Gili's Crash Quenya Course

[Giliathriel Alquasilme]

Gili’s Crash Quenya Course

I’ll start off with nouns, since it’s main function is pretty easy to understand.

A Noun denotes a person, place, thing or idea. It also is a subject, direct object, indirect object, predicate nominative, an appositive, and object of the preposition, or an object complement. (for additional explanation into these terms, PM Giliathriel)

I’ll start off with a brief explanation into articles ‘the’ and ‘a, an’.
1. The Quenya article for ‘the’ is ‘i’. Example- i elen, ‘the star’.
2. There is no Quenya equivalent for ’a’ or ’an’. It is simply left out, and understood.
3. Before a race, an article is not used.

Next, here’s how to form the plural.
1. For nouns ending in A, O, I, IË, or U, you simply add -r.
2. For nouns ending in a consonant or ë, you add -i onto the consonant, (e.g. Eleni, stars, from Elen. Or you change ë into i.

There is a second form of the plural, called the dual. It denotes a pair of something, or two that make a logical or natural pair, and not just two things that happen to be together at the moment.
1. b][-t[/b] Is the normal ending, and is added pretty much only if the noun does not contain a t or a d.
2. -u is one of the endings, when it is added, it takes the place of the vowel at the end. (e.g. Alda, ‘tree’ and it’s dual, Aldu, a pair of trees, like Telperion and Laurelin, the two trees of Valinor. It is usually added in words that contain a t or a d, or end in a consonant.

Next, we come to suffixes, or Cases. Many function where in English we would use a preposition. The traditionally go on the direct object.

The Nominative Case-[/i] Is the basic form of the noun. You already know how to form it’s normal stuff, from above.

The Genitive Case[/i] Is a case that shows ownership, or origin, and is best translated by an English ‘of’ construction. (e.g. Eleno, of a star).
It’s construction is as follows:
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-o -on -lion -to
We form this by simply adding these onto the end of the noun. For -o and -on, you drop the last vowel if there is one.

The Possessive Case-[/i] Expresses origin and ownership, and can correspond to both the English ending -’s, and the of construction.
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-va(wa after a consonant) -iva -líva -twa

The Dative Case -[/i] This is the first case that I’m introducing that uses an ending instead of a preposition. This case means to, or for. We see it in Namarie, in the word nin, for me.
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-n -in -lin -nt

The Allative Case-[/i] basically means to, towards, into. A good example of it’s use is in Aragorn’s Coronation- Endorenna, to Middle Earth.
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-nna -nnar -linnar(r) -nta

The Ablative Case-[/i] Shows from, out of. Also shown in Aragorn’s Coronation- Eärello, out of the sea.
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-llo -llon or -llor -lillo(n) -lto
The Locative Case-[/i] means on or in.
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-ssë -ssen -lisse(n) -tsë

The Instrumental Case-[/b shows the tool with which you do something, the instrument, hence the name. (It may be useful to use a ‘in’ or ‘by’ translation when translating)
Singular Plural Partitive Plural Dual
-nen -inen -línen -nten

Note on Forming: (!!!) When you have a noun ending in a consonant, you add an e before the ending that begins with a consonant.

Showing Possession
1. There are five endings- nya (my) -lya (your) -rya (his, her, ?it’s) -lva (our inclusive) and -lma (our exclusive) that show possession (if the meanings of inclusive and exclusive are confusing: a good way of thinking of it is two groups of people meeting for the first time- inclusive would be both of them, exclusive would be only one). THEY GO BEFORE THE CASE ENDING!!!!!!!![/i]

[Caewýn Alquasilme]

well done Gili, this is fantastic work right here!

[King Elessar]

Ah, some excellent work you have produced, what a great Quenyan master! 20 post tribute! And another 5 for reminding me of my latin classes...

[Fiwen Brandybuck]

This is really great. I mean, I really love the sounds of the Elvish tongues, but I didn't realise there was so much to know. Keep the information coming: this is brilliant.

[Giliathriel Alquasilme]

*blushes* I wasn't expecting tribute..... I'll have the verbs up soon! Be sure to post any questions!

[Giliathriel Alquasilme]

Next, we have verbs, the second most complex part of Quenya.
A verb denotes action, but can also be linking, like the flower smells nice, or the cat is brown. A verb has tense, like past, present, and future. There are also verbals, which look like verbs, but aren’t, like a gerund, which functions as a noun (e.g. I like singing), participles, which function as modifiers (e.g. The running cat plays with me, where running is the participle modifying cat), and infinitives, which are verbs preceded by ‘to’ in English (I like to play).

Background on the Quenya verb- there are three variations of verbs; The verbs that end in a consonant (basic verbs), the verbs that end in an a (a-stem verbs), and the verbs that end in a u (u-stem verbs). A-stem verbs are the most common, while u-stem verbs are the least common.
Again, PM or e-mail me with any questions.

The PRESENT TENSE[/i] is the easiest tense to understand. In English, it would be something like ‘is doing’.
To make a basic verb present, you add an a and lengthen the first vowel. E.g. map-, to eat, would have a present in mápa, is eating. Take notice of the a becoming á. This is called lengthening the vowel. One should notice that you can NEVER (at least in this case) have a lengthened vowel before a consonant cluster. (see lesson on pronunciation).
To make an a-stem verb present, you simply lengthen the vowel, and add ë before the final a. Lala- to laugh or deny, becomes lálëa, is laughing.
To make a u-stem present, you lengthen the vowel if possible, and add an a. (e.g. palu- to open wide, extend, spread, expand, becomes pálua. An example of a verb that does not lengthen the vowel is hlapu- blow, fly or stream in the wind, becomes simply hlapua.

The FUTURE TENSE[/i] denotes what will happen. In English, it would look like, will do.
To make a basic verb future, you add the ending -uva. A verb like car-, to do, make, or build, would look like caruva. The initial vowel is NOT lengthened.
To make an a-stem verb future, you simply drop to a and add -uva. E.g. Linda- to sing, becomes linduva.
The future tense of u-stem verbs involves dropping the final -u, adding uva, and lengthening the u in -uva. Example- palu becomes palúva.

The PAST TENSE[/i] simply denotes something that happened in the past. English expresses this many ways, so just try to follow me.
The past tense of the basic verbs is rather complicated. The basic ending is -në, but if the final consonant is NOT r, m, or n, the you put the n before the final consonant. E.g. tec-, to write, becomes tencë, wrote. Also, if the verb ends in a p, like the above map-, to eat, then you add the ë, but instead of an n, you put an m before the final consonant. Therefore, we have mampë, ate.
For an a-stem verb, you simply add -në. However, for verbs ending in -ya that are intransitive (PM Giliathriel if you are confused), you drop the -ya, and add -në.
For the past tense of a u-stem verb, simply add -në.

The PERFECT TENSE[/i] is what in English we would make a construction resembling blank has done something. One of our primary examples comes from Aragorn’s Coronation oath, utúlien, I have come.
To form the perfect of a basic verb, you augment the stem vowel (place it at the front of the word, thus tul, to come, has perfect utúliënext you lengthen the stem vowel if possible, and add the ending -ië.
To form the perfect of an a-stem verb, first augment the stem vowel, and lengthen the original stem vowel, if possible. Then drop the a, and add the ending -ië. Lanta, to sing, becomes alántië, has fallen.
Note: To form the perfect of a verb beginning in a vowel, augment the first syllable, and lengthen the stem vowel if possible. E.g. ora-, to urge, becomes orórië.
An additional note: For verbs with TWO vowels as it’s stem vowel (a diphthong) then you do the last vowel as your augment, and don’t lengthen. Add -ië as normal.
To form the perfect of a u-stem verb, augment the stem vowel, drop the u, add -ië, and lengthen the stem vowel if possible. E.g. palu-, to open wide, becomes apálië.

The AORIST TENSE[/i] is based off an old greek tense that is used to express general truths with no regard to the time it took place. It can be considered ongoing, as well, but general, timeless truths is the definition I would use.
To form the aorist of a basic verb, you add an ë when the ending is in the final position. When ë is final, then you change ë to i. E.g. hirë vs. hirinyë.
To form the aorist of an a-stem verb, then you leave it alone, changing a to i if necessary.
To form the aorist of a u-stem verb, simply add an i to then end. E.g. hlapu becomes hlapui.

PARTICIPLES[/i]
There are two forms of a Quenya participle- active, which functions as a present participle (ends in -ing in English) and the passive, which functions as a past participle (e.g. hidden, fallen, etc… [endings are not limited to en in english, since we also have ones like limited and such]).
To form an active participle of a basic verb, add the ending -la, put an a before the la if necessary, and lengthen the stem vowel, if possible.
To form an active participle of an a or u-stem verb, add the ending -la, and lengthen the stem vowel, if possible.

To form the passive participle of a basic verb that ends in c or t, then add ina. All other basic verbs take na.
To form the passive participle of an a-stem verb in -ta or -ya, add ina. You can add either na or ina.
To form the passive participle of a u-stem, simply add na.

The Infinitive[/i]
To form the infinitive of a basic verb, add an ë. E.g. cen, see, becomes cenë, to see.
To form the infinitive of an a-stem verb, leave it alone.
To form the infinitive of a u-stem verb, change the final u to o. E.g. palu becomes palo.

The Gerund[/i]
To form the gerund of a basic verb, add ië.
To form the gerund of an a-stem verb, drop the a and add ië.
To form the gerund of a u-stem verb, drop the u and add ië.

The Negative Verb[/i]
1. umë- singular ‘is not’ aorist
2. umir plural ‘are not’ aorist
3. úva singular ‘will not’<br>4. úvar plural ‘will not’<br>5. úmë singular ‘was not’<br>6. úmer plural ‘was not’<br>7. úma singular ‘is not’ present
NOTE: To negate a verb, use the infinitive after the negative verb.

Pronominal Endings[/i]
These are suffixes added to the end of the inflected verb, to express the subject.
I- n, or a longer more poetic variant (I use this most often) nyë
You- l, or a longer variant lyë
He/She- ryë
It- s
We exclusive- lmë
We inclusive- lvë
We dual- mmë
They- ntë
Them- t

[Caewýn Alquasilme]

oh wowsies, fantastic work my dear, and plenty for me to learn!

[Queen Arwen]

I love the way the words sound, both nouns and verbs. Doing this this way, makes it seem so much less confusing, more dramatic and lots fo read and learn. Nice job and a nice bump to the top shall we.