maita

adjective. maimed

A word for “maimed” appearing in vocabulary lists for drafts of the Oilima Markirya poem from around 1930 (PE16/77), not used in the finished versions. Its etymology is unclear.

ma kaire laiqen ondolissen kirya maita?

*does a ship lie maimed on green rocks?

The tenth phrase (lines 19-20) of the intermediate version of the Oilima Markirya poem (PE16/77). The first word is the interrogative particle ma followed by the present 3rd-singular feminine form of the verb kaya- “to lie”. The subject of the phrase is kirya “ship”, followed by the modifying adjective maita “maimed” and preceded by the clause laiqen ondolissen, the locative plural of the adjective laiqa “green” and the noun ondo “rock”.

This phrase corresponds to the lines of the English translations of the poem LA2a-LA2b (PE16/68-9): “who shall heed a dead ship/drowned boat lying on the green rocks”. It also resembles the seventeenth line in the first English translation LA1a (PE16/67): “a ship lay upon the green rocks”.

Alternate Interpretations: In their original article, Gilson, Welden and Hostetter suggested this phrase might be “What maimed ship lies upon the green rocks?” where the initial element ma was “what”. In a Discord conversation from 2023-04-23, Christopher Gilson also suggested the possibility “what lies on green rocks, a maimed ship?”, pointing out that since kirya maita falls on the next line, there could be an omitted comma.

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

> ma kai-re laikve-n ondo-li-ssen kirya maita = “✱does lie-she green-(plural) rock-(plural)-on ship maimed”

Alternate Interpretations: In their original article, Gilson, Welden and Hostetter suggested this phrase might be “What maimed ship lies upon the green rocks?” where the initial element ma is “what”. In a Discord conversation from 2023-04-23, Christopher Gilson also suggested the possible interpretation “what lies on green rocks, a maimed ship?”. Since kirya maita falls on the next line, there could be an omitted comma: ma kaire laikven ondolissen, kirya maita? I find Gilson’s 2023 suggestion to be quite plausible.

saiqa

adjective. hungry

An adjective appearing as ᴱQ. saiqa “hungry” in the Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√SAẎA (QL/82). In Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, the Qenya word for “hungry” was instead saisa, though its Early Noldorin equivalent ᴱQ. haib seems to indicate primitive ✱saikwā (PE13/146).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would retain the adjective ᴺQ. saiqua “hungry” based on a Neo-Root ᴺ√SAYAK, but only as an archaic word so I could justify the retention of related words like ᴺS. saeb “hungry”. For normal speech I would assume Q. maita is the ordinary word for “hungry” (VT39/11).

nesta-

verb. to feed

The verb ᴱQ. nesta- “feed” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of the early root ᴱ√NESE “give to feed; feed, pasture; graze” (QL/66). It has past forms nēse and nesse, indicating a close relationship to the verb ᴱQ. nese- “graze, pasture, give to feed, feed” from the same root, which likely would have had the same or similar past-tense forms.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would combine both these early verbs into ᴺQ. nesta- “to graze, pasture, give to feed, feed”, derived from the Neo-Root ᴺ√NES.

saisa

adjective. hungry