Primitive Elvish - where it all began

INTERNAL HISTORY
EXTERNAL HISTORY
PRIMITIVE QUENDIAN: BASIC PHONOLOGY
The sounds
Initial clusters
Stress
Possible phonological restraints
VARIOUS PARTS OF SPEECH AND THEIR INFLECTION
COMMON ELDARIN
THE STEM AND ITS MODIFICATIONS
DERIVATION IN PRIMITIVE ELVISH
PRIMITIVE ELVISH WORDLIST
INTERNAL HISTORY

Long they dwelt in their first home by the water under stars, and they walked the Earth in
wonder; and they began to make speech and to give names to all things that they perceived.
Themselves they named the Quendi, signifying those that speak with voices...
By making a language, the Firstborn of Ilvatar identified themselves as Incarnates, children of
the One: "The making of a lambe [language] is the chief character of an Incarnate," Pengolodh
the sage of Gondolin observed (WJ:397). Indeed "the newly-waked devised many new and
beautiful words, and many cunning artifices of speech" (WJ:422). The language made by the first
Elves at Cuivinen was to have an immense impact on the linguistic history of Middle-earth.
Usually called Primitive Quendian, it was the ultimate ancestor of all Elvish languages, including
Quenya and Sindarin. Even languages not directly descended from PQ had borrowed words from
Elvish, as documented in the articles about Adnaic, Mannish, Dwarvish and even Orkish and
the Black Speech. WR:159 and PM:63 quote Faramir as saying that "all speech of men in this
world is Elvish in descent". The sole language of Arda that may have been wholly free from

Elvish influence may be Valarin. In practice, Valarin would also be the only language older than
Primitive Quendian. True, Aul had invented Khuzdul for the Dwarves long before the coming of
the Elves, but since Ilvatar did not want the Dwarves to come before his own Firstborn, the
Dwarves were still sleeping when the Quendi awoke.
What was it like, the tongue that the Elves formed in those first years of innocence by the
starlit waters of Cuivinen? We know much of its phonology and methods of derivation; we
know less of its precise grammatical structure. Judging from the daughter-languages that are
commonly held to be least changed from the original, namely Quenya and Telerin, PQ was a case
language; an allative ending -da is explicitly mentioned by Tolkien (WJ:366). Concerning the
general style of the primitive language, the vast majority of words had two or three syllables and
ended in a vowel. In VT39:6, Tolkien states that in Quenya, "all final consonants had probably
lost a vowel, if remote Quendian origins were considered". (Some of Tolkien's "reconstructed"
forms nevertheless end in a consonant, but they are not many, and not all the asterisked forms
necessarily describe the oldest stage of the language.) Very characteristic of primitive Elvish are
the frequent long final vowels, e.g. in lind "sweet-sounding" or ndor "land". In three-syllable
words, the first and the second vowel are usually identical (e.g. karani "red"), and in a number of
cases the final vowel is also the same, but long (e.g. ered "seed", galad "tree", kyelep "silver",
golod "Noldo"). According to VT39:6, vowels in hiatus probably did not occur medially in the
primitive language; where they occur in Quenya an intervening consonant has been lost.
Tolkien's reconstructed forms nonetheless include at least one hiatic combination, ie, i; in light
of his later concept we may assume that this represents even earlier *ihe or *ie with a middle
consonant that was later lost.
In the Silmarillion Index, Christopher Tolkien refers to Quenya as "the ancient tongue,
common to all Elves, in the form that it took in Valinor". However, the style of "the ancient
tongue" in many respects differed markedly from later Quenya, and generally the word Quenya
should not be applied to it at all. True, the sound-changes that separate Primitive Quendian from
classical High-Elven are so tidy and straightforward that a speaker of Quenya might, with a little
training, have been able to understand the primitive language without actually "learning" it as a
foreign tongue. But even so, the primitive language would sound pretty outlandish to him, and he
would hardly recognize it as a mere variant of his own tongue. Still, the fact remains that the
Noldor held that Quenya was the language "most nearly preserving the ancient character of
Elvish speech" (WJ:374). Actually the most conservative language seems to be the Telerin of
Aman, as least as far as phonology is concerned - but then Telerin was sometimes thought of as a
dialect of Quenya, though the Teleri themselves held it to be a separate language.
Tolkien distinguished two stages of primitive Elvish. The very first stage, as noted above,
was Primitive Quendian. This was the ancestor of all Elvish tongues in the world (except,
possibly, any products of wholesale a priori language construction, if the Elves engaged in such
sports...as we know, some humans do! However, it is said in the Silmarillion, chapter 17, that "all
the languages of the Quendi were of one origin"). In the Etymologies, only a few of the

asterisked forms are explicitly identified as Primitive Quendian (atar, at, dr/der-, khalatirn,
m3/ma3-, and taur; see the entries ATA, NI1, NR, TIR, MA3, T/TA3). Nonetheless, most of
the asterisked forms must be assumed to represent the most primitive stage of the language. The
next stage was Common Eldarin, the ancestor of all the Eldarin (as opposed to Avarin) tongues,
including Quenya and Sindarin. Common Eldarin would be the language spoken by the Elves
that followed Orom and embarked on the March from Cuivinen to the Sea, or rather the
language they developed during the March. In the Etymologies, only three words are explicitly
identified as (Common) Eldarin (maht-, nd^r, wa, see MA3, NDER, W...unfortunately the
computer can't place a circumflex above ). However, a number of Common Eldarin forms are
given in WJ and PM.
It might be helpful to know approximately how much time the periods involved represent.
In WJ:5-6, a chronology in Valian years is set out. In WJ:20 we are told that 365 "long years of
the Valar" equal "well nigh...three thousand and five hundred years of the Sun", sc. one Valian
year is about nine and a half solar year. Using this figure, we get the following result: After the
Elves awoke by the mere of Cuivinen, they dwelt in peace for about 280 solar years (Valian
Years 1050 to ca. 1080). Then they were found by the spies of Melkor and afflicted by them.
About fifty more solar years passed, after which the Elves were found by Orom in the Valian
year 1085. The Separation of the Quendi into Eldar and Avari eventually followed, apparently in
the year 1105, about 190 solar years later. (The impression one might get from the Silmarillion
text, that the Separation occurred within weeks or months after Orom's finding the Elves, turns
out to be wholly wrong.) So from the Elves awoke until the Separation, well over five hundred
solar years elapsed, ample time for developing a complete language - but still not very long by
Elvish standards. (Cf. Legolas' words in LotR2/III ch. 6: "Five hundred times have the red leaves
fallen in Mirkwood in my home since [the Meduseld was built], and but a little while does that
seem to us." Half a millennium was not perceived as a very long time by the Elves.)
The March from Cuivinen to the Sea lasted well over two and a half century of solar
years (Valian Years 1105-1132). During this time, the Marchers turned Primitive Quendian into
Common Eldarin. Then the Vanyar and Noldor went over the sea, and about this point Common
Eldarin evidently became Old Quenya, as the pre-record period in the evolution of Elvish was
nearing its end. In Beleriand, Common Eldarin (or the Common Telerin dialect of it) started to
evolve towards Sindarin.
Millennia later, it was also in Beleriand that the exiled Noldor started to study comparative
linguistics and reconstruct the primitive language: "It was...the contact with Sindarin and the
enlargement of their experience with linguistic change (especially the much swifter and more
uncontrolled shifts observable in Middle-earth) that stimulated the studies of the linguistic
loremasters, and it was in Beleriand that theories concerning Primitive Eldarin and the
interrelation of its known descendants were developed." - PM:342.

EXTERNAL HISTORY

There seems to have been no point where Tolkien's Elvish languages existed in a historical
vacuum, with no history of change and evolution behind them. Notes Christopher Tolkien,
"Those languages were conceived, of course, from the very beginning in a deeply 'historical'
way... Every element in the languages, every element in every word, is in principle historically
'explicable' - as are the elements in languages that are not 'invented' - and the successive phases
of their intricate evolution were the delight of their creator... They image language not as 'pure
structure', without 'before' and 'after', but as growth, in time." (LR:341) The diachronic aspect
was very important to Tolkien; he seems to have been immensely attracted by the grand vision of
an entire language family growing, changing, evolving, branching out in various directions.
When discussing Elvish words, he very often introduces primitive stems and asterisked
"ancestral" forms; he clearly felt that a word needs a history! (See for instance Letters:382-383.)
Of course, this necessitated the construction (or at least sketching) of a primitive language, an
ultimate ancestor for all the successive stages, since Tolkien could not well extend the history of
the Elvish languages indefinitely into the past - especially when he thought of Elvish history as
having one definite beginning in time and space, the awakening of the Quendi by the mere of
Cuivinen. All forms of Elvish had to be descendants of "Cuivinenian".
Already in the very first Elvish wordlist, the "Qenya Lexicon" of 1915, the words were
derived from "primitive roots" (as in the Etymologies). These stems provide glimpses of a protolanguage that seems somewhat inspired by the proposed reconstructions of Indo-European, the
hypothetical tongue that most European and some Oriental languages descend from. For
instance, Tolkien included stems involving syllabic N and L, such as SNKN and FLKL
(LT2:341, where there are dots under the N's and L's to indicate that they are syllabic).
Apparently starting from the same primitive stems, Tolkien two years later derived a new Elvish
language, cognate with "Qenya" - Gnomish, a Celtic-sounding Elvish language that after thirty
years of revisions and changing conceptions "ultimately became that of the type called Sindarin"
(PM:379).
The syllabic consonants of the "Proto-Elfin" of 1915 were gone twenty years later, when
the Etymologies was written. Nevertheless, some ideas about the primitive language go back to
the very beginning. For instance, there is the notion that many words originally began with
nasalized explosives nd, mb, ng (that are reflected in the form that word has following the
definite article in the Celtic-sounding language: Gnomish Golda "Gnome, Noldo", i Ngolda "the
Gnome"; similarly Sindarin Golodh "Noldo", i Ngolodh "the Noldo"). In the Etymologies, quite
a few "reconstructed" primitive words are given, allowing us to get a relatively good impression
of the primitive language as Tolkien had now come to think of it.

Of course, Tolkien's prime interest lay in the later Elvish languages, especially Quenya and
(Noldorin >) Sindarin. Even in the Etymologies, primitive Elvish remains a somewhat shadowy
entity whose prime function is to clarify the relationship between the various branches of Elvish
and serve as the historical basis of them all, rather than being an "art-language" in itself. Like
everything else, Tolkien's ideas about the ultimate derivation of certain words were subject to
revision. For instance, both SD:419 and the Etymologies (stem TYUL) agree that the Quenya
word for "mast" is tyulma. But according to the Etymologies, tyulma comes from primitive
tyulm, while SD:419 has it that tyulma descends from primitive kyulum. Both of these would
yield tyulma in Quenya, so there is no discrepancy concerning the sound-changes - but Tolkien's
ideas about the ancestral form changed over time. A similar case is Quenya find "tress, braid of
hair": does it come from primitive spind (The Etymologies, stem SPIN) or from phind
(PM:362)? Such indecision goes back to the very beginning: Discussing the earliest "Lexicons",
Christopher Tolkien notes that "in some cases it seems clear that the word was 'there', so to
speak, but its etymology remained to be certainly defined, and not vice versa" (LT1:246). But
Tolkien's general ideas about the primitive language, as exemplified in the Etymologies, seem to
have gotten into shape in the 1930s and did not undergo substantial revisions later. For instance,
in what Christopher Tolkien calls "a very late note" - evidently meaning that it dates from the
seventies - the primitive form of Aul's title "world-artificer" is given as mbartan (LT1:266).
This seems to be the same kind of Primitive Elvish as the reconstructed forms in the
Etymologies, written forty years earlier. In any case, the historical development of Quenya and
Sindarin had become "minutely refined" in the last years of Tolkien's life, so he must then have
held in mind a quite clear image of their common ancestral language. - PM:367.
It should be noted that one early idea was rejected later: the notion that the Elves did not
invent language on their own, but learnt Valarin from Orom (LR:168). As we have seen, Tolkien
later decided that the Elves were alone for centuries before they were found by the Valar.
Needless to say, the distinction between "recorded" Elvish words and "unattested" forms is
pure fiction. Tolkien's "reconstructed" forms are just as authoritative as the vocabulary of the
"attested" languages: Even if someone could come up with a more plausible reconstruction of
Primitive Quendian than Tolkien did, it would still have to be rejected! In this essay, primitive
words "reconstructed" by Tolkien himself are not asterisked - though Tolkien usually does
asterisk them, cheerfully playing his Game.
(The ultimate experiment in Tolkienian linguistics: Teach Primitive Quendian to a few thousand
people and place them on a remote continent all by themselves. Then come back a millennium or
two later and check if their descendants have developed languages similar to Quenya and/or
Sindarin.)

PRIMITIVE QUENDIAN: BASIC PHONOLOGY

The sounds

The vowels (monophthongs) of Primitive Quendian were a, e, i, o, u, short and long. The long
vowels are usually marked with a macron by Tolkien; here we will use a circumflex instead: , ,
, , . As noted above, the frequent long final vowels are very characteristic of primitive Elvish.
(However, the final vowels are sometimes - but not always - shortened if the word appears the
final element in a compound; compare tr "lord" with -turo in Spanturo "cloud-lord"; see also
WJ:403 concerning khn "child" becoming -khna. The plural ending - remains long, though:
kala-kwend "Calaquendi".) The primitive diphthongs were apparently ai, au, ei, eu, iu, oi, *ou,
ui. (*Ou is not explicitly given in any primitive word "reconstructed" by Tolkien, but it is implied
to have existed, though it seems to have merged with au very early. Cf. Quenya naus
"imagination"; the root is given as NOWO, so originally, the initial syllable of this word must
have been *now- = *nou-.) Combinations like i may be taken either as "long diphthongs" or as
followed by i (two distinct syllables); we cannot know precisely what Tolkien intended. In
VT39:11, Tolkien states that "Eldarin (and probably Primitive Quendian) exhibited a marked
preference for diphthongs ending in i".
As for the consonants, an interesting table of "The original Quendian consonants" was
published in VT46:28. Here, Tolkien set out the entire consonant system as a grid organizing the
consonants into three "series": the p-series, t-series and k-series.
First there are the three "Voiceless stops" that give their names to their respective "series": p, t,
and k.
Next Tolkien listed the corresponding "Voiceless aspirated stops", ph, th, and kh. This would be
p, t, and k followed by an h-like sound, somewhat as in English uphold, outhouse, elkhorn. (The
"normal" p, t, and k of Primitive Elvish can thus be inferred to have been unaspirated in all
positions, as in French or Russian; in English these consonants become aspirated initially before
a vowel, though most speakers are little conscious of this.) Notice that Quendian ph, th, and kh
were perceived as unitary consonants, not analyzed as clusters p + h etc.; in VT46:28 Tolkien
actually used the single Greek letters phi, theta and chi to denote them. These Greek letters
originally denoted aspirates, only later becoming spirants (sc. ph = f, th as in English think and
kh like the "ch" of German ach - a similar development from aspirates to spirants is also
observed when comparing Primitive Elvish to the later Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin).
Next are listed the voiced stops b, d, and g (the voiced counterparts of p, t, and k). Below these
voiced consonants Tolkien mentioned the "nasal-stop groups" mb, nd, and ng, listing them in

brackets. It is not altogether clear whether these are to be regarded as unitary consonants,
nasalized versions of b, d, and g, or as b, d, and g with a distinct nasal element intruding before
them. The fact that Tolkien refers to these combinations as "groups" (hence consonant clusters?)
probably hints that the latter interpretation is correct.
Next come the "Nasal sonants" in their own right: m of the p-series, n of the t-series and of the
k-series (if we use the symbol for "ng" as in English ring, like Tolkien often does). Incidentally,
the above-listed "nasal-stop group" ng would properly be g.
Finally, Tolkien listed "Oral sonants, or weak voiced spirants". These are the semi-vowel w of
the p-series, the lateral/vibrant sounds l and r of the t-series, and the semi-vowel j (= English "y"
as in you) of the -series. Together with j Tolkien also listed 3, the spirant counterpart of g (like
the Orkish gh).

Tolkien added: "Outside the tripartite system [sc. the p-, t, and k-series] was the one voiceless
spirantal sound s. To some extent it belonged to the t-series." He also remarked that this s had a
voiced "variety" z, but this was an allophone of s rather than an independent phoneme. The
actual primitive forms cited suggest that z occurs primarily where s comes into contact with a
following d, as in the "root" MIZD (LR:373, compare the apparently related root MISK listed on
the same page). EZD must be taken as a Common Eldarin form, in light of what Tolkien says in
WJ:403.

We notice that ignoring the sibilant s, the primitive language had no other spirant than 3, and
even this sound Tolkien often reconstructs as h instead (in LR:360, the original stem yielding
Quenya ho "from" is given as 3, while in WJ:368 the corresponding stem is given as HO).
Since we are dealing with a reconstructed form of Elvish, the exact quality of this sound is of
little importance.
As for the semi-vowel j, one detail of spelling must be remembered: When editing the
Etymologies for publication, Christopher Tolkien changed J to Y, e.g. KUY, DYEL where his
father actually wrote KUJ, DJEL (see LR:346). This was done with good intentions, since many
speakers of English would misunderstand the letter J, thinking that it referred to the English
"dzh"-sound. We retain this revised spelling when referring to the basic stems listed in the
Etymologies (in capital letters), but otherwise we henceforth restore Tolkien's original spelling in
the actual word-forms mentioned in the Etymologies, e.g. njadr instead of nyadr (therefore, the
reader should not be confused when njadr is derived from a stem NYAD, since the letters j and
y in all cases refer to the same sound). In the essay Quendi and Eldar, where many reconstructed
forms occur, Tolkien also used j rather than y, and here Christopher Tolkien left his father's
spelling alone when editing the essay for publication. We also use j in primitive words where it

seems that Tolkien did employ the letter y, to have a uniform spelling. - Some surmise that j and
w often do not stand for independent semi-vowels, but merely indicate that the preceding
consonant is palatalized or labialized, respectively. If so, such palatalized and labialized sounds
could be counted as independent phonemes in Primitive Quendian; yet their absence from the
table of primitive consonants in VT46:28 may indicate that we are really dealing with consonant
clusters ending in j and w.
In the Etymologies, Tolkien in a few cases changed w to v, the stems WAY, WEY
becoming VAY, VEY. Does this mean that he considered introducing v as a primitive sound, as
distinct from b or w? The sound v does not fit the phonology very well: As noted above,
Primitive Quendian possesses virtually no spirants if we disregard the sibilant s; even the spirant
3 is often reconstructed as h instead. Perhaps v as a distinct phoneme in Primitive Quendian was
just a passing idea; it does not occur in the table in VT46:28.

Initial clusters

The largest group of initial clusters begin in s: sj-, sk-, skj-, skw-, sl-, sm-, sn-, sp-, sr-, st-, sw-.
Some initial clusters may be considered simply nasalised stops: mb, nd, g. Already in the
Gnomish Grammar (1917), Tolkien speaks of "words beginning with nasalized-explosives nd,
mb, ng (a fairly numerous class originally)" (Parma Eldalamberon #11, p. 7). As noted above, it
is not entirely clear whether these are to be perceived as unitary nasalized consonants or as
clusters of a nasal + another consonant.
A number of clusters end in one of the two semi-vowels. In J: dj, gj, kj, khj, ndj, gj, nj, tj
(and sj, skj already mentioned). In W: gw, gw, kw (and skw, sw already mentioned). It would
seem that kw already before the Separation merged into a single labio-velar sound q that
remained in Quenya (later spelt qu), while it very early became p in the dialect of the Teleri - still
so in Sindarin and the Telerin of Aman. Some would interpret kw as a single labio-velar rather
than a consonant cluster right from the start. (Tolkien's earliest "proto-Elfin" - the 1915 stuff included stems like QORO; see LT1:264. Here, Q does stand for a labio-velar sound. See also
ereqa in the wordlist below.) As mentioned above, some would indeed take several of the initial
"clusters" involving a single consonant + -w or -j as merely a convenient way of spelling
labialized and palatalized series of consonants; if so they would not really be clusters at all. Yet
the absence of such consonants in the table in VT46:28 may indicate otherwise.
SD:419 mentions a primitive word with initial hj (or hy, as it is there spelt). Is this a
genuine cluster h + j, or simply hy as in Quenya, a unitary sound like German ich-Laut?
Stress

In the Etymologies, a number of reconstructed primitive words include an accent that apparently
marks the stressed syllable (here we use italics instead of an accent mark). Most of the words are
marked as accented on the first syllable: abar (abaro), alk, bal, balre, Ban, banj, bata
(bat), belek, belek, berja, boron-, b'ras-s, orku, pheren, teles, ban (see wordlist below for
the meaning of the words). Other words are apparently stressed on the penultimate syllable:
barad, ontro, berek, morok, turumb. Yet other words are stressed on the final syllable:
baras, barj, barn, batt, khaln, tamb. From these examples it is clear that in Primitive
Elvish, accent was not determined by the form of the word (as is generally the case in Quenya
and Sindarin). The words belek, berek and baras have the same number of syllables and
exactly the same distribution of consonants and vowels (short and long), but they are not stressed
on the same syllable. There seems to be no certain way of predicting which syllable receives the
accent in Primitive Elvish; we just have to take Tolkien's word in this matter. Some stems in the
Etymologies, like MORK, are marked with an accent to indicate which syllable is stressed and this is reflected in the derived word morok. The stem MORK just happens to be accented
on the second o, and that's it.
It may be noted that there is no connection between accent and long vowels. One might
think that the frequent long final vowels were accented, but there seems to be no such rule. In
alk, the one short vowel is also the one that is accented. Unlike the present writer, the early
Elves apparently did not find it difficult to pronounce long vowels that were wholly unaccented.

Possible phonological restraints

As far as can be told, the oldest form of Elvish had few phonological restrains, especially
compared to the far more well-defined (and hence restrictive) phonologies of Quenya and
Sindarin.
At the very oldest stage, it may be that all words had to end in a vowel: We have already
quoted VT39:6, where Tolkien states that in Quenya, "all final consonants had probably lost a
vowel, if remote Quendian origins were considered". Yet, as we also indicated above, a few of
Tolkien's "reconstructed" forms do end in consonants. Maybe these forms are not meant to reflect
the very oldest stage.
While there seems to be no correlation between long vowels and stress, it may be that long
vowels cannot occur before consonant clusters. Two long vowels in sequence (hiatus) may also
be impossible.

According to VT47:35, describing the situation in Common Eldarin, the semi-vowel w

could not occur before the corresponding vowel u, and similarly y (= j) could not occur before i.
Whereas the primitive language did allow initial mb-, nd-, g-, the corresponding unvoiced
combinations mp-, nt-, k- apparently could not occur at the beginning of words. Thus as an
elaboration of the root TAM we find NDAM rather than *NTAM, apparently an impossible form
(LR:390, 375).
VARIOUS PARTS OF SPEECH AND THEIR INFLECTION

Nouns: The primitive language distinguished at least three numbers: singular, dual and plural.
The singular was apparently the basic form of the noun, as in most languages. The dual was
formed with the ending -, seen in bes "married pair" (BES), las "ears" (pair of ears, two ears
of one person) (LAS2) and pe "pair of lips" (VT39:11 cf. 9). If the use of this dual element
corresponds to its use in old Quenya, as outlined by Tolkien in Letters:427, this primitive dual
applied only to two things belonging together as a pair, not to two things only casually
associated.
The normal plural ending was -, the origin of Quenya -i (as in Quendi) and the i-affection
seen in Sindarin plurals (like annon "gate", pl. ennyn, because a and o were assimilated to the
Old Sindarin plural ending -i, later lost, and became e and y, respectively). Quendi descends
from kwend, the pl. of kwende (WJ:360); note that the short final -e is displaced by the plural
ending. The frequent long final vowels are apparently not normally displaced, but the plural
ending - is shortened to -i when added to a long vowel: The pl. of Lind "Linda, an Elf of the
Third Clan" (WJ:380) is given as Lindi (WJ:378), not **Lind. It seems that these
combinations of a long vowel + i tended to become normal diphthongs in -i, like i > ai in this
case; the pl. of Lind is also given as Lindai (WJ:385). In SD:302 the pl. of orn "tree" is
likewise given as ornei, not *orni (the earlier form?) However, sometimes the plural is formed
directly from a naked stem instead of being added to the final vowel; thus, the pl. of bal "Vala"
is bal, formed from the stem BAL, instead of **bali, **balai. (In Quenya, the form Vali, from
bal, is still an alternative to Valar as the pl. of Vala. It is seen in the name Valinor, the land or
people of the Vali.)
Another primitive plural ending, mentioned in the Etymologies under 3O, was -m. How
and where it was used is not clear. It may have been used to indicate plurality after case endings
and enclitic particles. This -m is apparently the origin of the plural ending -n seen in some of the
Quenya cases, such as the ending -ssen for locative plural (singular -ss). The prepositional
element j, jo- "together" (of more than two) is also given as jm, jom- (WJ:361). It may be that
this has something to do with the plural ending -m. Vinyar Tengwar #42 provides a little more
information about it. Tolkien referred to this ending as "being certainly an ancient plural
indicator in Common Eldarin" and cited the example lepem "fingers" (p. 26). Yet the normal

plural indicator must have been the ending -, directly reflected by -i in Quenya, Telerin and Old
Sindarin.
It would seem that the primitive language had at least some cases; Tolkien mentions an
allative ending -da (WJ:366). The accusative found in archaic Quenya, formed by lengthening
the final vowel of words (cirya "ship" > ciry), may suggest that at an earlier stage, there was an
accusative ending that consisted of some guttural sound. When it was lost, the previous vowel
was lengthened (or remained long) in compensation: ?kirj3 > ciry; contrast *kirj > cirya.
However, some of the numerous case endings in Quenya may be particles that were later
suffixed; we know that the genitive ending -o descends from an originally independent particle
3o or ho, "from". Indeed the distinction between case endings and enclitic particles may have
been vague or absent in the earliest forms of Elvish. Interestingly, Tolkien states that
"prepositional" elements were normally "attached" (= suffixed?) to noun stems in PQ; this was
their "usual place" (WJ:368). It would seem that in PQ, the "prepositions" normally acted as
postpositions instead. (Real prepositions must have become dominant in Common Eldarin, since
they occur in both Quenya and Sindarin.)
Verbs: There isn't too much we can say about the verbal system in the primitive language.
Some frequent verbal endings, such as -j and -t (whence Quenya -ya, -ta) can be identified; see
"Derivation in Primitive Elvish" below. WJ:415 suggests that in the primitive language, the past
tense was marked by "the 'augment' or reduplicated base-vowel, and the long stem-vowel". Thus,
the stem KWE "say, speak" had the past tense ekw (the e of KWE being prefixed as an augment
and the original e being lengthened to ). The stem KAR "make, do", which stem might probably
just as well be given as *kara, similarly has the past tense akra "made, did". Similarly, we must
assume that the past tense of kiri "cut" was *ikri (my reconstruction), and so on. In the later
languages, the prefixed stem-vowels live on in the Quenya perfects, while they also appear in
one class of Sindarin past tenses (akra yielding Sindarin agor).
In Quenya, past tenses are often formed with the ending -n (e.g. orta- "raise" > ortan
"raised") or by nasal infixion + final - (e.g. tac- "fasten", pa.t. tanc). Nasal infixion is also
found in Sindarin past tenses (e.g. sogo "to drink" > pa.t. sunc). Since the past tenses involving
nasals occur in both Quenya and Sindarin, they must go back to at least Common Eldarin. No
primitive form of the Quenya past tense ending -n is mentioned by Tolkien in the published
material; if it existed, it would probably have been *-n. Some of the nasal-infixed past tenses
may simply be due to such an ending being added directly to a stem, whereupon the n and the
final consonant of the stem were transposed. For instance, Sindarin sunc "drank" (Quenya
*sunc, not attested) could be derived from, say, CE *sunk < PQ *sukn, sc. the stem SUK
"drink" with the past tense ending *-n. But this is speculation and requires shifts like kn > nk,
that do not regularly occur; it may be better to assume that the nasal-infixed form *sunk is
original.

In Quenya, a form held to be the aorist is formed with the ending -, that changes to -i
when any ending is added. In the primitive language, this must have been -i everywhere (since
final short -i became - in Quenya, but remained unchanged when not final).
One of our very few examples of a primitive present tense is ulj *"pours", the source of
Sindarin eil "it is raining" (see ULU). May this argue the existence of a primitive present-tense
ending -, the source of the Quenya ending -a? In WJ:372, Tolkien refers to the "the [present?]
tense stems in -". It would seem that the ending - is "invisible" when added to a verb already
ending in -, for the verb ulj certainly shows the frequent verbal ending -j. Note, however, the
form mt "is eating", stated (in VT39:7) to be the "continuous form" of a stem mata- or MAT
"eat" (VT39:7, 11; LR:371). With this compare Letters:427, where Tolkien states that Quenya
palantr comes from a primitive form palantr (or palantra), and that this word includes a
"continuative stem of TIR watch, gaze at". Clearly the "continous form" mt "is eating" relates
to MAT just like this "continuative stem" tr *"is watching" relates to TIR. It seems that from
basic verbal stems (with no ending like -j or -t) a continuous form corresponding to English "is
...-ing" can be derived by lengthening the stem-vowel and adding the ending -. The Quenya
descendants of these forms (not attested in this case: *mta, *tra) are clearly what is often called
the present tense. Since mt is translated "is eating", it seems that the continuative stems could
function as finite verbs already in the primitive language.
We have one example of a primitive perfect, namely the form awwii given in WJ:366. It
would seem to be formed by lengthening and prefixing the stem-vowel and adding the suffix -ii.
In Quenya, the ending has become -i, but otherwise perfects are still formed in the same way.
How other forms of the verb were constructed in primitive Elvish, we don't know. The
infinitive ending -i is found both in Quenya and Old Sindarin ("Old Noldorin"), so it must go
back to at least Common Eldarin. Its primitive form may have been -i (perhaps attested buried
in the word luktin, see below). The Quenya and Sindarin future tense endings, -uva and -tha,
are evidently not cognate - perhaps suggesting that one or both are innovations with no
counterparts in the primitive language.
It may be noted that the primitive language had no inflectional imperative; instead the
independent imperative particle , variable in place, was used in conjunction with a verbal stem
(WJ:365).
Pronouns: Our knowledge of the primitive pronominal system is far from complete. A first
person stem NI "I" is given in the Etymologies (LR:378 s.v. NI2), and ni is still found in Quenya
(while the origin of the Sindarin word for "I", im, is obscure). The Quenya ending -mm for
(exclusive) "we" and the corresponding Sindarin ending -m argue the existence of a primitive 1st
person plural pronoun including the sound m in Common Eldarin at the latest. Tolkien speaks of
de and its variant le as "pronominal elements in the 2nd person" (WJ:363). Quenya tye "you" (as
object, "thee") and the Sindarin ending -ch *"you" seem to indicate that there was also a 2nd

person element including the sound k (since Quenya tye in light of the Sindarin ending must be
assumed to descend from *kje, while Sindarin -ch represents older *-kk-). Concerning the 3rd
person, the demonstrative stem TA "that" is relevant (it yields Quenya ta "that, it"). Quenya te
"them" (and "they"?) may descend from unstressed *tai, sc. ta "that [one]" with a plural ending:
*"those". The 3rd person was apparently primarily associated with another demonstrative stem,
S-. Under this stem, the Etymologies lists s or su (or s/so) as an evidently primitive pronoun
"he", while "she" is s or si (or s, se). Here, reference is also made to "-so inflexion of verbs"
and the corresponding feminine "-se inflexion", evidently meaning that these pronouns were
attached to verbs to express that "he" or "she" was the subject of the verb. Whether these
inflections occurred already in the most primitive language is not clear.
Other parts of speech: An example of an adverb is provided by the word akw, according
to WJ:415 "an extension or intensification of *kw, used adverbially" (Quenya aqua "fully,
completely, altogether, wholly"). Another example is hekw "leaving aside, not counting,
excluding, except", stated to be both adverb and preposition (WJ:364-5). This is formed from the
"adverbial element" HEKE, HEK, meaning "aside, apart, separate" (WJ:361, 364). No special
adverbial ending, like English -ly, is known; the ending -w seen in the word hekw is also an
adjectival ending (see "Derivation" below). - One "primitive negative element" is mentioned in
WJ:370: b "no!" (also ab, aba), expressing refusal, not denial of facts. Otherwise, words based
on the stem LA "no, not" or the negative stems G, M and their prefixed variants UGU, UMU
were evidently used to form negations. - It is not known whether there were articles in the
primitive language; this may be doubtful. The source of the article i "the" in Quenya and
Sindarin, namely the stem I, is stated to be a "deitic particle" (LR:361). So while Quenya i alda
and Sindarin i 'aladh mean "the tree", primitive *i galad evidently meant "that tree" instead.
Later, the meaning of i was weakened from "that" to "the" (perhaps already in Common Eldarin,
since Quenya and Sindarin share this article). The Romance languages got their definite articles
just like this: Their ancestor Latin had no word for "the", but the meaning of Latin
demonstratives (typically ille, illa) was weakened to produce articles like la or el.

COMMON ELDARIN

As noted above, Common Eldarin (CE) is the next stage of Primitive Elvish. This is the language
of the original Eldar as distinct from the Avari, the tongue developed from Primitive Quendian
during the two and a half centuries the March from Cuivinen to the sea lasted, and hence the
last common ancestor of Quenya and Sindarin.
In PM:342, Tolkien actually states, "When the Eldar arrived in Aman and settled there they
had already a long history behind them...also their languages had been elaborated and changed
and were very different from their primitive speech as it was before the coming of Orom." No

drastic changes are reflected in the material that has been published to far, however. In many
cases, PQ words would be unchanged in CE; note that golod (Noldo) is said to be both CE
(WJ:379) and PQ (WJ:381). The plural ending was still -, as in elen "stars" (WJ:360).
As mentioned in the introduction, there are only three forms in the Etymologies that are
explicitly identified as "Eld" = Eldarin, evidently meaning Common Eldarin: maht- "to handle",
nd^r "bridegroom", wa "together" (see MA3, NDER, W). These three are derived from earlier
ma3t-, ndro and wo, forms that must necessarily be PQ. A number of other Common Eldarin
forms are found in WJ and PM, as well as in Vinyar Tengwar #42. Some phonological
developments may be observed. The change of stressed wo to wa is explicitly mentioned in Etym
(under W). In PQ ma3t > CE maht we are evidently to understand that the sound 3 (sc.
spirant g, according to Christopher Tolkien) became unvoiced by assimilation to the following t,
if the spelling "ht" in maht represents German ach-Laut + t, as it does in the Quenya form
mahta-. Forms like the verb waht- "to soil, stain" and the noun wahs "stain" from the stem
WA3 must therefore be taken to be Common Eldarin for Primitive Quendian *wa3t-, *wa3s.
(Note that in wa3r "soiled, dirty", 3 is unchanged, because there is no unvoiced consonant
following.)
The main change seems to have affected the short final vowels. Original -a, -e and -o
disappeared; for instance, PQ abaro "recussant" yielded CE abar (WJ:371), while PQ kwene
"person" became CE kwn (WJ:360 - the PQ word kwende seems to be unchanged in CE,
though). According to most sources, long -, -, - were unchanged, as were - and - - though
VT42 cites some CE forms in which the long final vowels may seem to have become short
already, e.g. daira "large, great" or netere "nine". Whatever the case may be, it may have been at
the CE stage original short -i and -u turned into -e and o, a change reflected in Quenya. The
change of short final -i to -e is also reflected in Old Sindarin, so it would seem that this change
occurred in Common Eldarin, the ancestor of both languages. As the CE word kwn as compared
to PQ kwene demonstrates, the vowel of the new monosyllabic words could be lengthened (but
not in the plural form kwen, where the word was not monosyllabic - this is still reflected in
Quenya qun, pl. queni instead of **quni).
Another change was that "medial h was very early lost without trace in CE", the noun
enclitic -h "from" becoming -, the origin of the Quenya genitive ending -o (WJ:368). This
would seem to support what we argued above: that in maht-, the letter H actually stands for achLaut. This stronger "H" wasn't lost (still present in Quenya mahta-).
Some difficult consonant clusters changed into more pronouncable combinations in
Common Eldarin "and possibly earlier", sc. already in PQ (WJ:416). In WJ:416, the shift bm >
mb is mentioned, PQ labm "tongue" (language) becoming lamb in CE at the latest. In the
Etymologies, we find double forms like stabn, stamb "room" (STAB); may this suggest a
similar change bn > mb, perhaps at the CE stage? (But in this case, the bn form must have
survived alongside the new mb form, since "Old Noldorin"/Old Sindarin still has stabne.) We

know from WJ:403 that the combination sd was assimilated to zd in Common Eldarin, esd
"repose" becoming ezd. (The stem EZD in the Etymologies must therefore be understood as
an Common Eldarin form; not all the heads of the entries in Etym represent primitive roots.
EZD < esd is itself a rearranged form of the basic stem SED "rest".) While s became voiced to
z before d, it seems that d was devoiced to t before s, primitive sjads "cleft, gash" becoming
sjats (SYAD). Perhaps the change ds > ts also occurred at the Common Eldarin stage.
Common Eldarin may have introduced some new diphthongs derived from e, o. Later
Loremasters were "inclined to the opinion that...ae, ao [produced by A-infixion] were not
primitive developments, but comparatively late and due to the analogy of ai : i, and au : u" (see
VT39:9-10). "Comparatively late" may mean at the Common Eldarin stage rather than in
Primitive Quendian. The fact that words that originally must have contained the diphthongs ae,
ao are found both in Quenya and in Telerin strongly supports this conclusion. In Quenya, these
diphthongs became and , respectively; in Telerin they both became . As an example, Tolkien
mentions Quenya mla "loving, affectionate", Telerin mla. Both of these are derived from an Ainfixed form of the stem MEL "love", implied to be *mael (not explicitly given). See VT39:10.
Common Eldarin was not an entirely uniform structure; already on the March, there were
dialects. At a very early stage, perhaps even before the Separation, the Teleri shifted original kw
(> Quenya qu) to p, a change that is still reflected in Sindarin and the Telerin of Aman (like
Quenya qur "fist" corresponding to Sindarin paur, Telerin pr; all of these descend from
primitive kwra, PM:318). In PM:401, Pengolodh points out that "the Quendi were sundered also
in speech: the Avari from the Eldar; and the Teleri from the other Eldar".
THE STEM AND ITS MODIFICATIONS

When we are dealing with primitive Elvish, the concept of the stem, root or base must be clearly
understood. Already in his very early "Qenya Lexicon" of 1915, Tolkien stated that "roots...are
not words in use at all, but serve as an elucidation of the words grouped together and a
connection between them" (LT1:246). The root or stem is a somewhat abstract skeleton
containing a basic meaning, and in the process of derivation this skeleton is fleshed out to
produce actual words developing its meaning. For instance, the general idea of youth is
apparently contained in the stem NETH - Tolkien simply wrote "young" to suggest its meaning but this is not to say that the primitive Elvish word for "young" was neth. NETH is just the basis
of actual words like nth "youth" or nethr "young" (whence Quenya ns, nessa). The
Etymologies is for the most part a list of such stems followed by some of the actual words that
they yielded in various languages. (However, some of the entry-heads in Etym seem to be
complete words in themselves, such as RAMB "wall" or TINK "metal".) The vast majority of
primitive Elvish words consist of a stem combined with an ending; these endings are explored in
detail below.

"My father wrote a good deal on the theory of sundokarme or 'base-structure'," Christopher
Tolkien informs us (LR:343). However, little more than his own summary of his father's ideas is
available to us: "Very briefly indeed, the Quendian consonantal 'base' or sundo was characterised
by a 'determinant vowel' or sundma: thus the sundo KAT has a medial sundma 'A', and TALAT
has the sundma repeated. In derivative forms the sundma might be placed before the first
consonant, e.g. ATALAT" (WJ:319). It would seem, then, that the "base" consists of consonants
(like K-T in KAT) plus a "determinant vowel" (in this case A) that can move around and be
reduplicated - but since it has to be present somewhere, the Quendian base structure is not a
"Semitic" system with purely consonantal roots, as in Khuzdul. This is more like the Adnaic
system: consonantal roots that are associated with a certain "Characteristic Vowel" that can be
inserted in various places, but has to be present in all derived words - or stems with the same
consonants would become impossible to tell apart.
The system that eventually crystalized at Cuivinen featured a "basic structure" with a
preference of stems of "the pattern X-X(-), with a fixed medial consonant...such as *Dele,
*Heke, *Tele, *Kala, *Kiri, *Nuku, *Ruku, etc. A large number of monosyllabic stems (with
only an initial consonant or consonant group) still appear in the Eldarin tongues; and many of the
dissyllabic stems must have been made by elaboration of these" (WJ:392). When Tolkien speaks
of "the pattern X-X(-)", he evidently means "consonant-vowel-consonant(-vowel)". Usually, the
first and the second vowel are identical; indeed it doesn't seem to matter whether the stems for,
say, "follow" and "lick" are given as KHILI and LABA (WJ:387, 416) or simply as KHIL and
LAB, as in the Etymologies (LR:364, 367). In a similar manner, the stem for "pour" is given both
as ULU (LR:396) and as UL (WJ:400). Likewise, stems like the ones Tolkien lists as examples *Dele, *Heke etc. - could probably just as well be given as DEL-, *HEK- etc. (DEL is actually
found in WJ:363). The latter system seems to be employed in the Etymologies (note that Etym
has KAL where WJ:392 gives *Kala-); the stem ULU instead of UL is one of the few exceptions.
In Etym, the suffixed stem-vowels may have been dropped simply to save space. But when
Tolkien in WJ:392 mentions "monosyllabic" stems, he seems to be referring to stems with no
consonant following the first vowel (like KWE, NA), so that the vowel cannot be suffixed.
While Tolkien in WJ:392 speaks of a "large number" of such monosyllabic stems, they are
relatively rare in our corpus. On the same page in WJ, Tolkien speculates that a stem KWE
referring to vocal speech may have existed at the most primitive stage, but was later expanded to
KWENE and KWETE, thus being adapted to the system that had evolved in the meantime. In the
Etymologies, most of the stems listed consist of three elements: an initial consonant or a
consonant group, a vowel, and one consonant following the vowel (e.g. BAL, SPAN). In some
cases, there is no initial consonant (e.g. EL), but there are very few stems of one syllable that
lack the final consonant, such as N "to be" (LR:374 s.v. N2). As noted above, the latter seems
to be the kind of stems Tolkien calls "monosyllabic" in WJ:392 (and not stems like KWEN, EL,
DEL [WJ:361-363], that can readily be turned into polysyllabic stems by suffixing the stem
vowel: KWENE, ELE, DELE [WJ:360]). Of the more than six hundred stems listed in the

Etymologies, less than thirty have this "monosyllabic" structure, and several of them are not the
stems of verbs, nouns or adjectives, but prepositions, particles, prefixes and the like. (Some
stems originally ended in a guttural consonant written as 3, but lost it and had the vowel
lenghtened in compensation: DO3 > D and evidently TA3 > T. Perhaps stems like TH,
TH, Y are to be understood as later forms of *THE3, *THU3, *YO3, not given.) In
accordance with this, Tolkien stated that "the later view [of the Loremasters in Middle-earth] was
that in fact 'full stems' (meaning noun-adjective or verb stems) were actually by the end of the
common development of primitive Quendian seldom if ever monoconsonantal" (VT39:11).
"Monoconsonantal" is a better term for this kind of stems than "monosyllabic".
The stem for "bite" is a good example of how a stem can be modified to produce the basis
for new words. No less than four varieties of it are found in the Etymologies. First there is NAK,
apparently the most basic form, with the simple meaning "bite". The stem NDAK "slay" is
evidently to be understood as a strengthened form of NAK, the strengthening of the initial
consonant symbolizing the intensified meaning. Another variant of NAK prefixes the stem-vowel
to produce NAK, a stem yielding words for "jaw", the body-part used for biting (Quenya anca,
Sindarin anc, both from primitive ank, in turn derived from NAK; see NAK). A fourth
possible variant is NAYKA with an infixed Y (and the stem-vowel suffixed); this is called an
"elaboration" of NAK. This "elaborated" stem seems to mean basically *"biting" and hence
*"painful"; it yields words like Quenya naic, Sindarin naeg "(sharp) pain". We will now have a
closer look at the various ways of manipulating a stem.
Stem vowel prefixed: In the entry I in the Etymologies, Tolkien explains that i is an "intensive
prefix where i is base vowel". He mentions ITHIL "Moon" as an example; this is derived from a
stem (or "base") THIL "shine silver" (see SIL). INDIS "bride" as a name of the goddess Nessa
comes from NDIS "woman"; the vowel-prefixed variant i-ndise is called an "intensive form". Cf.
also WJ:318, where Quenya and Sindarin estel "hope" is said to be a stemvowel-prefixed
derivative of a stem STEL "remain firm".
In a number of cases, vowel-prefixed versions of a stem are given as separate entries in the
Etymologies. Sometimes, the stress moves to the new first syllable; sometimes the original stemvowel retains the accent. LAK "rushing" is derived from LAK2 "swift". NAK "jaw" from
NAK "bite" has already been mentioned. ANR "sun" is stated to be a derivative of NAR1
"flame, fire". (In the Silmarillion appendix, entry nr, Christopher Tolkien mentions (a)nar as
"the same ancient root" that yielded words for both fire and sun.) AYAN "holy" is derived from
YAN of similar meaning. ELED "go, depart, leave" connects with LED "go, fare, travel". NED
"centre" comes from NED of similar meaning. ERD, yielding words for "seed", is derived from
RED "scatter, sow". LOS "dream" is connected to LOS "sleep". ROM, the stem that
according to the Etymologies is the source of the name of the Vala Orom, comes from ROM
"loud noise, horn-blast" (but Tolkien later rejected this as an Elvish folk etymology). It has been
suggested that ROK, the stem that the Elvish words for Orc are traced to in the Etymologies, is
connected to ROK-, the stem for "horse". While this may seem semantically strained, ROK- may

originally have referred to the steed of "the dark Rider upon his wild horse" that afflicted the
Elves at Cuivinen, evidently some servant of Morgoth (Silmarillion ch. 3). Hence the
strengthened stem ROK could be used of other evil creatures. (However, Tolkien seems to have
dropped this idea and decided to derive the Elvish words for "Orc" from a stem RUKU instead;
see WJ:389.) The negative stems G, M have prefixed variants UGU, UMU. Slightly more
complex is the derivation of AKLA-R *"brillance" from KAL "shine" and OKT "war" from
KOT "strive, quarrel"; here the stem-vowel is prefixed as usual, but also lost in its normal
position, and other endings are introduced. Other examples of words where the stem-vowel is
removed from its normal place between the first and second consonant of the stem to be prefixed
instead include esd "repose" from SED "rest" (see WJ:403), the above-mentioned ank "jaw"
from NAK "bite" and ost "fortress" from the stem SOTO- "shelter, defend" (see WJ:414 for the
latter). Cf. also the agental formation edl from DEL, DELE "walk, go, proceed travel" - but also
edel with the stem-vowel of DEL intact. In WJ:363, Tolkien says that the word edl displays
"loss of sundma" (stemvowel), and so, obviously, do words like esd, ost, ank. The stem
RUKU is said to have variant forms uruk- and urk(u). It is perhaps impossible for monosyllabic
stems like KWA (having to do with completion) to appear without their stem-vowel in its normal
place, but it may still be prefixed, as in the derivative akw (according to WJ:415 "an extension
or intensification of *kw, used adverbially" - Quenya aqua "fully, completely, altogether,
wholly").

A-infixion: In some cases, a new vowel A is inserted into a stem, turning the stem-vowels i, u
into diphthongs ai, au. The stem SLIW "sickly" yields the adjective slaiw "sickly, sick, ill"
(contrast another derivative, slw "sickness", that does not show infixion). A-infixion is also
seen in the word taun ?"hill" from TUN (see MINI). From the stem MIL-IK *"greed" is derived
Mailik, a name of Melkor. Yet other examples from the Etymologies are thaus "foul" from
THUS and taur "mighty" from TUR. In WJ:337, Tolkien derives maik "sharp, penetrating,
going deep in" from a stem mik "pierce". Besides, the Quenya word nauta "bound" derived from
NUT points to a primitive form *naut (not given); likewise, Sindarin glaer (glr) "long lay"
from GLIR must descend from *glair (cf. Quenya lair). In the essay Quendi and Eldar, nauk
"ill-shapen, *short" is derived from a stem NUKU "stunted". This is called an "adjectival
formation" (WJ:413); note that maik, nauk, slaiw, taur, thaus are also adjectives. A-infixion
is also found in the abstract khaim "habit" form KHIM "adhere" (that also yields the adjective
khm "sticky" without A-infixion - as if to keep things from getting too predictive!)
Furthermore, one of the "ancient forms" of the stem RUKU (having to do with "fear", the source
of the Elvish words for Orc) is given as rauk- (WJ:415). Using examples from Quenya, Tolkien
explained that words formed by A-infixion "were mostly 'intensive', as in rauko 'very terrible
creature' (*RUK); taura 'very mighty, vast, of unmeasured might or size' (*TUR). Some were
'continuative', as in Vaire 'Ever-weaving' (*WIR)" (VT39:10). - Whether A-infixion ever
produced diphthongs ae, ao from simple e, o, just like this process produced ai, au from i, u, was

a matter of debate. Fanor held that such forms had indeed occurred in the Primitive Quendian,
but as mentioned above, later Loremasters were "inclined to the opinion that this ae, ao were not
primitive developments, but comparatively late and due to the analogy of ai : i, and au : u" (see
VT39:9-10).

I/Y-infixion: This seems to be rarer than A-infixion. It is stated that the stem NAYKA *"painful"
may be an "elaboration" of NAK "bite"; NAYKA yields Quenya words in naic-. The stem
WAIWA "blow" is apparently an I-infixed variant of WAWA, that in turn seems to be a
reduplicated form of W. In VT39:11, Tolkien indicates that "desiderative" formations often
show i-infixion; see below.

Nasal infixion: Stems could be modified by infixing a nasal before the second consonant of the
stem, m before b and p, and n otherwise (except possibly before w, see below). Thus, the stem
DAT "fall down" has a nasal-infixed variant DANT. LAK1 "swallow" becomes LANK-, yielding
words for "throat". One of the "ancient forms" of the them RUKU is nasal-infixed: runk(WJ:415).
Nasal-infixion is not uncommon in the derived words. For instance, TUG yields tung
"taut, tight", and rony "chaser, hound of chase" comes from a stem ROY "chase" (LR:384 s.v.
ROY1). In some cases, it is hard to tell whether seemingly nasal-infixed forms are actually due
to later metathesis. Quenya samb "room" is said to descend from primitive stabn, stamb. The
latter would seem to reflect a nasal-infixed form of the stem STAB, but Tolkien's wording can
also be interpreted to mean that the oldest form was stabn derived from STAB simply by adding
an ending, and that the cluster bn later underwent metathesis to become *nb > mb. Alternatively,
Tolkien may have meant to say that it was impossible to tell whether the ancestral form of
Quenya samb was stabn or stamb. Another such double form is found under SYAD: sjadn,
sjand "cleaver" = sword. Whatever the case, the stem PAT yields both patn "wide" and the
nasal-infixed form pant "open", words that were seemingly distinct also originally, so it would
seem that nasal-infixion did occur also in the primitive language.
There is one example of -infixion before w: liwi "fish" from the stem LIW.

Strengthening, fortification, reinforcement, enrichment: These are Tolkien's terms for certain
changes that stems sometimes undergo. For instance, RUKU also appear as a "strengthened
stem" gruk- (WJ:415); in this case the "strengthening" consists of a g-prefix. A prefix s is seen in
s-rot- "delve underground, excavate, tunnel" as compared to the simpler stem rot (PM:365; groto
in WJ:414 is apparently a g-prefixed variant). (According to VT39:11, later loremasters held that

the original strengthening of r initially was dr rather than gr; the latter was modelled on the
frequent variation l / gl.) Fanor is said (in VT39:9) to have cited examples of initial
strengthening involving "the relations between initial st- and s-, or t-; gl- and l-; ky- and kw- and
k-". Another "frequent initial enrichment" (WJ:413), that particularly impressed Fanor, is
turning b, d, g into nasalized plosives mb, nd, g. This could be called nasal prefixion, the initial
version of the nasal infixion discussed above. However, initial n, like d, may be strengthened to
nd, and m can similarly become mb (changes that can also occur in the middle of words, see
below). Perhaps initial could be strengthened to g (no examples). In LR:377, the stem GY,
GYON "grandchild, descendant" is suggested to be related to Y, YON "son", suggesting that
Y- can be strengthened to GY-.
The stem DORO "dried up, hard, unyielding" yields PQ ndor "dry land" by initial
enrichment d > nd (WJ:413). The stem NDER "bridegroom" is said to be a "strengthened form of
der" (LR:375), sc. the stem DER "man". NDUL, yielding words meaning "dark, dusky, obscure",
comes from DUL "hide, conceal". MBAD "duress, prison, doom, hell" is a strengthening of
BAD "judge". MBUD, the stem that yields words for "nose", comes from BUD "jut out". MBAR
"dwell, inhabit" is said to be related to BAR, though it is not clear how they connect semantically
(the probable original meaning of BAR is given as "raise"). Concerning the strengthening N >
ND and M > MB, there is the stem NDIS ?"bride", said to be a "strengthening" of NIS "woman"
(LR:375). The stem ND "go down, sink" comes from N, an apparently prepositional stem
yielding such words as "down" and "under". We have already mentioned NAK "bite" > NDAK
"slay". The stem MASAG "knead" connects with MBAS of similar sense; presumably they are
both elaborations of a simpler root *MAS. (Note, however, that there are many stems with initial
MB, ND that cannot be matched with any corresponding stem in B-/M- or D-/N-. In such cases,
we must assume that the nasalized stop is "original".)
Similar changes can also occur in the middle of words. Kwende "elf" is derived from a
stem KWENE by "primitive fortification of the median n > nd" (WJ:360). Cf. also some words
in the Etymologies, like tundu "hill, mound" from TUN. The Quenya verb tamba- "knock, keep
on knocking" vs. the simpler verb tam- "tap" indicates that a fortification m > mb has taken place
(stem TAM). Tolkien explains that Lind "Linda, Teler-elf" is derived from the primitive stem
LIN by "reinforcement of the medial N and adjectival -" (WJ:382). Common Eldarin eld, "an
adjectival formation 'connected or concerned with the stars' ", would seem to be derived after the
same pattern and includes a medial fortification l > ld (stem EL, ELE); this is not found initially.
In the middle of words, the "median" could also be doubled: Grott "a large excavation" is
an "intensified" form (WJ:415) of grot "excavation" (WJ:414). Concerning the stem for "horse",
ROKO, it is said that this is actually an "older simpler form of the stem, found in some
compounds and compound names, though the normal form of the independent word 'horse' had
the fortified form rokko" (WJ:407). As we see, rokko is "fortified" by doubling the middle
consonant of ROKO. The word batt "trample", with "medial consonant lengthened in
frequentative formation" (LR:351), provides us with an example of a "fortified" verbal stem: The

basic stem BAT means "tread", and the fortified stem symbolizes the repetition of the action by
lengthening the middle consonant. For the semantic change, compare Quenya tam- "tap" vs.
tamba- "knock, keep on knocking" mentioned above.

Extension: Some stems have special "extended" forms made by suffixing the stem-vowel (as in
DELE compared to DEL - in Quenya, this is called mataina or "vocalic extension") and adding
a final consonant, usually n, k, t, or s. In the Etymologies, the stem BORN is said to be an
extension of BOR "endure" (when accented on the second syllable it is a verbal form of the
noun-stem bron-). A similar extension involving a final n is provided by the stem EL, ELE
yielding Common Eldarin elen "star" (said to represent an "extended base", WJ:360; compare
Old Sindarin toron "brother" from TOR; cf. also the pairs PHER/PHREN "beech" and
THOR/THORON "eagle").
Among the "ancient forms" of the stem RUKU (having to do with fear) are rukus and rukut
(WJ:415). Could the extended stems with mataina followed by t be what Tolkien refers to as
"the so-called kalat-stems" in WJ:392? Kalat looks like an extended form of KAL, the stem
having to do with "light". If so, yet another example may be the stem ROT "height, mountain",
that is apparently extended from the more basic stem ORO "up; rise; high". Here we see how the
extended form develops the meaning of the more basic stem (the other examples of extended
stems are not separately glossed). Double stem-forms in the Etymologies, like LEP/LEPET
"finger" or ESE/ESET "name" seem to exemplify the same phenomenon. A certain example is
arat-, that in PM:363 is said to be "an extended form of the stem ara- 'noble' ". When the stem
NA "to be" yields Quenya nat "thing", this may reflect a similar t-extension.
There are some possible extensions with final -k, like OTOK "seven" from OT. Perhaps
NYAK "pain" is connected with NAY "lament", while KIRIK (whence Quenya circa "sickle")
is definitely extended from KIR- "cut, cleave" (not defined in the Etymologies, but see kir- in the
Silmarillion Appendix; cf. also KIRIS "cut" as noun - another expanded form). LEPEK is given
as an extension of LEP "five" (also LEPEN). Cf. also MIL-IK *"greed", evidently an extension
of a simpler stem *MIL (whence Quenya mail by A-infixion).
Extensions involving final -s (cf. rukus and KIRIS above) include OT/OTOS "seven" (also
OTOK already mentioned), THEL/THELES "sister", TER/TERES "pierce", PHAL/PHLAS
"foam" (plus the variant SPAL/SPALAS); cf. also KYEL(ES) "glass". The stem NIS "woman" is
said to be "elaborated from INI" (see NDIS); perhaps NIS should rather be derived from the
simple stem N "woman", of which INI must be a vowel-prefixed version. (For the shortening of
the long stem-vowel in the vowel-prefixed variant, compare the negative stems G vs. UGU and
M vs. UMU.) Tolkien speculates that THUS ?"evil-smelling" is related to (extended from?)
TH "puff, blow". The latter examples indicate that "monosyllabic" stems (stems with no final
or "medial" consonant) can be expanded by adding the final consonant -n, -t, -s directly to the

original stem-vowel; the vowel cannot be reduplicated finally because there is no consonant to
which it can be suffixed. (But apparently the stem-vowel can be reduplicated following the new
consonant after the consonant has been added; cf. Tolkien's reference in WJ:392 to the stem
"*KWE, of which *KWENE and *KWETE were elaborations".)
Note that there are some stems that seem to be polysyllabic right from the start. For
instance, KYELEK "swift, agile" can for semantic reasons hardly be an expanded form of KYEL
"come to an end".
It should be noted that Tolkien sometimes uses the term "extended stem" also with
reference to stems with a prefixed stem-vowel (see above), when the vowel is still present in its
normal place.
Regarding the use of the sundma (stem-vowel) in such triconsonantal stems, Tolkien
noted that "more than two insertions of the sundma were not necessary in the Common Eldarin
system" (hence we see two A's in palat-, palan- as extensions of PAL, VT47:8). However, the
first sundma following the initial consonant could be "omitted and replaced by an extruded
sundma initially, in which case the vocalizing was ap'lata" (VT47:13). Here the ' indicates the
place of the "omitted" stem-vowel; this is not phonetic loss. In VT47:13, Tolkien also cited the
example aklara (the primitive form underlying Quenya alcar, Sindarin aglar "glory, splendour");
this is thus ak'lara, a reworked form of triconsonantal KALAR as an extended form of the simple
root KAL having to do with light.

Differentiation: As noted above, the long forms of stems with a final vowel usually involve
simple repetition of the stem-vowel: DEL > DELE, KAL > KALA etc. But there are some rare
cases where another final vowel, -U, turns up. In WJ:411, Tolkien mentions a stem TELE "close,
end, come at the end" and adds that "this was possibly distinct from *tel-u 'roof in, put the crown
on a building'... But *telu may be simply a differentiated form of *TELE, since the roof was the
final work of a building." It would seem that variant or "differentiated" stems could be made by
modifying the final vowel.
Except for TELU, the evidence for such stems is usually indirect. The stem KEL "go, run
(especially of water)" clearly has a longer form KELU. (The Index to Unfinished Tales, entry
Celos, actually mentions a root kelu- "flow out swiftly".) The longer form turns up in Quenya
celum "stream, flow" (but not in celma "channel"). The Ilkorin word for "river", celon, is
derived from what seems to be an expanded form in -n: "kelu + n", hence *kelun (LR:363). A
similar case seems to be Quenya cotumo "enemy" from KOT, KOTH: the middle u has to come
from somewhere. There are also some Quenya stems in -u, such as nicu- "be chill, cold (of
weather)" (WJ:417) or hlapu- "fly or stream in the wind" (MC:223). But how they relate to
"differentiated" stems like TELU, if they do at all, is far from clear. A new clue (of sorts)
appeared in VT46:8: "On -u- suffix frequent in Q[uenya] after el, al, see Q structure: cf. kelu,

telu, smalu, etc." If "Q structure" refers to any specific written essay, it has never been published.
Smalu appears in the Etymologies (entry SMAL) as a word for "pollen, yellow powder". Maybe
we must simply await the publication of whatever essays Tolkien wrote about "Q structure"...

Variation: There seems to be some variation between certain similar consonants, such as T/TH/D,
and also between TH and S. In the Etymologies, there is obviously a connection (confirmed by
Tolkien's own cross-reference) between the stems PAT, having to do with openness, and PATH,
yielding words like "Noldorin" pathw "level space" (Classical Sindarin *pathu). It is also
suggested (in LR:393) that THIN, yielding words for "grey", may be a variant of TIN "emit
slender (silver, pale) beams". Similarly, there is obviously a connection between the stems DAL
"flat", LAD *"wide" and LAT "lie open". The stems SIL, THIL "shine" are said to be variants,
and a similar variation S/TH is seen in the pairs GOS/GOTH "dread" and KHIS/KHITH "mist,
fog". Variation SP/PH is seen in SPAL/SPALAS, variant of PHAL/PHLAS "foam". KAR
"make, do" seems to have a variant KYAR "cause", and under the stem KEL "go, run" we find
references to KYEL "come to an end, run out" and KWEL "fade, fade away, wither". The
variation between different semi-vowels (Y/W) that is seen in the pair KYEL/KWEL is also
found in KHAW as compared to KAY "lie down"; in the Etymologies, KHAW is equated with
the latter stem. This also provides an example of variation K/KH; cf. also RIK(H) "jerk, sudden
move". Under TAM "knock" there is a reference to NDAM "hammer, beat"; the latter seems to
display both "initial enrichment" with a prefixed nasal and variation T/D. Primitive Elvish
evidently did not allow *NT as an initial combination, so it had to become ND instead. This
principle may also explain the second element of the name Moringotto (MR:194), said to be the
Quenya form of the name Morgoth, the Black Enemy: If the -ngotto part suggests a primitive
form *gott "enemy", this word could be referred to the stem KOT, KOTH "strive, quarrel" by
assuming that the "initial enrichment" of K- is *G- rather than ?K-. The "initial enrichment"
of P- would likewise be *MB- rather than ?MP-, though we have no examples.
Variation P/T is found in the stems PIK and TIK; both of these evidently have to do with
smallness. Under TIK, Tolkien made a cross-reference to PIK. Variation between T and D is seen
in the pair TING, DING, but since these words are simply onomatopoeic, such variation is to be
expected.
According to WJ:363, there was "some evidence" that variation between D and L occurred
in Primitive Quendian, "a notable example being de/le as pronominal elements in the 2nd
person". In late PQ, the combination GL appeared as an initial variation of L (WJ:411, cf.
VT39:11).
Variation between different vowels is much rarer, but BEL "strong" is tentatively compared
by Tolkien to to the stem BAL (whence bal "Power, god, Vala"), and under NAT "lace, weave,
tie" Tolkien made a cross-reference to NUT "tie, bind".

DERIVATION IN PRIMITIVE ELVISH

In Primitive Elvish, nearly all words can be split into a stem followed by a derivational ending,
and we will here attempt to list these suffixes. In the primitive language, the stem and the ending
are usually easy to distinguish, while the border between them is often blurred by sound-changes
in the later languages. For instance, primitive sukm "drinking-vessel" is easily split into a stem
SUK "drink" with the ending -m denoting an implement - but in Quenya, that has shifted
original km to ngw, the resulting word sungwa can no longer be analyzed as easily. (Despite
examples like this, the original endings are usually recognizable in Quenya, with shortening of
the final vowels: -m normally appears as -ma. Much of what is said below still holds true for the
direct Quenya descendants of these suffixes, but in Sindarin, the original endings are much worn
down and sometimes even replaced with new endings.)
It should be noted that the second, reduplicated vowel of the stem, the mataina or
"vocalic extension", is often not included when an ending is added to produce an actual word.
There are definitely some words where the second vowel persists, as when ULU "pour" yields
ulum *"pourer", but often it disappears. In WJ:416, a stem NUKU "stunted" is given, but in the
derivative nukt- "stunt", the second U of NUKU is not included. On the other hand, the
mataina may sometimes turn up in the derivatives even when the stem is given in the shortest
form, as when the noun tjuluss "poplar-tree" is derived from TYUL "stand up (straight)"; this
noun is actually based on the mataina-form *TYULU.
The second vowel of two-syllable stems like GLOB or STLAG may also be omitted in
the actual words that are derived from them; these stems manifest as golb- and stalg- in the
derivatives golb "branch" and stalgond "hero, dauntless man". (See also below concerning
laik-w from LYAK.)
There are also words where the first vowel drops out when it is unaccented: for instance,
the stem BERK yields b'rekt- "break out suddenly" and KARN yields k'rann "ruddy" (but
from the same stems come berek "wild" and karani "red" with the first vowel of the stem
intact). This loss of unaccented stem-vowels is most often seen in the original forms of Sindarin
words and may be thought to be a phenomenon that occurred after the oldest stage, in Common
Telerin, so that b'rekt-, for instance, represents earlier *berekt-. But in at least one case, a form
where an unaccented vowel has been omitted is seen to underlie a Quenya word: rca "wolf"
descending from primitive d'rk, stem DARK. Primitive *dark- with the first vowel intact
would have yielded Quenya **laraca instead. So in some cases at least, the unaccented vowel
must have disappeared in Common Eldarin at the latest.

In the case of two-syllable stems with a final consonant, this consonant and the final vowel
may also change places when an ending is added: thus the stem LUG manifests as ulgu- in the
word ulgund "monster".
Note that in actual words, j as the final consonant of a stem invariably becomes i before a
consonant, merging with the stem-vowel to produce a diphthong in -i (as when the stem TUY or TUJ - yields the word tuim "a sprout, bud" - for *tujm). Similarly, w becomes u before a
consonant, as when TIW yields tiuk "thick, fat" (for *tiwk). If a two-syllable stem loses its
second vowel in a derivative form, and the middle consonant is a semi-vowel that is thus brought
into direct contact with the final consonant, the semi-vowel may again merge with the preceding
vowel to form a diphthong (as when the stem LYAK manifests as laik-, for *layk- or *lajk-, in
the derivative laik-w "green"). Interestingly, VT45 reveals that in this and many other cases,
Tolkien in his original manuscript marked vowels arising from semi-vowels with a special
diacritic (a small bow under the letter). To some extent, such vowels may still be regarded as
consonants.
Sometimes, but not always, j becomes i also before vowels, as when DAY (DAJ) yields
dai "shade" - but contrast nje "lament" from NAY (NAJ). In the former case, the i is marked
with the diacritic discussed above (see VT45:8), evidently indicating that it may also be regarded
as a semi-vowel. Hence there may not be a significant "discrepancy" after all.
Most primitive words ended in a vowel, sometimes short but often long. The vowel may be a
complete ending in itself or part of a longer ending. No hard-and-fast rules can be formulated as
to what the different final vowels denote; at most there are certain tendencies. Very generally
speaking, words with final A are often verbs or adjectives, and if they are nouns, they denote
concrete things more often than substances or intangibles. Words in E are usually nouns and tend
to denote abstracts or substances rather than simple, tangible objects. Words in I are often colouradjectives; if they are nouns they usually denote female beings. Words in O are for the most part
nouns and typically denote animate (male) beings; very often such words have an agental
meaning. Words in U are relatively rare; they are nearly always nouns and typically denote either
male beings or body parts.

The ending - (or -a) occurs on many types of words, but most prominent is the adjectival ending
-, mentioned by Tolkien in WJ:382. Adjectives may be derived by simple suffixation, like mizd
"wet" from the stem MIZD or teles "rear" from TELES. However, the ending is often combined
with certain manipulations of the stem:
- Medial fortifications like M > MB, N > ND, L > LD, e.g. rimb "frequent, numerous"
from RIM, kand "bold" from KAN, kuld "golden-red" from KUL.

- Nasal infixion, e.g. tung "taut, tight" from TUG; cf. also WJ:375, where Tolkien derives
pend "sloping" from a stem PED "slope, slant down".
- A-infixion, e.g. thaus "foul, evil-smelling, putrid" from THUS, taur "masterful,
mighty" from TUR (cf. also maik "sharp" from MIK, WJ:337, and nauk *"stunted" from
NUKU, WJ:413).
- I-infixion; this occurs in a small group of desiderative formations. For instance, the
adjective mein "eager to go, desiring to start" comes from a stem MEN "go" (VT39:11).
(Apparently this word could also be used as a verb "desire to go in some direction, make for it,
have some end in view"; this is at least true for its Quenya descendant mna-.) Other examples
are found in Quenya: maita "hungry" from the stem MAT "eat", and soica "thirsty" from SOK
"gulp, quaff, drink" (primitive *mait, *soik, my reconstructions). See VT39:11.
- Lengthening of stem-vowel, e.g. khm "sticky, viscous" from KHIM, rba "wild,
untamed" from RAB, dla "flat" from DAL.
- Stem-vowel prefixed: askar "tearing, hastening" from SKAR "tear, rend" (in effect,
askar becomes a kind of participle).
Nouns in - display much the same variation; in most cases, such nouns denote inanimate
things. Some are derived by simple suffixation, e.g. wed "bond" (WED) or golb "branch"
(GLOB). Some show nasal infixion: kwent "tale" (from KWET "speak"), rand "cycle, age"
(RAD), kwing "bow" (KWIG). We also note cases where the stem-vowel is lengthened, such as
rm "wing" from RAM or kn "outcry, clamour" from KAN (see PM:361-362 for the latter
example). Doubling of the final consonant in the stem is also found: ratt, ratta "course, riverbed" from RAT, gass "hole, gap" from GAS. The word ank "jaw, row of teeth" is based on a
rearranged form of the stem NAK "bite"; Tolkien actually wrote "an-k" as if to emphasize that
the middle vowel was lost. Whether the final - is an independent ending or just the stem-vowel
suffixed and lengthened is difficult to say. The similar formation OKT "war" from KOT "strive,
quarrel" clearly displays an independent ending -, since the stem-vowel is here O.
As noted above, there are many verbs showing final A, but then as part of the longer
endings -t or -j. The simple ending -a, - is very rare on verbs. We note olsa- "to dream" from
the stem LOS. Long - combined with medial fortification M > MB occurs in tamb "to knock"
(TAM); the final - is marked as accented. So is the final vowel of batt "trample", with the
"medial consonant [of the stem BAT, *BATA] lengthened in frequentative formation".
In some verbal stems, the final -a is quite clearly just the stem-vowel repeated, for instance
stama- "bar, exclude" (UT:282) or glada "laugh" (PM:359). They are therefore irrelevant here.

The suffix -d is a (usually agental) ending that is preferred in the case of stems ending in N:
gand *"harper" from GAN/GANAD and lind "singer" from LIN2. (In the latter entry in
the Etymologies, only the later Quenya form lindo is listed, but the archaic form lind is given as
part of the compound tuilelind "swallow", etymologically "spring-singer", in the entry TUY.
gand is likewise attested only as a part of the word tjalagand "harp-player"; see TYAL,
GAN/GANAD.) There is also the word ndand "Nando, Green-elf", interpreted "one who
goes back on his word or decision" (the Nandor were so called because they left the march from
Cuivinen; the stem DAN-, NDAN- indicates "the reversal of an action, so as to undo or nullify
its effect", WJ:412). In golod "Noldo" (WJ:364, 380), the ending -d follows the reduplicated
stem-vowel (mataina) of the stem GOL. In this word, -d apparently does not have any
agental meaning; it is simply a personal (masculine) suffix, indicating one that has the property
denoted by the stem GOL (wise, wisdom).
The Common Eldarin word rond "vaulted roof" does not contain the ending -d; this is
the stem RONO (not in Etym) with medial fortification n > nd (VT39:9, cf. WJ:414). Indeed we
cannot be sure that words like lind are not derived from LIN by means of a similar fortification
and the simpler ending - (see below). The question does not have much practical interest.
The ending -d also appear in a nasal-infixed form -ndo or -nd. In the word ulgund
"monster, deformed and hideous creature" from LUG it does not seem to be agental, but is
simply used to form a noun. In the words kalrond "hero" (from KAL "shine") and lansrondo,
lasrondo "hearer, listener, eavesdropper" (from LAS2 "listen"), the ending -ndo, -nd seems to be
suffixed to another masculine ending, -r/-ro (see below). Tolkien actually wrote "lansro-ndo,
lasro-ndo" to make this clear. See also -ond.
As the feminine counterpart of -d we would expect -d, and this ending may be attested in
asmalind "yellow bird, 'yellow hammer' " (SMAL). The ending -(i)nd that here occurs may be
seen as a nasal-infixed form of *-d, paralleling -nd from -d. (In Quenya, -nd can apparently
be used of an inanimate as well as a female agent: cf. ulund "flood" from ULU "flow".)

The ending -, -e has several meanings, or rather a few specialized meanings as well as some
very general ones. A number of words in -, -e denote abstract or intangible things; in such cases
the stem-vowel is often lengthened: nth "youth" (NETH), gl "Science/Philosophy"
(PM:360), le "odour" (OL), rn "remembrance" (PM:372), slw "sickness" (SLIW), tr
"mastery, victory" (TUR). The stem-vowel remains short in we3 "manhood, vigour" (WEG), etkel "spring, issue of water" (KEL) and naje "lament" (NAY), while khaim "habit" shows Ainfixion instead of lengthening (KHIM). In the word esd > ezd "repose", the origin of the
Quenya name of the Vali Est, the stem SED occurs in an alternative form ESD- (WJ:403). For
- as an abstract ending, compare also the longer endings -m, -r, -w, that are often used to
derive abstract words.

Another group of nouns in - denote substances: khjeles "glass" (KHYEL(ES) ), kjelep

"silver" (KYELEP), laur "golden light" (LWAR/GLWAR), mazg "dough" (MASAG), ross
"dew, spray" (Letters:282), sling "cobweb" (SLIG); sraw "flesh" (MR:350); we may even
include mizd "fine rain" (MIZD).
A feminine ending -, -e is seen in the word tawar, taware "dryad, spirit of woods"
(evidently fem., contrast masc. tawar, tawaro) (TWAR). Cf. also bess "wife" (BES), though
this may contain a longer ending -s, and the final vowel in the pronoun s, se "she" (stem S; also
s, si).
A few nouns in - denote localities: ndor "land" (NDOR, WJ:413), taur "great wood,
forest" (TWAR); we may also add et-kel "spring, issue of water" already mentioned (KEL).
However, the ending - also occurs in many nouns that seem to have nothing in common
semantically. The ending - may be used alone (as in spin "larch" from SPIN, tathar "willowtree" from TATHAR), but more often it is combined with some other manipulation of the stem,
such as nasal-infixion (lond "narrow path" from LOD), lengthening of the stem-vowel (rg
"crown" from RIG), A-infixion (laib "ointment" from LIB2), medial fortifications like M > MB
or N > ND (rimb "crowd, host" from RIM, spind "tress, braid of hair" from SPIN) or doubling
of the final consonant of the stem (lass "leaf" from LAS1, b'ritt "gravel" from BIRT). Nbe
"front, face" shows short -e, but the stem-vowel of NIB is lengthened. In some nouns, the ending
-, -e may be analyzed as being simply the stem-vowel suffixed and sometimes lengthened, e.g.
in ered "seed", kjelep "silver", ndere "bridegroom" (ERD, KYELEP, DER/NR). Adjectives
like dene "thin and strong, pliant, lithe" (WJ:412) or verbal stems like dele "walk, go, proceed,
travel" (WJ:360) should probably be analyzed in the same way; no actual derivational ending is
present. The same is the case with the noun kwende "Quend, Elf"; it is derived from the stem
KWENE by medial fortification N > ND, not by any distinct ending -e (WJ:360).

The ending -i occurs in a number of adjectives, many of which are colour-words. In the case of
monosyllabic stems ending in N, it is always combined with the fortification N > ND: slindi
"fine, delicate" (SLIN), thindi "pallid, grey, wan, pale or silvery grey" (THIN, WJ:384), windi
"blue-grey, pale blue or grey" (WIN/WIND; windi was struck out). Ninkwi "white" combines the
ending -i with nasal-infixion of the stem NIK-W. On the other hand, karani "red" (KARN)
shows no extra modifications, just the ending. Yet another colour-adjective, lugni "blue" (LUG2),
seems to contain a longer ending -ni that is attested in this word only. In ringi "cold" the ending
may be the stem-vowel suffixed. Mori is stated to be both the adjective "dark" and the abstract
"darkness" (Letters:382; in the Etymologies, stem MOR, the gloss is simply "black"). This brings
us over to nouns in -i. Some are abstract, such as rinki "flourish, quick shake" (RIK(H), note
nasal-infixion). The word etsiri "mouth of a river" is in origin plainly the abstract "outflow(ing)"

(ET, compare SIR). A few nouns in -i refer to periods of time: ari "day" (AR1) and dmi"twilight" (DOMO).
Some few denote substances: g-lisi "honey" (LIS) and pori "flour, meal" (POR); khthi
"mist, fog" may also be seen as a substance (KHIS/KHITH). In light of this, may liwi "fish"
(LIW, note nasal-infixion) be "fish" as a substance, as food, rather than "fish" as an animal? Only
one word in -i refers to a single, concrete, tangible object: phini "a single hair" (PM:362 - this
word is stated to be Common Eldarin rather than Primitive Quendian). In several of the examples
above, including phini, the "ending" may also be the stem-vowel suffixed (but obviously not in
ari, dmi-, pori).

A feminine ending - is seen in the two words Barath (BARATH), an early name of Varda, and
in tr "queen" (wife of a tro, "king"). The word tr is probably formed after tro, since there is
no R in the stem TA/TA3 and the feminine equivalent of the masculine ending -r, -ro seems to
be properly -r (as in weir "weaver", WEY), not *-r. For - as a feminine element, cf. also the
pronoun s, si "she" (stem S; also s, se). (Note, however, that Tolkien later implied another
etymology for Quenya Vair; see weir in the wordlist below.)
The - of the word d "heart, desire, wish" seems to be unconnected (an abstract ending, or
just the stem-vowel suffixed, or even a misreading for *d as the Quenya form r may suggest?)
The stem ID is not defined.

An abstract/infinitive ending -ie is found in Quenya and Old Sindarin, and we would expect it to
correspond to something like -i in the primitive language. This ending may be attested in the
word luktin "enchantress" (LUK), if this is *lukti "enchantment" + the feminine ending -n,
hence *"enchantment-female". *Lukti would be an abstract or verbal noun formed from *lukt"enchant" (my reconstruction, cf. Quenya luhta-).
In gwa-lassi "collection of leaves, foliage" from lass "leaf", the ending -i + the prefix
gwa- "together" is used to form a collective (Letters:282).

An adjectival ending -im occurs in the word silim "shining white", "silver" (as adj.) (SIL). This
would be the origin of the Quenya adjectival ending -ima (often meaning "-able", but sometimes
used in a more general sense). Alternatively we would have to explain silim as including the
mataina-form of SIL, namely *SILI, followed by the ending -m; see below. But this ending is
typically used to derive words for implements and is found on no (other) adjective, so it is better
to assume an ending -im.

The feminine ending -itt is mentioned in PM:345; this is the origin of Sindarin -eth. See also
-otta, -otto.

The ending -j, -ja, -i, -ia has several meanings. It occurs on a number of adjectives: banj
"beautiful" (BAN), erj "isolated, lonely" (VT42:4), kalarj "brilliant" (KAL), miniia "single,
distinct, unique" (MINI), oij "everlasting" (OY), slinj "lean, thin, meagre" (SLIN), windi
"pale blue" (WIN/WIND - it is uncertain whether Tolkien rejected the word windi or not).
Wanj "fair, beautiful" is called an "adjectival derivative...from the stem WAN" in WJ:383, and
Tolkien explicitly referred to -ja as a Common Eldarin adjectival element (VT42:10). It also
occurs in some ordinals that are said to be Common Eldarin: lepenja "fifth", otsja "seventh"
(VT42:26, 25). The word kwendj, the origin of Quenya, is explained as being an adjective
meaning "belonging to the *kwend, to the people as a whole" (WJ:360, 393). May this wording
suggest that kwendj comes from *kwend-, sc. the plural form kwend "Elves" + the adjectival
ending -?
The verbal ending -j, -ja, -i is attested in the words barj- "to protect" (BAR), berja- "to
dare" (BER), beuj- "follow, serve" (BEW), ramja- "fly, sail; wander" (RAM), tjali- "to play"
(TYAL), ulj "it is raining" (ULU). In the Etymologies, the word barj has a diacritic indicating
that the ending -j (or its final vowel) was accented (BAR). But we cannot conclude that this is
always the case; berja "to dare" is marked as accented on the first syllable. (Adjectival -j is
apparently not accented; cf. banj "beautiful".)
There are only a few nouns in -j, -ja: galj "bright light" (KAL), gilja "star" (GIL), kegj
"hedge" (UT:282), talrunja "sole of foot" (TALAM, RUN). Tolkien struck out winj "evening"
(WIN/WIND). Wanj "Vanya" (Quenya pl. Vanyar, the first clan of the Eldar) is really an
adjective "fair, beautiful", as noted above (WJ:380, 383). Tolkien also reconstructed the primitive
form of Vanya as banj (BAN; cf. pl. "Banyai" in PM:402).

Another adjectival ending is -k. In Letters:282, Tolkien mentions a "basis" LAY (also present in
Quenya lair "summer") that yields laik "green". Other examples include gajak "fell, terrible,
dire" (PM:363), poik "clean, pure" (POY), tiuk "thick, fat" (TIW); later -k became short -ka
as in lauka "warm" (LAW). The ending -k, attested only in the word tiuk "thigh" (TIW), would
seem to be a nominalized form of -k (tiuk "thick" > tiuk *"thick thing" = "thigh").

The ending -la seems to mean little more than "thing" (or "person"); it is used as a noun-former.
Tolkien defines hekla as "any thing (or person) put aside from, or left out from, its normal

company" (WJ:361; stem HEKE "aside, apart"); this could be turned into a "personal form"
hekl "waif or outcast" with the masculine ending -; see below. (There is also an adjectival form
hekl formed with the adjectival ending -, discussed above.) In the Etymologies, -la is found in
the names of a number of implements where the ending -m (see below) could presumably have
been used as well: makla "sword" from MAK "sword, fight with sword", tekla "pen" from TEK
"write" (hence *"thing for writing"), and, with a nasal-infixed stem, tankla "pin, brooch" from
TAK "fix, make fast". In the word magla (read *smagl?) "stain" from the stem SMAG- "[?to]
soil, stain" the ending simply acts as a noun-former. (In the Etymologies, the Sindarin word mael
that is referred to magla is glossed both "stain" as a noun and adj. "stained", but the adjective
"stained" is presumably derived from *(s)magl with adjectival -.) In one case, the ending -la is
added, not directly to the root, but to another derived word: Sjatsela/sjatsla "broadsword-blade",
"axe-blade" includes the word sjats < sjads "cleft, gash" derived from the root SYAD "shear
through, clear"; a sjatsla is thus a *"thing used for making gashes".
The adjective ndulla "dark, dusky, obscure" may not contain the ending -la; it is apparently
formed from the root NDUL by "strengthening" the final consonant to double LL and adding the
adjectival ending -. Indeed the form in PQ and CE must have been *ndull with a long final
vowel, for primitive ndulla would have yielded Quenya **nul (null-), but the actual Quenya form
is nulla. Ndulla must be understood as being ancient Quenya (after the shortening of the original
long final vowels) rather than primitive Elvish.
The ending -la combined with the adjectival suffix - produces -l, as in hekl mentioned
above. This -l would seem to be the origin of the Quenya participial ending -la, Sindarin -l.

The ending -l is used to derive nouns that "seem properly to have been universal or abstract"
(VT39:16); this also goes for its direct Quenya descendant -l. In most attested examples it
simply acts as a verbal noun ending. The root TUY "spring, sprout" yields tuil "day-spring" or
"spring-time"; the basic meaning would be simply *"springing, sprouting". Kegl comes from
keg- "snag, barb" and would mean basically *"snagging, barbing", but abstracts often take on a
concrete meaning, and in Sindarin cail (< kegl) means "fence" or "palisade" (UT:282).
The -rille of silimarille "Silmaril" may be a verbal noun derived from RIL "glitter", so that
rille means something like *"radiance, brilliance".
The -le of nenle "brook" (NEN) may or may not be connected; if it is, the word would
mean "watering". But this -le may also be a diminutive ending.
How does ramal "pinion, great wing (of eagle)" fit in? (RAM)

The suffix -m is one of the most productive endings. Tolkien points out that this suffix is
frequent in the names of implements (WJ:416). Hence the stem TAK "fix, make fast" may yield
takm "thing for fixing", the origin of Quenya tangwa "hasp, clasp". SUK "drink" yields sukm
"drinking-vessel". Another word of the same meaning, julm, is likewise derived from a stem
meaning "drink" (WJ:416 - this is the origin of Quenya yulma "cup", known from Namri).
From the stem YAT "join" comes jatm, apparently meaning "bridge" or "joining" (Quenya
yanw). Note that the stem to which -m (-ma) is appended is not required to have a verbal
meaning; kasma "helmet" comes from a stem KAS "head". Telm "hood, covering" comes from
a stem (TEL/TELU) that is not defined, but apparently has to do with the top or canopy of
something. (In the Etymologies, the final vowel of telm has a diacritic denoting that it may be
either long or short, so the variation -m vs. -ma is unimportant.)
Some "implements" may even be body parts, such as nakma "jaw" from NAK "bite", or
labm "tongue" from LABA "lick" (WJ:416).
However, not all words in -m denote implements. Often the meaning of the ending -m is
very general; it simply denotes an object somehow connected with the state or action denoted by
the stem. Parm "book" comes from a stem PAR "compose, put together"; a parm is simply a
"thing that is composed or put together". Sometimes -m denotes an impersonal agent, as in
tuim "a sprout, bud" from TUY "spring, sprout" or tjulm "mast" from TYUL "stand up" (but in
SD:419, the primitive form of Quenya tyulma is reconstructed as kjulum instead). In some
cases, -m is used simply to derive concrete nouns, as in pathm "level space, sward" or sjalm
"shell, conch, horn of Ulmo" (stems PATH, SYAL not defined). Similarly, skelm "skin, fell"
comes from a stem SKEL that is not clearly glossed; it may mean "strip, strip bare" (cf. SKAL1).
Quenya corma "ring" plainly represents a primitive form *korm (not reconstructed by Tolkien);
the stem KOR means "round", so a *korm is simply a "round thing".
Infrequently the ending -m may also denote a substance, as in wilm "air, lower air" from
the stem WIL "fly, float in air", or sagm "poison" from SAG (stem meaning not given; perhaps
"bitter").
The ending -m also seems to occur in one adjective, silim "shining white", "silver" (as
adj.) (SIL). But this is probably a longer adjectival ending -im; see above.

The ending -m is properly an abstract or verbal noun ending, much like English "-ing", as in
julm "drinking, carousal", from the stem JULU "drink" (WJ:416) or labm "the action of
*LABA", sc. a stem having to do with licking or moving the tongue (WJ:416). The name of the
Vala Orom is really adapted from Valarin (an early Eldarin form was Arm), but in later ages
the Eldar took the name to mean "horn-blowing", wrongly supposing that it contained the verbal
noun ending -m (WJ:400).

A number of other words are easily explained as abstract words that have taken on a more
concrete meaning, as such words often do: rakm "fathom" from RAK "stretch out, reach",
tekm "letter, symbol" from TEK "make a mark", tinm "sparkle, glint" from TIN "to sparkle",
tulukm "support, prop" from TULUK (stem not defined but having to do with being firm or
steadfast). Note that English "support" may have both an abstract and a concrete meaning (the
act of supporting vs. a tangible prop), illustrating how abstracts and concretes are easily
conflated. In one case, the ending -m seems to be confused with -m; both telm and telm (or
telma, telme) "hood, covering" are mentioned by Tolkien when he etymologizes Quenya telm
"hood" (TEL/TELU). Once again, a full abstract "covering" takes on a concrete meaning: a hood,
that should more properly be called a telm with the ending for implements.
In a few cases, the ending -m/-me occurs in the names of substances: khithme "fog"
(KHIS/KHITH), silim "light of Silpion", also a poetic word for "silver" (SIL; this may actually
be a nominalized form of the apparently adjectival ending seen in silim; see -im). In one word
-m simply denotes something intangible: do3m "night" (DO3, see DOMO).

The agental ending -m is attested in the word Ulum "Pourer, Ulmo" only (ULU). However, its
Quenya descendant -mo is well attested and is stated to be an ending that "often appeared in
names or titles, sometimes with an agental significance" (WJ:400; here "the Pourer" as the
meaning of Ulmo is said to be an Elvish folk etymology, for the name was actually adopted and
adapted from Valarin Ul(l)ubz).

The ending -n (-na) is very productive. In a few cases (khaln, barn under KHAL2, BAR) the
final vowel is marked as accented; perhaps this ending received the accent in primitive Elvish. Its
function is to form adjectives: In UT:266, a word in -n is called as an "ancient adjectival form",
while in WJ:365 another such word, heklan, is called an "extended adjectival form" (extended
as compared to the shorter adjectival form hekl, presumably). Examples include ku3n "bowed,
bow-shaped, bent" (KU3 "bow"), magn "skilled" (MAG, under MA3), ndeuna "second"
(NDEW "follow, come behind"), orn "uprising, tall" (UT:266), patn "wide" (PAT), pathn
"smooth" (PATH), ragn "crooked" (RAG), sarn "of stone" (SAR, see STAR), ta3na ?"high,
lofty, noble" (T/TA3), tubn "deep" (TUB). This ending may well be added to stems that
already have an adjectival meaning, such as k'rann "ruddy (of face)" from KARN "red" or
morn "dark" from MOR "black" (see Letters:382 for morn; this derivative is not given in the
Etymologies, though its Quenya descendant morna is).
Sometimes the ending -n (-na) produces forms that may be considered past participles, as
when DUL "hide, conceal" yields ndulna "secret" (or *"hidden, concealed"). Gjern "old, worn"
may be seen as a past participle if the stem GYER means "to wear (out)", like a Quenya verbal
derivative of this stem (yerya) does. Likewise, skeln "naked" comes from a stem (SKEL) that

may mean "strip bare" (cf. SKAL1 ). Clearly participial are the forms skaln "veiled, hidden,
shadowed, shady" from SKAL1 "screen, hide (from light)", skarn "wounded" from SKAR "tear,
rend", and barn "safe, protected, secure" from BAR "uplift, save, rescue". We also note wann
"departed, dead" from WAN "depart, go away, disappear, vanish" and khaln "noble, exalted"
from KHAL2 "uplift". Lebn "left behind" would seem to be a past participle from its gloss, but
surprisingly the stem LEB/LEM does not mean "leave behind"; it is glossed "stay, stick, adhere,
remain, tarry".
In a few cases, words in -n are used as nouns rather than adjectives, like stakn "cleft,
split". This would be a past participle used as a noun; the stem STAK is glossed "split, insert".
There is also the original form of Lindon, Lindn; the name refers to the Lindarin (Telerin)
Green-elves that settled there (WJ:385). Lindn would mean simply "Lindarin [Area]". The
word ramna "wing (horn), extended point at side, etc." doesn't quite fit in; it is derived from a
stem already meaning "wing" and must be seen simply as a variant (RAM).
A longer form -in, -ina is found in a few words: smalin "yellow" (SMAL), Bedina
("Bed-ina") "of the Spouses" (Bed, Aul and Yavanna; see LEP/LEPEN/LEPEK), ngolwina
"wise, learned in deep arts" (GOL). In the case of ngolwina, the ending is not added directly to
the stem GOL, but to *ngolw (my reconstruction), the origin of Quenya nolw "wisdom,
secret lore".

The word luktin "enchantress" (LUK), the primitive form of Lthien, seems to contain a
feminine ending -n. It would be the counterpart of masculine -n; see below. It is apparently
suffixed to a noun *lukti "enchantment" rather than directly to a verbal stem. A distinct ending
-n occurs in orn "(slender) tree", stated to be related to the adjective orn "uprising, tall"
(UT:266). In this word, -n would seem to be a nominal ending corresponding to adjectival -n,
an orn being literally a "tall thing", used with reference to slender trees. How slign "cobweb"
fits in is difficult to say, since Tolkien did not define the stem SLIG. In nein "tear", the ending
-n adds nothing to the meaning of the stem NEI "tear" and must be seen simply as a nominal
ending.

The suffix -n is a masculine ending. It occurs in bern "man" and besn "husband" (BES, cf.
BER). Since the stem BES means "wed", besn "husband" might be interpreted *"bridegroom",
if we assign an agental meaning to -n. It is clearly agental in khalatirn "fish-watcher": stem
TIR "watch, guard". (In the Etymologies, the final vowel of khalatirn has a diacritic indicating
that it may be either long or short: -n or -no.) Cf. also stabn "carpenter, wright, builder" from
STAB (also stabr, so the endings -n and -r are sometimes interchangeable). In some cases,
-n denotes impersonal agents, like sjadn "cleaver" = sword from SYAD "shear through,
cleave". In adn "gate" the ending does not add any meaning to the stem AD "entrance, gate".

The ending -, -o is predominantly a masculine ending; compare the pronoun s/so "he" (stem S,
also s/su). The ending - seems to correspond to feminine - just like the masculine ending -
corresponds to feminine -. Often - is seen to have an agental meaning: Kn "crier, herald"
from KAN "cry" (PM:362, 361, 352), ml "friend" from MEL "love as friend" (Tolkien
comments on the irregular vocalism E > A), ndk "warrior, soldier" from NDAK "slay", tan
"craftsman, smith" from TAN, "make, fashion", tr "master, victor, lord" from TUR "[have]
power, control". (According to PM:362, kn is an example of "the older and simplest agental
form".) Except in tan, the vowel of the stem is lengthened (cf. also del below). Sometimes the
stem is manipulated in other ways when - is added. Nasal-infixion is seen in ronj "chaser" =
hound of chase (ROY1 "chase") and sjand "cleaver" = sword (SYAD "cleave"; sjand may also
be a metathesized form of sjadn). In rauk, a Common Eldarin word applied to "the larger and
more terrible of the enemy shapes" known to the first Elves, the stem RUKU is A-infixed
(WJ:390). Whether rauk can be considered an agental formation is uncertain and perhaps
doubtful (RUKU has to do with fear; Tolkien defines Quenya rauco as "very terrible creature" in
VT39:10). In the Primitive Quendian word edel "one who goes, traveller, migrant" the stemvowel (sundma) is prefixed; cf. the stem DELE "go, travel" (WJ:360). The simpler variant del,
delo is seen in the Common Eldarin words awa-delo, aw-delo (also ?w-del) *"Away-goer", a
name made in Beleriand for those who finally departed from Middle-earth (WJ:360). Edel
"traveller" also has a possible variant edl "with loss of sundma" (WJ:363, 364). Of course, the
stem-vowel isn't really "lost", but the consonant-vowel-consonant structure of the stem is
rearranged to vowel-consonant-consonant (EDL for DEL).
In some words -, -o has no agental meaning, but is simply a masculine ending:
urk ?"Orc" (WJ:390), ndro "bridegroom" (NDER, strengthened form of DER "man"), weg
"man" (WEG "manly vigour"), ber "valiant man, warrior" (BER "valiant"; under BES ber is
simply glossed "man"), tawar/tawaro "dryad, spirit of woods" (evidently masc.; fem.
tawar/taware) (TWAR "wood, forest"). We also note iondo "son" (mentioned under SEL-D;
read *jondo?), clearly derived from YON with medial fortification n > nd and the masculine
ending -o.
The ending - also occurs in the names of some animals: rokk "horse" (Letters:282, 382,
stem ROK given in the Etymologies) and morok "bear" (MORK); we may include ban
"monster" (BAN). Whether we should insist that such words are exclusively masculine we
cannot know. Since - corresponds to feminine -, a she-bear may explicitly be a *morok, while
a mare is a *rokk. Similarly, an *urk would be a female Orc (never seen, never mentioned and
never heard of, but according to Silm. ch. 3 "the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of
the Children of Ilvatar", so Orc-women must have existed!) But words like morok, rokk and
ban can probably be used with generic reference, irrespective of sex.

Only rarely is -o, - used to derive words denoting inanimate things with no agental
meaning. We note daio "shade, shadow cast by any object" (DAY "shadow"), pan "plank, fixed
board, especially in a floor" (PAN "place, set, fix in place (especially of wood)"), tink "metal"
(TINK is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a complete word and not
just a "stem"). Abstracts in - are very rare indeed; we note mband "custody, safe-keeping"
(MR:350) and alk "rush, rushing flight, wild wind (LAK; "wild wind" is at least relatively
concrete). In the words lokko "ringlet" (LOKH), ndro "land or region" (WJ:413), rond "a
vaulted or arched roof" (WJ:414), ost (CE) "fortress, stronghold" and tollo "island" (TOL2), the
final vowel is probably just the stem-vowel suffixed. This is also the case in verbal stems like
groto "dig, excavate, tunnel", rono "arch over, roof in" or soto "shelter, protect, defend"
(WJ:414).

Yet another masculine ending, -ond, is seen in stalgond "hero, dauntless man" (STLAG). In
kalrond "hero" (KAL) it seems to be combined with the masculine ending -ro. An old form of
Sauron is given (in Letters:380) as thaurond-. The hyphen indicates that the word is not
complete; we must assume that the full form would be *thaurond. This -ond is evidently just a
longer form of -d, see above (cf. the feminine ending -ind, apparently paralleling an unattested
shorter form *-d).

The endings -otto, -otta may be observed in the Tolkien's suggested reconstructions of the
primitive form of Sindarin nogoth "dwarf": nukotto, nukotta "a stunted or ill-shapen thing (or
person)" (WJ:413). These endings simply denote someone or something that has the properties
described by the stem (in this case NUKU "stunted", WJ:413). Compare the -tt- seen in kwelett"corpse" from KWEL "fade, wither". The word would mean literally *"faded/withered/dead
one"; its full form may be *kweletto or *kweletta. The feminine ending -itt mentioned in
PM:345 may be related to these other double-T endings.

The ending -r is a fairly productive adjectival suffix: wa3r "soiled, dirty" (WA3), tr "lofty"
(T/TA3, cf. TWAR), ubr "abundant" (UB), magr "useful, fit, good (of things)" (MAG,
under MA3), mikr "sharp-pointed" (WJ:337), sagr "bitter" (SAG), nethr, nethra "young"
(NETH), gair "awful, fearful" (WJ:400), akr "narrow" (AK), ter "straight, right" (TE,
TE3), gaisr "dreadful" (GYAS), taur "masterful, mighty" (TUR, T/TA3, cf TWAR), nr
"deep" (N). Letters:380 gives thaur "detestable", said to be derived from a stem THAW (not in
Etym). A special case is the adjective katwr "shapely", that seems to have two adjectival
endings added to the stem KAT, first -w and then -r. Short -ra in lakra "swift, rapid" (LAK2)
and daira "large, great" (VT42:11, base given as DAY); cf. also nethra beside nethr.

The ending -r seems to have several meanings. It functions as an abstract ending in the two
words idr "thoughtfulness" (ID) and thr "look, face, expression" (TH). On the other hand, it
is a collective ending in the word nr "family, tribe or group having a common ancestry"
(WJ:413); it would be the ancestor of the collective ending -r known from Quenya. The stem
WEY "wind, weave" gives weir "weaver" as the original form of the Quenya name of the Vali
Vair; this -r is plainly an agentive suffix, evidently the feminine counterpart of masculine -r.
In the word stalr "steep, falling" (STAL) -r seems to function as an adjectival ending (may this
be a misreading for stalr, with a well attested adjectival suffix? VT46:16, reporting the results of
a new examination of Tolkien's manuscript, indicates that this alternative reading is the more
probable one.)
Is the ending -re in balre, the archaic form of the name of the island Balar at Sirion's
mouth (BAL), somehow connected to any of these -r's?

Words with the ending -r, -ro are identified by Tolkien as agental formations (WJ:371 - here he
also mentions a form -rdo, that is nowhere attested). In WJ:371, Quenya Avar (pl. Avari) is said
to go back on a primitive form abaro, derived from a stem ABA having to do with refusal. The
Etymologies agrees quite well with this; most words in -r and -ro are indeed seen to have an
agental meaning: beur "follower, vassal" from BEW "follow, serve", onr or ontro "begetter,
parent" from ONO "beget", ndeuro "follower, successor" from NDEW "follow, come behind".
Stabr "carpenter, wright, builder" is seen to have an agental meaning, though the stem STAB is
not glossed. Tolkien states that tamr "woodpecker" means literally "knocker", from TAM
"knock". Another animal name, njadr "rat", literally means *"gnawer" (NYAD "gnaw").
Tolkien notes in WJ:371 that while the short form -ro is used after a suffixed stem-vowel
(mataina), as in abaro, the long form -r may be added directly to the stem "with or without ninfixion". But the only nasal-infixed word with this ending that occurs in the Etymologies,
kwentro "narrator" from KWET "speak", shows the short form -ro. (Perhaps we should indeed
read *kwentr since the Quenya descendant quentaro shows -o, while an original short final -o
would have been lost at the Common Eldarin stage.) We may also throw in lansrondo from
LAS2; this -rondo seems to be -ro + another masculine ending (also in kalrond "hero"; see -nd
under -d, and -ond).
In a few words, -r, -ro functions simply as a masculine ending and has no agental
significance. Cf. tro "king" from T/TA3 "high, lofty, noble". Kalr "noble man, hero" is a
doubtful case, but perhaps it means literally "shining one" (KAL "shine").
The masculine ending -r apparently has a feminine counterpart -r, as in weir "weaver"
(WEY).

An apparently adjectival ending -s occurs in the word neres. This is said to be a "feminine
adjectival formation" from NER "man", meaning "she that has manlike valour or strength"
(WJ:416). This particular ending does not seem to be attested anywhere else; neither did Tolkien
explain precisely how this adjective can be considered "feminine". Perhaps we are to assume a
stem *NERES as a "feminine" variant of NER "man", to which the normal adjectival ending - is
added. The double stem THEL, THELES "sister" in LR:392 may suggest that extended stems in
-S may sometimes be typically "feminine" (though there are other examples of such extensions
in -S that clearly have nothing to do with gender).

An ending -s occurs in a number of words, but it seems to have several meanings. In some
words it apparently denotes something that is made by the action denoted by the stem: khots
"assembly" from KHOTH "gather", sjads (later sjats) "cleft, gash" from SYAD "shear through,
cleave", wahs "stain" from WA3 "[to] stain, soil". We may add b'ras-s "heat" if the undefined
stem BARS means something like "burn" or "heat up" (it yields words for "hot, burning,
fiery"). Does khjeles "glass" fit in somehow, or does the S belong to the stem, that Tolkien
confusingly listed as KHYEL(ES)? It could be an "expanded" form of a shorter stem *KHYEL.
A few words indicate that -s may also be used to derive words for implements (taks "nail" from
TAK "make fast") or constructions (tups "thatch" from TUP, not defined). A distinct feminine
ending -s seems to occur in a few words, such as ndse "bride"; this might seem to be the stem
NDIS with the feminine ending -e, but the Etymologies lists a sub-entry NDIS-S/S that seems
to indicate that an ending -s really is present. Does this ending occur in bess "wife", or is the
double S simply the final consonant of the stem BES doubled? The latter is almost certainly the
case in the words khrass "precipice" (KHARS), kwess "feather" (KWES), lass "leaf" or
"ear" (LAS1, cf. Letters:282) and risse- "a ravine" (RIS). But what about the long ending -ss in
tjuluss "poplar-tree", added to an mataina-form of the stem TYUL? Some Quenya nouns also
show the ending -ss, e.g. hopass "harbourage" (KHOP) - for *khpass?

The ending -st would seem to be basically a verbal noun ending; Sindarin haust "bed" is said to
derive from khau-st, literally "rest-ing" (KHAW).

The ending -t, -ta is in most cases a verbal suffix. Most verbs in -ta are clearly transitive: anta"to present, give" (ANA1), bta "ban, prohibit" (WJ:372), ekt "prick with a sharp point, stab"
(WJ:365), hekt "set aside, cast out, forsake" (WJ:361; hekta, WJ:365), k'rikt "reap" (KIRIK),
ma3t (> Common Eldarin maht-) "to handle" (MA3), makt "wield a weapon" (MAK), rista"cut" (RIS), skelta- "strip" (SKEL), waht- "to soil, stain" (WA3). Wedt "swear" (to do

something) was struck out (WED). In one verb, the ending -t takes on a causative meaning:
tult- "make come" from tul- "come" (TUL). The verb nukt- "stunt, prevent from coming to
completion, stop short, not allow to continue" may also be seen as a causative form of the stem
NUKU "stunted" (WJ:413). Some ta-verbs are intransitive, though: swesta- "to puff" (SWES)
and b'rekta- "break out suddenly" (BERK). There was also winta- "fade" (WIN/WIND), but
Tolkien struck it out.
There are only a few nouns in -t, -ta. We note sjadta "axe-stroke" (SYAD), best
"matrimony" (BES), smalta "gold" (LWAR/GLWAR cf. SMAL) and jakta- "neck" (YAK).
The adjective art "exalted" does not contain the ending -t, but is an adjective derived
from the extended stem arat- (PM:363). The Common Eldarin noun alat "radiance, glittering
reflection" may similarly be an extended form of the stem AL (PM:347, not in the
Etymologies). Kalata- ?"shine" is stated to be an expanded form of kala- (WJ:392). The element
kwata seen in Eldarin words for "full" also goes back on a simpler stem KWA (WJ:412).

The ending -t in kirt "cutting", the origin of Sindarin certh "rune", seems to denote something
that is made by the action denoted by the stem (here obviously KIR "cut", though this stem is not
listed in Etym). Tolkien calls kirt "a verbal derivative" and adds that it was of a type not used in
Quenya, apparently meaning that no Quenya words contain a descendant of the ending -t, or
that no such descendant is productive in that language (WJ:396). Another possible example of
the same ending is provided by the word waht "a stain", evidently Common Eldarin for
Primitive Quendian *wa3t, since the stem is WA3 (LR:397). If we take Tolkien's glosses to
WA3 - "stain, soil" - as verbs rather than nouns, waht has much the same semantical
relationship to its root WA3 as kirt has to KIR. Interestingly, Quenya vakse (vax) "a stain" does
not come from waht, but from the synonymous primitive word wahs with another ending,
apparently confirming that the derivation exemplified by the primitive words in -t was not used
in Quenya.

An adjectival ending -ti or -iti is seen in a few words: ma3iti "handy, skilled" (MA3), neiti"moist, dewy" (NEI), phoroti "right" or "north" (PHOR). In the case of phoroti, the adjectival
ending may simply be -i added to *phorot, an extended form (a so-called kalat-stem?) of the
basic stem PHOR. The Quenya ending -it in adjectives like uruit "fiery" (UR) is clearly
descended from -iti.

The ending - is a dual suffix, but it also has other meanings. Words in -, -u are nearly always
nouns (rarely verbs and never adjectives). A masculine ending - seems to be present in at

"father" (ATA) and kher "master" (Letters:282). In kund "prince", the ending may be the stemvowel reduplicated, but probably it is the same ending as in at, kher. Cf. also short -u in orku
"goblin", Orc (ROK). In Tolkien's later reconstructions of the primitive word for "Orc", such as
urk(u) or uruku (WJ:390), the ending -u may just as well be the stem-vowel suffixed. A
masculine ending may be present in rauku, the possible origin of the final element in Balrog;
Tolkien also suggested rauk as a possible reconstruction, and this word undoubtedly contains a
masculine ending (WJ:390). Some words in -u denote body parts: mbundu "snout, nose, cape"
(MBUD), ranku "arm" (RAK), tgu "muscle, sinew" (TUG). Note nasal infixion in mbundu,
ranku. Some u-words denote localities: jagu "gulf" (YAG), tumbu "deep valley" (TUB) and
tundu "hill, mound" (TUN); note nasal infixion in tumbu and medial fortification N > ND in
tundu. Only one word in -u denotes a substance: smalu "pollen, yellow powder" (SMAL). In the
word tulku "support, prop" (TULUK) the final -u is probably just the stem-vowel suffixed. The
words suglu "goblet" and the name Utubnu, the primitive form of Utumno, seem to contain
endings -lu and -nu not otherwise attested (SUG [see SUK], TUB).

Among the rare verbal stems in -u we note tel-u, telu "roof in, put the crown on a building".
Tolkien suggested that this is a "differentiated form of *TELE", a stem meaning "close, end,
come at the end" (WJ:411). WJ:417 also mentions a Quenya stem niku- "be chill, cold (of
weather)"; it would descend from *niku- but no further information is given. We need not
concern ourselves with stems like ULU "pour, flow" (LR:396), since the final U is simply the
stem-vowel reduplicated and suffixed; compare the short form UL in WJ:400.

The ending -w, -wa is seen to be basically an adjectival suffix. It occurs in several colourwords: khithwa "grey" (KHIS/KHITH), laikw "green" (LYAK; laikwa under LAIK), smalw
"fallow, pale" (SMAL), narw "fiery red" (NAR1 - the long final vowel gives away that this is an
archaic form and not Quenya). There is also the adjective katw "shaped, formed" from the stem
KAT "shape". If the latter English gloss is to be understood as a verb rather than a noun, the wformation here functions as a past participle. On the other hand, it functions almost like an active
participle in terw "piercing, keen" from TER, TERES "pierce".
In one case -w turns up in a word stated to be an "adverb and preposition": hekw
"leaving aside, not counting, excluding, except" (WJ:365). This is simply an elaboration of an
"adverbial element" HEKE, meaning "aside, apart, separate" (WJ:361).
The ending -w also occurs in a couple of bird-names, alkw "swan" (LAK) and kukw
"dove" (K). Perhaps these are originally adjectives that were applied to these birds; alkw
would seem to mean *"rushing", while kukwa is obscure (echoic?)

In one case, the ending -w is given as part of the head of an entry in the Etymologies. The
entry GENG-W, whence Quenya engwa "sickly", is evidently to be understood as a stem
GENG with this ending.

The ending -w is identified by Tolkien as an abstract suffix (see WEG). It is clearly used to
produce verbal nouns in words like et-kuiw "awakening" from KUY "awake" or wanw "death"
from WAN "depart"; Tolkien made it clear that wanw refers to the act of dying, not "death" as a
state. Some concrete words in -w can be explained as abstract verbal nouns that have taken on a
concrete meaning. Atakw "construction, building" (TAK) is the best example; compare the
English glosses that are properly verbal nouns, but these words are commonly applied to the
structure that is constructed as well as referring to the construction process itself. Likewise, the
word skarw "wound" from SKAR "tear, rend" must properly refer to the tearing or rending as
an abstract action, but is then applied to a concrete rent. Us(u)kw "reek, smoke" may properly
be the verbal noun of a stem meaning "to (give out) smoke" (stem USUK not defined). Jagw
"ravine, cleft, gulf" is likewise in origin a verbal noun derived from YAG "yawn, gape", later
applied to a locality. Short -we is seen in the word tenwe (WJ:394; this seems to be a misprint for
*tewe, since the word is derived from a stem TE and yielded Quenya tengw). It means
"indication, sign, token", and since the stem TE (not in Etym) means "indicate, signify",
*tewe is evidently originally just another verbal noun.
In the case of the word ugw "gloom", the ending -w seems simply to denote something
intangible (UG). We need not consider Wolw, the tentative reconstruction of the earlier form
of Olw; Tolkien points out that this reconstruction is doubtful (PM:357).

The ending -w is found only in the word nidw "bolster, cushion". Since the stem NID means
"lean against", X-w would seem to mean "thing exposed to the action X". This ending could be
a nominal counterpart of the adjectival ending -w.

PRIMITIVE ELVISH WORDLIST

The spelling of y/j is regularized to j; as noted above, Christopher Tolkien altered his father's
original spelling in the Etymologies when editing the material, changing j to y (LR:346). We
restore Tolkien's original spelling in the Etymologies material, thus bringing it into accord with
the spelling of the primitive words listed in the essay Quendi and Eldar (WJ:359-424), the other

main source concerning the oldest stages of Elvish. We also regularize other words from sources
where it seems that Tolkien really did use y rather than j, such as Letters.
In the sources, long vowels are marked with macrons; in this list, circumflexes are used
instead. In Tolkien's spelling, accents in the primitive words indicate stress (not long vowels as in
the spelling of Quenya). Hence, lk "rush" is accented on the first syllable, while the two
following vowels are long. The accent mark is rare; normally, Tolkien does not mark the
accented syllable. However, he sometimes marks a vowel with both a macron and an accent to
indicate that the vowel is both long and accented. This combination cannot be reproduced here,
so we do as we did above and dispose of the accent marks altogether, marking the stressed
vowels by means of italics instead (e.g. alk, banj, baras).
A (very rare) diacritic indicating that a vowel is short is here omitted, since the absence of
the circumflex means the same. Tolkien sometimes uses a diacritic indicating that a vowel may
have been either short or long; in such cases we here give a double form, e.g. ratt/ratta (where
Tolkien marked the final -a with the diacritic in question to indicate that it was either long - or
short -a; see the Etymologies, entry RAT).
It should be noted that in some cases, Tolkien (or possibly the transcriber) seems to have
failed to indicate that a final vowel is long. For instance, ndulla "dark, dusky, obscure" (NDUL)
must have been *ndull at the most primitive stage, or it would have yielded Quenya **nul
instead of the actual form nulla. Similarly, there is little reason to doubt that lakra "swift" (LAK)
should have been *lakr, since the adjectival ending -r is attested in a number of other words
(and since Quenya larca has not lost the vowel, only shortened it, while original short final -a
was lost in Common Eldarin). Note inconsistencies like laikw (laik-w) also appearing in the
form laikwa (LAYAK vs. LAIK). It should be remembered that the Etymologies is actually a
quite chaotic document of rough working notes, not a carefully made manuscript that Tolkien
ever intended to publish in this form. Therefore, there is no need to construct overwrought
theories to explain certain apparent irregularities. We may choose to see words like ndulla as
later forms, archaic Quenya, after the shortening of the original long final vowels.
The asterisked form *mad-l ("honey-eater" = bear) listed under LIS is not included in this
wordlist, for as the lenitions give away, this is archaic Sindarin and not a primitive form. The
asterisked form *Goss "Oss" that is mentioned under GOS/GOTH is also excluded; this is not
an archaic form, but the hypothetical, unused "Noldorin" cognate of Quenya Oss ("Noldorin"
used Oeros instead). The primitive form yielding Quenya Oss and "Noldorin" *Goss would be
*Goss, not mentioned by Tolkien.
Words that were struck out in the Etymologies are bracketed; if the stem itself was struck
out, the entire entry is bracketed.

 imperative particle, independent and variable in place (WJ:365, 371). Cf. heke-.
- adjectival ending (WJ:382)
abaro (PQ) "recusant, one who refuses to act as advised or commanded" > CE abar pl.
abar "refuser, one who declined to follow Orom" > Quenya Avar, Avari (WJ:371, 361, 380,
411) The Etymologies has abr/abro "refuser, one who does not go forth" (AB/ABAR)
adn "gate" (AD)
ailin ("ai-lin") "pool, lake" (AY)
aiw "(small) bird" (AIW is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
ajan- "holy" (AYAN; according to VT45:6 Tolkien actually wrote "aian-", but with a
diacritical mark indicating that the i is here a semi-vowel)
akra "made, did", a primitive past tense of KAR, marked as a past tense by the augment,
the reduplicated stem-vowel (WJ:415)
aklara "glory, splendour" (VT47:13)
akr "narrow" (AK)
akw "fully, completely, altogether, wholly" (if = Quenya aqua, the word it yielded)
(WJ:392, said to be an "extension or intensification of *kw, used adverbially", WJ:415)
al- (prefix) "no, not" (AR2)
alk "rush, rushing flight, wild wind" (LAK)
[alar-si, alri "hail!, bliss" (forms deleted by Tolkien) (VT45:26)]
alkw "swan" (LAK, where the spelling is "alk-w", but in VT42:7, the form is cited
without a hyphen)
ank ("an-k") "jaw, row of teeth" (NAK)
anr- "sun" (ANR; be polite and don't ask how Primitive Elvish could have a word for
"sun")
and "long" (NAD/ANDA); andambund "long-snouted" = elephant (MBUD)
ang (CE) "iron" (PM:347, cf. also ANG in the Etymologies; though this is the head of
an entry, it seems to be a complete word and not just a "stem")

angwa or angu "snake" (the forms ANGWA/ANGU are found in the head of an entry in the
Etymologies, but they seem to be complete words and not just "stems")
aol- "stench" (VT46:6)
anta- "to present, give" (ANA1)
ap-pata "walk behind", on a track or path (PM:387)
ap'lata "prohibition, refusal" (VT47:13)
ara- "noble", extended stem arat-; art "exalted" (PM:363)
Arm (not capitalized in source) evidently the oldest Elvish form (adopted from Valarin)
of the name that became Orom in Quenya and Araw in Sindarin (WJ:400, where various
intermediate archaic forms are also mentioned)
ari "day" (AR1)
askar "tearing, hastening" (SKAR)
asmal "yellow bird, 'yellow hammer' " (SMAL)
asmalind, asmalinde "yellow bird, 'yellow hammer' " (SMAL, VT46:14)
atar (PQ) "father" (ATA)
atata, cardinal "two", also (a)tata (VT42:27)
at-jn-ar "anniversary day" (YEN)
at (PQ) "father" (ATA)
atakw "construction, building" (TAK)
au- (CE) "away", from the point of view of the thing, person, or place left (WJ:361)
aud possible origin of the Sindarin preposition o "from, of"; sc. au with the suffix -d(a)
(WJ:366)
aw = au, as an independent adverbial form, apparently also as prefix, as an intensive form
of awa-, au- (WJ:361). Cf. wawa-delo, aw-delo (also ?w-del) (CE) *"Away-goer", a name made in Beleriand for
those who finally departed from Middle-earth (WJ:360)
awwii *"has passed away" (WJ:366), evidently the perfect of w-. Later *a-wnii,
"with intrusion of n from the past"

aw'tha "a dim shape, spectral or vague apparition" (VT42:9)

b "No! Don't!" (WJ:372)
bad- "judge" (prob. verb); bd- "judgement" (BAD)
bal'tar- *"Vala-king" = Vala (BAL)
bal, pl. bal ("bal-"; according to VT45:7, Tolkien indicated that the second syllable
receives the stress) "Power, God" (BAL)
balre archaic form of the name Balar, referring to a large island at Sirion's mouth (BAL)
bal-ndre/bal-ndore "Valinor" (BAL; see VT45:7 concerning the stress. WJ:413 also
gives Valinr, but this form must be late, after the Quenya change of initial b > v.)
Ban (not capitalized in source) "Vna", name of a Vali (spelt Vana in the Etymologies)
(BAN; however, Vna's name is derived from a stem WAN in WJ:383)
banj "beautiful" (BAN), also "Vanya-elf"; pl. Banyai "Vanyar" in PM:402 may be taken
as ancient Quenya (primitive *banji). See also wanj.
barad "lofty, sublime" (BARD, BARATH; in Etym as printed in LR the second syllable
is marked as stressed, but this is wrong according to VT45:7)
baras "hot, burning" (BARS)
barj- > Quenya varya "to protect" (BAR)
Barath "Varda", spouse of Manwe, Queen of Stars (BARATH)
barn > Quenya varna "safe, protected, secure" (BAR)
bta ("b-ta") "ban, prohibit" (WJ:372)
bat/bata "beaten track, pathway" (BAT)
batt "trample" (BAT)
Bedina ("Bed-ina") "of the Spouses" (Aule and Yavanna) (LEP/LEPEN/LEPEK)
bel "strength" (BEL)
belek (unglossed, the source of:) belek "mighty, huge, great" (BEL)
berek "wild" (BERK)
berja- "to dare" (BER)

bern "man" (BES)

ber "valiant man, warrior" (BER), "man" (BES)
besn "husband" (BES (BER) )
bess "wife" (BES)
best "matrimony" (BES)
bes "husband and wife, married pair" (BES, LEP/LEPEN/LEPEK)
beuj- "follow, serve" (BEW; according to VT45:7, the last vowel is marked as stressed in
Tolkien's manuscript)
beur "follower, vassal" (BEW)
boron- "steadfast, trusty man, faithful vassal" (BOR)
[b'radil-] "Varda" (BARD)
b'rand "lofty, noble, fine" (BARD)
b'ras-s "heat" (BARS)
b'rekta- "break out suddenly" (BERK)
b'reth "beech-mast" (BERTH)
b'ritt "broken stones, gravel" (BIRT)
b'rn "that has long endured, old" (of things only; implies that they are old, but not
changed or worn out) (BORN)
dai, variant of dai, q.v. (VT45:8)
dai "shade, shadow cast by any object" (DAY; according to VT45:6, the second syllable is
marked as long in Tolkien's manuscript)
daira "large, great" (VT42:11)
dla "flat" (DAL)
dan- = ndan-, q.v.
datt "hole, pit" (DAT/DANT)
de pronominal element in the 2nd person; also le (WJ:363)

dele (also with suffix del-ja) "walk, go, proceed, travel" (WJ:360)
dene "thin and strong, pliant, lithe" (WJ:412)
Denwego (must for historical reasons be CE) "Lenw", the leader of the Nandor. The name
is interpreted "lithe-and-active", evidently dene + wego (WJ:412)
dr, der- (PQ) "man" (NI1, NR)
dess "young woman" (BES)
d "bride" (?) (BES)
dimb "sad, gloomy" (DEM)
dimb "gloom, sadness" (DEM)
ds "bride" (?) (BES)
do3m "night" (?) (DOMO)
dmi- "twilight" (DOMO, SD:302), cf. dmilind "nightingale" (SD:302)
d'rk "wolf" (DARK)
dulla, dulna apparently variants of ndulna, q.v. (VT45:11)
edela "eldest" (also "firstborn", struck out) (LED)
edel (PQ) "one who goes, traveller, migrant" (from dele). A name made at the time of the
Separation for those who decided to follow Orom. (WJ:360)
edl possible variant form of edel, "with loss of sundma" (stem-vowel) (WJ:363, 364)
[Eigolosse "Ever-snow", name of Taniquetil (EY)]
[ej "ever" (EY)]
eke (PQ) "sharp point" (WJ:365)
ek-t "prick with a sharp point", "stab", and (by blending with hek-ta) "treat with scorn,
insult", often with reference to rejection or dismissal (WJ:365)
ektele "spring, issue of water" (metathesized tk > kt; oldest form et-kel) (KEL)
ekw *"said" (WJ:392), a primitive past tense marked by the "augment" or reduplicated
base-vowel (WJ:415)
el, ele, el- (CE) "lo! look! see!", derived from PQ ELE (WJ:360)

l pl. eli, li "star", also elen pl. elen with "extended base" (WJ:360)
eld (CE) an adjectival formation "connected or concerned with the stars", used as a
description of the kwend, the origin of Quenya Elda. (WJ:360) This obsoletes the (slightly)
earlier reconstruction in Letters:281: Eled "an Elf" (cf. Eled- "Starfolk" = Elves under EL in the
Etymologies)
Eled-nil "lfwine" (Elf-friend, Quenya Elendil) (NIL/NDIL)
[eleda] "firstborn" (LED)
Eledandore *"Elf-land" (LED)
Eleser (masc. name = Old English lfwine, Elf-friend) (SER; the change d > seems to
indicate that this form is later than Primitive Quendian or Common Eldarin.)
elen pl. elen "star" (Letters:281, said to be "primitive Elvish"; cf. WJ:360 [see l])
elen (CE) = eld (WJ:360). Cf. Letters:281: elen "Elf"
Endero (archaic or alternative Quenya form?) a surname of Tulkas (NDER)
ered "seed" (ERD)
ereqa "isolated" (ERE; this seems to be an unorthodox spelling for *erekwa, unless Tolkien
wanted to denote that original [kw] had merged into a single labio-velar sound - or this may be
an indication that what is normally spelt "kw" was a single labio-velar sound all along, that could
fittingly be written as one letter, "q". But cf. erikwa below.)
erikwa "single, alone" (VT42:10)
erj "isolated, lonely" (VT42:4)
esd > ezd (CE) "Repose", origin of the Quenya name of the Vali Est, Telerin de
(WJ:403)
et-kat "fashion" (KAT)
et-kel "spring, issue of water" (KEL)
et-kuiw "awakening" (KUY)
etl-ndor, etla-ndore, ancestral form of the name Eglador (VT42:4)
etsiri "mouth of a river" (ET)
ezd see esd

gair "awful, fearful" (WJ:400)

gais- "to dread" (GYAS)
gaisr "dreadful" (GYAS)
gaj- "astound, make aghast" (WJ:400)
gj "terror, great fear" (PM:363)
gajak "fell, terrible, dire" (PM:363)
Gajar- (CE) "the Terrifier", the name first made for the vast Sea (> Quenya Er) (PM:363;
gayr, WJ:400)
galad "great growth", "tree"; applied to stout and spreading trees such as oaks and
beeches; contrast orn. (UT:266, SD:302, Letters:426; in the latter source, the root GAL is
defined "grow", intransitive)
galj "bright light" (KAL)
[gl- "light"] (KAL)
gard "bounded or defined place, region" (WJ:402)
gsa "void" (?) (GAS)
gass "hole, gap" (GAS)
gatt "cavern" (GAT(H) )
[gei "ever" (GEY)]
[Geigolosse "Everlasting Snow" = Taniquetil (GEY)]
gilja "star" (GIL)
gjern "old, worn, (of things:) decripit" (GYER)
g'l "radiance" (KAL; see VT45:18 concerning the stress)
glada ("g-lada") (CE) "laugh" (PM:359)
glind alternative (late PQ) form of lind (PM:380, 411)
glisi ("g-lisi") "honey" (LIS). (There can be little doubt that g-lisi is meant to be the
ancestral form of "Noldorin"/Sindarin gl "honey", the form mentioned just before it, though glisi is not asterisked.)

golb "branch" (GLOB)

gon(o), gond(o) "stone, rock" (Letters:410, PM:374)
gor-ngoroth "deadly fear" (GOROTH)
Gothombauk- (personal name > Sindarin Gothmog) (MBAW)
grauk- "a powerful, hostile, and terrible creature", origin of the second element in Quenya
Valarauco, Sindarin Balrog (WJ:415)
grot (also rot) (CE) "excavation, underground dwelling"; -grota in the compound nbagrota (WJ:414). Intensified form grott "a large excavation" (WJ:415)
groto "dig, excavate, tunnel" (WJ:414); cf. rot-.
g "not, un-, in-" (UGU/UMU), prefix g- (prefix) "no, not" (G)
guld "red" (GUL)
guruk- see rukgwa-lassa, gwa-lassi "collection of leaves, foliage" (Letters:282)
heke (PQ) "apart, not including" (WJ:361); imperative heke- "be off!" (WJ:365)
hekla (PQ) "any thing (or person) put aside from, or left out from, its normal company";
personal form hekl "waif or outcast"; adjectival hekl and hekel (WJ:361), extended adjectival
form heklan (CE) "Forsaken", the name given by the Sindar to themselves after they were left
behind in Beleriand (WJ:365).
hek-t (PQ, CE) "set aside, cast out, forsake" (WJ:361; hek-ta, WJ: 365)
hek-w adverb and preposition "leaving aside, not counting, excluding, except" (WJ:365)
hjl "trump" (SD:419)
h, ho adverb "from, coming from", the point of view being outside the thing referred to
(WJ:361); -h an enclitic that is the origin of the Quenya genitive ending -o (WJ:368)
- a plural ending, see for instance elen pl. elen
d "heart, desire, wish" (ID, VT45:17; the latter source indicates that the final vowel is
properly rather than as in Etym as printed in LR)
idr "thoughtfulness" (ID)
-ikw an abjectival ending meaning roughly "-ful" (WJ:412). Also -kw.

indise ("i-ndise") intensive form of ndse > Quenya Indis (NDIS-S/S)

Indo-glaur (may be primitive Lindarin) (masc. name) (ID)
Indo-klr (may be primitive Lindarin) (ID)
iondo "son" (SEL-D; read *jondo?)
istj "learned" (VT45:18)
-itt a feminine ending (PM:345)
-ja, adjectival ending (VT42:10)
jag "void, abyss" (Letters:383)
jagu "gulf" (YAG)
jagw "ravine, cleft, gulf" (YAG)
jakta- "neck" (YAK)
jant "yoke" (YAT)
jatm > Quenya yanwe "bridge, joining, isthmus" (YAT)
jn, jend- "daughter" (Y/YON)
j, jm "together", of more than two; as prefix jo-, jom- (WJ:361)
julm "drinking-vessel" (WJ:416)
julm "drinking, carousal" (WJ:416)
kala-kwend "Calaquendi, Light-folk", the Elves that had experienced the Light of Aman
(WJ:373)
kalarj "brilliant" (KAL)
kala ?"shine", expanded stem kalata- (WJ:392)
kalr "noble man, hero" (KAL)
kalrond "hero" (KAL)
kanata, kanat, cardinal "four" (VT42:24)
kand "bold" (KAN)

kn "crier, herald"; original form of the ending in Fingon, Turgon (PM:362, 352)
karani "red" (KARN). According to VT45:19, the word was originally written as karni.
kassa, kasma ("kas-ma, kas-sa") "helmet" (KAS)
katw "shaped, formed" (KAT)
katwr "shapely" (KAT)
k(a)wk "crow" (WJ:395)
keg- "snag, barb"; kegl > Sindarin cail, a fence or palisade of spikes and sharp stakes;
kegj "hedge" (UT:282)
kelun ("kelu-n") "river" (KEL)
khagda "pile, mound" (KHAG)
khaim "habit" (KHIM)
khalatirn/khalatirno (PQ) "kingsfisher", etymologically "fish-watcher" (TIR)
khaln "noble, exalted" (KHAL2)
khaust "resting" (khau-st = "rest-ing") (KHAW)
kher- "possess"; noun khr, kher "master" (Letters:178, 282)
khm "sticky, viscous" (KHIM)
khn "child", in compounds khna, khin (WJ:403)
kht(h)i "mist, fog" (KHIS/KHITH, VT45:22)
khithme "fog" (KHIS/KHITH)
khithwa "grey" (KHIS/KHITH)
khjeles "glass" (KHYEL(ES) )
Kh-gor (masc.name "heart-vigour" > Quenya Huore, Sindarin Huor) (KH-N; Khgore,
GOR)
khots "assembly" (KHOTH)
khrass "precipice" (KHARS)
khugan "hound" (KHUG, see KHUGAN)

kirt "cutting" (WJ:396)

kjelep ("kyelep") "silver" (Letters:426; cf. UT:266)
kjulum "mast" (SD:419; this may obsolete the earlier reconstruction tjulm, q.v.)
k'l "light" (KAL; see VT45:18 concerning the stress)
kogna (from even older ku3n) "bowed, bow-shaped, bent" (KU3)
koro (primitive Quenya?) "Kr" (KOR, VT45:23)
kot-t- "quarrel" (KOT > KOTH)
k'rann "ruddy (of face)" (KARN)
k'rikt "reap" (KIRIK)
krumb "left" (> Sindarin crom), krumb "the left hand" (> Sindarin crum) (KURM)
ku3n "bowed, bow-shaped, bent" (KU3)
kukw "dove" (K)
kuld (1) "hollow" (WJ:414), (2) "red" (KUL)
kund "prince" (KUND is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
kua (CE for PQ *kukw?) "dove" (K)
kuw (from k3) "bow" (KU3)
kwa, kwa-ta element seen in Eldarin words for "full" (WJ:412); *kw the base of the
"intensified" form akw, q.v.; -kw adjectival ending "-ful" (WJ:392). Also, it seems, -ikw.
kwra "fist" (PM:318)
kwelett- "corpse" (KWEL)
kwene (PQ) "person" (m. or f.) > CE kwn (in compounds -kwen), pl. kweni, "person",
"one", "(some)body"; pl. "persons", "(some) people" (WJ:360, 392). In WJ:416, kwene is
translated "user of articulate speech", the most basic etymology.
kwende (PQ and CE), pl. kwend (WJ:360, 409; "kwendi" in WJ:393 would seem to be an
error) "Quendi, Elves", probably first used in the plural for all the first Elves: "people, the people
of the Elves". (WJ:360; this obsoletes the earlier reconstruction kwened in the Etymologies,
stem KWEN(ED).)

kwendj adj. "belonging to the *kwend, to the people as a whole" (WJ:360, 393)
kwent "tale" (KWET)
kwentro "narrator" (KWET)
kwess "feather" (KWES)
kwetta "word" (KWET)
kwing "bow" (for shooting) (KWIG)
la- (prefix) "no, *un-" (> Quenya il- via vocalic l) (LA)
labm earliest form of the word that became lamb (q.v.) in Common Eldarin "and
possibly earlier", sc. in Primitive Quendian (WJ:416).
labm earliest form of the word that became lamb (q.v.) in Common Eldarin "and
possibly earlier", sc. in Primitive Quendian (WJ:416).
lda "flat" (DAL)
laib > Quenya laive "ointment", Sindarin glaew "salve" (LIB2)
laikw (laik-w) "green" (LYAK; laikwa under LAIK is evidently a later form, after the
shortening of the final vowels. Letters:282 gives what must be a variant form: laik.)
lakra "swift, rapid" (LAK2)
lamb "tongue" (the physical tongue, not = language) (WJ:394). From labm (WJ:416).
lamb "tongue-movement, (way of) using the tongue", in non-technical use the normal
word for "language" (WJ:394; VT42:17 cites "lambe-" as a Common Eldarin word for language).
From labm (WJ:416).
lansrondo, lasrondo ("lansro-ndo, lasro-ndo") "hearer, listener, eavesdropper" (LAS2)
lass "leaf" or "ear" (LAS1, Letters:282)
lassekwelne "autumn" (lit. *"leaf-fading") (LAS1)
las "ears" (a dual form = two ears of one person) (LAS2)
lauka "warm" (LAW)
laur "light of the golden Tree Laurelin, gold" (but not properly used of the metal)
(LWAR/GLWAR)

lawa "year" (VT42:10)

le pronominal element in the 2nd person; also de (WJ:363)
lebn "left behind" (LEB/LEM)
lepem (CE) "fingers"; the word incorporates the C.E. plural indicator -m. (VT42:26)
lepen, cardinal "five", in Common Eldarin also lepene "with a final vowel modelled on the
other numerals" (VT42:24), later (after syncope) lepne as the form immediately preceding
Quenya lemp (VT42:25)
lepenja, ordinal "fifth" (VT42:26)
leth- "set free" (LEK)
libda "soap" (LIB2)
lig "fine thread, spider filament" (SLIG)
lind (1) "Linda" (Quenya pl. Lindar), what the Teleri called themselves (PM:380).
Primitive pl. Lindi (WJ:378) or Lindai (WJ:385)
lind (2) "sweet-sounding" (SLIN)
Lindn-d "musical land" (> Lindon) name of Ossiriand because of water and birds (LIN2).
However, Tolkien later reconstructed the primitive form of the name Lindon as Lindn and
explained the name as referring to the Lindarin (Telerin) Green-elves that settled there (WJ:385).
linkwi "wet"(LINKWI is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
liwi "fish" (LIW)
loga = sloga (?) (VT42:10)
logna "soaking wet, swamped" (VT42:10)
lo3o "night" (VT45:28)
lokko "ringlet" (LOKH)
lond "narrow path, strait, pass" (LOD)
lugni "blue" (LUG2)
lotta-, apparently a verb "to bloom", the source of Quenya losta- of similar meaning, and
also influencing Sindarin loth "flower" (VT42:18)

luktin "enchantress" > Luthien, Lhthien, Lthien (LUK)

lung "heavy" (LUG1)
-m a plural ending (3O), in VT42:26 said to be an ancient Common Eldarin plural
indicator. See lepem.
-m suffix frequent in the names of implements (WJ:416); see julm, sukm, takm
mg "soil, stain" (SMAG)
magit- (CE) "shapely" (PM:366)
magla "stain", "stained" (though asterisked in Etym, this may be Old Sindarin, since the S
of the stem SMAG has been lost - primitive *smagla?)
magn "skilled" (MAG, under MA3)
magr "useful, fit, good (of things)" (MAG, under MA3)
maha "hand" (VT39:11); cf. PQ m3 (ma3-) in the Etymologies (MA3)
ma3t ("ma3-t") "to handle" (evidently PQ, since it yielded CE maht-) (MA3, also
mentioned in the entry MAK)
ma3iti "handy, skilled" (MA3)
maht- ("Eld" = CE) "to handle" (from PQ ma3t; see VT45:30 concerning the stress of
the CE word) (MA3)
maik "sharp, penetrating, going deep in" (called a "strong adjective", whatever that
means). (WJ:337)
Mailik, Mailik "Greedy One", Melkor (MIL-IK)
makla "sword" (MAK)
makt "wield a weapon" (MAK)
ml "friend" (MEL)
mm "sheep" (WJ:395)
map "hand" (MAP)
mt "is eating", continuous form of the stem mata- "eat" (VT39:13)
mauj- "need" (impersonal) (MBAW)

mazg "pliant, soft" (MASAG)

mazg "dough" (MASAG)
mbakh "article (for exchange), ware, thing" (MBAKH)
mbanda "duress, prison" (MBAD)
mband "custody, safe-keeping" (MR:350)
mbartan "world-artificer", title of Aul (LT1:266)
mbelekro (said to be the "oldest Q[uenya] form" of Melkor, but evidently far more
primitive than the Quenya of historical times) (WJ:402)
mbundu "snout, nose, cape" (MBUD)
-m abstract or verbal noun ending, as in julm "drinking, carousal", from the stem JULU
"drink" (WJ:416)
mein "desiring to start, eager to go" (VT39:11)
metta "end" (MET)
mikr "sharp-pointed" (WJ:337)
miniia "single, distinct, unique" (MINI)
minitaun "tower" (MINI (and TUN) ); minitunda "isolated hill" (TUN)
mi-srawanwe "incarnate" (cf. sraw) (MR:350)
mizd "wet" (MIZD)
mizd "fine rain" (MIZD)
ml- "slave, thrall" (M)
mori "black", "dark(ness)" (MOR, Letters:382, WJ:362; the latter source discusses the
possibility of a later form mora- in very early Sindarin); Mori-kwend "Moriquendi, Dark-folk" =
Avari, as opposed to Kala-kwend (WJ:373)
morn "dark" (Letters:382)
morok "bear" (MORK)
nb (CE) "hollow"; nba-grota "hollow underground dwelling" = Novrod, Nogrod
(WJ:414)

nje "lament" (NAY; see VT45:37 concerning the long vowel. According to the same
source, the final e has a peculiar form in Tolkien's manuscript.)
nakma "jaw" (NAK)
nakt- "biting" (NAY)
alat (CE) "radiance, glittering reflection" (from jewels, glass, polished metals or water)
(PM:347)
narka "rushing, rapid, violent" (NRAK)
narw "fiery red" (NAR1; the wording in this entry in Etym may seem to suggest that this
is a Quenya word, but the long final vowel indicates that it is meant to be Primitive Elvish.)
natsai "gore" (This is not the pl. of Sindarin naith, but an archaic pl. form that sg. naith is
derived from.) (SNAS/SNAT)
nauk adjective "especially applied to things that though in themselves full-grown were
smaller or shorter than their kind, and were hard, twisted or ill-shapen" (WJ:413)
naue "imagination" (NOWO; the letter represents th as in English thing. This sound
apparently did not occur in the most primitive language [though the aspirate TH did], so naue
must rather be archaic Quenya. Cf. also the form of the root, suggesting that at the oldest stage,
the initial syllable was *nou- rather than nau-.)
nd^r ("Eld" = CE) "bridegroom". From PQ ndro. (NDER)
ndk "warrior, soldier" (NDAK)
ndan- element "indicating the reversal of an action, so as to undo or nullify its effect, as in
'undo, go back (the same way), unsay, give back (the same gift: not another in return)' "
(WJ:412). Also dan-. Cf. ndangwetha, ndand.
ndand "Nando", interpreted "one who goes back on his word or decision" (the Nandor
were so called because they left the march from Cuivinen) (WJ:412)
ndangwetha "answer" (noun, may be Old Sindarin), sc. a stem gweth- "report, give
account of" with the prefix ndan-, here simply meaning *"back" (PM:395)
ndere "bridegroom" (DER, NR)
ndro "bridegroom" (NDER)
ndeuna "second" (NDEW)
ndeuro "follower, successor" (NDEW)

ndse "bride" (NDIS-S/S; ndis under I)

ndor (PQ) "the hard, dry land as opposed to water or bog" (WJ:413). In the Etymologies
defined as "land, dwelling-place, region where certain people live" (NDOR); this may be the
meaning that developed later. Confused with nr.
ndro "(a particular) land or region" (WJ:413)
ndulla "dark, dusky, obscure" (NDUL)
ndulna (and ndulla) "secret" (DUL, VT45:11)
ndn "sunset" (ND)
nein "tear" (NEI)
neiniel- "tearful" (NEI)
neiti- "moist, dewy" (NEI)
nenle ("nen-le") "brook" (NEN)
newi "nose" (NE-WI is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem"; the stem may be NE, not given separately)
nere, nr (probably PQ and CE, respectively) "a male person, a man" (WJ:393)
netere (CE), cardinal "nine" (VT42:27)
nth "youth" (NETH)
nethr ("neth-r") "young" (NETH)
gol-, golo- the stem of the four following words (PM:360)
gl "Science/Philosophy" (PM:360)
ngolda (read *golda) "wise" (GOL)
golod "Noldo" (WJ:364, 380; ngolod, MR:350)
ngolwina (read *golwina) "wise, learned in deep arts" (GOL)
guruk- see rukgwalarauk "balrog, demon" (RUK)
nbe "front, face" (NIB)

nidw "bolster, cushion" (NID)

nindi "fragile, thin" (NIN-DI is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be
a complete word and not just a "stem"; the stem may be NIN, not given separately)
ninkwi "white" (NIK-W)
njadr "rat" (NYAD)
Ninkwitil(de) Tra a name of Taniquetil, presumably not belonging to the oldest stage (the
accent seems to mark vowel-length rather than stress) (NIK-W)
le "odour" (OL)
nr "family, tribe or group having a common ancestry, the land or region in which they
dwelt" (WJ:413) Confused with ndr.
not- "count" (W)
Nw Crdan's original name, difficult to interpret (PM:392; the PM Index gives Nw,
but this would seem to be an error)
nukotta, nukotto "a stunded or ill-shapen thing (or person)" (the origin of Sindarin nogoth
"dwarf") (WJ:413)
nukt- "stunt, prevent from coming to completion, stop short, not allow to continue"
(WJ:413)
num-n "going down", sunset, West (Letters:303)
nr "deep" (N)
nut- "tie" (W)
oij "everlasting" (OY)
oio "ever" (Letters:278, said to be "Primitive Elvish")
okta "strife" (KOT > KOTH); cf. also the entry OKT (> Quenya ohta "war"), that seems
to be a complete word in itself and not just a "stem". The primitive word was evidently okt.
Olo(s)-fantur > "Noldorin"/Sindarin Olfannor and Quenya Olofantur, names of the Vala
Lrien (LOS; because of the f in fantur, a sound not occurring in the primitive language, this
must be taken as archaic Quenya.)
olsa- "to dream" (LOS)
onr "parent" (ONO)

ontro "begetter, parent" (evidently masc.) (ONO)

orku "goblin" (Orc) (ROK)
orn "uprising, tall" (UT:266)
orn "tree" (originally applied to straighter and more slender trees such as birches or
rowans; contrast galad) (UT:266, Letters:426, SD:302; the latter source gives pl. ornei.)
Orm "Orome" (ORM; this form is evidently obsoleted by Arm [q.v.] in a later work)
or-tur- "master, conquer" (TUR, VT46:20)
ost (CE) "fortress, stronghold" (made or strengthened by art) (WJ:414 - MR:350 gives
osto without the long final vowel, perhaps the compound form since the second element in
Quenya Mandos is there discussed: primitive *mband-osto, *mbandosto???)
otsja (CE), ordinal "seventh" (VT42:25)
palantr/palantra "Palantr" (Letters:427)
pan "plank, fixed board, especially in a floor" (PAN)
pant "open" (PAT)
parm "book" (PAR)
pathm "level space, sward" (PATH)
pathn "smooth" (PATH)
patn "wide" (PAT)
peltakse "pivot" (PEL)
pend "sloping" (WJ:375)
pee "lip", dual pe (VT39:11 cf. 9)
Phaj-anro "radiant sun" (= masc. name Fanor, later reinterpreted as "Spirit of Fire")
(PHAY)
phaja "spirit" (PM:352, MR:349)
pheren "beech" (BERTH)
Phinderauto (masc. name, > Sindarin Finrod) (PHIN)
phind "a tress" (PM:362)

phini (CE) "a single hair" (PM:362)

phoroti "right" or "north" (PHOR)
poik "clean, pure" (POY)
pori "flour, meal" (POR)
pot "animal's foot" (POT is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
rba "wild, untamed" (RAB)
ragn "crooked" (RAG)
rakm "fathom" (RAK)
rm "wing" (RAM)
rmal "pinion, great wing (of eagle)" (RAM)
ramb "wall" (RAMB is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
ramja- "fly, sail; wander" (RAM)
ramna "wing (horn), extended point at side, etc." (RAM)
Ran "Moon" (RAN)
rand "cycle, age" (100 Valian Years) (RAD)
ranku "arm" (RAK)
rat "path, track" (RAT)
ratt/ratta "course, river-bed" (RAT)
ru "lion" (RAW)
rauk- see ruk- and cf. rauk, rauku.
rauk or rauku (CE form of a word said to be present already in PQ) a word applied to "the
larger and more terrible of the enemy shapes" known to the first Elves (WJ:390)
raut "metal" (changed from "copper"). (RAUT is the head of an entry in the
Etymologies, but it seems to be a complete word and not just a "stem")
redd " 'sown', sown field, acre" (marked with a query) (RED)

rn (CE) "remembrance" (PM:372)

rg-anna ("crown-gift" > "Noldorin" fem. name Rhian, but Ran in Tolkien's later Sindarin)
(RIG; cf. the published Silmarillion)
rg (CE) "wreath, garland" (PM:347)
rg "crown" (RIG)
rimb "frequent, numerous" (RIM)
rimb "crowd, host" (RIM)
ringi "cold" (RINGI is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
rinki "flourish, quick shake" (RIK(H) )
risse- "a ravine" (RIS)
rista- "cut" (RIS)
-ro agental ending, added to mataina (suffixed stem-vowel). Also -r added to stem, with
or without n-infixion, and -rdo > (CE?) -rd. (WJ:371).
rda (> rdh) "cave" (ROD)
rokk "horse" (Letters:282, 382)
rond (CE) "a vaulted or arched roof, as seen from below (and usually not visible from
outside)", "a (large) hall or chamber so roofed" (WJ:414); "cavern" (Letters:282)
ronj " 'chaser', hound of chase" (ROY1)
rono "arch over, roof in" (WJ:414)
ross "dew, spray" (of fall or fountain) (Letters:282)
rot- (also s-rot) "delve underground, excavate, tunnel" (PM:365); cf. groto (q.v.) and CE
rot (also grot) "excavation, underground dwelling" (WJ:414)
ruk- one of the "ancient forms" of the stem RUKU, that yielded the word Orch (Orc) in
Sindarin. Other forms include rauk-, uruk-, urk(u), runk-, rukut/s; also the "strengthened stem"
gruk- and the "elaborated" guruk-, guruk (the latter by combination with a distinct stem NGUR
"horror", WJ:415). None of these derivatives are clearly glossed, though urku (or uruku) is said
to have yielded Quenya urko, vague in meaning in the lore of the Blessed Realm ("bogey"), but

later recognized as a cognate of Sindarin Orch. The adjective urk is said to mean "horrible"
(WJ:389-90).
rukut, rukus see rukrund "rough piece of wood" (RUD)
runk- see ruk- (WJ:390)
rusk "brown" (RUSK is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
russ (CE) ?"red" (PM:366, cf. 353)
sagm "poison" (SAG)
sagr "bitter" (SAG)
sarn "of stone" (STAR)
-se (evidently a pronominal ending meaning "she") (S)
s/se, also s/si "she" (S)
silim "silver, shining white" (adj.) (SIL)
silimarille "Silmaril" (RIL - for historical reasons, this cannot be a PQ word, or hardly
even CE; it may be archaic Quenya)
silim "light of Silpion", also a poetic word for "silver" (SIL)
sjadta ("syad-ta") "axe-stroke" (SYAD)
sjad (meaning unclear; but since this is the origin of Sindarin hdh, and Sindarin
hadhafang is equated with Quenya sangahyando "throng-cleaver", hdh < sjad should mean
"cleaver") (SYAD)
sjadn " 'cleaver', sword" (SYAD)
sjads > sjats "cleft, gash" (SYAD)
sjalm "shell, conch, horn of Ulmo" (SYAL)
sjand " 'cleaver', sword" (SYAD)
sjats - see sjads
sjatsela/sjatsla "broadsword-blade", "axe-blade" (SYAD)

skaln "veiled, hidden, shadowed, shady" (SKAL1)

skarn "wounded" (SKAR)
skarw "wound" (SKAR)
skelm "skin, fell" (SKEL)
skeln "naked" (SKEL)
skelta- "strip" (SKEL)
skjapat- "shore" (SKYAP)
slaiw "sickly, sick, ill" (SLIW)
slign "spider, spider's web, cobweb" (SLIG)
slind > Quenya linda "fair", blended with primitive slindi "fine, delicate" (that would
regularly have become Quenya *linde if the words had not been confused) (LIND)
slindi "fine, delicate" (SLIN)
slig "spider, spider's web, cobweb" (SLIG, VT46:14)
slinj "lean, thin, meagre" (SLIN)
slw "sickness" (SLIW)
sloga, word used for streams of a kind that were variable and liable to overflow their banks
at seasons and cause floods when swollen by rains or melting snow (VT42:9)
smald "gold" (as metal) (SMAL)
smalin "yellow" (SMAL)
smalta "gold" (LWAR/GLWAR cf. SMAL)
smalu "pollen, yellow powder" (SMAL)
smalw "fallow, pale" (SMAL)
-so (evidently a pronominal ending meaning "he") (S)
s/so "he" (also s/su) (S)
solos "surf" (SOL)
spna "cloud" (SPAN, VT46:15)

spang "beard" (SPNAG)

Spanturo "lord of cloud" > Quenya Fantur, surname of Mandos (SPAN)
spind "tress, braid of hair" (SPIN; this reconstruction of the original form of Quenya
find is apparently obsoleted by phind in PM:362)
spin "larch" (SPIN)
sraw "body" (if = Quenya hroa, the word it yielded) (MR:350). Cf. mi-srawanwe.
srw "flesh" (if = Quenya hrv, the word it yielded) (MR:350)
srot- ("s-rot-") "delve underground, excavate, tunnel"; also rot- (PM:365); cf. also grotostabn > stamb "room, chamber" (STAB)
stabn, stabr "carpenter, wright, builder" (STAB)
stakn "cleft, split" (also stank) (STAK)
stalga "stalwart, steady, firm" (STLAG)
stalr "steep, falling" (STAL). According to VT46:16, this is "probably" a misreading for
stalr in Tolkien's manuscript.
stalgond "hero, dauntless man" (STLAG)
stama- "bar, exclude" (UT:282)
stamb < stabn "room, chamber" (STAB)
stang > Quenya sanga "crowd, throng, press" and Sindarin thang "compulsion, duress,
need" (STAG)
stangasjand "throng-cleaver" (sword-name) (SYAD)
stank "cleft, split" (also stakn) (STAK)
starna "stiff, hard" (STARAN)
stint "short" (STINT is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
s/su "he"; also s/so (S)
suglu "goblet" (SUG; see SUK)
sukm "drinking-vessel" (SUK)

swanda "sponge, fungus" (SWAD)

swesta- "to puff" (SWES)
soto "shelter, protect, defend" (WJ:414)
ta3na (meaning unclear, probably "high, lofty, noble") (T/TA3)
tad "thither" (Evidently CE for PQ *tada, including the allative ending -da: hence "to that")
(TA)
taika (may be Old Sindarin) "boundary, limit, boundary line" (from tayak, extension of a
stem TAYA "mark, line, limit") (WJ:309)
taik "steep, tall, deep" (VT46:17)
takm "thing for fixing" (> Quenya tangwa "hasp, clasp", Sindarin taew "holder, socket,
hasp, clasp, staple") (TAK)
taks "nail" (TAK)
tal-runja "sole of foot" (TALAM, RUN, VT46:12)
tamb- "to knock" (TAM, VT46:17)
tamr "woodpecker" (etymologically "knocker") (TAM)
tn-nig element that may be the origin of tani- in Taniqetil (T/TA3)
tankla "pin, brooch" (TAK)
tan "craftsman, smith" (TAN)
tr "lofty" (T/TA3, (TWAR) )
tra-khil *"high-man" = Nmenrean (KHIL)
targ "tough, stiff" (TRAG)
tr "queen" (wife of a tro) (T/TA3)
tro "king" (T/TA3)
tathar, tathar "willow-tree" (TATHAR)
tathr "willow-tree" (TATHAR)
taur "masterful, mighty" (TUR, (TWAR, T/TA3) )

taur "great wood, forest" (TWAR)

tawar "wood" (material) (TWAR)
tawar/taware "dryad, spirit of woods" (evidently fem.) (TWAR, see VT46:17
concerning the stress)
tawar/tawaro "dryad, spirit of woods" (evidently masc.) (TWAR, see VT46:17
concerning the stress)
[te3 "path, course, line, direction, way" (TE3)]
tekla "pen" (TEK)
tekm, tekma "letter, symbol" (TEK, VT46:17-18; apparently changed by Tolkien to the
forms below)
tekm, tekme "letter, symbol" (TEK, VT46:17-18)
teles "rear" (TELES)
telm/telma "hood, covering", also telm/telme (TEL/TELU)
telu, tel-u "roof in, put the crown on a building" (WJ:411)
te "line, row" (TE)
[tem "line, row"? (form deleted by Tolkien) (VT46:18)]
ter "straight, right" (TE, TE3, VT46:18)
te-w "sign, token" (VT39:17). Cf. tenwe (WJ:394) (read tewe? The word is derived
from a stem TE and yielded Quenya tengw) "indication, sign, token"
tern, tern "slender" (TER/TERES)
terw "piercing, keen" (TER/TERES, see VT46:18 concerning the stress)
thand "shield" (apparently noun) (UT:282)
thara- "tall (or long) and slender" (WJ:412)
thaus "foul, evil-smelling, putrid" (THUS)
thaur "detestable" (Letters:380; said to be derived from a root THAW. The th of thaur is
spelt with a single (Greek) letter in the source.)

thaurond- "Sauron, *Detestable One"; said to be derived from thaur, q.v. (Letters:380; the
th of thaur and thaurond- is spelt with a single (Greek) letter in the source.)
thr "look, face, expression" (TH)
thindi "pallid, grey, wan" (THIN), "grey, pale or silvery grey" (WJ:384)
tindmiselde "daughter of twilight", a kenning of the nightingale; = Sindarin Tinviel.
(TIN, SEL-D)
tink "metal" (TINK is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
tinm "spark, glint" (TIN; according to VT46:19, the first gloss is properly "spark" rather
than "sparkle")
tiuk "thick, fat" (TIW)
tiuk "thigh" (TIW)
tjalagand, tjalagando "harp-player" (TYAL, VT46:20), also tjalagando with
shortening of the final vowel of the final element of a compound (GAN/GNAD)
tjali- "to play" (TYAL; according to VT46:20, the i is marked with a diacriticial sign
suggesting that it is functioning as a semi-vowel, so we may also read *tjalj)
tjulm "mast" (TYUL; this reconstruction may be obsoleted by kjulum in SD:419)
tjuluss "poplar-tree" (TYUL)
tollo "island" (TOL2)
tp- "cover, roof" (TOP)
tor, toron- "brother" (THEL/THELES)
tubn "deep" (TUB)
tghor, t-gor, Tgore "Strength-vigour", masc. name > Sindarin Tuor (TUG, GOR)
tgu "muscle, sinew, vigour, physical strength" (TUG)
tuil > Quenya tuile "spring-time", also used = "dayspring, early morn" (TUY)
tuilelind "swallow", etymologically "spring-singer" (TUY)
tuim "a sprout, bud" (TUY)

Tulkatho (name of a Vala; = Quenya Tulkas) (TULUK)

tulku "support, prop" (TULUK)
tult- "make come" (TUL, VT46:20)
tulukm "support, prop" (noun) (TULUK)
tumbu "deep valley", under or among hills (TUB)
tumpu "hump" (TUMPU is the head of an entry in the Etymologies, but it seems to be a
complete word and not just a "stem")
Tn/Tna name of an Elf-city in Valinor (TUN)
tund "tall" (TUN)
tundu "hill, mound" (TUN)
tung "taut, tight" (of strings:) "resonant" (TUG)
tups "thatch" (TUP)
tr "mastery, victory" (TUR)
tr, also turo, -tur? "master, victor, lord" (TUR; turo, T, TA3)
turum, turumb "shield" (TURM, see VT46:20 concerning the stress in the former
word)
tuss "bush" (TUS; tussa, R-NI)
- dual element, used of natural pairs (Letters:427); see bes, las, pe
ban "monster" (BAN)
ubr "abundant" (UB)
ugu "not-, un-, in-" (UGU/UMU)
Ui-nend "Uinen" (NEN)
ulda "torrent, mountain-stream" (ULU)
ulgund "monster, deformed and hideous creature" (LUG)
ulj "it is raining" (ULU)
Ulum name of the Vala of all waters > Quenya Ulmo (ULU)

ugw "gloom" (UG)

urk "horrible" (WJ:390)
urk, urk(u), uruku ?"Orc" (WJ:390); cf. rukuruk ?"Orc" (WJ:390); cf. rukusukw, uskw ("usuk-w, usk-w") > Quenya usqe, Sindarin osp "reek", Ilk usc "smoke"
(USUK)
Utubnu name of Melko[r]'s vaults in the North > Quenya Utumno (TUB). In MR:69, the
primitive form of the name is cited as Utupnu instead.
wa ("Eld" = CE) "together" (W); wa-nr "of one kin" > Quenya onro "brother", Old
Sindarin wanro/Sindarin gwanur "kinsman" (TOR)
w- a verbal stem (not glossed: ?"go away"), perfect awwii; connected with au, aw;
possibly also used in composition with verbal stems (WJ:361). w-delo (WJ:364) = awa-del
?w-del (CE) *"Away-goer", a name made in Beleriand for those who finally departed
from Middle-earth. Also awa-delo, aw-delo. (WJ:360, 363)
w^de "bond, compact, oath" (WED; must be CE because of the vowel ; PQ *wd; cf.
nd^r).
wa3r "soiled, dirty" (WA3)
wahs "stain" (WA3)
waht- "to soil, stain" (WA3)
waht "a stain" (WA3)
wj "envelope", especially of the Outer Sea or Air enfolding the world within the
Ilurambar or world-walls (WAY, [GEY]; see VT45:15 concerning the stress)
wanj "Vanya-elf", Quenya pl. Vanyar, the first clan of the Eldar (WJ:380). But in the
Etymologies, Quenya vanya is said to come from banj (BAN), and in his last years Tolkien
apparently returned to this idea: in PM:402, it is said that "of old" the name Vanyar was Banyai
(evidently ancient Quenya for primitive *banji).
wann "departed, dead" (WAN)
wanw "death" (act of dying, not death as a state or abstract) (WAN)
wath "shade" (WA3; but wath = stem WATH)

-w abstract suffix (WEG)

we3 "manhood, vigour" (WEG; given this root, this word must be proto-Quenya for
earlier *weg)
[wed-t] "swear" (to do something) (WED)
wed "bond" (WED)
weg "man", in compounds -wego with short final vowel (WEG)
wegt ("weg-t") (Unglossed; Christopher Tolkien therefore thinks the entry WEG "was
left unfinished", but this is rather the primitive form of the element -waith, -weith in Sindarin
Forodweith, Forodwaith "Northmen" mentioned just before.) (WEG)
-wego, -weg (compound form) "man", frequent element in masculine names (WEG)
wei (archaic element meaning "wind, weave") (WEY)
weir "Weaver", the archaic form that yielded Quenya Vair, name of a Vali (stem WEY
"weave", LR:398). Note, however, that Tolkien in a later source derives Vair from a stem WIR
and states that it is A-infixed to express "Ever-weaving"; this would point to a primitive form
*Wair (not explicitly mentioned). (VT39:10)
wen- "maiden" (WEN/WENED)
wilm "air, lower air" (distinct from the 'upper' air of the stars, or the 'outer'). Changed by
Tolkien from wilw. (WIL)
[windi "blue-grey, pale blue or grey" (WIN/WIND)]
windi "pale blue" (It is uncertain whether Tolkien rejected this word or not.)
(WIN/WIND; according to VT46:21 the final i is marked with a diacritical sign indicating that it
functions as a semi-vowel, so we may also read *windj)
wing "foam, crest of wave, crest" (WIG)
[winj "evening" (WIN/WIND)]
[winta- "fade" (WIN/WIND; see VT46:21 concerning the stress)]
w, prefix wo- "together", a dual adverb "together", referring to the junction of two things,
or groups, in a pair or whole. (WJ:361) The Etymologies likewise has w, wo "together"
(evidently PQ, since it yielded CE wa), but nothing is there said about this being exclusively
dual. (W)

Wolw (CE) hypothetical early form of Olw; Tolkien points out that this should rather
have yielded Volw in Telerin, so this reconstruction may be doubtful (PM:357)
(Y - see J)