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ᴹ√RASAT root. “twelve”
The Etymologies gloss this root as “twelve”, and students of Elvish long supposed that its unattested derivative *rasta was the Quenya word for “twelve”. In later publications, however, the Quenya word for “twelve” was given as yunquë (VT47/41), derived from primitive ✶yūnekē.
This word yunquë dates back to Early Quenya, first appearing as ᴱQ. yunqe in the Early Qenya Grammar from the 1920s (PE14/82), so it is likely that the √RASAT “twelve” co-existed with ✶yūnekē when that root was introduced in the 1930s. As a Quenya word, rasta only appears as a suffix in yurasta “twenty four” (twice-twelve) in a discussion of the Elvish duodecimal (base twelve) counting system (PE14/17). It may be that ✶yūnekē was used for the general word for “twelve”, while √RASAT was used for “groups of twelve” as part of this duodecimal system. If so, it may have only been used as a suffix in grouping words in this counting system. That is the theory used in in this lexicon.
References ✧ Ety/RÁSAT; PE14/17
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