How do you guys analyze mestanyatse "suffixion"? Is it a verb *mestanya- "to add to the end, extend" with an abstract suffix, or is it somehow a compound of metta/mesta "end" and *yatse "joining" from YAT? Or something entirely else?
There are ~60 Middle Quenya and Late Quenya entries in Eldamo marked as [unglossed] — some probably trivial, others more obscure, or outright impossible to deduct. I had this idea to open this thread to discuss and possibly assign a consensual meaning to them (where possible), which could then be added to the neo section of Eldamo.
If the exercise is a "success" we could extend it to other languages.
Here is the list of unglossed Quenya entries (thank you, Paul, for the Eldamo csv export) - let the glossing begin!:
Induinen is a weird looking noun, isn't it? Does it contain the EQ partitive ending -inen in your opinion? (If so, it would rather qualify to be an adverb "on purpose", wouldn't it?)
This is just a small observation. I remember when I first read PE17 I noticed the verb lelya- “appear (of beautiful things); attract, enchant (with dative)”, and I was thinking, what an odd gloss, surely it's a typo or misreading for appeal?
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:
