yávë

noun. fruit

The Quenya word for “fruit”, most notably as an element in the name Yavanna “Giver of Fruits, (lit.) fruit-gift” (S/27; SA/yávë; PE17/93) and derived from the root ᴹ√YAB of similar meaning (Ety/YAB).

Conceptual Development: This word dates back to ᴱQ. yáva “fruit, produce” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√ẎAVA, already an element of Yavanna’s name (QL/105). The word reappeared as ᴹQ. yáve “fruit” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√YAB of the same meaning (Ety/YAB). In Quenya Prayers of the 1950s, the word appeared as yáva, yávë and yave (VT43/26-28).

yávë

fruit

yávë noun "fruit" (YAB), cf. Yavanna. Early "Qenya" has yáva (LT1:273); the form yava turns up even in later material (VT43:31)

yáva

yáva

yáva, yava see yávë

Yávien

fruit

Yávien fem. name, apparently yávë "fruit" + the feminine ending -ien.

yáva

noun. *fruit

ar aistana i yávë mónalyo yésus

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus

The fourth line of Aia María, Tolkien’s translation of the Ave Maria prayer. The first word is ar “and”. This is followed by a declarative statement. The second word aistana “blessed” is the predicate. The next two words i yávë “the fruit” are the subject. As in the second line, there is no Quenya equivalent of the English word “is” in the final version of the prayer. Thus, ar aistana i yávë means “and blessed [is] the fruit”.

The next word functions as the subordinate clause: mónalyo “of thy womb”, a combination of móna “womb”, the second person singular possessive suffix -lya and the genitive suffix -o. The final word Yésus is simply a Quenyarized form of “Jesus”.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

> ar aistana i yávë móna-ly(a)-o Yésus = “✱and blessed [is] the fruit womb-your-of Jesus”

Conceptual Development: In the second version, Tolkien considered but rejected a variant form are (II deleted) for ar “and”. The first two versions of the prayer used manna (I-II) for “blessed” instead of aistana (III-IV). Tolkien used several variations for “fruit”: yáva (I-II), yávë (III), yave (IV). In the first two versions of the prayer Tolkien used carva (I-II) for “womb” instead of móna (III-IV).

|  I  | II |III|IV| |ar|{are >>} ar|ar| |manna|aistana| |i| |yáva|yávë|yave| |carvalyo|mónalyo| |Yésus|

Yavanna

fruit-gift

Yavanna, fem. name: Yav-anna, "Fruit-gift" (PE17:93) or "Fruit-giver", name of a Valië, spouse of Aulë, associated especially with plants (YAB, ANA1; cf. yávë)