pha

root. exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)

A root having to do with “exhalations (as mists upon water or steams and the like)” serving as the basis for unglossed √PHAY (> Q. fëa “spirit”) and √PHAN (> Q. fanya “cloud”) in notes from 1957 (NM/237). Elsewhere both √PHAN and √PHAY had more divergent meanings, and so may have been disconnected from this root. However, Tolkien mentioned a primitive noun ✶phā “breath, puff of breath” in notes from 1968 with an extended form fawa (VT47/35), so that the root √PHAW “emit (foul breath)” from 1957 notes may have been related (PE17/181).

phā

noun. breath, puff of breath

phā/apha

root. before of time

A root appearing in a list of roots for spatial and temporal directions from 1969, with an unglossed (primitive?) derivative ✶afar and the Quenya form fai with variant afea, apparently meaning “before” in the phrase Eru fai, sî, euva “✱Eru (was) before, (is) now, will be (after)” (PE22/147). Later in the same set of notes Tolkien seems to have reverted to earlier roots for these functions (PE22/168).

apha

root. before of time