Quenya
váya
noun. ocean, sea, ocean, [stormy] sea
Derivations
- √WAY “blow (of wind), be disturbed” ✧ PE17/033; PE17/034
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √WAYA > váya [wāja] > [βāja] > [vāja] ✧ PE17/033 √WAYA > waya [wāja] > [βāja] > [vāja] ✧ PE17/034 Variations
- waya ✧ PE17/034
A word in Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 that Tolkien described as “used of sea (as waters, motion)”, a derivative of √WAYA “blow, or be disturbed” (PE17/33). This note was crossed through, but a similar note appeared afterwards with a (archaic?) word waya “ocean” (PE17/34).
Conceptual Development: In the earliest Lost Tales, Tolkien had ᴱQ. Vai “Outer Ocean” (LT1/85), a word that also appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as a derivative of ᴱ√VAẎA “enfold, wind about” (QL/100). The word ᴱQ. vea “sea” appeared in a number of poems Tolkien wrote in the late 1920s (MC/213-214, 216, 220; numerous references in PE16). ᴹQ. vea “sea” also appeared in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s as a derivative of ᴹ✶vaı̯ā (PE21/8, 17), and as an element in the name ᴹQ. Veaneldar “Sea-elves” from the 1930s and possibly Q. Vëantur, a name in later writings for a ship captain in Númenor (UT/171).
In Silmarillion drafts of the 1930s Tolkien used ᴹQ. Vaiya for “Enfolding Ocean” (SM/236) or “Outer Sea” (LR/209). This word was mentioned in The Etymologies as wai(y)a/vai(y)a “envelope” that was used “especially of the Outer Sea or Air enfolding the world within the Ilurambar”, a derivative of ᴹ√WAY “enfold” (Ety/WAY). In the Ambarkanta of early 1930s Tolkien likewise said that the ordinary meaning vaiya was “fold, envelope”, meaning “Outer Sea” when used as a proper name (SM/241). In Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957, the similar word váya/waya was given a new etymology from the root √WAYA “blow” rather than “enfold” as noted above, along with other derivatives having to do with “wind” (PE17/33-34).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I think the form váya is the best form, and given its derivation from the root for “wind”, I think it refers mainly to rough or stormy seas. The name Vëantur may contained a reduced form of this word.