Chapter 15 - Infinitive, Negative Verb, Active Participles
Submitted July 12, 2004 Updated November 16, 2004 Status Incomplete | These are short lessons based off the Quenya Elvish (LotR) course on Ardalambion.com. Rather than 40 pages a chapter, I got them down to 4. I don't have all lessons like this yet. All material belongs to Tolkien and was compiled by that site.
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Chapter 15 - Infinitive, Negative Verb, Active Participles
Chapter 15 - Infinitive, Negative Verb, Active Participles
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 tenselendë, 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.
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 tenselendë, 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.
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