Q. reflexive pronouns grammar.
Quenya has a set of reflexive pronouns similar in function to English “myself, yourself, theirselves”. These pronouns are given in a chart written in the late 1960s (VT47/37), and are formed from the (primitive) independent pronouns with the prefix im- along with various appropriate phonetic adjustments.
| Primitive | Reflexive | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person Singular | ✶ni | imni “myself” |
| 2nd Person Singular (familiar) | ✶ki | intye “yourself (familiar)” |
| 2nd Person Singular (polite) | ✶le | imle “yourself (polite)” |
| 3rd Person Singular | ✶se | inse “himself, herself” |
| 3rd Person Singular (inanimate) | ✶sa | insa “itself” |
| 1st Person Plural (inclusive) | ✶me | imme “ourselves (exclusive)” |
| 1st Person Plural (exclusive) | ✶we | inwe “ourselves (inclusive)” |
| 2nd Person Plural | ✶de | inde “yourselves” |
| 3rd Person Plural | ✶te | inte “themselves” |
Most of the changes to ancient forms are the result of assimilating m > n before a dental stop, with 2nd singular familiar intye developing like the Quenya independent pronoun form tye < ✶kı̯e. In addition to the above, there are some indefinite reflexive pronouns immo “same person” and imma “same thing”, as well as an adjective form imya “same, identical, selfsame”. Presumably the definite reflexive pronouns are used when the object is the same as the subject: melin imni “I love myself”. The indefinite reflexives are probably used with indefinite subjects mo and ma: mo mere immon same alma “one wants for oneself [dative] to have good fortune”.
In an earlier chart from 1964 (PE17/75), Tolkien gave a set of 3rd person reflective verbal suffixes: -kse, -kset, -kser (singular, dual, plural). These are presumably shorthand for “he ... himself, they ... themselves” and so forth: melikse “he/she loves himself/herself”. In a different document from 1965 (or possibly later) he gave the reflexive verbal suffixes as 3rd sg. -sse < -se-sē̆ and 3rd pl. -tte < -te-tē̆: melisse “he loves himself” and melitte “they love themselves” (VT49/20-21). It is not clear whether these are part of the same paradigm as the independent reflexive pronouns given above.
Other referent pronouns: In addition to reflexive pronouns that indicate when two referents are the same, Quenya has some special 3rd person pronouns to indicate when referents are different: hye “other person” and hya “other thing”, as in: melin se mal ú hye “I love her but not (the other) her”. If the second (other) referent appears multiple times in a sentence, you would continue to use the pronoun hye to refer to it: “A struck B, and B fled” se - hye - hye (VT49/15). The neuter/inanimate variant hya is identical to the Quenya word for “or”, which is also hya. In the 1960s Tolkien experimented with several variations on these “other referent” pronouns:
None of these notes are fully published, so we don’t have all of the context for these variations. I personally would use hye/hya given their association with the conjunction hya “or” (VT49/7, 14).
Conceptual Development: In the Qenya Lexicon (QL) of the 1910s Tolkien mentioned a “reflexive suffix” ᴱQ. -ko or -to (QL/47). In Qenya Verb Forms from around this time, Tolkien gave a complete set of “Medial or Reflexive” inflections for present, past and future (PE14/29), but these seem to be more properly Medial Voice versus Active Voice from the preceding page (PE14/28) and Passive Voice on the following page (PE14/30). In a footnote Tolkien mentioned a variant impersonal reflexive suffix -kto, and this suffix as well as the 3rd person reflexive suffixes (which also incorporate k) are probably connected to the QL -ko/-to suffix, as suggested by Patrick Wynne and Christopher Gilson (PE14/26 note #1).
There are independent reflexive pronouns mentioned in Early Qenya Pronouns fragments, for example on PE15/44, but the disjointed nature of these fragments make them hard to analyze. Tolkien gave a set of reflexive independent pronouns in the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s, but only for the 3rd person:
Reflexive of third person is ikto or ikso, declined as sg. noun, adj. iksa, pl. ilko, ilka (PE14/54).
There was also a set of reflexive object suffixes for verbs as well:
ending -kto (sg.), -lko (plural) for reflexive accusative, -ktor, -lkor dative.
The first version of Quenya Personal Pronouns (QPP1) the late 1940s also mentioned a reflexive enclitic ᴹQ. ko, but in that document it was only used to emphasize reflexiveness: ᴹQ. ninyen antanéta ko “I gave it to myself” (PE23/74). In QPP1, additional references with the same pronoun were assumed to be reflexive:
Pronouns of the same number and person in one sentence are always held to refer to same person (or thing). Hence for reflexives of 1, 2 the ordinary pronouns are used. In the case of the pronouns of 3rd pers[on] e | te, se | tí(ter) are held to refer to the same person. So e·nakite “he bites him” = “he bites himself”, se·nakiter “they bite them” = “they bite themselves”. If the reference is different the stem the- is used in oblique or aggutin[ated] forms. e·nakithe = he“ bites him (another)” (PE23/73).
Thus the QPP1 used an anti-reflexive (or “4th person”) pronoun ᴹQ. the rather than a proper reflexive pronoun. The second (QPP2) and third (QPP3) version of Quenya Personal Pronouns had an additional (5th person) pronoun ᴹQ. he for “*yet another person”. By the 1960s Tolkien seems to have restored distinct reflexive pronouns, but the 1940s ᴹQ. ko enclitic is likely the precursor of the 1964 -kse, -kset, -kser reflexive suffixes mentioned above (PE17/75), while 1940s 5th person ᴹQ. he is probably the precursor to 4th person he from 1965.
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya writing, I would use the independent reflexive pronouns given in the table above, but avoid the reflexive verb suffixes -kse, -kset, -kser, which are a bit more obscure in function and from an earlier paradigm. The alternate reflexive verb suffixes -sse, -tte are also problematic, in that they clash with other pronominal verbal suffixes: 3rd. sg. and dual.
Element In