Select Elvish Words: 12.399 From, Away

12.399 From, Away

Q. au- pref. “away (from)”

A prefix meaning “away” derived from √AWA of similar meaning (PE17/24). In one note from the late 1960s, it had variants o and va (VT49/24). In the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60, Tolkien further specified that it meant “away from the speaker or the place of his thought” (WJ/365) and thus could not be used with verbs like tul- “come” indicating motion towards something (WJ/368). For these other senses of “away (from)”, the prefix hó- is used instead; see that entry.

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. au “away from” was mentioned as a prefix in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√AVA (QL/33).

Q. au adv. “away, off, not here (of position)”

An adverb meaning “away” derived from √AWA in Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) written in 1959 (PE17/144, 148). In one of these notes it was glossed “off, away, not here, of pos[ition]” and contrast with öa meaning “away of movement” (PE17/144). In another place in the same document, adverbial au was contrasted with prepositional o (PE17/148).

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. au “away from” appeared all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√AVA “go away, depart, leave”, but there Tolkien marked it with a “?” and said it was especially used as a prefix as opposed to adverbial ᴱQ. vá (QL/33). In Tolkien’s later writings, va is usually prefixal or prepositional.

Neo-Quenya: See öa for my recommendations for Neo-Quenya usage.

Q. hó- pref. “away, from, from among”

A prefix for “away, from, from among”, which Tolkien contrasted with au- (WJ/368). Whereas hó- was “away” from a point of view that was outside the thing, place, or group in thought, the prefix au- was “away” where the point in thought was the place or thing left. As examples, Tolkien gave hócir- “to cut off (so as to have or use a required portion)” vs. aucir- “to cut off (and get rid of or lose a portion)”.

Q. -llo suf. “(movement) from, [ᴱQ.] out of; [Q.] ablative suffix”

The Quenya ablative suffix indicating motion away; see that entry for discussion.

Conceptual Development: This suffix had the form ᴱQ. -llo dating all the way back to the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/46, 78).

Q. ló prep. “(away) from; by agent [of]; ⚠️[ᴹQ.] ablative element”

A rarely used prepositional equivalent of -llo (VT49/24; EtyAC/LŌ). In one note from 1969 Tolkien said “lō̆ as independent word was used only with person; thus not Manwello but lo Manwe, and usually in sense ‘by agent’ (VT49/24)”. As an example Tolkien gave the phrase nahtana lō Turin, apparently meaning “slain from [by agency of] Turin”. I interpret this to mean ló can only be used with animate beings, and no longer means “away from” by rather “by agency of”.

Conceptual Development: In The Etymologies of the 1930s lō was given a derivative of the “ablative element” ᴹ√LŌ (EtyAC/LŌ).

Q. o prep. “from”

A preposition for “from”, especially in the genitival sense “originating from”. For “from” in a positional sense, it is far more common to use the ablative suffix -llo.

Conceptual Development: The preposition ᴱQ. ô was first mentioned in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s as the equivalent of G. a(n·) “from” which had an ablative sense (GL/17). In Primitive Quendian Structure: Final Consonants written in 1936, Tolkien mentioned {o >> ho >>} o as a preposition based on primitive ᴹ✶ʒō̆ “away from, from among” (PE21/60 and note #48). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, ᴹQ. ho “from” appeared under the root ᴹ√ƷŌ̆ “from, away, from among, out of” (Ety/ƷŌ̆). This primitive form ʒō̆ was also the basis of the Quenya genitive suffix ᴹQ. -o.

In Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959, Tolkien mentioned the preposition Q. o “from” as a reduction of ancient ✶ăwă “away” (PE17/148). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) written in 1969 Tolkien again mentioned ō < ✶hō “from” with some difficult-to-read qualifications that seem to indicate this was “from” in the genitival sense, as opposed to ✶lō “from” in the positional/ablative sense (PE22/168).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would assume that o is a rarely used preposition, usually replaced by either genitive -o [originating from] or ablative -llo [moving from].

Q. öa adv. “away ⚠️(of movement)”

An adverb meaning “away” derived from √AWA of the same meaning (PE17/24). In Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) written in 1959, öa meant “away of movement” and was contrasted with au “off, away, not here, of pos[ition]” (PE17/144). In the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60, Tolkien said “the [primitive] form awā appears originally to have been used either of rest or motion, and öa can still be so used in Q.”; it was contrasted with öar for motion away (WJ/366).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would assume adverbial öa is a generic “away” usable either for being or moving away, while au is only being away and öar is only moving away.

Q. öar adv. “(towards) away”

An adverbial form appearing in the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60 (WJ/364). It was a combination of the root √AWA “away” with the ancient allative suffix ✶-da “towards” (WJ/366), so literally meaning “towards away”. It was therefore used to indicate motion, as in mennes öar “he went away”. See the entry öa for other “away” adverbs.

Conceptual Development: Some similar forms appeared in earlier writings. There was avar “away down” in the 1958 poem Löa Yucainen in the phrase löa yucainen avar Anduinë sí valútier “twenty years have flowed away down the Long River” (CPT/1298). There was var “*away from” as a deleted preposition in one version of the Átaremma prayer from earlier in the 1950s (VT43/10).

Q. va prep.and pref. “(away) from, [ᴹQ.] away; ⚠️[ᴱQ.] gone forth; with”

A preposition for “[away] from” appearing in some versions of the Átaremma prayer from the 1950s, in phrases like ono va úro aly’ eterúna me “but deliver us from evil” (VT43/9-11). In the final version of the prayer, it was replaced with the ablative suffix -llo (VT43/12). va- “away from” is mentioned in notes associated with the Ambidexters Sentence for the 1960s where it seems to function as a prefix (VT49/24).

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. vā “gone forth, away” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√VAHA (QL/99). In the English-Qenya Dictionary of the 1920s, vá “away” was an adverb, interjection and adjective, but this entry was deleted (PE15/70). Elsewhere in the dictionary va was a preposition “with” in combination with ᴱQ. vesta- “marry”, as in vesta va “marry with (someone)”.

In the Early Qenya Grammar also from the 1920s, va was a preposition “from” in the phrase hwa·telpe ie-rautanéma ompa va húyo “his money had all been stolen from him” (PE14/54). In the 1930s and 40s it appeared as a prefix va- “away” in vahaiya or vahāya “far away” in various iterations of the Lament of Atalante (LR/47; SD/247, 310).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would assume va is a preposition or prefix, serving a similar function to adverb/prefix au “away (from)”, replacing prefixal au- in cases where va- is more euphonic. As a preposition I would assume it is only rarely used, being generally replaced with the ablative suffix -llo, but va can be preferable when the sense “from” is more abstract (stolen from him, delivered from evil) rather than describing actual motion or direction.

ᴹQ. vahai(y)a adv. “far away”

A word appearing as vahaiya or vahāya “far away” in various versions of the Lament of Atalante from the 1930s and 40s (LR/47; SD/247, 310). In The Etymologies from around 1937 it was (a)vahāya under the root ᴹ√KHAYA “far, distant, remote”, equivalent to N. gwahae (EtyAC/KHAYA). In the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948 it appears as vahaia in the phrase vahaia nóre ëa i a-esta Valinor “far away (there) is a land called Valinor” (PE22/124).

S. gwa- pref. and adv. “*away”

An element in the word gwahae, itself an element in Gwahaedir which was the Sindarin name of the palantír from drafts of The Lord of the Rings appendices (PM/186 note #15). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, the word N. gwahae was the equivalent of ᴹQ. (a)vahāya under the root ᴹ√KHAYA “far, distant, remote” (EtyAC/KHAYA), so likely meaning “*far away”. Therefore, the prefix gwa- probably means “away” and is based on the root √AWA.

Note, however, that in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60, Tolkien said:

Sindarin. The only normal derivative [of AWA] is the preposition o, the usual word for “from, of”. None of the forms of the element *awa [“away”] are found as a prefix in S, probably because they became like or the same as the products of *wō, *wo [S. go-, gwa- “together”] (WJ/366).

Neo-Sindarin: Despite Tolkien’s later statement that √AWA was not used a prefix in Sindarin, I think it is worth retaining gwa- “away”, as we have no better alternatives. Of the two variants of the prefix go-/gwa- “together”, go- is much more common and gwa- appears only in a few older forms like gwanon “twin”, usually of obscured meaning. I think that leaves enough semantic space for the prefix gwa- “away”. I would also use ᴺS. gwa “away” as an adverb in Neo-Sindarin. I rationalize these choices as being derived from inverted WA rather than AWA, and thus not technically in conflict with Tolkien’s notes in Quendi and Eldar; compare gwanwen “departed” < WA also appearing in that essay (WJ/378).

S. o prep. “from, of”

This is the Sindarin preposition meaning “from”, as well as “of” in the sense “originating from” as in Celebrimbor o Eregion “Celebrimbor of Hollin” [= originating from] (LotR/305). In various phrases where it appears, o seems not to cause any mutation, as with o galadhremmin ennorath “from tree-tangled middle-lands” and o menel “from heaven” (LotR/238). However, in the Quendi and Eldar essay from around 1959-60, Tolkien indicated that this preposition causes stop mutation, which does not mutate voiced stops or nasal m. As Tolkien explained it:

As the mutations following the preposition o show, it must prehistorically have ended in -t or -d. Possibly, therefore, it comes from *aud, with d of the same origin as that seen in Q öar. Some have thought that it received the addition -t (at a period when *au had already become ǭ > o) by association with *et “out, out of”. The latter retains its consonant in the form ed before vowels, but loses it before consonants, though es, ef, eth are often found before s, f, th. [Sindarin] o, however, is normally o in all positions, though od appears occasionally before vowels, especially before o- (WJ/366-367).

A similar etymology (from aut- influenced by et) was given in Definitive Linguistic Notes (DLN) from 1959 (PE17/148). In the Quendi and Eldar essay, Tolkien also said:

*ho as a proclitic might have given o; but it does not occur as a verbal prefix, although it possibly contributed to the Sindarin preposition o (see under *Awa, Sindarin) which is used in either direction, from or to the point of view of the speaker (WJ/370).

Thus in origin this preposition was √AWA “away” + the ancient allative suffix ✶-da “towards”, originally meaning “towards away” = “away from the speaker”, but under the influence of ancient √HO came to simply mean “from” in general, regardless of the direction, either away from the speaker or away from someone or something else.

In the King’s Letter from the omitted epilogue of The Lord of the Rings, this preposition seems to have a definite variant uin in the phrase suilad uin aran o Minas Tirith “the King’s greeting [= greeting from the King] from Minas Tirith”; compare indefinite o “from” later in the same phrase. In this period, in is usually the plural definite article and i is its singular, but in this case the following noun aran is singular. I suspect that for uin this n is epenthetic, used to separate ui = o + i from the following vowel. Compare also definite N. nui = no + i [= “under the”] from The Etymologies of the 1930s (Ety/NU).

Conceptual Development: The earliest precursor of this preposition seems to be G. a(n·) “from” from the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, of which Tolkien said:

a(n·) with vowel mutation = Q ô. “from” {signifying motion} and used as addition to {both} ablative {and allative} cases. Is always suffixed to article in those cases (GL/17).

In Gnomish Lexicon Slips modifying that document, this became G. ô “from” derived from ᴱ✶au̯(a) (PE13/115). The preposition ᴱN. o appeared in some untranslated phrases in the 1920s (PE13/128, 138). In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. o “from” was derived from the root ᴹ√ƷO “from, away, from among, out of” rather than √AWA, and was equivalent to ᴹQ. ho (Ety/ƷŌ̆).