S. #anna- v. “to give, †add to” (Category: to Give)
The most commonly accepted Sindarin verb for “give” is S. anna-, but Tolkien experimented with a variety of other forms throughout his life. Its best known form is its strong past ôn “gave” as in ónen i-Estel Edain “I gave Hope to the Dúnedain” from The Lord of the Rings Appendix A (LotR/1061).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. antha- “give” (GL/19), equivalent to ᴱQ. anta- under the early root ᴱ√ANA “give, send towards” in the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/31). In the 1910s the medial combination nth survived, but by the 1930s medial nth became nn, and The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. anno “to give” under the root ᴹ√ANA¹ “to, towards” as the equivalent of ᴹQ. anta- “give” (Ety/ANA¹). The Sindarin version of the Lord’s Prayer from the mid-1950s had imperative anno “give” in anno ammen sír i mbas ilaurui vín “give us this day our daily bread” (VT44/21).
Quenya Notes (QN) from 1957 instead had S. anta- “give” (PE17/147), which seems to belong to a (brief?) period where Tolkien abandoned the development of nt to nn; see my essay on Sindarin Articles and Mutations from Parma Eldalamberon #23 for further discussion. There was a verb form anha- “give” from around 1967 which might represent a conceptual stage where nt became voiceless nh but did not further advance to voiced nn (PE17/147). In Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, Tolkien the described verb’s derivation as follows:
The Q. causative anta ... is due to blending AN with the unrelated verbal stem {ƷAN >>} HAN “give”, {which in Q. and S. lost the initial spirant ʒ, that in T. became h- >>} which in S. lost the initial breath h of CE, that in Q., T. remained h- (T hanin “I give”) ... S[indarin] strong verb (lost in Q.) aned, pa.t. ónen, T hanna (PE22/163 and note #99).
This last example implies a basic/strong verb form S. an- “give” [e.g. *ân “he gives”, *enin “I give”] with gerund aned “*giving” and strong past ôn “*gave”. It is possible, though, that only the past and gerund were strong, and the base verb remained S. anna- analogous to T. hanna.
Neo-Sindarin: For purpose of Neo-Sindarin I would stick with S. anna- “give”, since it is a direct equivalent of the well-attested Q. anta- “give” if one assumes nt > nth > nn, which seems to be the rule for most of the 1930s through 1960s.
References ✧ LotR/1061; PE17/93, 117, 147; PE22/163; VT44/27
Glosses
Variations
Changes
Inflections
| aned | gerund | ✧ PE22/163 | |
| Anno | imperative | “*give” | ✧ VT44/27 |
| ónen | past | ✧ PE22/163 | |
| ōn | past | ✧ PE17/147 | |
| ōn- | past | ✧ PE17/93 | |
| Onen | past 1st-sg | “I gave” | ✧ PE17/93 |
| Ónen | past 1st-sg | “I gave” | ✧ LotR/1061 |
| ónen | past 1st-sg | ✧ PE17/93 | |
| ónen | past 1st-sg | ✧ PE17/147 | |
| ōnen | past 1st-sg | ✧ PE17/93 | |
| ōnen | past 1st-sg | “I gave” | ✧ PE17/117 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| √ANA > antha- > anha- | [anta-] > [antʰa-] > [anθa-] > [anna-] | ✧ PE17/93 |
| ✶ānē- > ōn- | [ānē] > [āne] > [ǭne] ? [ōne] > [ōn] | ✧ PE17/93 |
| √ANA/NĀ > anta- | [anta-] > [antʰa-] > [anθa-] ? [anta-] | ✧ PE17/147 |
N. anna- v. “to give” (Category: to Give)
References ✧ Ety/ANA¹
Inflections
| anno | infinitive | “to give” | ✧ Ety/ANA¹ |
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√ANA¹ > anno | [anta-] > [antʰa-] > [anθa-] > [anna-] | ✧ Ety/ANA¹ |
G. antha- v. “to give” (Category: to Give)
References ✧ GG/11; GL/19
Glosses
Variations
Related
Inflections
| ôni | past | “pressed” | ✧ GG/11 |
| ôni | past | ✧ GG/11 | |
| ōni | past | ✧ GL/19 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations