sí

now

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".

sí

adverb. now

sí

adverb. now

Cognates

• S. hí “now” ✧ PE17/027; PE17/045; PE17/127; PE22/147
• S. sí “here, in this place (of speaker)” ✧ PE22/147

Derivations

• ✶sī “this (by me), now or here” ✧ PE17/067; VT49/18
  • √SI “this, this, [ᴹ√] here, now” ✧ PE17/067

Element in

• Q. an sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë “for now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the Stars from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
• Q. an sí Varda, Tintallë, Elentári ortanë máryat Oiolossëo ve fanyar “for now Varda, Star-kindler, Star-queen [has] lifted up her (two) hands from Mount Everwhite like (white) clouds” ✧ RGEO/59
• Q. á carë (sí) ancárië “try harder” ✧ PE17/094
• Q. Eru fai, sî, euva “*Eru (was) before, (is) now, will be (after)” ✧ PE22/147
• Q. ma Varda enquantuva i yulma nin sí “will Varda now refill the cup for me?” ✧ PE22/161
• Q. násië “now and at the hour of our death: Amen” ✧ VT43/34; VT43/34
• Q. sillë “like this”
• ᴺQ. silomë “tonight”
• Q. silumë “now, (lit.) at this time, now, at this time, *present” ✧ VT49/18
• ᴺQ. silussë “present tense, (lit.) here-and-now-tense”
• Q. sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? “who now shall refill the cup for me?” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
• Q. sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? “now who the cup for me will refill?” ✧ RGEO/59
• Q. sí man i yulmar men enquantuva? “*who now shall refill the cups for us?” ✧ Minor-Doc/2013-05-13
• Q. sí man i yulmar n(g)wen enquantuva “*who now will refill the cups for us (dual)” ✧ VT21/06
• Q. sinomë “here, (lit.) in this place” ✧ PE22/147
• Q. sir(a) “hither” ✧ PE22/147
• Q. síra “*today, this day”
• Q. sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar! “now lost, lost to those from the east is Valimar!” ✧ LotR/0377; RGEO/58
• Q. sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar! “now lost is, [to one] from the East lost, Valimar!” ✧ RGEO/59
• Q. sívë “*as”
• Q. tensi “already, still, up to now/here; yet [from present]”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶sī > sí	[sī]	✧ PE17/067
✶si- > sí	[sī]	✧ VT49/18

Variations

• Sí ✧ LotR/0377
• sī ✧ PE17/070; PE17/094; RGEO/59
• sír ✧ PE22/147
• Sī̀ ✧ RGEO/58
• sī́ ✧ RGEO/58
• Sī ✧ RGEO/58; RGEO/59; RGEO/59
• si ✧ VT43/34

sír

adverb. now

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.

thî

now

_adv. _now. Q. sí. thî/hî << hî. >> hî****

thî

adverb. now

hî

now

_adv. _now. Q. sí. thî/hî << hî. >> thî****

hí

adverb. now

Changes

• hî → thî ✧ PE17/027

Cognates

• Q. sí “now” ✧ PE17/027; PE17/045; PE17/127; PE22/147

Derivations

• ✶khĭn- “*here, now” ✧ VT49/34

Element in

• S. annon edhellen, edro hi ammen “Elvish gate open now for us” ✧ LotR/0307; PE17/045
• S. i glinn hen agorer Edain mi Velerian, ach hí in Ellath îr ed epholar “*this song Men made in Beleriand, but now the Elves alone (?remember) it” ✧ VT50/15; VT50/15; VT50/15
• S. sí il chem en i Naugrim en ir Ellath thor den ammen “*now all (?hands) of the Dwarves and Elves will be (?against) to us” ✧ VT50/22

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶khĭn- > hî	[kʰin] > [xin] > [xi] > [hi] > [hī]	✧ VT49/34

Variations

• hi ✧ LotR/0307; PE17/045
• thî ✧ PE17/027
• hî ✧ PE17/027; PE17/027 (hî); PE17/127; VT49/34
• hin ✧ PE17/127
• sîr ✧ PE22/147
• Sí ✧ VT50/22

lîr

noun. line, line, [N.] row

Derivations

• ᴹ√LIR “*row”

Element in

• S. aeglir “line of peaks, line of peaks, [N.] range of mountain peaks; [ᴱN.] peak, mountain top” ✧ RC/011

Variations

• lir ✧ RC/011 (lir)

sîr

adverb. now

hi

adverb. now

_ adv. _now. annon edhellen edro hi ammen! 'Elvish gate open now for us'.

hin

adverb. now

sí(r)

adverb. now

si

adverb. now

tî

line

(i** dî, o thî) (row), no distinct pl. form except with article (i** thî), coll. pl. tíath.

lîr

line

1) lîr (row), no distinct pl. form, but coll. pl. líriath. 2) tê (i dê, o thê) (way), pl. tî (i thî), coll. pl. ?teath, 3) tî (i dî, o thî) (row), no distinct pl. form except with article (i thî), coll. pl. tíath.

lîr

line

(row), no distinct pl. form, but coll. pl. líriath.

tilias

line of peaks

(i** dilias, o thilias), pl. tiliais (i** thiliais), coll. pl. tiliassath.

nothlir

family line

(family tree); no distinct pl. form; coll. pl. nothliriath.

si

now

si (lenited hi)

si

now

(lenited hi)

taeg

boundary line

(i daeg, o thaeg) (limit, boundary), no distinct pl. form except with article (i thaeg).

tê

line

(i dê, o thê) (way), pl. tî (i thî), coll. pl. ?teath

falas

line of surf

(pl. felais) (beach, shore, coast, strand, foaming shore; the word was especially used of the western seaboard of Beleriand). *(VT42:15)*****

îdô

adverb. now

A word translated “now” in the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). In the final manuscript version, this is the only form of the word, but in the final typescript version and in all earlier versions, it sometimes appears in the form îdôn.

Some authors have suggested this variation occurs when îdô appears before words beginning in a vowel or semi-vowel (AL/Adûnaic, NBA/12), but this seems unlikely to me. Carl Hostetter, Patrick Wynne and Andreas Moehn instead suggested (VSH/18, AAD/16, LGtAG, EotAL/DAW) that îdôn is a subjective inflection of the word îdô, being used as a noun. The key evidence supporting this second theory is that where the form îdon appears, its gloss is always “now (is)” rather than simply “now”. As discussed elsewhere (SD/429), the subjective inflection can function as the verb “to be”.

I tend to agree with this theory of Hostetter, Wynne and Moehn, but I think the actually development is somewhat more complex. In the first draft version of the Lament of Akallabêth, this form of the word appears twice as īdōn “lo! now is”. As noted by Mr. Moehn (LGtAG), this version of the Lament used a predicate suffix -n “is” in several places: burodan “heavy-is”, rōkhī-nam “bent-are”. It seems likely that draft form īdōn “lo! now is” is another variation of this earlier syntax.

The draft predicate suffix -n differed from the later subjective case in that it applied to the predicate of a clause instead of the subject. Compare these changes from the draft to final versions:

• agannūlo burudan “death-shade heavy-is” >> agannâlô burôda “death-shadow [is] heavy”

• batānī rōkhī-nam “ways bent-are” >> batîna lôkhî “ways (are) bent”

In both draft sentences, the subject is uninflected and the predicate has the predicate suffix -n/-nam. Conversely, in the later sentences the subject is inflected into the subjective case while the predicate is uninflected. This demonstrates the functional shift in the use of the predicate suffix -n in these drafts to the later use of the subjective inflection.

In both the second draft and final typescript versions of the Lament, the form îdôn was retained in all the sentences where it appeared in the first draft. This means that it could have been a remnant of this earlier syntax. The form îdôn could be reinterpreted as the sentence’s subject, but this is also problematic, since îdô is certainly neuter and its subjective form should be ✱îdôwa, not îdôn.

It is my belief that Tolkien eventually decided that the suffix -n could no longer be used in this context and removed it, switching to an uninflected îdô “now” everywhere in the text as is the case in the final manuscript version of the Lament. On the basis of this deduction, I also believe that the manuscript version was written after than the typescript version.

Element in

• Ad. êphalak îdô Yôzâyan “far away now (is) the Land of Gift” ✧ SD/247
• Ad. ēphalek īdōn akallabēth “far away lo!now is She-that-is-fallen” ✧ SD/312
• Ad. êphal êphalak îdô hi-Akallabêth “far far away now (is) She-that-hath-fallen” ✧ SD/247
• Ad. ēphal ēphalek īdōn athanātē “far far away is now the Land of Gift” ✧ SD/312
• Ad. îdô katha batîna lôkhî “now all ways (are) bent” ✧ SD/247
• Ad. īdō kathī batānī rōkhī-nam “lo! now all ways bent-are” ✧ SD/312
• Ad. tâidô “once, then”

Variations

• īdō ✧ SD/247; SD/247; SD/288; SD/312; SD/312; SD/312

teg

root. line

Tolkien used a number of similar roots as the basis for “line” words throughout his life. The earliest of these appeared in the Qenya Lexicon as ᴱ√TEHE [teχe] “pull” (gloss marked with a “?” by Tolkien) with derivatives like ᴱQ. tea “straight”, ᴱQ. telya “attractive; importunate”, and ᴱQ. tie “line, direction, route, road” (QL/90), the last of these surviving more or less unchanged all the way into the published version of The Lord of the Rings (LotR/377). The early root ᴱ√TEHE also had derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon such as G. tê “mark, line; track; path”, G. tî or tion “straight”, and G. tîr “honest; esteem, regard, honour”, originally “straight, upright” (GL/69, 71). Primitive ᴱ✶tegna > ᴱQ. tína/ᴱN. tain “straight” from Early Noldorin Word-lists from the 1920s may represent a shift in the form of the root to ✱ᴱ√TEGE (PE13/153, 165).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s the root appeared as {ᴹ√TEƷ >>} ᴹ√TEÑ “line, direction” with derivatives like ᴹQ. tie/N. tê “line, way” and ᴹQ. téra/N. tîr “straight, right” (Ety/TEƷ, TEÑ). In the Outline of Phonology Tolkien gave √TEG “line”, whereas √TEÑ was given as the basis for Q. tenna “a thought, notion, idea” and thus clearly with a different meaning; see the entry √TEÑ for further discussion. In any case it is clear that Tolkien considered various ancient velar consonants for the second consonant of this root, all ultimately vanishing in the child languages with similar vocalic effects: 1910s teχ-, 1920s teg-, 1930s {teʒ- >>} teñ- and 1950s teg-.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I would assume this root was √TEƷ in order to preserve the validity of the word téma “series”. This is because Tolkien kept vacillating on the development of gm, but usually had gm &gt; ngw, so that teg-mā > tengwa, not téma.

Derivatives

• ✶tegē “line, road”
  • Q. tië “path, road, way, line, path, road, way, line, [ᴹQ.] course, direction, [ᴱQ.] route” ✧ PE19/071
• ✶tegmā “direct[ion], process” ✧ PE19/097
  • Q. téma “series, series, [ᴹQ.] row, line” ✧ PE18/104; PE19/082; PE19/097

tî

noun. line, row

tê

noun. line, way