Sunday, January 13, 2013

Nouns - Plurals

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The basic plural (“all the ~”, “~ in general”) is formed by adding either -r or -i
   -r after vowel except -ë
   -r after -
   -i replaces -ë
   -i after consonant


Vala                   Valar (as a group)
Atan (Human) Atani (Humans, in general)
lassë (a leaf)     lassi (leaves)

Are all words that end in -r or -i plural?  Most are, but not always.
tári (high queen)
Ambar (the World)
ëar (sea)

Extra Material for the Geeks:
Quenya has a lot more different kinds of plural, compared to English.
English has only “singular” (one) and “plural” (more than one) forms.

Quenya has
     “singular” (one),
    basic plural (“all the ~”, “~ in general”),
     partitive plural (“some ~”, “a group of ~”),
     “the (subgroup of) ~ previously mentioned”,
     and dual (“a pair of ~”).

For this lesson, we stick to the most basic plural, the one that means "all the (somethings)" or (somethings) in general".   We will get to the other plurals in later lessons.


Practice – Your Turn
Highlight the shaded box to see the answer.
Form the plurals:
aran   (king)        arani
Casar  (Dwarf)       Casari
heri   (lady)        herir
hísië  (mist)        hísier
huo    (dog)         huor
lócë   (dragon)      lóci
már    (home)        mári
Extra Material for the Geeks:
Analysts of Quenya disagree about the plural of már.   Tolkien did not explicitly list the plural.   If már follows the "regular" pattern, its plural is mári.   Some analysts argue that the plural should be mardi.
nórië  (country)     nórier
nyéni  (female goat) nyénir
orva   (apple)       orvar
osellë (kinswoman)   oselli
otorno (kinsman)     otornor
parma  (book)        parmar
sicil  (knife)       sikili
tári   (high queen)  tárir
tië    (path)        tier
vinë   (young child) vini
yávë   (fruit)       yávi
Maia                 Maiar
Vala                 Valar
Elda   (High Elf)    Eldar

Extra Material for the Geeks:
Notice that "Casar", "lócë" and "sicil" could equally well be spelled "Kasar", "lókë" and "sikil", since "C" and "K" are the same letter in Quenya.


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