Interrogatives in Quenya were derived from the root √MA (PE17/68, 161-162; PM/357). This root also seems to be the basis for the neuter indefinite pronoun ma “something” (PE22/154). There are various interrogative forms derived from this root, many of which are simply the root with various Quenya noun case suffixes
Quenya Grammar P44: Indefinite Pronouns
Quenya does not have an indefinite article, but it does have a set of indefinite pronouns: mo “some (indefinite) person” and ma “some (indefinite) thing”: mo, indefinite personal pronoun “somebody, one”. ma, neuter personal pronoun “something, a thing”. For the indefinite mo the inclusive 1.pl.= “we, you and I (and
Quenya Grammar P43: Demonstrative Pronouns
Like most languages, Quenya had demonstrative elements that could be used to indicate near (“this”) or far (“that”) objects. There are Late Period documents on demonstratives that remain unpublished, so the analysis in this entry must be considered preliminary and incomplete. Tolkien experimented with a variety of forms for the
Quenya Grammar P42: Reflexive Pronouns
Quenya has a set of reflexive pronouns similar in function to English “myself, yourself, theirselves”. These pronouns are given in a chart written in the late 1960s (VT47/37), and are formed from the (primitive) independent pronouns with the prefix im- along with various appropriate phonetic adjustments. Primitive Reflexive 1st
Quenya Grammar P41: Possessive Pronouns
Quenya expresses possession with suffixes. For ordinary nouns, Quenya uses the possessive noun case -va, but possessive pronouns have their own set of suffixes. For the most part, the possessive suffixes are the same as the long subject suffix, with the e changed to a: -nye “I” vs. -nya “my”.
Quenya Grammar P40: Emphatic Pronouns
In addition to ordinary independent pronouns, Quenya has a set of emphatic pronouns that resemble the subject suffixes with a vocalic augment, e- or i-: Independent Subject Emphatic Source First Person Singular “I” ni -n(ye) inye PE22/162 Second Person Singular “you (familiar)” tye -t(ye) *itye — Second Person
Quenya Grammar P39: Object Suffixes
As discussed in the section on subject suffixes, ancient Quenya pronominal subjects followed the verb, and eventually became an inflectional element in verb formation. The same is true to a lesser degree of pronominal objects. These likewise could become inflections, and there are two examples of this in The Lord
Quenya Grammar P38: Subject Suffixes
As a general rule, the subject precedes the verb in Quenya: i nér cenne “the man saw”. The biggest exception is when the subject is a pronoun, in which case the pronoun is attached to the verb as a suffix: cennenye “I saw” = cen-ne-nye “see-(past)-I” or “see-(past)-1sg”. This is
Quenya Grammar P37: Pronouns
Now that Eldamo 0.7.5 is published, I’m restarting the number sequence for this series at P37 to match what is in the data model. The numbering of the old posts don’t match what is in Eldamo, so don’t worry that P35 and P36 were “skipped”. Quenya uses pronouns as most
Eldamo 0.7.5
I’ve release Eldamo 0.7.5. This version mostly includes the first part of my analysis of Quenya grammar, but it has some minor data entry from obscure sources and some initial work on semantic categorization of Sindarin/Noldorin/Gnomish words. https://eldamo.org For the grammar analysis, see here: https://eldamo.org/content/grammar-indexes/grammars-q.html