Quenya/Stem-forms

A number of changes in modern Quenya seem rather irregular at first sight, when we look at the evolution from Old-Elvish to Quenya however, they can be explained. Let’s look at an example:
 * aran "king" &rarr; arani "kings"

but...
 * elen "star" &rarr; eleni "stars"
 * talan "floor" &rarr; talami "floors"

Notice how talami has an  m in the plural, and not an  n.

On the page ../Nouns/ we have said that talam- was the stem of  talan and we find the word as  talan (talam-) in the word-lists. This makes for the word talan to be an irregular noun as it doesn't end with  m.

The reason for this irregularity is that modern Quenya no longer allows an m to appear at the end of a word (see ../Phonology/). So during the evolution of the language this m turned into an  n in the nominative form. In all other cases it kept the m, as it wasn't the final sound at the end of the word, thus allowing  m to stay.

All nouns with a u-dual that belong to one of the categories on this page, use their stem-forms but are otherwise regular (we use haran,  harn- "leader"):

The irregular stem-forms can be found on a separate page: ../Exceptional stems/.

d-/t- stems
The first group of words ends in –n,  –r or  –l. Their stem-forms are made by adding a –d–.

The second group ends in –n,  –r or  –s and add  -t to form the stem.

A list of the known Quenya-words belonging to this group can be found on following page: ../Nouns: d/t-stems.

The adjectives on –n probably also belong to the  d- stems (PE 14 pg. 77):
 * i hwarindi "the crooked (ones)"
 * hwarindi neri "crooked men"

When they are used as final declinable words (see ../Inflected adjectives/), they get the vowels –e– or  –i– between the stem and the case-ending:
 * harma furindessë "in a concealed treasure"
 * urur úrindinen	"with blazing hot fires"

The declension of d- and  t- stems is regular except in the possessive singular. In this case we use the suffix –wa with the nominative (all nouns in this group have u-duals):

Contracted stems
Another group of stems lose the vowel of the second syllable. So the stem-form is a contracted form of the nominative.

Following nouns belong to this group:
 * coron, corn- "ball"


 * feren, fern- "beech"


 * haran, harn- "leader"


 * huan, hún- "dog"


 * laman, lamn- "animal"


 * soron, sorn- "eagle"

In quite a number of cases of the singular these words use the nominative to produce these cases. In the partitive plural they also use the nominative:

There is a second group that have lost the final vowel + n in the nominative
 * calmar, calmarn- "child of light"


 * halatir, halatirn- "kingfisher"


 * mëar, mëarn- "gore, blood"


 * pur, purn- "(artificial) fire"


 * tavar, tavarn- "dale sprite"

and also
 * seler, sell- "sister"

They have in the singular only two exceptional cases:

=Doubled stems=

There are also words in -t that have a doubled stem but they can be found on the page about ../Exceptional stems/.

doubled stems in ss-
A number of stems double their final -s:
 * calas, calass- "brass"


 * coimas, coimass- "lembas"


 * eques, equess- "saying"


 * falas, falass- "shore, beach"


 * indis, indiss- "bride"


 * inwilis, inwiliss- "fairy"


 * is, iss- "light snow"


 * itis, itiss- "fly bite"


 * lis, liss- "honey"


 * nes, ness- "mead, valley, land"


 * niquis, niquiss- "frost-pattern"


 * nís, niss- "woman"


 * oinalis, oinaliss- "ointment"


 * olos, oloss- "snow"


 * sintilis, sintiliss- "sparkling (of crystal)"


 * tiris, tiriss- "watch"


 * tolos, toloss- "knob, lump"


 * tyos, tyoss- "cough"

The proper name Tulcas also belongs to this group.

The word solor "surf" has stem-form  soloss- and uses the same forms as these words except the possessive singular which is  solorwa.

doubled stems in ll-/nn-
Final l and  n can also be doubled:
 * amil, amill- "mother"


 * aranel, aranell- "princess"


 * horinel, horinell- "pine-needle"


 * miril, mirill- "jewel"


 * riel, riell- "flower-girl"


 * isil, isill- "moon"


 * tol, toll- "island"


 * ailin, ailinn- "lake"


 * cailen, cailenn- "throat"


 * calimban, calimbann- "barbarian land"


 * campin, campinn- "hips"


 * colman, colmann- "summit"


 * elwen, elwenn- "heart"


 * helin, helinn- "pansy"


 * irin, irinn- "town"


 * irmin, irminn- "inhabited world"


 * latúcen, latúcenn- "tin"


 * licin, licinn- "horn"


 * mindon, mindonn- "turret"


 * olwen, olwenn- "branch, wand"


 * onin, oninn- "anvil"


 * pequen, pequenn- "comb"


 * tamin, taminn- "forge"


 * túrin, túrinn- "province"


 * wilin, wilinn- "bird"

The proper name Silmaril also belongs to these words.

The exceptional cases are: the possessive singular and the allative or ablative in singular and plural forms.

doubled stems in rr-
A list of words that have the rr- stem:
 * condor, condorr- "warrior"


 * hostar, hostarr- "tribe"


 * indor, indorr- "groom"


 * lamandar, lamandarr- "herdsman"


 * lar, larr- "place, region"


 * maquar, maquarr- "(human) jaw"


 * milnar, milnarr- "sown field"


 * neldor, neldorr- "beech"

They are declined as follows:

m- stems
As told in the introduction, the letter m is no longer allowed at the end of a word and has changed into  n in the nominative:
 * artan, artam- "hammer"


 * ilin, ilim- "milk"


 * men, mem- "nose, beak"


 * quin, quim- "female"


 * ran, ram- "noise"


 * talan, talam- "floor"

These words have exceptional locatives, instrumentals and partitive plurals:

The words with stem on -ng also behave like these words:
 * falaswin, falaswing- "wavecrest"


 * fen, feng- "reed"

The locative is fendë and the partitive plural  felli (but the instrumental is regular:  fengenen).

c- stems
Four words originally ended in -c, and this letter is also not allowed at the end of a word:
 * filit, filic- "little bird"


 * nelet, nelc- "tooth"


 * oryat, oryac- "badger"


 * quesset, quessec- "pillow"

They are declined as follows:

The locative of nelet is  neletsë, but otherwise it is declined the same as the other three nouns.

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