telek

root. stalk, stem, leg

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “stalk, stem, leg” with derivatives like ᴹQ. telko “leg” and N. telch “stem” (Ety/TÉLEK). Tolkien’s continuing use of Q. telco for “leg” or “stem (of a tengwa symbol)” indicates the ongoing validity of this root (PE22/51; PE17/122; LotR/1118). In earlier writings, Tolkien first gave ᴱQ. pelko “leg” < ᴱ√PELE (QL/73), but ᴱQ. telko “stem” appeared in Qenya Declensions from the late 1920s (PE16/113), and both pelko and telko appeared in declensions from early 1930s (PE21/48, 53) before Tolkien settled more firmly on telko in the mid-1930s, as noted above.

tel(u)

root. *roof

telmē̆

noun. hood, covering

telu-

verb. to roof in

telumē

noun. vault, heaven

telumēhtǝ

noun. canopy

telep

root. silver

teles

root. hindmost, tarrier

teled

noun. *hindmost

nyar

root. tell, relate

Quenya words for “tell” and “tale” began with nyar- for much of Tolkien’s life, but their derivation shifted over time. The earliest root for such words was ᴱ√NYAŘA [NYAÐA] “relate, tell” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with derivatives like ᴱQ. nyara- “relate, tell” and ᴱQ. nyara “tale” (QL/68), but it had no obvious derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon. In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien first gave this root as ᴹ√NYAR “tell, relate”, then changed it to ᴹ√NAR² with a Quenya-only variant nyar- (Ety/NAR²; EtyAC/NAR²). This change may have been in keeping with Tolkien notion from the 1930s that palatalized dentals might have been a Quenya-only innovation (PE18/44). The root ᴹ√NYAR/NAR had derivatives like ᴹQ. nyáre/N. narn “tale” and ᴹQ. nyar- “tell”.

However, in both the Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) from the 1930s and Outline of Phonology (OP2) from the early 1950s Tolkien indicated the primitive form of the Quenya verb was ñgyar- (OP1: PE19/36, OP2: PE19/76). This may have been in keeping with Tolkien’s later decision that initial palatalized dentals were not a feature of Primitive Elvish at all; see the entry on how [[at|[j] was lost after initial dentals]] in the Welsh-like branch of the Elvish languages for discussion of this transition. Despite this decision, Tolkien continued to use S. narn “tale” regularly in his later writings, despite there being no way it could be derived from ñ(g)yar-.

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I think it is best to ignore Tolkien’s decision to remove initial palatalized dentals from Primitive Elvish, and I recommend retaining √NYAR as the root for “tell” and “tale” in Elvish, this being the only reasonable option for retaining both Q. nyar- and S. narn.

nar

root. tell, relate

tyal

root. play

This root first appeared as ᴱ√TYALA “play” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s with the derivative ᴱQ. tyalie “play, game” (QL/49). Forms in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon like G. dairtha- “play” < ᴱ✶daı̯al- hint that the actual primitive form might have been ✱ᴱ√DYALA or ✱ᴱ√DAYALA (GL/29). In a table of vowel mutations added as a revision to the Gnomish Lexicon Tolkien instead had forms like ᴱ✶táliı̯èndǝ > G. teilian indicating a primitive initial t- (PE13/116); similar forms appeared in the Early Noldorin Dictionary of the 1920s (PE13/165).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave ᴹ√TYAL “play” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tyal-/N. telia- “to play” and ᴹQ. tyalie/N. telien “sport, play, game” (Ety/TYAL). Tolkien continued to use Q. tyalië “mirth” in later writings (PE21/80; PE17/64), but at some point in the 1950s decided that initial palatalized dentals were no longer a feature of Primitive Elvish (PE18/93-94), making the ongoing validity of √TYAL as a CE root doubtful: see the entry on how [[at|[j] was lost after initial dentals]] in the Welsh-like branch of the Elvish languages for further details. For example, in the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950, Tolkien indicated √TYAL was a Quenya-only root, an elaboration of √TAL:

> In Quenya initial groups ty, ny, ps, ks appeared as developments of ky, ñy, sp, sk. But being established they were used in new formations. Thus Q tyal- “play” as a variation on tal- (not kal!) (PE18/84).

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I think it is best to ignore Tolkien’s decision to remove initial palatalized dentals from Primitive Elvish in order to retain roots like √TYAL for both Quenya and (Neo) Sindarin.

kyelep

root. silver

télesā

noun. rear

met

root. end

talrunya

noun. sole of foot

tyalyā-

verb. to play

khyelesē

noun. glass

lāda

adjective. flat

skil

root. [unglossed]

A root mentioned in passing in as a variant of ᴹ√KIL “divide” in The Etymologies of the 1930s, but it had no derivatives and appeared nowhere else (Ety/KIL).

auluta-

verb. [unglossed]

bay

root. [unglossed]

dal

root. flat

iw

root. [unglossed], [ᴱ√] *fish

kaltwa

?. [unglossed]

khlip

root. [unglossed]

An unglossed root in a rejected paragraph from the Quenya Verbal System of the 1940s (PE22/112 note #78).

khyel(es)

root. glass

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “glass” with derivatives in both Quenya and Noldorin with the same meaning: ᴹQ. hyelle and N. hele (Ety/KHYEL(ES)). After Tolkien changed Noldorin to Sindarin, he decided that “There was no common Eldarin word for glass”, and that the Sindarin word S. heledh was derived from Khuzdul kheled (PE17/37). Thus the root ᴹ√KHYEL(ES) was abandoned.

kwet

root. say

kōmā

noun. [unglossed]

lindō

noun. singer

maiga

root. [unglossed]

An unglossed root appearing in the first version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1) to illustrate certain patterns of root formation (PE18/66). It may have serving as the basis for ᴹQ. Maia, though this word was given different derivations later.

metta

noun. end

phan

root. [unglossed]

A deleted root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/PHAN).

stin

root. [unglossed]

stā

root. [unglossed]

A deleted root reference in The Etymologies apparently serving as the basis for the verbal action suffix ᴹ✶-stā “-ing” in ᴹ✶khau̯-stā “rest-ing” (Ety/KHAW; EtyAC/KHAW). See the entry on ✶-stā for further discussion.

tal

root. foot

teʒē

noun. path, course, line, direction, way

tol-oth/ot

root. eight

torōmā

noun. [unglossed]

tāl

noun. foot

uruk

root. [unglossed]

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/URUK).

us

root. [unglossed]

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with no glosses or derivatives and no clear function (EtyAC/US).

ʒel

root. sky

A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “sky”, with derivatives like ᴹQ. helle/N. ell “sky” and ᴹQ. helwa/N. elw “(pale) blue” (Ety/ƷEL). It was the basis for the initial elements of the names N. Elrond, N. Elwing and ᴹQ. Elwe, but elsewhere Tolkien connected these names to √EL “star”. It was also an element in the word N. eilian(w) “rainbow, (lit.) sky-bridge”, later given as S. ninniach. On the basis of these changes, I think it is likely Tolkien abandoned ᴹ√ƷEL, but some of its derived words are still popular in Neo-Eldarin.