11.21 to Give
- Q. anna v. “gift, (orig.) thing handed, brought or sent to a person, *present”
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A word for “gift”, also the name of tengwa #23 [h] (LotR/1123), derived from the root √ANA “motion to” and more precisely meaning “a thing handed, brought or sent to a person” (PE17/91).
Conceptual Development: The earliest iteration of this word was ᴱQ. an (and-) “gift” in the Qenya Lexicon under the early root ᴱ√ANA (QL/31). In the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon Tolkien gave ᴱQ. anō as the equivalent of G. ôn “gift” (GL/62). The Etymologies of the 1930s had ᴹQ. anna “gift” under the root ᴹ√ANA¹ “to, towards” (Ety/ANA¹). The word anna “gift” appeared among tengwar names in notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1930s and 1940s, though in the former it was for double nn [5P] (PE22/23) and in the later was the name of a variant short vowel carrier [ゼ] not appearing in Tolkien’s later writing, and in any case the paragraph with this name was deleted (PE22/52 note #193).
In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969 Tolkien had both anna “gift” and anwa “gift” (PE22/163), the latter perhaps derived from *(h)an-mā. Tolkien indicated that this version of the noun influenced by {√ƷAN >>} √HAN “enhance, enrich, add to”.
Use as a Tengwar Name: The application of anna as the name for tengwa #23 is quite mysterious. In Quenya this tengwa was originally used to represent a voiced velar spirant ʒ < g, and after that sound was lost was used only to represent consonantal y by adding a palatal marker [hÍ]. Since anna has nothing to do with either sound, my best guess is that the name anna comes from some “full mode” where tengwar #23 represents the vowel a, except that in most full modes it represents the vowel o.
Alternately, it may be that at some point Tolkien imagined the noun anna as being derived from ʒannā; see the [rejected] root √ƷAN in its 1969 etymology noted above. In the 1930s this tengwa was named Osse either as a vowel sign for o or as a derivation of ᴹ√GOS (PE22/22), and in the 1940s it was named {’anne >>} ’enne “thought, purpose” where the ’ indicates lost ʒ (PE22/51 and note #190).
- Q. anta- v. “to give, present; †to add to”
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The verb anta- was the basic Quenya word for “give” for much of Tolkien’s life, usually associated with the root √AN “towards”. ᴱQ. anta- “gives” first appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” (QL/31). In The Etymologies of the 1930s ᴹQ. anta- “give” was derived from the root ᴹ√ANA¹ “to, towards” and its primitive form ᴹ✶anta- was glossed “to present, give” (Ety/ANA¹). In this same document Tolkien considered deriving anta- from ᴹ√YAN² “give” instead (EtyAC/YAN²).
In Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 anta- was again derived from √ANA/NĀ, but in that note the root and the verb had the extra (archaic?) sense “add to” in connection with the use of an- as the Quenya intensive prefix (PE17/146). In notes from around 1967 Tolkien said it was a blend of ✶an-tā “*make go towards” and ✶am-tā “enlarge, increase” from √AMA; in this document am- was the intensive prefix (PE17/91). Tolkien seems to have gone back to an-intensives by 1969 (c.f. anírime “most beautiful”, PE23/133) and in Late Notes on Verbs (LVS) from 1969 anta- was again based on ✶antā- “cause a thing/person to go to an object, send”, but develop its sense “give” due the influence of √HAN “enhance, enrich, add to”.
In both the 1967 and 1969 notes, Tolkien indicated the object of the verb anta- could either be the thing given or the recipient. If the object was the thing given, the recipient was in the dative: antanen parma sen “I gave a book to him”. If the object was the recipient, the thing given was in the instrumental: antanenyes parmanen “I presented him with a book”. In other notes from the late 1960s Tolkien said that anta-:
… was also often used with an “ironic tone” to refer to missiles, so that the sentence antanen hatal sena “I cast a spear at him” might also [more literally] mean “I gave him a spear (as a present)” (VT49/14).
Tolkien often used the verb anta- as an example for verb inflections and the use of the direct and/or indirect objects, particularly in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 and the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) of the 1920s, though the exact formations varied as Tolkien’s ideas of his languages evolved. Tolkien usually gave anta- a weak past tense antane “gave” (PE17/91; VT49/14), but also gave it an archaic strong past tense †áne which was the basis for its Sindarin past form S. ôn “gave” (PE17/147).
- ᴹQ. anto n. “giver (m.)”
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A masculine word for “giver” in The Etymologies of the 1930s based on the verb ᴹQ. anta- “give”, along with a feminine variant ᴹQ. ante “giver (f.)” (Ety/ANA¹).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. anar (anard-) “giver” under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” (QL/31).
- S. ann n. “gift”
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The most commonly accepted Sindarin word for “gift” is S. ann, equivalent to Quenya Q. anna “gift”, both derived from ✶annā based on the root √ANA “towards” (PE17/90). It was also an element in the names Melian “Dear Gift” (SA/mel) and Rían “Crown Gift” (Ety/RIG). However, Tolkien experimented with a variety of other forms throughout his life.
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. ôn “gift” related to the verb G. antha- “give” (GL/19, 62), both based on the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/31). The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. {ann >>} ant “gift” under the root ᴹ√ANA¹ “to, towards” (Ety/ANA¹; EtyAC/ANA¹). S. ann “gift” < ✶annā appeared in notes from around 1967 (PE17/90). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969 Tolkien had S. anw as the equivalent of Q. anwa “gift” (PE22/163), perhaps derived from *(h)an-mā.
- S. anna- v. “to give, †add to”
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The most commonly accepted Sindarin verb for “give” is S. anna-, but Tolkien experimented with a variety of other forms throughout his life. Its best known form is its strong past ôn “gave” as in ónen i-Estel Edain “I gave Hope to the Dúnedain” from The Lord of the Rings Appendix A (LotR/1061).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. antha- “give” (GL/19), equivalent to ᴱQ. anta- under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” in the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/31). In the 1910s the medial combination nth survived, but by the 1930s medial nth became nn, and The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. anno “to give” under the root ᴹ√ANA¹ “to, towards” as the equivalent of ᴹQ. anta- “give” (Ety/ANA¹). The Sindarin version of the Lord’s Prayer from the mid-1950s had imperative anno “give” in anno ammen sír i mbas ilaurui vín “give us this day our daily bread” (VT44/21).
Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 instead had S. anta- “give” (PE17/147), which seems to belong to a (brief?) period where Tolkien abandoned the development of nt to nn; see my essay on Sindarin Articles and Mutations from Parma Eldalamberon #23 for further discussion. There was a verb form anha- “give” from around 1967 which might represent a conceptual stage where nt became voiceless nh but did not further advance to voiced nn (PE17/147). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, Tolkien the described verb’s derivation as follows:
The Q. causative anta … is due to blending AN with the unrelated verbal stem {ƷAN >>} HAN “give”, {which in Q. and S. lost the initial spirant ʒ, that in T. became h- >>} which in S. lost the initial breath h of CE, that in Q., T. remained h- (T hanin “I give”) … S[indarin] strong verb (lost in Q.) aned, pa.t. ónen, T hanna (PE22/163 and note #99).
This last example strongly implies a basic/strong verb form S. an- “give” [e.g. *ân “he gives”, *enin “I give”] with gerund aned “*giving” and strong past ôn “*gave”. It is possible, though, that only the past and gerund were strong, and the base verb remained S. anna- analogous to T. hanna.
Neo-Sindarin: For purpose of Neo-Sindarin I would stick with S. anna- “give”, since it is a direct equivalent of the well-attested Q. anta- “give” if one assumes nt > nth > nn, which seems to be the rule for most of the 1930s through 1960s.
- S. oneth n. “*giver [f.]”
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An unglossed word element given in notes 1950s Tolkien gave as part of an incomplete alternative to besain “bread giver” (PM/404), probably *[bas]oneth. Thus oneth is probably a feminine word for “giver”.