Q. relative pronouns grammar.
Relative Pronouns ya and i: A relative pronoun introduces a subordinate clause that describes some other element in a sentence, such as “the man who wore the crown” or “the crown which I found yesterday”. The basis for the majority of Quenya’s relative pronouns in Tolkien’s later writings is the root √YA. However, the most common relative pronoun is i, which is related to the definite article. The word i is frequently used to introduce a subordinate clause:
The relative pronoun i is very generic. It can refer to a person (“who”) or a thing (“what”), it can be the subject of the subordinate clause (“who art in Heaven”) or the object (“what you judge good”), and it can be singular (“who”) or plural (“those who”). Though it superficially resembles the definite article, it is distinct from it, as shown in the fourth example which has both a definite article i “the” and a relative pronoun i “who”. It seems that this generic relative i is indeclinable, which is a strong indication that it is related to or derived from the definite article which is likewise indeclinable.
In cases where the relative pronoun is declined, we generally see either ya (neuter) “what” or ye (personal) “who” in Tolkien’s writings of the 1950s and 60s, such as:
Tolkien discussed the personal (“who”) vs. impersonal (“what”) relative pronouns in notes on hands and fingers from the late 1960s (VT47/21):
who rel. per. ye, pl. i
that rel. imp. ya
These relative pronouns were probably developed from √YA in the same pattern as personal se vs. impersonal sa. Note that the plural form of ye was i, which could be declined as well: ablative plural illon or genitive ion (VT47/21). No plural form was given for ya, but it may be *yai (compare tai; hat-tip to Luinyelle for this suggestion). It is not entirely clear when you should use declinable ya/ye vs. indeclinable i. There is at least one example of ya used as a relative pronoun by itself, without any inflections:
Another interesting derivative of √YA is the temporal relative pronoun yá “when”, used conjunctively in sentences like yá hríve mene, ringa ná “when winter comes, it is cold” (VT49/23) and yá tenn’ aldar lente landanóressë ólaner “when still trees grew free in a wide country” (CPT/1298). This sort of vowel-lengthening for temporal adverbs also appears for demonstrative adverbs like sí “now” (LotR/377) and tá “then” (VT49/11). Earlier versions the sí ar lúmessë... sentence given above have yá with a long vowel (VT43/27), so they could be instances of temporal “when” rather than relative “that”.
Origins of relative pronouns ya and i: Tolkien described the semantic development of the root √YA as follows:
ya-, used in Quenya as stem of relatives (being originally a demonstrative referring back to something behind, or previous in time) (PE17/66).
Indeed, there are also derivatives of this root having only to do with the past, such as yára “old”. But as a pronoun it seems to be used mainly as a relative pronoun in Tolkien’s writings of the 1950s and 60s. As noted above, personal ye “who” probably developed from impersonal ya by analogy with personal se vs. impersonal sa. As evidence of this, there is one place were ya might be used personally, hinting that ya was the default:
As noted above, the relative pronoun i is likely derived from the same root as the definite article i. This was definitely the cause in the 1940s:
ī̆ is anaphoric. In its simplest form it provides the stem of the article and relative. i·mbar i Túro karne “the house that Túro built,” which from Quenya point of view is an apposition: “the house — the one Túro built” (PE23/98).
However in 1948, i was declinable: see Conceptual Development below.
Subordinating Conjunctions sa and ha: In Tolkien’s later writings, the word sa is typically used as a neuter pronoun “it”, but occasionally it is used instead as a demonstrative pronoun or subordinating conjunction “that”, in phrases like ecë nin care sa “I can do that” (VT49/20) or merin sa haryalyë alassë nó vanyalyë Ambarello “I hope that you have happiness before you pass from the world” (Merin Sentence).
The demonstrative use of sa is explained in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948, where Tolkien indicated that sa could be used as an anaphoric reference for a time, place or thing previously mentioned (PE23/96-98). Its use for introducing a subordinate clause is explained in contemporaneous the Quenya Verbal System (QVS):
In reporting or stating a clause is introduced by sa or nil. ni qete (sa) e·tule “I say (that) he is coming”. ni qente (sa) e·tule, I said: “he is coming” or/ I said (that) he was coming. ni qente (sa) e·utúlie, I said he had come (PE22/119).
QVS used subject prefixes rather than suffixes, so in Tolkien’s later system of Quenya these phrases might be quetin (sa) tules “I say (that) he is coming”, quenten (sa) tules “I said (that) he is coming”, quenten (sa) utúlies “I said (that) he had come”. QVS contrasted objective sa with subjective ha, the latter used to introduce a subordinate clause that was the subject rather than object of the main clause:
... the most usual especially in long or complex expressions: to convert the whole expression into clause with ha (the subjective form of the objective sa above). “Old Turo’s eating all the bread was a nuisance to us”. Yára Túro mante ilqa masta ha mé·ne úmahtale (PE22/120).
This contrast between sa and ha was also mentioned in DRC:
The pronouns corresponding to sa are the ordinary pronouns of the third person (q.v.). sa in simple pronominal form has a subjective form ha (see pronouns and verbal syntax); but these are not used with reference to persons or to nouns, but are reserved for reference to sentences, to facts, ideas, statements already mentioned or understood; or in apposition to them: as ha e·sauten “the fact that he disliked me” (sc. did not trouble me); sa e sauten “(of the fact) that he disliked me” (sc. I was aware) (PE23/98).
This was elaborated further later in DRC:
The demonstratives: hā̆ (objective sā̆). Exx. má le·qente? [“what did you say”] sa ela kenyuvas “that he will not see it”; má sútale? “what is the matter with you?” [lit. “what bothers you”]; ha nila kare kenyas “that I cannot see it.” When stressed and emphatic the forms are há, sá. la há “it is not that!” há ye “that is it, that is so.” They can then express such tones as “this fact indeed” (forsooth, of course, need I say? etc.). má suntete: “what was the matter with him?” [lit. “what bothered him”] há ela kambe mendelta “that he could not have his will (what he wanted) of course!” (PE23/104).
Based on the discussion above, I would primarily use sa to introduce subordinate clauses functioning as objects of the main clause such as in “I know that..., I say that..., I hope that...”. The word ha might be used where the subordinate clause is the subject of the main clause: “that (ha) he dislikes me (does not bother me, is a big problem, etc.)”. However, there are no signs of ha past the 1940s, so it may be that in Tolkien’s later writings sa served both functions. There are also examples in Tolkien’s later writings of i or yá introducing a subordinate clause serving as the object of a sentence:
Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon (GL) of the 1910s Tolkien gave ī as the root of relative pronouns:
ī- root of relatives. as in í indefinite indeclinable relative particle (GL/50).
Such relative pronouns might have appeared in the contemporaneous text Sí Qente Feanor as suggested by Christopher Gilson (PE15/35):
However, in the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) of the 1920s Tolkien gave ya as the (indeclinable) relative pronoun:
The indeclinable relative pronoun is ya, which is either to be understood in any relation, or, very frequently, is defined by demonstrative or pronominal or adverbial words inside the relative clause (PE14/54).
This pronoun did appear later in the 1920s in a declined (r-dative) form:
Both i and ya continued to appear thereafter with the caveat that in the 1940s, i became in before vowels: “A clause in such cases is introduced by i, before vowels in (PE22/118)”. In Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948, it was i rather than ya that was the basis for declinable relative pronouns: ᴹQ. í “when” (PE23/109) vs. later Q. yá, ᴹQ. isse “where” (PE23/111) vs. later Q. yassë. Similar constructions appeared in the contemporaneous Quenya Verbal System (PE22/121), but I can find no other examples of declinable relative i in Tolkien’s writings before or after 1948.
Element In
ᴱQ. relative pronouns grammar.
Reference ✧ PE14/54 ✧ for example: en ilta n·ner ya me·{nyeliel >> qense >> qensiēma >>} qetsime ka húyo ne hwa·telpe {nye >>} ie-rautanēma ompa va húyo “thereupon in came the man {from whom we heard >>} by whom we were told his money had all been stolen from him”
Element In