sí adv. "now" (Nam, RGEO:67, LR:47, SD:310, VT43:34, VT49:18, PE17:94), sin (SI, LR:47) or sín _(SD:247, 310) _before vowels. Compare the distribution of a/an in English, though in his Quenya version of Hail Mary, Tolkien used sí also before a vowel (sí ar "now and", VT43:28). Si, a short (or incompletely annotated) form of sí (VT43:26, 34). In Fíriel's Song, sí is translated "here".
Quenya
sí
adverb. now
sí
now
sí
adverb. now
sís
here
sís adv. "here" (VT49:18, 23), also sissë
sís
adverb. here
sír
adverb. now
si
here
si adv. "here" (VT49:33; this may be a root or "element" rather than a Quenya word; see sissë, sinomë)
sívë
as
sívë (1) prep. "as", apparently ve of similar meaning with the prefix sí- "this, here, now"; sívë therefore makes a comparison with something close, whereas tambë (q.v.) refers to something remote. Sívë...tambë "as...so" (VT43:17). Elided sív' in VT43:12, since the next word begins in the vowel e-.
sí ar lúmessë ya firuvammë: násië
now and at the hour of our death: Amen
The seventh line of Aia María, Tolkien’s translation of the Ave Maria prayer. The first few words are sí ar lúmessë “now and at [the] hour”, the last being a combination of the noun lúmë “time” (“hour”) and the locative suffix -ssë “at, in, on”. The next two words are a subordinate clause: ya firuvammë “✱when we will die”, the latter being future 1st-person-plural-exclusive form of the verb fir- “to die”. The last word, násië “Amen”, is also used by Tolkien in the Quenya prayer Átaremma.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> sí ar lúme-ssë ya fir-uva-mmë: násië = “✱now and time-at when die-(future)-we: amen”
Less literally: “✱now and at the time when we will die”.
Conceptual Development: The first few words sí ar lúmesse are the nearly same in all versions of the prayer, except (a) the accents are omitted from si and lumesse in version I and (b) Tolkien considered and rejected a variant form are for ar “and” (as he did in line four).
In the first two versions of the prayer Tolkien used a Quenya word for “of our death”: fíriemmo (I) and effíriemmo (II). In both cases, the noun is (ef)fírie “death” with the first person plural exclusive possessive suffix -mma “our” and the genitive suffix -o “of”. In the version I, these forms were preceded by some incomplete and difficult-to-decipher forms; for details see VT43/27, 34-35.
The word násië “Amen” appears only in the last two versions of the prayer (III-IV).
| | I | II |III|IV| |si|sí| |ar|{are >>} ar|ar| |lumesse|lúmesse| |{urtulm >> urt >> menya >>}|i fíriemmo|effíriemmo|yá firuvamme|ya firuvamme| | |násie|
sissë
adverb. here
The words sís and sissë “here” appeared in a list of demonstratives from 1968 (VT49/18), combinations of si “this” and the locative suffix -ssë. Similarly formed ᴹQ. sisse “here” appeared in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948, also with a short variant sis (PE23/108, 111). It also had a longer variant {sinas(se) >>} sinis(se).
ier
as
ier prep. "as" (VT43:16, probably rejected in favour of sívë, q.v.). In an abandoned version of the Quenya Lord's Prayer, Tolkien used ier...ter for "as...so" (VT43:17).
nin
to me, for me
nin pron. "to me, for me", dative of ni (FS, Nam). Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? "Now who will refill the cup for me?" (Nam), nás mara nin *"it is good to me" = "I like it" (VT49:30), ecë nin carë sa* "it-is-open for me to do it" = "I can do it" (VT49:34). See also ninya**.
ric-
verb. try, put forth effort, strive, endeavour
#ric- ("k") (1) vb. "try, put forth effort, strive, endeavour" (PE17:93, 94, 167), imperative á ricë "try!", pl. á ricir "let them try", á rice am(a)ricië "try harder!" (or more idiomatically á carë (sí) ancarië, lit. *"do (now) with more doing!"
sin
now
sin (2) adv., a form of sí "now" (q.v.) often occurring before vowels; also sín (SI). However, sí itself (q.v.) may also appear before a vowel.
sissë
here
sissë adv. "here" (VT49:18), also sís
sí vanwa ná, rómello vanwa, valimar!
now lost is, [to one] from the East lost, Valimar!
The 15th phrase in the prose Namárië, which is essentially the same as its poetic version, differing only in its more literal translation. The phrase still seems somewhat poetic. In most (but not all) cases, the Quenya verb ná- “to be” appears at the end of the phrase. Hypothetically, a more “normal” rendering might be:
> ✱sí Valimar vanwa Rómello ná “now Valimar lost from-the-East is
ya
as
ya (2) or yan, prep. "as" (VT43:16, probably abandoned in favour of sívë)
ye
as
[ye (3), also yé, prep. "as" (VT43:16, struck out; in the text in question Tolkien finally settled on sívë, q.v.)]
-vë
as, like
-vë, (3) apparently an ending used to derive adverbs from adjectives (see andavë under anda and oiavë under oia). May be related to the preposition ve "as, like".
hí
here
hí adv. "here" (VT49:34)
hí
adverb. here, here [ᴹQ.] (for both you and me), now
A word for “here” in notes from the late 1960s, derived from primitive ✶khĭn- (VT49/34). It seems to be part of an attempt to explain S. hí “now”.
Conceptual Development: Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 had a root √KHI that was a “demonstrative of 1st pers (b)”, that is “here by us” (PE23/96). It had a derived form ᴹQ. hi that could be used both spatially (“here by us”) and temporally (“now”). Primitive ✶khi was mentioned again in Eldarin Pronouns, Demonstratives, and Correlatives from the early 1950s, but the page where it appeared was deleted (PE23/131 note #31).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would assume Q. hí had a meaning similar to its 1948 sense “here by us”, as opposed to the more general word sissë for “here”. On the basis of this hí, I would also used the 1948 elaborations of ᴹQ. hi such as ᴹQ. hina “this (by us)” or ᴹQ. hillo “hence (from us)”
löa yucainen avar anduinë sí valútier
twenty years have flowed away down the Long River
ma varda enquantuva i yulma nin sí
will Varda now refill the cup for me?
nev-
verb. try
nev- vb. "try" (PE17:167; Tolkien in the source expresses uncertainty as to whether this word should be adopted or not)
sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
who now shall refill the cup for me?
Eighth line @@@
sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
now who the cup for me will refill?
The 8th phrase in the prose Namárië, which is essentially the same as its poetic version, differing only in its more literal translation.
This phrase is interesting in that it places the direct and indirect objects of the phrase (i yulma nin “the cup for me”) in between the subject (man “who”) and the verb (enquantuva “will refill”). This indicates that even in ordinary speech, the normal Quenya subject-verb-object word order was somewhat free, with objects able to appear in other positions.
sí man i yulmar men enquantuva?
*who now shall refill the cups for us?
sí man i yulmar n(g)wen enquantuva
*who now will refill the cups for us (dual)
sí vanwa ná, rómello vanwa, valimar!
now lost, lost to those from the east is Valimar!
Fifteenth line @@@
ve
as, like
ve (1) prep. "as, like" (Nam, RGEO:66, Markirya, MC:213, 214, VT27:20, 27, VT49:22); in Narqelion ve may mean either "in" or "as". Ve fírimor quetir *"as mortals say" (VT49:10), ve senwa (or senya) "as usual" (VT49:10). Followed by genitive, ve apparently expresses "after the manner of": ve quenderinwë coaron ("k") "after the manner of bodies of Elven-kind" (PE17:174). Tolkien variously derived Quenya ve from older wē, bē or vai(VT49:10, 32, PE17:189)
á carë (sí) ancárië
try harder
á ricë amrícië
try harder
ási, sí
interjection. come now, now
The Quenya word for “now” which is very well attested. In notes on demonstratives from 1968, it is a vowel-lengthened form of demonstrative si “this” (VT49/18) which seems to be a standard way of forming adverbs of time in Tolkien’s later writings; compare tá “then” (VT49/11) and yá “when” (VT49/23). This vowel-lengthening construction was explicitly described in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948: “The bare stems lengthened are used [for adverbs of time]” (PE23/109).
In Tolkien’s writings from the 1930s and 40s, he occasionally had sin or sín “now” with an n (Ety/SIN; LR/47; SD/247; SD/310). One working theory is that this is the form of sí when it appears before a vowel. However, in the aforementioned DRC from 1948, Tolkien had a variant form ᴹQ. sin(an) “now” using the suffix ᴹQ. -n(an), also used for adverbs of time.
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. tyá “now” based on the early root ᴱ√KI “this by me” (QL/46, 49). In the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) from the 1920s he had ᴱQ. qí or qin for adverbs of time based ᴱQ. qi “this”, hence = “✱now”. However, the untranslated text Sí Qente Feanor from the 1910s seems to use sí = “now” (PE15/32, 34).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would mostly use sí “now”, but I would also use sín or sin in cases where the results are more euphonic, particularly preceding a word starting with a vowel.