Neo-Quenya/Perfect Tense

< Neo-Quenya

Regular formation

This tense is formed in the following way:


So we find e.g.


The A-verbs and U-verbs lose their final vowel before adding \`B`V -ië:


Exceptional cases

Verbs with long central syllable

Verbs with a central vowel that cannot be lengthened are divided into three types:

When the stem ends in a consonant-cluster, we cannot lengthen the central vowel, but otherwise the basic rule is followed:
  • 5#81E\ nasta- "prick" → `C5$81T`V anastië
  • 5&7;U\ nurru- "grumble" → `M5&7;T`V unurrië


However, t$4#\ menta- and eD4#\ fanta- have attested perfect `Vt~V5%`V eménië and `Ce~C5%`V afánië,

While `N61E\ orta- and 9R4#\ henta- have `N1E5%`V ortanië and `VdR4#5%`V ehentanië.


When the central vowel is long, we put a short version of this vowel in front of the stem:
  • t~N1E\ móta- "labour" → `Nt~N1T`V omótië


When the central vowel is a diphthong, we add the first vowel of the diphthong:
  • 9.D1E\ hauta- "stop" → `Cd.D1T`V ahautië
  • qlY1E\ poita- "cleanse" → `NqlY1T`V opoitië
  • ylD1E\ vaita- "wrap" → `CylD1T`V avaitië
  • 8lUj#\ suila- "greet" → `M8lUj%`V usuilië
  • 1.G1E\ tiuta- "fatten" → `B1.G1T`V itiutië


Verbs starting in a vowel

When the verb starts in a vowel, we don't add an extra vowel to the beginning of the stem:


Verbs with a prefix

Some verbs are formed by placing a prefix before another verb, in this case we first form the perfect tense of the original verb and then we put the prefix again in front:


Verbs on -ya

Verbs on hÍE -ya lose both these letters:


Some ancient verbs end on a diphtong followed by \1ÎE -tya, they probably follow the same rule as the others:


Some verbs have a vowel before the ending \hÍE -ya.


Possibly the perfect can be formed by the insertion of an \5\ -n- between the stem and the ending:


Some verbs can be conjugated by using an ancient stem and don't need an extra n


The verb 1.G`C\ tuia- comes from the ancient stem 1UhÍ tuy, so the perfect tense would also need 5 n:


Historical influences on the perfect tense

Most likely certain verbs undergo historical influences. The problem can be found in the prefixed vowel. Quite a few letters are allowed in the middle of a word but not in the beginning, so they have evolved differently in the perfect tense.

In most verbs there is no problem because they begin in a letter that is allowed in both places: 1Uj\ tul- "come" has `M1~Mj%`V utúlië "has come" as perfect tense.


In Primitive-Elvish this verb was 1Uj tul and there is no problem here because t is allowed at the beginning of a word
(note: the Passive infinitive shows the same irregularities as a prefixed `C\ a- has the same effect).


Verbs in d-

Take now the Primitive-Elvish verbs 2#4 'dant' "fall" and 2#w 'dab' "allow". The letter d is no longer a separate letter in Neo-Quenya, neither in the beginning nor in the middle of a word. In the evolution a d in the beginning of a word changed into an j l and in the middle of a word it changed into 6 r.


So these verbs evolved into the Quenya verbs j#4#\ lanta- "fall" and j#y\ lav- "allow"
(the b changed into v but here there is no problem as this letter never appears at the end of a word).


But in the perfect tense the d changed into r:


If we apply this to j#y\ lav- we get a nice consequence: Primitive-Elvish also had a verb j#w\ 'lab' "lick".
In Quenya this verb also evolved into j#y\ lav-, but their perfect tenses have remained different:


Verbs in mb- / nd- / ng-

These verbs are however not the only ones, in Primitive-Elvish we had verbs that began with the consonant clusters tw\ mb-, 52\ nd- or g\ ng-. In Quenya these are no longer allowed in the beginning of a word, but in the middle of words they are still allowed.


The verbs 5#w#\ namba- "hammer" and 5~M1E\ núta- "set (of sun and moon)" have evolved from the Primitive-Elvish stems 52#t 'ndam' and 52~M 'ndú'.


So in the perfect tense we find:


The next verbs show Primitive-Elvish forms to Quenya, then to their perfect tenses:

The verbs beginning with g\ ng- can in Tengwar script can still be recognised, as they are still written with the Tengwar g ñoldo or ngoldo (Tengwa 19).


In Exilic Quenya pronunciation, there is no difference between g ñoldo and the normal 5 n (númen). Because of this, they can be written with either characters and both forms are acceptable. Note that g can only be written as an initial consonant of a word only.


At the moment we know two verbs in this category:


Verbs in h-

Verbs beginning with 9\ h- can show the same problems because this 9 h could have evolved from either d\ 'kh'- or 8a\ 'sk'-.

This last combination gives in Neo-Quenya the letter 9 h at the beginning of a word and an a| x in the middle of a word.


Here we have following verbs and perfect tenses:


When this starting h appears in the combinations hy-, hl- or hr- then we find following forms:


In the combination c hw- the changes are like these:


Verbs in -s- / -þ-

The final irregularity is found with verbs starting in s. This s can either be a pure 8 - i s (Tengwa 29 & 30 silmë & silmë nuquerna) or have evolved from 3 th (Tengwa 9 thúlë / súlë). The only irregularity is within how it can be written in Tengwar.

Words derived from 3 thúlë/súlë can be written with either 3 thúlë/súlë or with 8 - i silmë / silmë nuquerna in Tengwar, but words that originally came from an "s" are never written with 3 thúlë/súlë and only with 8 - i silmë / silmë nuquerna.


Derived from -s-:


Derived from -th- / -þ-:

  • yE3D7ÎE\ vaþarya → `CyE3~C7T`V avaþárië


>> Neo-Quenya >> Verbs >> Perfect Tense

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