An pronominal correlative meaning “whether, which of two” appearing in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 (PE23/107), a combination of interrogative ᴹQ. ma and ᴹQ. atwe “one of two”.
Qenya
matwa
whether, which of two
matwa e·antane sine nyén atwa tyén
did he give this to mé or to yóu?
matwe
pronoun. whether, which of two
An adjectival correlative meaning “whether, which of two” appearing in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 (PE23/107), a combination of interrogative ᴹQ. ma and ᴹQ. atwa “either”. Presumably like atta “two”, the noun modified by matwa remains in the singular, such as: matwa nér i elda cenne “which (of two) men did the Elf see”. It can can also be used (instead of ma) to introduce any question where there are only two possible answers. In such cases atwa “either” is used separate the alternatives: matwa i elda lende formen atwa hyarmen “did the Elf travel north or south”.