luntë

noun. boat, boat, [ᴱQ.] ship

The Quenya word for “boat”, which was well-established. It first appeared as ᴱQ. lunte (lunti-) “ship” in the Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s based on the early root ᴱ√LUTU (QL/57). It was used for “boat” in the ᴱQ. Earendel poem from around 1930 (MC/216). ᴹQ. lunte “boat” appeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√LUT “float, swim” (Ety/LUT). Q. lunte “boat” also appeared in the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950 (PE18/99).

Neo-Quenya: See the entry for cirya “ship” for a discussion of the possible semantic distinctions of Elvish words for water vessels.

luntë

boat

luntë noun "boat" (LUT, MC:216), "ship" (LT1:249, LT1:255)

cirya

ship

cirya _("k")_noun "ship" (MC:213, 214, 220, 221), "(sharp-prowed) ship" (SA:kir-, where the word is misspelt círya with a long í; Christopher Tolkien probably confused it with the first element of the Sindarin name Círdan. It seems that Círyon, the name of Isildur's son, is likewise misspelt; read Ciryon as in the index and the main text of the Silmarillion. Cf. also kirya_ in Etym, stem KIR.) _Also in Markirya. In the Plotz letter, cirya is inflected for all cases except plural possessive (*ciryaiva). The curious dual form ciriat occurs in Letters:427, whereas Plotz gives the expected form ciryat. Locative ciryasse "upon a ship" (MC:216). Compounded in ciryaquen "shipman, sailor" (WJ:372), also ciryando (PE17:58), cf. also ciryamo "mariner" (UT:8). Masc. names Ciryaher* "Ship-lord" (Appendix A), Ciryandil "Ship-friend" (Appendix A), Ciryatan "Ship-builder" (Appendix A), also Tar-Ciryatan**, name of a Númenórean king, "King Shipbuilder" (SA:kir-)

sirya-

verb. to flow, to flow [smoothly]

This verb first appeared in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948 as an example of ya-formative half-strong verb ᴹQ. siry(a)- “flow” (PE22/114), though its primitive form ᴹ✶siryă “flow smoothly” appeared a bit earlier in Quendian & Common Eldarin Verbal Structure (EVS1) from the late 1940s (PE22/98). This verb may have replaced the basic verb ᴹQ. sir- “flow” from The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/SIR), but see Conceptual Development below.

The verb sirya- continued to appear [albiet without translation] as an example of half-strong verb conjugation in Tolkien’s writings in the 1960s with a past form sirinye (PE17/77; PE22/164). In one place he conjugated it as a weak verb from primitive ✱siryā with weak past siryane (PE22/156), but this may have been a transient or experimental idea.

Conceptual Development: QVS from 1948 has a present-tense form síra as part of the sentence númen Endorello isse sí Vaia síra “westward of Middle-earth where now Ocean flows” (PE22/126). It is not entirely clear which verb it is the present tense for. It looks like the present tense of the basic verb ᴹQ. sir- “flow” from the 1930s, but could have been intended to be the present of the sirya- “flow” instead, since that is the verb for “flow” everywhere else in QVS.

Based on the discussion of half-strong verbs QVS, I would expected the present tense of sirya- to be the long imperfect ✱siryalya; compare the present imperfect taltalya “am slipping down” for half-strong talta- (PE22/115). Such long imperfects were used for the present tense of verbs with otherwise defective presents, the main example being a-verbs such as fara- “hunt” whose present was faralya “is hunting” (PE22/116). But Tolkien also said “some verbs make a strong present, so ōla-, is growing [from ola-]”. Thus síra might be an example of such a strong present for half-strong sirya.

Neo-Quenya: For purpose of Neo-Quenya, I would assume sirya- was the most common Quenya verb for “to flow”, conjugated as a ya-formative half-strong verb. I would further assume that, like in EVS1, sirya- has the implied meaning of “flow [smoothly]”. However, I would assume ᴹQ. sir- is a less commonly used verb for “flow”, especially applicable when flows are turbulent or not continuous, as in the “the Ocean is flowing [síra]” in the sentence given above. For example, Helge Fauskanger used sir- “flow” in his NQNT (NQNT).