Explorations into Tolkien's Elvish Languages
Let's Start with Elvish Pronouns!
I have been pondering where to begin a regular exploration of specific strands of Tolkien’s Elvish languages based on the published materials we have (and with hopes of more to come!). Inspired by Christopher Tolkien's methodology in his later publications, such as Beren and Lúthien (2017) and The Fall of Gondolin (2018), where he traced strands of his father’s ‘great tales’ from their earliest roots through to later versions, I aim to do the same by focusing on specific grammatical elements of Tolkien’s Elvish languages using all available published materials.
Given that I just wrote a review of the most recent and welcome edition of Parma Eldalamberon 23 for The Journal of Tolkien Studies which had a massive new section on Tolkien’s development of the Elvish Pronouns system in it from the late 1940’s - I figured I would start with the rather tangled history of Elvish Pronouns with the earliest evidence of forms we have right up to the latest information we have from the late 1940’s.
What Are Pronouns?
Pronouns are words that substitute for nouns or noun phrases, often used to avoid repetition. They refer to people, objects, or ideas, and play a crucial role in language. Here are some common types of pronouns in English:
Personal Pronouns: Refer to specific people or things.
Subjective: I, you, he, she, it, we, they (e.g., I see the Black Rider)
Objective: me, you, him, her, it, us, them (e.g., The Hobbits saw them)
Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs (e.g., The Ring is mine)
Reflexive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves (e.g., Turin made it himself)
Demonstrative Pronouns: Point to specific things.
this, that, these, those (e.g., This is my palantir)
Interrogative Pronouns: Ask questions.
who, whom, whose, which, what (e.g., Whose palantir is this?)
Relative Pronouns: Link clauses to nouns.
who, whom, whose, which, that (e.g., The person who called you is an Elf)
Indefinite Pronouns: Refer to non-specific things or people.
all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, nothing, one, several, some, somebody, someone, something (e.g., Everyone is invited to Bilbo’s party)
Reciprocal Pronouns: Indicate a mutual relationship or action.
each other, one another (e.g., The orcs are fighting each other)
The Elvish Languages and Pronouns - The Beginning
The earliest record of Tolkien’s Elvish language invention charts his first attempts at creating a language for the Elves, initially called Qenya. This work is preserved in a notebook called The Qenya Lexicon (QL), edited and published with notes and his earliest writings on the Phonology of Qenya in Parma Eldalamberon 12.
The QL consists of a series of invented word roots from which Tolkien constructed related words. Interestingly, there is only one complete sentence written in Qenya in the QL, which includes a pronoun! This enigmatic statement (still a subject of research!), found under the Qenya Root PERE (PE 12, p.73), translates to:
Perilme metto aimaktur perperienta
We indeed endure things but the martyrs endured to the end
This statement demonstrates Tolkien's use of the suffix -lme for ‘we endure,’ suggesting he was considering expressing pronouns with a suffix after the main verb root. However, due to limited examples from this time, it’s unclear if this was his only approach.! It is interesting to note, that given the fact that the Finnish language was a major inspiration for Tolkien’s earliest Elvish language, the Finnish personal pronoun was expressed as a declined separate word form although possessive pronouns were formed by through suffixes to the main word (you can see examples of this in the Finnish Grammar Tolkien studied at Exeter College, Oxford C.N.E. Eliot’s Finnish Grammar here) - suggesting Tolkien was both inspired by Finnish but also incorporated his own creative art of language invention.
There are also entries in the QL for a system of demonstrative pronouns that would be prefixed to a verb as well as stand alone words - these are as follows:
en- , ek- et - that (by you) (PE12, 34) - affixed
ena - that by you (34)
en(n) - that by you
e- prefix
ike (i) - this (41) (As an exclamation - iki! Look!)
Ki - this (46) (demonstrative this by me)
SA - demonstrative root
San - then, at that time
sa- = e-, en-, ta (demonstrative root)
sa- prefix, intensive like a- (81)
TA, TAMA - demonstrative
tāma - this (87)
Gnomish/Goldogrin - Goldogrin Pronominal Prefixes
Around 1917, while working on The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien also invented a language for the Noldoli Elves called Gnomish or Goldogrin. A fragment published in Parma Eldalamberon 13 (97) outlines a basic pronominal system for the Gnomish verb, using prefixes:
1st Person Sing.: /ni/ (e.g., GL en nin ista mat - "I am well aware of that.")
2nd Person Sing.: /fi/ (e.g., u la fin si - "no room for you here")
3rd Person Sing.: /a/ (e.g., a-laithra nin - "I forget it")
1st Person Plural: /me/ (e.g., GL um, umin (we), also QL /me/ as in Perilme)
2nd Person Plural: /gwe/
3rd Person Plural: /a/ (same as singular)
Early Qenya Pronouns
Finally, we will end this first post by looking at forms of Qenya pronouns found on the back of slips containing entries Tolkien made for a planned English to Anglo-Saxon dictionary which he worked on around 1919 (it was not finished!). These tables suggest that now Tolkien was exploring expressing pronouns through prefixes, infixes, and suffixes, as well as standalone words. This early system included pronouns for dative and genitive cases and possessives, moving towards a more comprehensive system for writing Elvish. What is significant is that in these fragments of charts (which the editors of these pages do a stellar job in editing and annotating) there is evidence of expansion by Tolkien of the earlier system to include pronouns for dative and genitive cases and also possessives. This is starting to move towards a system that could be used in writing Elvish although at this very early stage as the editors of these pages state ‘the apparent inconsistency is probably the result of the very fluid nature of Tolkien’s conception of the Qenya pronoun at this stage.’ (PE 15, p. 48). Fluidity will be an interesting concept to take into account as we explore Tolkien’s languages.
As we embark on this Elvish pronoun adventure, the next post will delve into how these pronouns work in Tolkien’s earliest Elvish compositions, including his first Elvish poem Narqelion and the fragment Si Qente Fëanor.
Namárië for now!