Quenya in the European Context - Standard Average European Features of Tolkien's Quenya

8/14/2019 Quenya in the European Context - Standard Average European Features of Tolkien's Quenya

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Johannes Gutenberg-Universitt Mainz

Department of Englishand Linguistics FB

Dr. phil. Rainer Nagel Artificial Languages andLanguage Planning

Julian Jarosch

October

revised to May

Quenya in the

Standard Average European

European Context

Features of Tolkiens Quenya


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Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Standard Average European 3

2.1 Definite/Indefinite Article 4

2.2 Relative Clause 4

2.3 Perfect Tense 4

2.4 Reduplication 5

2.5 Nominative Experiencers 5

2.6 Causative/Inchoative Alternation 6

2.7 Comparison 7

2.8 Subject Person Marking 8

2.9 Conjunction 8

2.10 Second Ordinal 9

2.11 Alienable/Inalienable Possession 9

2.12 Inclusive/Exclusive Plural 9

3. Conclusions

3.1 SAE Membership of Quenya 10

3.2 Noun Phrase Final Case Marking 11

4. Works Cited

4.1 Books 13

4.2 Periodicals 14

4.3 Online Sources 14

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1. Introduction

e artificial language called Quenya(Elvish, Tolkien : ) first became

known to a wider audience when in its inventor, British author and philo-

logist J.R.R. Tolkien, published the first volume of e Lord of the Rings, con-taining a Quenya text corpus of approximately words. Ever since then, scholars

have tried to deduce the grammatical structure of the language, essentially creat-

ing an Elvish philology. But, to the best of my knowledge, until now no one has

considered Quenya from a typological point of view.

Tolkien wrote that Quenya is . . . intended . . . to be definitely of a Eu-

ropean kind in style and structure (not in detail) . . . (: ). To evaluate

whether or to what extent Tolkien achieved this objective, this paper will put the

language in a European context especially by comparing it to the definition of

the Sprachbundknown as SAE proposed by Haspelmath ().

Quenya, being an artificial language, hardly poses less, but rather differ-

ent problems for linguists than a natural language, because only a limited text

corpus and incomplete, even self-contradictory information is available. Tolkien

worked on developing Quenya for the better part of his life with shifting princi-

ples and aims so the extreme diversity of the existing material is not surprising,

but calls for some manner of standardization. erefore I prefer to take into ac-

count texts published by Tolkien himself (in Tolkien ; Tolkien/Swann )

and texts belonging to the period after the publication of e Lord of the Rings

(such as in Tolkien ; ), disregarding earlier stages of the external devel-

opment.

2. Standard Average European

Haspelmath () has proposed twelve major defining and five likely (Haspel-

math : ) features of Standard Average European (henceforth abbreviated

SAE), as well as nine further features that could prove relevant to the description

of of SAE . Not all of these features can be proven or disproven to exist in Quenya

due to the scarcity of data. In this section, only those SAE features that can with

reasonable certainty be found in Quenya will be discussed, mostly in the order inwhich they appear in Haspelmath ().

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2.1 Definite/Indefinite Article

Haspelmath (: ) defines the existence of a definite and an indefinite ar-

ticle to be a distinguishing feature of SAE with languages having both articles

at the core and languages with only a definite article at the periphery of theSprachbund. Quenya has a definite article, namely i, as may be seen in ():

() S man i yulma nin enquantuva?

. . . . Who now shall refill the cup for me? . . . .

(Tolkien : f.; cf. Fauskanger: Namri)

However, there is no indefinite article in Quenya as is made clear in this phrase:

Elen sla. . . , a star shines . . . (Tolkien : ). Regarding this feature, there-

fore, Quenya is at the periphery of SAE .

2.2 Relative Clause

Haspelmath defines the kind of relative clause typical of SAE as follows:

e relative clause is postnominal, there is an inflecting relative

pronoun, this pronoun introduces the relative clause, and the

relative pronoun functions as a resumptive, i.e. it signals the

heads role within the relative clause . . . (: )

All these criteria are fulfilled by ():

() . . . tellumar, yassen tintilar i eleni. . .

. . . domes, which-in (pl.) twinkle the stars . . .

(Tolkien/Swann : f.)

Tellumar, domes, is the head noun; it is followed by the relative pronounyassen

inflected in the plural locative case and the relative clause tintilar i eleni. Fur-

thermore, the relative pronoun resumes the role of the head noun in the relative

clause by taking inflectional marking (Fauskanger: Namri). As Haspelmath

(: ) emphasises, this strategy of relative clause construction is rare outside

Europe and therefore a speciality of SAE.

2.3 Perfect Tense

e habeo-perfect the construction of the perfect tense by means of an auxiliary

with the meaning to have is understood to be typical of European languages

(Haspelmath : ), but it does not exist in Quenya. e perfect have passedaway (pl.), for example, is expressed by avnier(Tolkien/Swann : ), in


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one word and without any auxiliary.

2.4 Reduplication

It is convenient to consider one more feature related to the perfect tense in this

place: Haspelmath (: ) suspects that the absence of productive grammat-ical reduplication is typical of contemporary European languages. On the other

hand, in ancient Greek (Rix : ) and at least supposedly also in Proto-

Indo-European (Meier-Brgger : ; Rix : ), the perfect tense was

formed by means of prefixing reduplication. e same is true of Quenya:

() a) . . . utlien.

. . . I am come. . . . (Tolkien : )

() b) . . .utvienyes!I have found it! . . . (Tolkien : )

ese perfect tense forms are formed by prefixing reduplication of the stem vow-

els out of tul- come and tuv- find, respectively (cf. Fauskanger: Quenyallo). e

similarity to ancient Greek is not surprising, as Tolkien himself has stated that

Quenya was influenced by Greek (: ).

Tolkien also used another form of reduplication in Quenya which he

called frequentative (: ), formed as in fifru- fromfir- die, fade: slowly

fade away (Tolkien : ), to denote protracted or ongoing actions (Faus-

kanger: Markirya).

So, in using reduplication productively, Quenya is different from mo-

dern-day SAE , but links back to older Indo-European languages and probably

even to Proto-Indo-European.

2.5 Nominative Experiencers

e usual way of SAE languages to express experiencer arguments of verbs of

sensation, emotion, cognition and perception (Haspelmath : ) is as no-

minative subjects.

() Man kenuva lumbor na-hosta(Tolkien : )

Who will see (the) clouds gather? (Fauskanger: Markirya)

() shows the interrogative man who as the (nominative) subject of cenuva

see-, fitting in the SAE scheme. e problem is that in Quenya neither the

nominative nor the accusative case is marked morphologically, so that one has torely on the word order to be subject verb object (as Pesch : has pro-

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posed; cf. Haspelmath : ). However, I see no reason to assume that this

sentence has the reversed word order with the object before the subject, especially

as a remark by Tolkien (: ) suggests that lumborclouds is the object in-

deed (Fauskanger: Markirya). erefore I propose that Quenya conforms to SAEin this feature.

2.6 Causative/Inchoative Alternation

In causative / inchoative verb pairs like raise/riseor lose/get lost, either one of the

verbs is derived from the other, or they form a non-directed alternation (for de-

tails cf. Haspelmath : ). e direction of derivation in directed alterna-

tions is the basis of another feature of SAE: among European languages, some

show a clear preference for pairs in which the inchoative verb is derived from the

causative verb they are of the anticausative-prominent type (Haspelmath :

). e non-directed alternations may be further subdivided, as in table :

Table Causative /inchoative verb pairs in Quenya

verb meaning causative inchoative type

break (tr.) /(intr.) rac- ascat- sup.

burn (tr.) /(intr.) usta- (*urta-) urya- equip.

kill /die nahta- fir- sup.

gather (tr.) /(intr.) hosta- hosta- lab.

change (tr.) /(intr.) vista- ahya- sup.

raised /rose ortan oront antic.

finish (tr.) /(intr.) telya- tel- caus.

turn (tr.) /(intr.) quer- quer- + refl. pr. antic.

stop (tr.) /(intr.) pusta- pusta-/hauta- lab./sup.

Abbreviations: antic. = anticausative alternation; caus. = causative alter-

nation; equip. = equipollent etc; lab. = labile etc; sup. = suppletive etc;

refl. pr. = reflexive pronoun (cf. Haspelmath : , ).

I have collected the nine verb pairs in table from Fauskanger (Quenyanna;

Quenyallo) on the basis of the verb pairs in Haspelmath (: ). For Haspel-

maths other verb pairs no certain Quenya translations were available.

Note that *urta- to burn (tr.) is a (plausible) assumption by Fauskanger(Quenyallo), and that my classification as an equipollent alternation relies on the

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correctness of that assumption. If Fauskanger is wrong, it is a suppletive pair and

still a non-directed alternation.

e pair ortan orontis given in inflected (past tense) form, because

the stem orta- in itself is a labile verb. In the past tense, however, the differentia-tion of transitivity enters. Ortanis a regular past tense formation, while oront

seems to be an irregular form (Fauskanger: Quenyallo). I therefore take the lat-

ter to be the derived form, and accordingly classify the pair as anticausative.

Following Haspelmath (: f.), telya- is classified as derived from

tel-, because it is phonologically (and probably also morphologically, cf. Faus-

kanger: Quenyallo) more marked.

e following conclusions can be drawn from table : Of the directed al-

ternations, one is probably causative, one is certainly anticausative and another one

is (partly) anticausative all in all two thirds anticausatives. I conclude that in

relative numbers, approximately % ,% of the non-directed causative/in-

choative verb pairs in Quenya are anticausative alternations. Comparing this with

Haspelmaths map . (: ), I propose that in this feature, Quenya is at

the periphery of SAE.

But this is not the only conclusion to be drawn from table . Of the nine

alternations, six are non-directed (,%, to put it in relative numbers). is is a

remarkably high proportion; in Haspelmaths sample (: , table ) it is only

surpassed by Japanese (%) and, more remarkably, English (%). In this respect,

Quenya shows a certain similarity to English.

2.7 Comparison

According to Haspelmath (: ), SAE languages typically form compara-

tive constructions by means of a comparison particle. Quenya apparently prefers

the construction type which is prevalent in Africa: Welden (: ; italics in

the original) quotes A (n) kalima lB, meaning A is bright beyond B from

Haspelmaths classification of English as % anticausative-prominent (:

, map .) relies on no more than two anticausative alternations in his sample (Haspel-

math : , table ). erefore I take the present findings to be signifiant as well. Perhaps there are even more non-directed alternations, like panta- to open

(Fauskanger: Quenyallo), which possibly is labile.


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an unpublished essay on comparison by Tolkien. is corresponds to the exceed

comparative which does not occur in Europe (Haspelmath : ).

Note that calimabright above does not carry a comparative inflectional

marker, which would be expected in European languages (Haspelmath : ;Fauskanger: Quenyallo).

2.8 Subject Person Marking

Haspelmath notes that outside Europe, [s]ubject person affixes as strict agree-

ment markers are extremely rare (: ). at is to say that non-pro-drop

languages occur almost exclusively in the SAE Sprachbund, although even there

they are not widespread (Haspelmath : , map .) thus they are rather

at the core of SAE .

Quenya is a referential-agreement or pro-drop language. In Quenya,

subject person affixes are not (necessarily) agreement markers, because they can

be used in sentences without overt subject noun phrases, as () and () show.

() Nai hir-uva-lye Valimar.

be it that find wilt-thou Valimar.

. . . . Maybe thou shalt find Valimar. . . . (Tolkien/Swann : )

e verb hir- find carries the second person singular suffix -lye(Fauskanger: Na-

mri). In this respect, thus, Quenya is not at the core of SAE . But neither is it

entirely outside SAE, as in peripheral languages of the Sprachbund subject pro-

nouns are obligatory, while there is no (subject) person agreement marking on

the verb (Haspelmath : ). e same construction is possible in Quenya:

() Nai elye hir-uva.

Be it that even thou find will [it] (Brackets by the author.)

. . . Maybe even thou shalt find it . . . (Tolkien/Swann : )

In () only the future tense marker -uvais suffixed to the verb hir-, while the sec-

ond person singular pronoun appears as a free morpheme, elye(Fauskanger: Na-

mri).

2.9 Conjunction

Among the likely features of SAE, Haspelmath names the sub-type A and-B

(: ) for the construction of noun phrase conjunctions.

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() . . . Varda. . . ortane m-rya-t. . . , ar lumbule undu-lve ilye tir. . .

. . . . Varda . . . has uplifted her hands . . . , and all paths are drowned

deep in shadow . . . . (Tolkien/Swann : )

() shows that the cunjunction particle used in Quenya is ar (Fauskanger: Na-mri), and that it occurs at the beginning of the second of two noun phrases in

conjunction. is corresponds to the SAE pattern.

Note, however, that Haspelmath evaluates this feature as . . . less dis-

tinctive than the others mentioned so far . . . (: ).

2.10 Second Ordinal

According to Haspelmath (: ), the existence of a suppletive form of the

second ordinal () is a characteristic of SAE . Quenya has the special form tatya

second, which is archaic and supposed to have been replaced by atta second, a

regular derivation from atta two (Fauskanger: Quenyallo). us, besides the com-

mon second ordinal there also exists a suppletive form not regularly in use. e

same seems to be true even of the third ordinal: apart of neldthree exist (regu-

lar) neldathird and (suppletive) nelya third (Fauskanger: Quenyallo).

2.11 Alienable/Inalienable Possession

Haspelmath (: ) suspects that the absence of an opposition between alien-

able and inalienable possession is characteristic of SAE. In Quenya, no such dis-

tinction is attested neither in the distinction between the genitive and the

possessive case, nor in possessive pronouns (Fauskanger: Quenya). In this feature,

Quenya quite clearly conforms to SAE .

2.12 Inclusive/Exclusive Plural

According to Haspelmath, the [l]ack of an inclusive /exclusive opposition in first

person non-singular -pronouns . . . (: ) possibly is a feature of SAE.

Quenya, however, makes a clear distinction between the inclusive and exclusive

forms of the first person plural pronouns:

() a) . . . omentielvo . . . . (Tolkien : )

meeting-...-

() b) . . . laituvalmet. . . (Tolkien : )

praise--..-.e pronoun suffixes in () are: a) -lva first person plural inclusive possessive

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(with genitive -o displacing the final -a) and b) -lmefirst person plural exclusive

(Fauskanger: Quenya). Concerning this feature, Quenya is distinctly different

from SAE.

3. Conclusions

3.2 SAE Membership of Quenya

More than twelve features of Quenya have been examined and compared to SAE

in this paper. Most of them are listed in table . Note that only inherent distinc-

tions between core and periphery in features of SAE are reflected in the table.

Table Typological features of Quenya in relation to SAE

SAE non-feature core periphery SAE

. definite/indefinite article

. relative clause

. perfect tense

. (reduplication)

. nominative experiencers

. causative/inchoative alternation

. comparison

. subject person marking

. (conjunction)

. (second ordinal)

. (alienable/inalienable possession)

. (inclusive/exclusive plural)

e numeration and designations of features reference the headings of

this paper. For details, see the respective section. e features in paren-

theses are not among the twelve major features of SAE as proposed by

Haspelmath ().

Quenya shares five of the major features of SAE listed above some of them

only peripherally, though. As may be seen in Haspelmaths map . (: ),

a broad basis of European languages, constituting the periphery of SAE , share at

least five of the major features. is, then, qualifies Quenya as a peripheral mem-ber of SAE .

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On the whole, this paper presents eight instances in which Quenya con-

forms to the features described by Haspelmath (). Counting all these, Quenya

would be located at the core of SAE, according to Haspelmaths map . (:

). However, given the uncertain status of three of these features in respect totheir relevance for SAE (cf. Haspelmath : , ), and some uncertainties

in this paper (cf. ., .), and the fact that in three features Quenya is distinctly

at the periphery of SAE , I will not claim more than a peripheral membership of

Quenya in SAE .

Many of these results and observations (especially in . and .) may be-

come obsolete, as new linguistic material concerning Tolkiens artificial languages

is being published at intervals. On the other hand, such new material could pro-

vide information concerning the features presented by Haspelmath () about

which no statements in relation to Quenya can be made with certainty until now.

To answer the initial question: Tolkien wanted Quenya to be . . . defi-

nitely of a European kind in style and structure . . . (: ). Taking into ac-

count the results above, I think Quenya may confidently be classified as a

European language in structure.

3.2 Noun Phrase Final Case Marking

But what about style? I will try to make a few points regarding this question, al-

though a survey of more basic typological features of Quenya, like the phonolo-

gical structure or the degree of agglutinativity, could possibly provide further

illuminating insights.

One more feature of Quenya which is essentially unrelated to SAE but

relevant in the European context needs to be examined: the marking of case at the

end of noun phrases. is is common practice in Basque:

In noun phrases containing a single noun only the last word of

the phrase carries case and number inflection, which is marked

by suffixes. e word in the noun phrase inflected for case /num-

ber is not necessarily the head noun. If an adjective or another

modifier follows the noun the inflectional suffixes will appear

on this word. at is, in Basque number and case inflection is a

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property of noun phrases. (Hualde and Ortiz de Urbina :

)

is construction is exemplified in ():

() gizon gazte-ariman young-.

to the young man (Hualde and Ortiz de Urbina : )

A similar construction occurs in Quenya, although it is not employed as regularly

as in Basque. Consider ():

() . . .Elendil Vorondo voronw. (Tolkien : )

Elendil faithful- faith

. . . the faith of Elendil the Faithful . . . (Tolkien : )

Tolkien explained that . . . as is usual in Quenya in the case of two declinable

names in apposition only the last is declined . . . (: ). However, it is also

possible, as in Basque, to mark the last word of a noun phrase even if it is not a

cognomen:

() . . . isilme ilkalasse. . . (Tolkien : )

moonlight white.gleaming- (Tolkien : )

in the gleaming moonlight (Fauskanger: Markirya)

It is quite possible that Tolkien loaned this feature from Basque, because apart

from this language it only occurs in Australian and Amazonian languages (Blake

: ). e probability that Tolkien got the inspiration for this feature from

such languages is even smaller than that he reinvented it all by himself.

To sum up: the use of reduplication, especially in the construction of the

perfect tense, connects Quenya to older Indo-European languages (see .), the

high amount of non-directed causative/inchoative alternations makes it similar to

English (see .) which in itself is not among the most typical SAE languages

(Haspelmath : ) and the noun phrase final case marking is probably

loaned from Basque, possibly the most extraordinary language in Europe. All this

gives Quenya a peculiar, unique but still European flavour, distinct from just

any standard average European language.

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4. Works Cited

4.1 Books

Blake, Barry J. () Case. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Haspelmath, Martin () More on the Typology of Inchoative /CausativeVerb Alternations. In: Comrie, Bernard and Polinsky, Maria (eds.)

Causatives and Transitivity. (Studies in Language Companion Series

.), . Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

() e European Linguistic Area: Standard Average European. In:

Haspelmath, Martin, et al. (eds.) Language Typology and Language

Universals: An International Handbookvol. . (Handbooks of Linguis-

tics and Communication Science ..), . Berlin: Walter de

Gruyter.

Hualde, Jos Ignacio and Ortiz de Urbina, Jon, eds. ()A Grammar of

Basque. (Mouton Grammar Library .) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Meier-Brgger, Michael ()Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft. ed.

Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Pesch, Helmut W. ()Elbisch: Grammatik, Schrift und Wrterbuch der Elben-

Sprache von J.R.R. Tolkien. Bergisch Gladbach: Bastei Lbbe.

Rix, Helmut () Historische Grammatik des Griechischen: Laut- und Formen-

lehre. ed. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, .

et al. () Lexikon der Indogermanischen Verben: Die Wurzeln und Ihre

Primrstammbildung. ed. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag.

Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel () A Secret Vice. In: John Ronald Reuel

Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien (ed.) e Monsters and the Critics and

Other Essays, . London: George Allen & Unwin.

() Unfinished Tales of Nmenor and Middle-Earth. Ed. Christopher

Tolkien. London: Unwin Hyman Limited, .

() e Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter and Christo-

pher Tolkien. London: HarperCollins.

and Swann, Donald () e Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle. ed.

London: HarperCollins, . () e Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins, .

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4.2 Periodicals

Welden, Bill () Negation in Quenya. Vinyar Tengwar: .

4.3 Online Sources

All bold emphasis in these references is mine. It indicates the short titles used forparenthetical reference in this paper.

Fauskanger, Helge K. Quenya Course: Lesson Quenya Course. Febru-

ary . http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/less-d.rtf ( October ).

Fauskanger, Helge K. e MarkiryaPoem.Ardalambion.

http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/markirya.htm ( September ).

Fauskanger, Helge K. Namri.Ardalambion.

http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/namarie.htm ( September ).

Fauskanger, Helge K. Quenya e Ancient Tongue.Ardalambion.

http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/quenya.htm ( September ).

Fauskanger, Helge K. Quettaparma Quenyallo. July .

http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/quen-eng.rtf ( September ).

Fauskanger, Helge K. Quettaparma Quenyanna. July .

http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/eng-quen.rtf ( September ).

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Quenya in the European Context - Standard Average European Features of Tolkien's Quenya

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