10.55 to Reach, Arrive
- Q. anya- v. “to reach, arrive at, go to; *to manage, succeed (at something) + infinitive”
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A verb for “reach, arrive at, go to” in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, derived from the root √ANA “to(wards)” (PE22/157, 163).
Conceptual Development: An earlier verb for “arrive” was tenya- “arrive, end (not at speaker’s[?] place)” in notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s (VT49/24; VTE/49). A similar verb reappeared in notes from 1968 as tene “arrive, come to, get to” from a root √TEN, but in that note the ten- forms were rejected and changed to men-. Elsewhere men- was used in the more general sense “go” or “come” (PE17/13, 16; PE22/162), whereas in the 1969 Ambidexters Sentence, the verb tenta- was used to mean “point at” (VT49/6-8).
Luinyelle suggested that a form of anya- “arrive” (or a similar verb) might appear in the sentence [ᴹQ.] Sorni Númevalion anner “The Eagles of the Powers of the West are at hand” from the 1940s, with anner being a strong-past from ancient an-nē, so the literal meaning of the sentence is “the Eagles … arrived”. I think this is a plausible theory, but given the gap in years between this sentence and the appearance of anya- “arrive”, it is hard to say.
Neo-Quenya: Of the various options, I think anya- is the best Neo-Quenya verb for “arrive”. I further assume it is a half-strong verb with past tense ananye “arrived”; I prefer this as more distinctive than a strong past anne. I would use it both intransitively and transitively (without a preposition), as in ananyen “I arrived” vs. ananyen i osto “I arrived [at] the city = I reached the city”.
In a post on 2024-01-31 in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), Luinyelle suggested it might be used in the idiomatic sense “manage, succeed (in something)” when combined with the infinitive of another verb: ananyen pare Quenya “I managed to learn Quenya” = “(lit.) I arrived [at] learning Quenya”
- Q. tulusta n. “advent, arrival”
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A noun appearing as ᴹQ. tuluste “arrival” in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) of 1948 as a combination of the verb ᴹQ. tul- “come” with the general action suffix ᴹQ. -stḗ (PE22/110). In Common Eldarin: Verb Structure (EVS2) from the early 1950s, the suffix became -sta and this noun became tulusta “advent, arrival” (PE22/137).
- G. raith n. “extent, reach, scope; ⚠️region, sphere, district”
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The noun G. raith appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, with glosses “extent, reach; region, sphere, district; scope” (GL/65). It was likely based on the early root ᴱ√RAHA “stretch forward” (QL/32, 78). A similar form ᴱN. rhaith appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s, but without any gloss (PE13/152).
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would update this noun to ᴺS. raeth, basing it on the later root ᴹ√RAK “stretch out, reach” with the Sindarin phonological result of aeth < aith from the vocalization of ancient akt(h). I would use it only for the senses “extent, reach, scope”, since there are plenty of later attested words for things like “region, sphere, district”.
- G. raitha- v. “to reach at, reach for; to reach, extend (intr.)”
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A verb appearing as G. raitha- in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, meaning both “[trans.] reach at, reach for” and “intr. reach, extend” (GL/65). It was likely based on the early root ᴱ√RAHA “stretch forward” (QL/32, 78).
Neo-Sindarin: For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would update this noun to ᴺS. raetha-, basing it on the later root ᴹ√RAK “stretch out, reach” with the Sindarin phonological result of aeth < aith from the vocalization of ancient akt(h). In its transitive sense it seems that it does not require a preposition, so i adan raethant i vegil “the man reached [for] the sword”, with “for” not expressed in the Sindarin phrase.
10.56 to Approach
- Q. úva- v. “to impend, be imminent, draw near [usually negative in sense]”
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A pseudo-verb meaning “impend, be imminent, draw near” related to the Quenya future suffix -uva, usually with a negative sense as Tolkien explained: “a strengthened form ūva was used ‘impend, be imminent’ nearly always in a bad sense: ‘threaten (to come)’ (PE22/167)”. This verb had only two forms: úva used for aorist, present and [near] future, and úvane used for the past (PE22/168). As an example of its use, Tolkien gave ulo úva “rain (unwelcome) is coming/threatens”, versus more ordinary future uluva “it is going to rain, it will rain”.
- S. anglenna- v. “to approach”
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A verb appearing in the King’s Letter in its future form anglennatha within the phrase anglennatha i Varanduiniant erin dolothen Ethuil “[Aragorn] will approach the Bridge of Baranduin on the eighth day of Spring” (SD/129). It appears to be a combination of an “to(wards)” and an otherwise unattested verb glenna-, perhaps meaning “*go, travel”.
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. artha- “approach” probably based on G. art “beside, along side of” [so artha- = “come beside”] (GL/20), as well as G. lentha- “come towards speaker, approach, draw near” (GL/53), the latter probably based on the early root ᴱ√LEHE “come, be sent, approach” (QL/52).