Quenya 

vehtë

life - not life in general or as a principle, but (a period of) individual activity

vehtë noun "life - not Life in general or as a principle, but (a period of) individual activity", thus also "the place where a person, people &c. lived and had their business, i.e. habitat, haunt" (PE17:189)

vehtë

noun. [a span of] life; habitat, haunt

A noun for “life” appearing in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 derived from primitive {✶we’te [weʒte] >>} ✶weg-tē “activity, occupation” (PE17/189). Tolkien said that vehte meant:

> not Life in general or as a principle, but (a period of) individual activity, as in vehtequentale “biography”. It was used therefore sometimes almost like nóre “land” — of the place where a person, people etc. lived and had their business, i.e. habitat, haunt. So Beleriand might be described as an Eldavehte, a habitation, haunt or place occupied by Eldar.

Thus vehte refers to a span of life or activity (temporal or physical), and in this sense was the basis for words like vehtequentalë “biography = ✱life-history” as well as various place names as habitats where people lived.

Changes

  • vehtevehte ✧ PE17/189

Cognates

  • S. gwaith “people; region, people, [ᴱN.] men, folk; [N.] manhood; man-power, troop of able bodied men, host, regiment; [S.] region” ✧ PE17/190

Derivations

  • wegtē “activity, occupation” ✧ PE17/189
    • WEG “live, be active, live, be active; [ᴹ√] (manly) vigour” ✧ PE17/189
  • WEG “live, be active, live, be active; [ᴹ√] (manly) vigour” ✧ PE17/190

Element in

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
weg-tē > vehte[wegtē] > [wektē] > [βektē] > [βextē] > [βexte] > [vexte]✧ PE17/189
WE’E > we’te > wehte > vehte[weɣtē] > [wextē] > [βextē] > [βexte] > [vexte]✧ PE17/190

Variations

  • vehte ✧ PE17/189; PE17/190
Quenya [PE17/189; PE17/190] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Eldavehtë

elf-haunt

Eldavehtë noun *"Elf-haunt", description of Beleriand as "a habitation, haunt or place occupied by Eldar. See vehtë. (PE17:189)

coivë

noun. life

coivië

life

coivië _("k")_noun "life" (coivierya, *"his/her life", VT49:41, 42). In early material, the word is glossed "awakening" instead (LT1:257; in LotR-style Quenya cuivië, as in Cuiviénen)

coivië

noun. life, life, [ᴱQ.] liveliness; awakening

The usual word for “life” in Tolkien’s later writings based on the root √KOY (NM/84, 119; VT49/42), in one place appearing with the variant koive (PE17/68). In another place Tolkien instead used kuivie for “life” in the phrase kuivie-lankasse “on the brink of life”, reflecting Tolkien’s ongoing vacillation between √KOY and √KUY as the root for life.

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. koivie was “awakening” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s (QL/48) as reflected in the name ᴱQ. Koivie-néni “Waters of Awakening” from this period (QL/48), but the word was glossed “liveliness” in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon (GL/29). The noun for “life, being alive” was ᴹQ. kuile in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√KUY “come to life, awake” (Ety/KUY), but was usually coivie in Tolkien’s writings from the 1950s and 60s, as noted above.

Neo-Quenya: I prefer √KOY as the root for “life” for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, so I’d use coivie as the noun “life, liveliness”, and use cuivië for “awakening” as seen in the later form of the name Q. Cuiviénen “Water of Awakening” (S/48).

Derivations

  • KOY “*live, have life, [ᴹ√] live, have life”

Element in

Variations

  • koive ✧ PE17/068
  • koivie ✧ PE17/068
  • kuivie ✧ VT42/08
Quenya [NM/084; NM/119; PE17/068; VT42/08; VT49/42] Group: Eldamo. Published by

cuivië

noun. life

coi

life

coi ("k")"life" (LT1:257; in Tolkien's later Quenya cuilë)

cuilë

life, being alive

cuilë ("k")noun "life, being alive" (KUY)