13.14 All, Every
- Q. il- pref. “every, *all”
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A prefixal form of √IL “all”, appearing as an element in words like ilquen “everybody” (WJ/372), illumë “always” (VT44/9), and ilaurëa “daily = (lit.) *of every day” (VT43/18).
Conceptual Development: In Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948, the prefix ᴹQ. il(u)- meant “all the, the whole, entire” (PE23/101), while ᴹQ. qa(qe)- meant “all, each, every”. However, in Tolkien’s later writings √KWA was glossed “whole, complete, all”, so it seems the meanings of the roots were reversed (VT47/7, 17).
- Q. illi pron. “all”
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A pronoun for “all” appearing in the phrase A ancalima imb’ illi “A [is] brightest among all” (PE17/91), presumably a plural variant of pronominal ilya “all”. I would use it when the referent is plural, as in Mana neri cennel? Cennen illi teo. “Which men did you see? I saw all of them.” Compare this to á anta ilya nin “give [it] all to me” referring to “all” as a collective, functionally singular.
- Q. ilquen pref. “everybody, *everyone”
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A word for “everybody” appearing in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60, a combination of il- “all” and quén “person” (WJ/372).
Conceptual Development: The pronoun ᴹQ. qáqe appeared in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 with glosses “all, everyone” (PE23/103) or “every person/thing” (PE23/105), based on ᴹQ. qa(qe)- “all”. The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. ompinasta “everybody” with variants ompanai and ompanu, all based on the early root ᴱ√OMO “every, all” (QL/70).
- Q. ilya adj. “every, each, all (of a particular group of things), ⚠️[ᴹQ.] the whole”
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The word ilye means “all”, for example in the phrase ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë “and all paths are drowned deep in shadow” from the Namárië poem (LotR/377). The word ilye is simply the plural of singular ilya, an adjective and pronoun meaning “each, every, all of a particular group of things” (VT39/20) derived from the root √IL “all”.
In the singular, ilya seems to function as a pronoun meaning “all”, as in A anamelda na ep’ ilya “A is dearest of all” (PE17/57), but see also illi “all”. As an adjective before a singular noun, it likely means “each” or “every” as in ilya tie “each/every path” vs. ilye tier “all paths”, since this was the behavior of earlier adjectives for “all” (see below).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had the plural adjective ᴱQ. ompi “all, every” with singular ompa “each” under the early root ᴱ√OMO “every, all” (QL/70). The singular ompa was also used as a pronoun “all” in the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) of the 1920s (PE14/54), so the singular/plural/pronoun distribution of early ompa seems almost the same as later ilya. The early language also had ᴱQ. māka “each, every” as a cognate to G. gôr “each, all” and based on ᴱ✶ŋu̯a “together” (GL/41), but there are no signs of this elsewhere.
The Etymologies of the 1930s had ᴹQ. ilya “all, the whole” under the root ᴹ√IL “all” (Ety/IL) and it was also use this way in poems from the 1930s and 40s (LR/72; SD/310). But Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 had ᴹQ. qáqa “every, each” which in its plural form qaqi meant “all (the)”, though more properly qaqi was the plural of pronominal ᴹQ. qaqe “every person/thing” (PE23/105-106). The word qáqa could also be used as a pronoun meaning “all facts”, since in DRC the “neuter” pronouns could only refer to abstract concepts (QL/105).
Neo-Quenya: There are some instance of singular ilya being used with plural nouns, such as ilya raxellor “from all dangers” and ᴹQ. ilya maller “all roads”. I think that when singular ilya is used with a plural noun it has the sense “every” as in every instance of the group. When used with a singular noun I think it instead has the sense “each” as in each instance considered individually. Consider: á mate ilya masta lintave lan nante lauce “eat each loaf quickly while they are warm”, as opposed to á mate ilya mastar nó i naucor tulir “eat every loaf (= every one of the loaves) before the dwarves come”.
This is pretty speculative, however.
- Q. ilyama pref. “all [things], *everything”
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A word for “all” appearing in the phrase ai tó sí ilyama menta hwirya hondoringe fúmenen istarion “Alas for now all begins to wither in the breath of cold-hearted wizards” from the Löa Yucainen poem from 1958 (CPT/1298). It seems to be a combination of ilya “all” and ma “thing”, so more literally “all [things]”. As such, I think it could also be used for “*everything”.
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. on (om-) or ont “everything” under the early root ᴱ√OMO “all, every” (QL/70). Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948 had ᴹQ. qáqa “everything, all facts” and ᴹQ. qaqe “every person/thing” (PE23/105); in that document the “neuter” pronouns applied only to abstract concepts and the “personal” pronouns applied to both persons and concrete things.
- S. il adj. “all”
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An untranslated word from the phrase sí il chem en i Naugrim en ir Ellath thor den ammen appearing on the Túrin Wrapper (VT50/5). Carl Hostetter suggested this phrase may mean something like “*now all (?hands) of the Dwarves and Elves will be (?against) to us”, and il likely means “all” based on the root √IL of similar meaning (VT50/22).