Posted: June 08, 1999 at 10:10:55: by Orodreth
: Again... there is something I am curious about. This time the subject is Quenya. I have been learning the language for some time now, but there is something I have not found an answer to. In which order are the Quenya endings put e.g if you have a plural word, put in a past tense sentence as an accusative, which of the endings is comefirst/last? While I am far from a language expert (yet), I may be able to shed a little illumination here. Most old Germanic languages, i.e. Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Frisian, Old High German etc.. (languages Tolkien was intimate with) there is usually a different ending for each different form. {This happens to be the case in Latin as well}For example in Anglo-Saxon a weak verb of class 2 like 'lufian' - 'to love' is for
plural past 'lufodon'
plural present 'lufiath' [th - thorn]
singular present 3rd person 'lufath'
singular past 3rd person 'lufode' The idea being that each form is not exclusively represented by one ending. i.e. not all verbs ending in 'on' are plural past etc. Anyway if I have time later I will look at my Tolkien language stuff. Meanwhile I hope that this helps a little. :)
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