Qenya
vesta-
verb. to wed, to wed, *marry
Cognates
- ᴺS. besta- “to wed, marry”
Derivations
- ᴹ√BES “wed” ✧ Ety/BES; Ety/WED
Element in
- ᴹQ. vestale “wedding” ✧ Ety/BES
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ√BES > vesta- [besta-] > [βesta-] > [vesta-] ✧ Ety/BES ᴹ√BES > vesta- [besta-] > [βesta-] > [vesta-] ✧ Ety/WED Variations
- vesta- ✧ Ety/BES; Ety/WED
vesta-
verb. to swear (to do something), contract, make a compact
Changes
vesta-→ vesta- “swear (to do something), contract, make a compact” ✧ Ety/WEDCognates
- N. gwesta- “to swear” ✧ Ety/WED
Derivations
Element in
- ᴹQ.
vestale“oath” ✧ Ety/WED (vestale)Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ✶wed-tā > vesta- [wedta-] > [westa-] > [vesta-] ✧ Ety/WED Variations
vesta-✧ Ety/WED (vesta-)
Tolkien used a variety of similar verbs for “to marry” throughout his life. The earliest of these was ᴱQ. vesta- “to wed” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√VEŘE [VEÐE] (QL/101). This verb reappeared in the English-Qenya Dictionary with the gloss “join (others) in marriage”, where Tolkien said it could be used reflexively to mean “get married”, and reflexively with the ᴱQ. va preposition to mean “get married with ...” (PE15/75). The verb ᴹQ. vesta- “to wed” reappeared in The Etymologies of the 1930s as a derivative of the root {ᴹ√BED >>} ᴹ√BES of the same meaning (Ety/BES).
Up until this stage, all the primitive “marry” roots produce vesta- in combination with the verbal suffix -ta: all of VEÐ+tā, BED+tā, BES+tā > vesta-. At some point in the late 1960s, Tolkien decided the root for “marriage” words was √BER, and he coined a new pair of “marry” verbs based on this root: transitive Q. verta- “to give in marriage (a) to (b), or to take as husband or wife to oneself” and intransitive Q. verya- “to marry (of husband and wife), be joined to” (VT49/45). The form verta- rather than ᴱQ./ᴹQ. vesta- is a consequence of this new version of the root.
Neo-Quenya: For purpose of Neo-Eldarin, I prefer to retain the 1930s form of the root ᴹ√BES in order to keep attested Sindarin/Noldorin forms. As such I would use the 1930s verb form ᴹQ. vesta- for “to wed, marry”. Note that while late 1960s intransitive Q. verya- is compatible with ᴹ√BES, it clashes with 1930s ᴹQ. verya- “to dare” (< ᴹ√BER “valiant”). Therefore I would use vesta- both transitively and intransitively for “to marry”, though in the intransitive past I’d treat it as a half-strong verb: verenten “I got married” vs. vestanen verunya “I married my husband”.