A Quenyarization of the name of Mary, used in Tolkien’s Quenya translation of Catholic prayers: Aia María (VT43/26-8) and the Litany of Loreto (VT44/12).
Quenya
María
mary
maría
feminine name. *Mary
a aina maria arca atarmë
Holy Mary, pray for us
The tenth line of Tolkien’s Quenya translation of the Litany of Loreto prayer (VT44/12). The first word is the vocative a “O” followed by aina Maria = “holy Mary”. The fourth word is the aorist form of the verb arca- “to pray”. The fifth word atarme is the preposition atar “for” combined with the pronoun me “us”. A similar construction was used in version I of the sixth line of the Aia María prayer (VT43/26).
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> a Aina Maria arca atar-me = “✱o Holy Mary pray for-us”
aina
holy
aina (2) adj "holy" (AYAN), derived from Ainu. Adopted and adapted from Valarin. According to VT43:32, the word is "obsolete, except in Ainur", apparently suggesting that airë or airëa (q.v.) was the normal term for "holy" in later Quenya. However, Tolkien repeatedly used aina in his translation of the Litany of Loreto: Aina Fairë "Holy Spirit", Aina Neldië "Holy Trinity", Aina Maria "Holy Mary", Aina Wendë "Holy Virgin". He also used Aina Eruontari for "holy Mother" in his rendering of the Sub Tuum Praesidium(WJ:399, FS, SA, VT43:32, VT44:5, 12, 17-18)
aira
holy
aira (2) adj. "holy"; see airë #1
airë
holy
airë (1) adj. "holy", #Airefëa "the Holy Spirit" (VT43:37, dative airefëan on the previous page), airetári or Airë Tári "holy queen" (a title of Varda, PM:363), genitive aire-tário "holy-queen's" (Nam, RGEO:67). However, according to PM:363, airë is the noun "sanctity", while aira is the adjective "holy". VT43:14 refers to an etymological note of "Sept.-Oct. 1957" where airë is said to be a noun "sanctity, holiness", and the adjective "holy" is given as airëa. However, the verb #airita- "hallow" seems to be formed from an adjective airë, airi- "holy". Evidently airë can function as both adjective ("holy") and noun ("holiness"); if so airë as adj. could represent a primitive adjective gaisi, whereas airë as noun may descend from gaisē. The former but not the latter would have the stem airi- (as observed in the derived verb #airita-), and compounds like airetári (rather than *airitári) would seem to contain properly the noun "holiness".
airëa
holy
airëa adj. "holy"; see airë.
aista
holy
aista (1) adj. "holy" (VT43:37)
María fem. name "Mary" (Maria; Tolkien based the Quenyarized form on the Latin pronunciation) (VT43:28; Maria with no explicit long vowel in VT44:18)