The ablative suffix -llo indicates motion away from the declined noun, and is usually glossed “(away) from”. Thus Ambarello “from the World” (MS, Merin Sentence), Melcorello “away from Melkor” (VT49/24), Rómello “from the East” (LotR/377). The ablative suffix can also be used temporally, of motion through time away from a specific moment (past or present):
- et sillumello ter yénion yéni tenn’ ambarmetta “*from this hour, through years of years until the ending of the world” (VT44/33).
Here sillumello = sin-lúme-llo “this-hour-from”. The ablative can be used abstractly, and to specify a variety of departing motions, especially in combination with various prepositions:
- mal áme etelehta ulcullo: násie “but deliver us from evil: Amen” (VT43/12).
- et Eärello Endorenna utúlien “out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come” (LotR/967).
It is often used in combination with the allative -nna to describe motion from A to B, as in the previous example and also [ᴹQ.] telmello talmanna “from hood to base, crown to foot, top to bottom” (Ety/TEL; EtyAC/TEL).
Forming the ablative: With vocalic nouns, the ablative suffix -llo is simply added to the noun. With consonantal nouns ending in -l, the suffix is almost always assimilated to the end of the noun as a “short ablative”, so that from menel you get menello “*from heaven” (VT43/13). But with other consonants a “joining vowel” -e- is usually inserted between the noun stem and the suffix: Ambarello “to the World” (MS, Merin Sentence). See the joining-vowel discussion in the entry on the adverbial cases for further details.
According to Plotz, the ablative plural adds the suffix -llon to vocalic noun stems: ciryallon, lassellor (Plotz). There are examples elsewhere with the suffix was -llor instead: raxellor “*from dangers” (VT44/9). This -llon/-llor variation dates all the way back to the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/47). Probably either form is acceptable (at least for the purposes of Neo-Quenya).
Consonantal ablative plurals use a joining vowel of -i- rather than -e-: elenillor “from the stars” (MC/222). The suffix -llo(n) is added to partitive plural forms: ciryalillo(n) (Plotz). Since the partitive plural suffix already marks the plural, the final plural marker -n is redundant and therefore optional: any of ciryalillo, ciryalillon or ciryalillor are acceptable.
In the case of t-dual nouns, the ancient inflection was -t + lo which (after metathesis) became -lto: ciryalto “from the pair of ships” (Plotz). We don’t have any u-dual ablative examples, but presumably the -llo suffix is added directly to the dual form: aldullo “from the two trees”.
To summarize:
- For vocalic nouns (including e-nouns), the suffix -llo is used in the singular and -llon or -llor in the plural.
- For consonant nouns, the suffix -ello is used in the singular and -illon or -illor in the plural.
- If the noun ends in l, the suffixes can reduce to “short ablative” -lo and -lor.
- For partitive plurals, the suffix -llo(n) or -llo(r) is added; the (n) or (r) is optional.
- The t-dual ablative suffix is -lto, for u-duals (probably) the suffix -llo is added.
| Ablatives | Sg. | Du. | Part. Pl. | Pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| vocalic: cirya | ciryallo | ciryalto | ciryalillo(n) | ciryallon |
| e-noun: lasse | lassello | lasselto | lasselillo(n) | lassellon |
| consonantal: atan | atanello | *atanullo | *atanelillo(n) | atanillon |
| consonantal (final l): nortil | nortillo | *nortilullo | *nortillillo(n) | *nortillon |
Forms marked with a * are unattested and hypothetical. In plural forms r may replace final n.
Origins of the ablative: As discussed in the entry on adverbial cases, the ablative was original just a suffix used to form adverbs from noun. It was derived from the ancient element ✶lō (PE22/168; EtyAC/LŌ) which was “fortified” to llō or ldō (PE21/79), of which only -llō was used in Quenya. The ablative was not etymologically related to the genitive -o in the same way that allative -nna was related to dative -n. Semantically, though, the genitive sometimes served a similar function, indicating when something “originated from” another noun: róma Oromeo = “a horn coming from Orome” (WJ/368).
Conceptual Development: The first mention of the ablative suffix was in a list of “adverbial suffixes” in the Early Qenya Grammar from the 1920s, and the suffix was already -llo at this early stage (PE14/46, 78). In the manuscript version the consonantal forms use the joining vowel -i-: -illo (PE14/47), but in the typescript version the joining vowel was -u-: -ullo (PE14/78). In both versions “true consonantal” nouns (those that primitively ended in a single consonant) often used short ablative -lo, presumably with various assimilations. Originally the suffixes were not true inflections and could not be applied to plural nouns, but eventually a plural form -llor developed (PE14/47, 79), with variant -llon only in the manuscript version (PE14/47).
This system persisted in declension charts later in the 1920s, except that the plural form became -llon and Tolkien introduced a dual form -llut (PE16/113-5). Tolkien retained this basic system in the lengthy Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s (PE21/4). For consonantal nouns, Tolkien also described the occasional use of an “abbreviated” inflection derived from -lō (PE21/18). He gave quite a few examples of consonantal inflections, some with “short ablative” -lō and others with the full ablative and the joining vowel -u-. Allative plurals for consonantal nouns continued to use the joining vowel -i-, though archaic ablative sometimes added just the plural marker -n (PE21/20-37):
- nēr → (ablative) nello → (archaic ablative plural) †nellon beside more regular nerillon.
- tāl → (ablative) tallo → (ablative plural) †tallon vs. talillon.
- kas → (ablative) kallo → (ablative plural) †kallon vs. karillon.
- nēn → (ablative) nēnullo.
- hōn (hom-) → †holmo, †humullo (archaic) or homullo.
- hūn → †hullo, †hundulo or hunullo.
- sūt → †sutyo or sútullo.
- yāt (yak-) → yatyo or yakullo.
- māl → †mallo or malullo.
- tet → tetullo.
- sat (sap-) → sapullo.
- qen (qend-) → †qendulo or qendullo.
- let (leps-) → †lepsulo or lepsullo.
- fas (fass-) → †fassulo or fassullo.
- nin (ning-) → †ningulo or ningullo.
- nil (nild-) → †nildulo or nildullo.
- mar (mard-) → †mardulo or mardullo.
- hat (haht-) → †hahtulo or hahtullo.
- laman (lamn-) → lamnullo or lamullo.
- aran (arn-) → arullo.
- olar → olallo or olarullo.
- ambor (ambos-) → ambullo or amborullo.
- qilir (qiles-) → qilello or qilirullo.
- andul → andullo.
- Earendel → Earendillo or Earendello.
- pilen → pilillo, pilello or pilenullo.
- aman → †amullo or amanullo.
- soron → †sorullo or soronullo.
- oron (orum-) → orulmo or orumullo.
- helen (helem-) → †helilmo or helemullo.
- qelet → †qelityo or qeletullo.
- kelut → †kelutyo or kelutullo.
- talat → †talatyo or talatullo.
- filet (filek-) → †filetyo or filekullo.
- arat (arak-) → †arityo, †aratyo or arukullo.
- Tinúviel → Tinúviello.
- falmarin → falmarillo or falmarinullo.
- pilin (pilind-) → †pilindyo or pilindullo.
- miqilis (miqilist-) → miqilistullo.
- veaner → †veanello or veanerullo.
- Valinor → †Valinórulo or Valinorullo.
- Koiviénen → †Koivienello or Koivienenullo.
- ahtumat (ahtumát- or ahtumatt-) → †ahtumatyo, †ahtumātulo or ahtumatullo.
- telumet (telumett-) → †telumetyo, telumettulo or telumet(t)ullo.
- Astulat (Astulaht-) → †Astulahtyo or Astulahtullo.
- peltas (peltaks-) → †peltaksulo or peltaksullo.
- kaimasan (kaimasamb-) → †kaimasambulo or kaimasambullo.
The general trend was to add -lo where the combination with the stem was phonologically suitable, and -ullo (older †-ulo) when it was not. There were various irregularities along with occasional assimilations like rl, sl, nl > ll and ml > lm. This is also the somewhat mysterious suffix -tyo seen in stems ending in t or k, which Tolkien mentioned but did not explain on PE21/18. Plurals tended to added -illon to the stem even in cases where the singular added -lo.
In declensions later in the 1930s the ablative remained -llo with plural -llon (PE21/42, 46, 50) with the same assimilations and joining vowel (-u-) for consonantal nouns (PE21/52):
- nēr (ner-) → nello or nerullo.
- pilin (pilind-) → pilindullo.
- hōn (hom-) → holmo or homullo.
The suffix remained -llo in later writing, but the first appearance of the joining vowel -e- was in the poem Firiel’s Song from the mid-1930s:
- ᴹQ. Melko Mardello lende: márie “Melko has gone from Earth: it is good.” (LR/72).
Compare Mardello “from Earth” to ᴹQ. mar(d)- from The Etymologies (EtyAC/MBAR). The variant plural form -llor also reappeared in the 50s and 60s, as noted above (VT44/9; MC/222).
The full set of conceptual developments is given in the table below, using the version numbers for the declension charts from PE16 and PE21, with version 0 for the Early Quenya Grammar and LQ for Late Quenya forms (in Plotz and elsewhere). Sh. Pl. = “Short Plural” are for shorter plural forms where they exist, adding the ablative plural suffix directly to a vocalic stem without the plural suffix; this became the norm as of version 6. This table omits archaic or less typical forms.
| V | Ablatives | Sg. | Du. | Pl. | Sh. Pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | vocalic | -llo | -lillor/-lillon | -llor/-llon | |
| 0 | consonantal | -ullo | -illor/-illon | ||
| 3 | vocalic | -llo | -llut | -lillon | |
| 3 | consonantal | -(ul)lo | -ullut | -illon | |
| 4 | vocalic | -llo | -llut | -lillon | -llon |
| 4 | consonantal | -(ul)lo | -(ul)lut | -illon | |
| 5a | vocalic | -llo | -llot | -lillon | -llon |
| 5b | vocalic | -llo | -llot | -lillon | -llon |
| 5c | vocalic | -llo | -llut | -lillon | -llon |
| 5c | consonantal | -(ul)lo | -(ul)lut | -illon | |
| 6 | vocalic | -llo | -llos | -llon | |
| LQ | vocalic | -llo | -lto | -llon/-llor | |
| LQ | consonantal | -(el)lo | ? | -illon/-illor |