In PE22:103 Tolkien mentions the Quenya verb lauta- "abound" and goes on saying that it is used impersonally, as in malta launen "gold abounded to me". Is this truly impersonal though, a subjectless verb, like úlo, or luin? Isn't the case simply that here "gold" is the grammatical subject, but the logical subject is "I"1?
A couple of months ago @Paul Strack posted a short but neat analysis of the attested Quenya particles of uncertainty, their possible shades of meaning and use. Since Discord is a platform we cannot link to, I am copying the text here, for further discussion, and to preserve it for posterity:
ma = interrogative/indefinite (probably true)
qui = neutral hypothetical (may or may not be true)
ai/ce = strong hypothetical (probably not true)
Hm, is Rambo a credible word for "wild man" in Quenya? :)
As the crebain were birds of Middle-Earth, I assume their name would've been adopted into Quenya as a loanword - but how would it have been adapted? *ravan? *karwan?
I see in Eldamo that the word has been extended with the meaning "raven", which makes sense in a way.
The etymology blog of Anatoly Liberman on the Oxford University Press blog is always a treat to read, and so it is with this week's installment dealing with the etymology of the English words feel and finger. This passage is especially interesting:
Do you think péti "lips" could be a model how CV monosyllables form their plurals? I mean like pé - péti, ré - *réti, thé - *théti, possibly pí - *píti etc
It's a wild stab, I know, it just occurred to me.
What could the noun "print" = " a result of pressing" be in Quenya? We do have the verb sanga-, from STAG, and the nouns sanga and sanguma attested.
