Q. sí adv. “now” (Category: Now)
The Quenya word for “now” which is very well attested. In notes on demonstratives from 1968, it is a vowel-lengthened form of demonstrative si “this” (VT49/18) which seems to be a standard way of forming adverbs of time in Tolkien’s later writings; compare tá “then” (VT49/11) and yá “when” (VT49/23). This vowel-lengthening construction was explicitly described in Demonstrative, Relative, and Correlative Stems (DRC) from 1948: “The bare stems lengthened are used [for adverbs of time]” (PE23/109).
In Tolkien’s writings from the 1930s and 40s, he occasionally had sin or sín “now” with an n (Ety/SIN; LR/47; SD/247; SD/310). One working theory is that this is the form of sí when it appears before a vowel. However, in the aforementioned DRC from 1948, Tolkien had a variant form ᴹQ. sin(an) “now” using the suffix ᴹQ. -n(an), also used for adverbs of time.
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. tyá “now” based on the early root ᴱ√KI “this by me” (QL/46, 49). In the Early Qenya Grammar (EQG) from the 1920s he had ᴱQ. qí or qin for adverbs of time based ᴱQ. qi “this”, hence = “*now”. However, the untranslated text Sí Qente Feanor from the 1910s seems to use sí = “now” (PE15/32, 34).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would mostly use sí “now”, but I would also use sín or sin in cases where the results are more euphonic, particularly preceding a word starting with a vowel.
References ✧ CPT/1298; LotR/377; Minor-Doc/2013-05-13; PE17/27, 45, 67, 69-70, 94, 127; PE22/147, 161; PE23/135; RGEO/58-60; VT21/6; VT43/34; VT49/18
Glosses
Variations
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ✶sī > sí | [sī] | ✧ PE17/67 |
| ✶si- > sí | [sī] | ✧ VT49/18 |
ᴹQ. sí adv. “now, here” (Category: Now)
References ✧ Ety/SI; LR/47, 56, 72; PE22/105, 120, 124-126; PE23/92, 99, 109-110; SD/247, 310
Glosses
Variations
Changes
Element In
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√SI > sí | [sī] | ✧ Ety/SI |
ᴱQ. qí adv. “*now” (Category: Now)
References ✧ PE14/55
Variations
Elements
| qi | “this” | ✧ PE14/54 |
ᴱQ. tyá adv. “now” (Category: Now)
Reference ✧ QL/49 ✧ “now”
Related
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴱ✶kı̯-ā > tyá | [kjā] > [tjā] | ✧ QL/49 |
ᴱQ. sí adv. “*now” (Category: Now)
Reference ✧ PE15/32 ✧ sī “*now”
Element In