Published by

bay

root. [unglossed]

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/WAY] Group: Eldamo. Published by

e

root. intensive prefix

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/E] Group: Eldamo. Published by

root. be

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE19/048; PE22/122] Group: Eldamo. Published by

eʒ-

verb. to be

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE22/122] Group: Eldamo. Published by

i

root. intensive prefix

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/I²; EtyAC/I²] Group: Eldamo. Published by

iw

root. [unglossed], [ᴱ√] *fish

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/IW] Group: Eldamo. Published by

kaltwa

?. [unglossed]

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE19/048] Group: Eldamo. Published by

karpa

root. ?

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE18/066] Group: Eldamo. Published by

khlip

root. [unglossed]

An unglossed root in a rejected paragraph from the Quenya Verbal System of the 1940s (PE22/112 note #78).

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE22/113] Group: Eldamo. Published by

kōmā

noun. [unglossed]

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE19/059] Group: Eldamo. Published by

maiga

root. [unglossed]

An unglossed root appearing in the first version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1) to illustrate certain patterns of root formation (PE18/66). It may have serving as the basis for ᴹQ. Maia, though this word was given different derivations later.

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE18/066] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nis

root. woman

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/DER; Ety/NDIS; Ety/Nι; Ety/NIS; EtyAC/NDIS; PE21/55] Group: Eldamo. Published by

noun. woman

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/NĒR; EtyAC/NDIS; PE21/55] Group: Eldamo. Published by

nī̆s

noun. woman

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/NĒR; PE21/55; PE21/64] Group: Eldamo. Published by

phan

root. [unglossed]

A deleted root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/PHAN).

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/PHAN] Group: Eldamo. Published by

skil

root. [unglossed]

A root mentioned in passing in as a variant of ᴹ√KIL “divide” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, but it had no derivatives and appeared nowhere else (Ety/KIL).

Middle Primitive Elvish [Ety/KIL] Group: Eldamo. Published by

stin

root. [unglossed]

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/STIN] Group: Eldamo. Published by

stā

root. [unglossed]

A deleted root reference in The Etymologies apparently serving as the basis for the verbal action suffix ᴹ✶-stā “-ing” in ᴹ✶khau̯-stā “rest-ing” (Ety/KHAW; EtyAC/KHAW). See the entry on ✶-stā for further discussion.

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/KHAW] Group: Eldamo. Published by

torōmā

noun. [unglossed]

Middle Primitive Elvish [PE19/059] Group: Eldamo. Published by

uruk

root. [unglossed]

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/URUK).

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/URUK] Group: Eldamo. Published by

us

root. [unglossed]

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/US).

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/US] Group: Eldamo. Published by

root. to be

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/YĒ; PE18/060; PE18/084; PE22/123] Group: Eldamo. Published by

ē

root. to be

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

ī

root. to be

Middle Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by