ëar

sea

ëar noun "sea" (AYAR/AIR [gives also dat. sg. ëaren],WJ:413; see Letters:386 for etymology). Not to be confused with the pl. form of the verb ëa "be, exist". Pl. ëari "seas" (FS, LR:47); Eär "the Great Sea" (cf. ëaron "ocean"), ablative Eärello "from the Great Sea", et Eärello "out of the Great Sea" (EO). Eärë noun "the open sea" (SD:305). Compound ëaruilë noun "seaweed" (UY). Found in proper names like Eärendil "Sea-friend", Eärendur masc. name, *"Sea-servant"; in effect a variant of Eärendil(Appendix A). Eärendur was also used ="(professional) mariner" (Letters:386).Fem. name Eärwen "Sea-maiden" (Silm); Eärrámë "Sea-wing", "Wings of the Sea", name of Tuor's ship (RAM, AYAR/AIR, SA)

ëar

noun. sea, great sea, sea, great sea, [ᴹQ.] open sea; water

The most common Quenya word for “sea”, derived from the root √GAYAR (or sometimes √AYAR), where the vowel combination was the result of the frequent Quenya sound change whereby *aya* > *ëa*.

Note that Quenya does not use the definite article before unique individual things like the Sun and the Moon. Likewise ëar “the sea” is almost never used with the definite article, only in the case where one is indicating a specific definite sea among a group of seas already under discussion, which is a rare occurrence.

Conceptual Development: As an element in the name ᴱQ. Earendel, this word first appeared as ᴱQ. ea or ᴱQ. earen “eagle” (QL/34). But by the 1940s Tolkien changed the form and meaning of this name to ᴹQ. Earendil “Friend of the Sea” (SD/237), and the word ᴹQ. ear “sea” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of ᴹ√AYAR (Ety/AY). In The Notion Club Papers of the 1940s it had the form eare and the gloss “open sea” (SD/241, 305). The first appearance of the “sea” meaning of this word seems to be in a word-list associated with the Ambarkanta “Shape of the World” from the early 1930s, where ear had the glosses “water, sea” (SM/241), though in later writings only “sea” remained.

hlas

noun. ear

The Quenya word for “ear” is derived from primitive √S-LAS, an elaboration of √LAS “listen” (PE17/62, 77). It had a stem form of hlar- because medial *s* generally became *z* and then *r*, but the s was preserved when final.

Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s the word for “ear” was derived directly from ᴹ√LAS “listen”, and had the form lár (Ety/LAS²). This seems to be a brief reversion to Early Qenya phonology of the 1910s, where medial s survived and it was final *s* that became *r* (PE12/26); compare to ᴹQ. kár (kas-) “head”, also from The Etymologies (Ety/KAS). In that document, the Noldorin word for “ear” was N. lhewig, a singular form based on the fossilized dual lhaw (Ety/LAS²). The voiceless lh- in this word was the result of the Noldorin sound-change of the 1930s whereby ancient initial *r-, l-* were unvoiced.

This Noldorin word made it into Lord of the Rings drafts as part of Amon Lhaw “Hill of Hearing, (lit.) Hill of Ears” (TI/364), a form that Tolkien retained in the published version (LotR/393). Since the unvoicing of initial l was no longer a feature of Sindarin of the 1950s and 60s, Tolkien needed to contrive a new derivation from primitive √S-LAS, which also necessitated a change in the Quenya cognate to voiceless initial hl-.

Early Qenya words for “ear” from the 1910s had a completely different basis. They include ᴱQ. ankar (ankas-) “ear (of men)”, ᴱQ. qan (qand-) “ear”, and ᴱQ. unk (unq-) “ear (of animals)” from the Qenya Lexicon, all based on the root ᴱ√ṆQṆ (QL/31, 76, 98). The last of these reappeared as unko “ear” in the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s and contemporaneous word lists (PE14/52, 76, 117; PE15/71), but seems to have been abandoned by the 1930s.

hlas

ear

hlas noun "ear", stem hlar- as in the dual form hlaru (PE17:62). Compare lár #2.

lár

ear

lár (2) noun "ear" (?). Tolkien's wording is not clear, but ¤lasū is given as an ancient dual form "(pair of) ears"; Quenya lár could represent the old singular las- (LAS2). In a post-LotR source, Tolkien derives hlas "ear" (dual hlaru) from a stem SLAS(PE17:62). Initial hl- rather than l- reflects the revised form of the stem (LAS becoming SLAS), and in the later version of the phonology, postvocalic -s does not become -r when final. Compare the noun "dream", given as olor in the Etymologies (LOS), but as olos pl. olori in a later source (UT:396)

airë Archaic

noun. sea

An archaic word for “sea” which fell out of use to due conflict with “holy” words like aira or airë; it was a noun form of primitive ✶gaı̯ră (PE17/27). The more common modern word for “sea” is ëar.

Conceptual Development: ᴹQ. aire “sea” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of ᴹ√AYAR (Ety/AY); it appeared beside a form ᴹQ. airen that might be a genitive form, or might be a longer form; see the entry on ᴹQ. airon for discussion.

vëa

sea

vëa (3) noun "sea" (MC:213, 214, 216; possibly obsoleted by #1 and #2 above, though some argue that the initial element of the late names Vëantur and Vëandur [q.v.] could be vëa #3 rather than #2 (it can hardly be #1) . In any case, the normal word for "sea" in LotR-style Quenya seems to be ëar.) Inflected vëan "sea" (MC:220), vëar "in sea" (a "Qenya" locative in -r, MC:213), vëassë "on sea" (MC:220). Cf. also vëaciryo.

airen

noun. sea

airë

sea

airë (2) noun "sea" (the form airen is given, intended as a genitive singular when Tolkien wrote this; in LotR-style Quenya it would rather be a dative sg.) (AYAR/AIR; cf. airon)

váya

sea

váya noun "sea" (considered as "waters, motion"). The wording of the source indicates that Tolkien only tentatively considered such a word (PE17:33)

ëar-celumessen

in the flowing sea

The eighth line of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is ëar “sea” followed by the locative plural of celumë “stream”, as suggested by Helge Fauskanger (AL/Markirya, QQ/celumë). This is more loosely translated as “flowing” in the poem itself, and fits the adjective/noun usage of the Early Qenya poem. A more literal translation would be “✱in sea-streams”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> ëar-celume-sse-n = “✱sea-stream-(locative)-(plural)”

ëar amortala

the seas heaving

The twenty-sixth line of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is ëar “sea” followed by the active-participle (“-ing”) of the verb amorta- “to heave”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> ëar amorta-la = “✱sea heav-ing”

ëar falastala

the sea surging

The tenth line of the Markirya poem (MC/222). The first word is ëar “sea” followed by the active-participle (“-ing”) of the verb falasta- “to surge”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> ëar falasta-la = “✱sea surg-ing”