The infinitive, negative verb, and activeparticiples
The infinitive in existinglanguages
This is the form in which verbsare listed:
mat is ‘
to eat.’ So in a sentence like ‘The man lovedto love bread’ two different tenses of love would be used- the past first, thenthe infinitive. ‘i nér mellë melë massa.’ This allows several verbs to exist inthe same sentence easily, where as in German, even with infinitives, it simplycontinues piling verbs to the end of a sentence. ‘Der Mann habe bröt geliebenlieben.’ The Elvish infinitive uses the same method as English.
How to form it in Quenya· Identical to the stem, but add an ‘ë’ to the end.
· A-stem vowels stay how they are.
· Never receives a plural ending
Examples:
· I Elda polë
cenë i Nauco "the Elf can
seethe Dwarf"
· I Naucor merner
matë "the Dwarves wanted
toeat"
· I seldo pollë
hlarë ilya quetta "the boycould
hear every word"
· Polilyë
carë ilqua "you can
doeverything"
· I nissi meruvar
tulë "the women will want
tocome"
· I vendi merner
linda "the maidens wanted
tosing"
· I norsa polë
orta i alta ondo "the giantcan
lift the big rock"
· Merin
cenda i parma "I want
to readthe book"
The Negative Verb The verb‘to be’ is notoriously odd in all languages. Tolkien succeeded in doing thesame by creating a negative verb ‘umë’ – ‘to not be’ or ‘to not do.’
umin (aorist 1st person) – I am not/do not
úmë (past tense) - was not/ did not
umir (plural aorist) - are not/ did not
úmer (plural past) – were not/ did not
úva (future) – will not be / will not do
úma (present tense) is not/does not
úvar (future plural) –will not be/will not do
umar (present plural) are not /does not
Using the negative verb with infinitives:
I Elda úmëmerë cenë i Nauco. "The Elf did not want to see the Dwarf."
I Nauco úvamerë cenda i parma. "The Dwarf will not want to read the book."
Active Participles:
A participle is when a verb takesthe form of an adjective. An activeparticiple is also called a present participle. Usually English activeparticiples end in –ing. For example, a person who loves Elves might be describedas a person loving Elves.
Watch the verb ‘to kill’:
· I will kill you. (verb)
· The killing must stop. (noun)
· It was a killing experience. (adjective) ***!!
How to form it in Quenya:
· Add –la to the end of the verb stem
· Lengthen the stem vowel if a consonant cluster doesn’tfollow
· These do not agree in number (don’t change when plural)
--The possible aorist participle.
Rather thanítala, Tolkien listen a participle form of ‘glittering’ as ítila, from theaorist of ‘it,’ which is ‘iti-’. This may be considered an aorist participle,so that there are different forms for "doing" (habitually ormomentarily) and "doing" (continuously): perhaps something like
carilaand
cárala, respectively (from the verb
car- "to do").This is speculation from the author of
ardalambion.com.
So what is the active participle of the verb ‘lala’- ‘tolaugh’? --- lálala!
VOCABULARY
tolto "eight"
pol- "to be (physically) able to", normallytranslated "can"
um- negative verb "not to do" or "notto be", past tense
úmë, future tense
úva
mer- "to wish, want"
hlar- "to hear"(related to Sindarin
lhaw as in
Amon Lhaw, the Hill of Hearingmentioned in LotR)
verya- "to dare" (from the same root as the Sindarin name
Beren, meaning bold ordaring one)
lelya- "to go, proceed, travel", past tense
lendë, perfect [
e]
lendië
pusta- "to stop"
ruhta- "to terrify, to scare" (ultimately related to
Urco or
Orco, theQuenya words for "bogey, Orc")
coa "house" (buildingonly, not "house" = "family")
mir preposition "into"
ter preposition "through" (a longer variant
terë also exists, but I haveused
ter in the exercises below)
EXERCISESTranslate into English:
A. Sílala Isil ortëaor Ambar.
B. I cápala Nauco lantanë ter i talan.
C. Polin hlarë lindala vendë.
D. Minë nér túrala minë macil úva ruhta i toltotaurë ohtari.
E. Mól mápala taura nér umë saila.
F. I tolto rávi caitala nu i aldar ortaner, an irávi merner matë i neri.
G. Rá umë polë pusta matë hrávë.
H. I ruhtala ohtar pustanë tirë i lië, an i ohtarúmë saila.
Translate into Quenya:
I. The man pursuing the Dwarf is a warrior.
J. The king wanted to go.
K. The maiden did not dare to see the queen.
L. The laughing women went into the house.
M. The eight traveling Dwarves can find manytreasures.
N. You did not praise the Elf, you do not praise theMan [
Atan], and you will not praise the Dwarf.
O. I want to travel through the world and free allpeoples.
P. A daring man went through the gate and into themountain.