Neo-Quenya/Genitive

< Neo-Quenya

Quenya has 2 cases that together form the traditional genitive case of an inflected language (e.g. Latin, German or Greek): the genitive and the possessive. However, the Quenya genitive case doesn't cover all that is in the traditional genitive case, which instead are found in the possessive case, so to differentiate between when to appropriately use a genitive or possessive is key to learning the differences between these Quenya cases.

Usage

There is quite an extensive list of situations in which the genitive is used:


1. Origin:

The place where something is made or someone is born is in the genitive:
  • aG7ÎE 1T7T`N5^ cirya Tiriono "the ship of Tirion"
  • iRm^ `CjzDj^2$`N seldo Alqualondëo "the boy from Swanhaven"
It has no implication of movement, so the boy was born in Swanhaven but we don't mean that he just arrived from Swanhaven.


2. Previous owner:

This means that the horse once belonged to the king, but now belongs to someone else.


3. Partitive genitive:

We use this to denote something that is part of something greater:
  • `B `Vj$5%`N5 `Cf#j%t# i elenion ancalima "the brightest of the stars"
  • 7Ev% `B `C7E5^ ranqui i arano "the arms of the king"


4. Family relations:


5. Where a title belongs to:


6. Nouns after "about":

Frequently the preposition "about" is replaced by "of" in English, so we have to be careful about the meaning of this "of":
  • `B 5.DaY6 zF1T6 `Cj1R 9C6t#7Y5 i naucor quetir altë harmaron "the dwarves speak of (about) great treasures"
  • zF4# iGjt#7Tj°%`N5 quenta Silmarillion "the tale of (about) the Silmarils"
  • zF4#j$ 5^m^7Y5 quentalë Noldoron "the history of (about) the Noldor", Noldoron is also spelt as g^m^7Y5.

(for more about this see also Verbal nouns)


7. Composite names of plants or animals:


8. The word following quanta "full":


9. The prepositions ~M ú "without" and the adjective `C6nE arwa "with, having":

The adjective `C6nE arwa has the plural form of `C6nR arwë, this is used when there is more than one owner:
  • 5$7T `C6nR aYj°^ neri arwë collo "men with/having a mantle"


Word order

The genitive can be placed in front or behind the noun to which it belongs:


There are 2 cases in which the genitive is always put in front:

When the noun is preceded by a preposition:
  • yR `N81Y `C7E5 ve osto aran "like the king of a city"
  • 5& 1T7T5^ 1~NqE nu tirino tópa "under the roof of a tower"


When the noun has both a word in the genitive and in the possessive case:
  • `B `Vm#7Y5 t#aGj `C1E6nE i eldaron macil atarwa "father's sword of (coming from) the elves"


A genitive can also be used predicatively:


Use of the article

A noun that is accompanied by a noun in the genitive case normally shouldn't get the article i (however the article is sometimes written for poetic reasons).

So we have to take into account that a noun in the genitive can be translated with either an indefinite or a definite article:


Formation

We discuss each of the numbers separately:

Singular

The basic ending is \`N -o.

Most words simply add this ending:


Words that have a stem-form use this stem-form:


Words on \`N -o have a genitive singular that is identical to the nominative singular:


In words on \`C -a this final letter is replaced by \`N -o:


Words on \`B`V -ië lengthen the final the "e" to make it \`B~V -ié:

Plural

The plural adds \`N5 -on to the nominative 'plural' (this is exceptional as all other cases of the plural are based upon the nominative singular):


Words on \`B`V -ië lengthen the final "e" to \`B~V -ié:

Dual

In the dual the ending is also \`N -o:


When the noun has a t-dual and the nominative singular ends in a vowel followed by a consonant:

(\j \5 \6 \8 -l, -n, -r, -s), the \`V\ -e- of the nominative dual disappears in the genitive dual:


Words on \`B`V -ië lengthen the final "e" to make \`B~V -ié:

Partitive Plural

We always add -on to the nominative partitive plural:


>> Neo-Quenya >> Nouns >> Genitive

This article is issued from Wikibooks. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.