Quenya/Possessive

Neo-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.

So it is important to know when each is appropriate.

Usage
There are 4 situations in which the possessive is used:

1. Present owner

This means that the horse at this moment belongs to the king. It has no implications of origin or previous ownership.
 * rocco i aranwa  "the king's horse"

This is why in English this case is frequently translated by an English genitive.

Of course this ownership is always related to the tense of the verb: it is the present owner at the moment indicated by the verb: So this house is at this moment the property of that elf. In this case the girl was the present owner of the book at the moment of the sentence, but it is quite possible that at this moment she no longer owns it.
 * nas coa i eldava  "it's the elf's house"
 * nes parma i vendeva  "it was the book of the girl"

2. Properties

The possessive case is also used to denote a property of a person or object:
 * huinë i taureva  "the gloom of the wood"


 * altarë i nerwa  "the length of the man"

3. Substance

We also use this case to denote the substance from which something is made: This meaning is of course related to using an adjective: When we use a possessive case the material from which the crown is made is emphasized (just as can be seen by the English translations).
 * rië telpeva  "the crown of silver"
 * i telpina rië "the silver crown"

4. Subject of nouns with an "about" noun

In situation 6 of the usage of the genitive case we have seen that the words after the preposition "about" are in the genitive. The subject of these words is however in the possessive case. This can again be translated by "of" but in this case "of" is equivalent to the preposition "by":
 * quentalë atarwa  "the story of (i.e. by) father"

(for more about this see also ../Verbal nouns/)
 * equessi i naucoiva  "the sayings of (i.e. by) the dwarves"

Word order
The possessive is always put behind the noun to which it belongs:
 * míri i naucova  "the dwarf's jewels"


 * tári i eldaiva  "the elves' queen"

A possessive can also be used predicatively:
 * i corma ná Saurondeva  "the ring is Sauron's"

Use of the article
A noun that is accompanied by a noun in the possessive 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 possessive can be translated with either an indefinite or a definite article:
 * coa ohtarwa  "a house of a soldier"/"the house of a soldier"


 * coa i ohtarwa  "a house of the soldier"/"the house of the soldier"

Formation
We discuss each of the numbers separately:

Singular
The basic ending is -va after vowels and  -wa after consonants.

Most words simply add this ending:
 * elda "elf" &rarr; eldava


 * aran "king" &rarr; aranwa

Singular Exceptions: Penultimate + Vowel


 * Words that end on a vowel and of which the penultimate syllable is short (see ../Phonology/), lengthen the final vowel before adding -va:
 * tyalië "play" &rarr; tyaliéva


 * oromë "hornblower" &rarr; oroméva


 * tano "crafstman" &rarr; tanóva


 * Words of two syllables that contain the diphthong -ui in the first syllable and that end in a vowel, also lengthen this vowel before adding the ending:
 * huinë "gloom" &rarr; huinéva


 * tuima "sprout" &rarr; tuimáva

(but e.g. quinga "bow" doesn't contain the diphthong  ui because  qu stands for cw).

Words that have a stem-form in a vowel (../I-stems/ and ../U-stems/) use this stem-form:
 * curo "device" &rarr; curuva


 * lómë "night" &rarr; lómiva

Words that have a stem-form in a consonant use their basic form and not the stem-form:


 * fion "hawk" &rarr; fionwa (stem-form  fiond-)


 * tirios "burg" &rarr; tirioswa (stem-form  tiriost-)


 * amil "mother" &rarr; amilwa (stem-form  amill-)


 * toron "brother" &rarr; toronwa (stem-form  torn-)


 * seler "sister" &rarr; selerwa (stem-form  sell-)


 * henet "window" &rarr; henetwa (stem-form  henets-)


 * talan "floor" &rarr; talanwa (stem-form  talam-)

Singular Exceptions: -ss

Words with a stem-form on -ss:
 * nís "woman" &rarr; nisseva (stem-form  niss-)


 * lis "honey" &rarr; lisseva (stem-form   liss-)

Words with a stem-form on -c:
 * filit "little bird" &rarr; filiqua (stem-form  filic-)


 * nelet "tooth" &rarr; nelequa (stem-form  nelc-)


 * quesset "pillow" &rarr; quessequa (stem-form  quessec-)

Words with a long vowel that is shortened in the stem-form:
 * tál "foot" &rarr; talwa (stem-form  tal-)


 * nér "man" &rarr; nerwa (stem-form  ner-)

Plural
The ending is -iva:
 * macil "sword" &rarr; maciliva

(note: this ending forms a diphthong when the noun ends in -a, -o or -u)
 * elda "elf" &rarr; eldaiva

Plural Exceptions:

Words ending in -ë drop this  -ë and have  -íva as ending:


 * lassë "leaf" &rarr; lassíva

Words ending in -ië drop this  -ië and have  -íva as ending:


 * mornië "darkness" &rarr; morníva

Words ending in -i (or with a stem-form in  -i) also get  -íva. Any preceding long vowel can be shortened:


 * tári "queen" &rarr; táríva


 * tári "queen" &rarr; taríva


 * lómë "night" &rarr; lomíva

Dual
The dual is regular: u-duals get -va, t-duals get  -wa:
 * ciryat "a pair of ships" &rarr; ciryatwa (nom.sing.:  cirya)


 * aldu "a pair of trees" &rarr; alduva (nom.sing.:  alda)

Partitive Plural
When the nominative partitive plural ends in -lli, the possessive ends in  -lliva:
 * toron "brother" &rarr; torolli &rarr;  torolliva


 * macil "sword" &rarr; macilli &rarr;  macilliva

When the nominative partitive plural only has a single l before the final i then the possessive ends in -líva:
 * cirya "ship" &rarr; ciryali &rarr;  ciryalíva


 * sarat "sign" &rarr; sarateli &rarr;  saratelíva

>> Neo-Quenya >> ../Nouns/ >> ../Possessive/