INDEX TO THE QENYA LEXICON

The Qenyaqetsa or Qenya Lexicon, written in 1915 and finally published in 1998, contains a very substantial Elvish vocabulary. The language is "Qenya", young Tolkien's earliest variant of the language that was to evolve into Quenya as we know it from LotR and the Silmarillion. Unfortunately, many revisions remained before LotR-style Quenya emerged several decades later. Many words found in the Qenya Lexicon do not fit the later, LotR-compatible variants of Quenya; for instance, the earliest "Qenya" allows a number of final consonant clusters that cannot occur in LotR-style Quenya. Even some of the most indispensable vocabulary items were changed; for instance, the conjunction "and" was ya or yan in the earliest Qenya, not as in later Quenya ar. Elderly Tolkien thought of his earliest Qenya/Quenya variants as "very primitive" (PM:379).

Nonetheless, the Qenya Lexicon establishes beyond doubt that there was indeed considerable continuity from 1915 to 1970+: Primitive or not, the language described in the Lexicon is definitely recognizable as some kind of Q(u)enya. (By contrast, the earliest "Gnomish" language cannot well be said to be a form of Sindarin; it is simply a different language.) A great number of vocabulary items were present from the start, and were never changed. For instance, the word for "tree" was and ever remained alda (29R, cf. Letters:426, footnote). Many other words were only slightly changed; for instance, móri "night" (62R) later becomes móre (LR:373 s.v. MOR). The Lexicon contains some words that are not found in the Etymologies of the mid-thirties, but turn up in later writings, indicating that they never really left Tolkien's mind. One example is koirea "alive, lively" (48R); our next attestation of this word is in a document that was written more than half a century later: In one of his essays, elderly Tolkien used the phrase coirëa quenya, "living speech" (PM:399).

Moreover, the Qenya Lexicon contains words for very many things that we previously had no High-Elven words for at all. Where such words seem to fit the phonological and morphological structure of LotR-style Quenya, and don't clash with later words, I can't see any good reason not to accept and use them.

So all things considered, the Qenya Lexicon should most certainly not be ignored. I therefore took the time to index its contents by the English glosses provided. Reference is made to page and column, e.g. 96L = page 96, in the left column; 58R = page 58, in the right column. (One should always read the entire column referred to, since the same English gloss frequently occurs more than once.) A number of Gnomish words are also mentioned in the Lexicon as published in Parma Eldalamberon, usually in notes added by the editors. In this index, such words are usually indicated by a parenthetical "(Gnomish)". However, this is not done where there is a corresponding Qenya word with the same English gloss in the same column, since this is primarily intended as an index for the Qenya words and stems. (No distinction is here made between words and stems; the Lexicon lists both.)

Tolkien's glosses for verbs sometimes include pronouns, e.g. nete "I get" (66L). These pronouns are not normally included in this index, and are never given separate entries; thus, the reference to nete "I get" must be sought under G, not under I.

The index has more than 3000 entries.

 Parma Eldalamberon #12, containing the Qenya Lexicon, can in an ideal world be ordered from Christopher Gilson, 10200 Miller Avenue, No. 426, Cupertino, CA 95104 (see the Eldalamberon page for further info). In our own, less-than-ideal world, it seems to be out of print most of the time. Potential buyers should make sure that it is available before sending any money.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Ardalambion Index