Quenya/Pronouns

Personal pronouns
This article can be found on a separate page: ../Personal pronouns/.

Possessive pronouns
This article can be found on a separate page: ../Possessive pronouns/.

Relative pronouns
Neo-Quenya contains two relative pronouns ya and  i.

The pronoun i cannot be declined, it is only used when it is the subject of the sub-sentence and the antecedent (the noun to which it refers) is a person or a group of persons:
 * i eldar i tirner i naucor, enger i tauressë "the elves who were looking at the dwarves were in the wood"

By contrast, the number of ya equals the number of the antecedent:
 * i harma ya hirnelyë, ná alta "the treasure (that) you found is big"


 * i harmar yar hirnelyë, nar altë "the treasures (that) you found are big"


 * i harmat yat hirnelyë, nar altë "both treasures (that) you found are big"

And it can be used to replace both subject and object. So the following sentence has two meanings:
 * i eldar yar tirner i naucor, ... "the elves who were looking at the dwarves ... / that the dwarves were looking at ..."

In contrast to i, it is never wrong to use  ya although sometimes the context has to be used to decide which meaning is actually intended.

The pronoun ya is declined depending on the function it has in the sub-sentence. When ya is used instead of noun in a certain case, it has to be declined in that case: is decomposed of:
 * i coar yassen marilmë, nar carnë "the houses in which we live are red"
 * i coar nar carnë "the houses are red"


 * i coassen marilmë "we live in the houses"

So ya is used to replace  i coassen, so it becomes  yassen.

It is declined as a noun on -a:

In a relative sub-sentence the word order is not as free as in a normal sentence as the verb always immediately follows the relative pronoun. And so in this case the subject follows its verb:
 * i osto yassë marë i nér, ... "the city in which the man lives, ..."


 * i tol yanna círar i ciryar, ... "the island to(wards) which the ships are sailing, ..."


 * i nóri yallon tuller i ohtari, ... "the countries from which the soldiers came, ..."

The advantage of this is that there is never any confusion between the use of i as article and as relative pronoun, as the relative pronoun is always followed by a conjugated verb:
 * i nissi i lindëar, ... "the women who are singing, ..."

The case-ending of ya can be omitted when the antecedent has the same case in the main sentence as  ya has in the subsentence:
 * lómissë yassë cennenyes = lómissë ya cennenyes "in the night in which I saw it"

Relative pronouns without antecedent
The relative pronoun i can be used without antecedent, it then means "the one(s) who":
 * i lindëa, ná nís "the one that is singing is a woman"


 * i hirner i malta, nar alyë "the ones that found the gold are rich"

Such sub-sentences can also appear as direct object of the main verb:
 * hiruvan i suncer limpenya "I shall find the ones that drank my wine"

The relative pronoun ya can also be used in this way, but it means "that which":
 * ecénien, ya túla "I have seen that which is coming"


 * ya merin, ná limpë "that which I want is wine"

Demonstrative pronouns
Quenya distinguishes three distances: close, away, far away. We also have two demonstrative pronouns that indicate that something is in the past or in the future.

Close: this demonstrative pronoun is sina "this"
 * elda sina "this elf"


 * coa sina "this house"

and in the plural:


 * nissi sinë "these women"

Note: sina is related to  sí "now" and  sinomë "here"

Away: this demonstrative pronoun is tana "that"


 * nauco tana "that dwarf"


 * rocco tana "that horse"

and in the plural:


 * vendi tanë "those girls"

Far away/future: this demonstrative pronoun is enta "yonder", it is also used to denote something in the future:


 * coa enta "yonder house, the next house, the future house"

and in the plural:


 * cundur entë "yonder princes, the next princes, the future princes"

Note: We also have an adverb ento that is used with the meaning "next"


 * ento manten "next I ate"

Past: this demonstrative pronoun is yana "former, earlier"


 * aran yana "the former king, the earlier king"

and in the plural:


 * arani yanë "the former kings, the earlier kings"

Note: Words with a demonstrative pronoun don't have the article.

Demonstrative pronouns always follow their noun so the rules of the last declinable word have to be followed:


 * nér sinanen "with this man" (instrumental)


 * neri sinainen "with these men" (instrumental)

Independant demonstrative pronouns
The pronouns sina and  tana can also be used as subject with the accompanying noun:
 * sina coa "this is a house"


 * tana nér "that is a man"

These independant forms don't change when used in the plural:


 * sina coar "these are houses"


 * tana neri "those are men"

Interrogative pronouns
In English most interrogative pronouns begin with a "w": who, what, where, when, why, ... In Neo-Quenya they analogously start in ma-.

So we find that "who" corresponds to man:


 * man tiruva? "who shall look?"

And "what" corresponds to mana:


 * mana ná coimas? "what is lembas?"

This interrogative pronoun can also be used with the meaning "which", but then it isn't put at the start of the question but follows the noun:


 * cirya mana cenil? "which ship do you see?"

The other English interrogative pronouns correspond to the inflected forms of man and  mana:

The final interrogative pronoun ma is used to ask yes/no-questions. The word order doesn't change, we just add ma to the beginning of the sentence to make it into a yes/no-question:
 * tences i parma "he wrote the book"


 * ma tences i parma? "did he write the book?"


 * ëa malta i orontessë "there is gold in the mountain"


 * ma ëa malta i orontessë? "is there gold in the mountain?"

The verb ná (or  nar) is usually dropped when changing the sentence into a yes/no-question:


 * nís enta ná elda "that woman is an elf"


 * ma nís enta elda? "is that woman an elf?"

In an interrogative sub-sentence, we also use ma:


 * uan ista ma utúlies "I don't know whether he has come"

Indefinite pronouns
When you want to be vague about who performs an action we use "one" or "someone" in English. In Neo-Quenya we use the pronoun quen:
 * quen rancë yulma "someone broke a cup"

Its declination is in all cases except the nominative equal to the declination of the noun quén,  quen- "person":
 * matië yávë ná mára quenen "eating fruit is good for someone"

The pronoun ilya means "each" when used in the singular and "all" in the plural:
 * ilya parma "each book"


 * ilyë parmar "all books"

The pronouns for "many", "much" are:
 * limba with adverb lil (used for countable things that do not involve time)


 * rimba with adverb rimbavë (used with meaning "frequent, numerous")


 * olya with adverb olë/oltë ("much")

The other indefinite pronouns are:
 * ilquen "everyone"


 * úquen "nobody, none"


 * qua "something"


 * ilqua "everything"


 * úqua "nothing, none"

The English indefinite pronouns "some" and "few" do not exist in Quenya as they are rendered by the Partitive Plural (see ../Nouns/).

Reflexive pronouns
The reflexive pronouns are expressed by the prefix in-:
 * imnë "myself"


 * imlë "yourself"


 * insë "himself/herself"


 * insa "itself"


 * immë "ourselves" (dual)


 * inwë "ourselves"


 * indë "yourselves"


 * intë "themselves"

There also exists an informal second person: intyë.

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