Quenya/Respective

Usage
This case is sometimes called the mystery-case because so little is known about it.

We only have a few examples by Tolkien himself, so different authors have used it in different ways. But as Helge Fauskanger notes:  'As these authors didn’t get nightly visits from Tolkien, we can regard these uses as acceptable' .

Most authors use it as a nephew of the locative case: To replace the preposition "by" when it is used to describe a place:


 * i coa i taures "the house by the forest"

This means "the house next to the forest", a locative has a slightly different meaning:


 * i coa i tauressë "the house in the forest"

To replace the preposition "at" when it is used to describe a place:


 * i calta i rambas "the picture at the wall"

This means "the picture hanging on the wall", a locative again has a slightly different meaning:
 * i calta i rambassë "the picture on (top of) the wall"

Formation
The formation is however well known, because Tolkien explained in a letter to Mr. Plotz: the respective can be formed by changing the final –n of the dative into an –s:
 * ciryas "by a ship" (dative: ciryan)


 * ciryais "by ships" (dative: ciryain)


 * ciryalis "by some ships" (dative: ciryalin)

The u-duals are formed in the same way:
 * aldus "by a pair of trees" (dative: aldun)

The t-duals however have a special ending –tes:
 * ciryates "by a pair of ships"

>> Neo-Quenya >> ../Nouns/ >> ../Respective/