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mouthfulofair9
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Post Quenya word for 'Cheers'
on: February 08, 2017 04:20
Greetings to all,
This is something I've wanted to know for quite a while: for as much time as the Elves spend celebrating and making merry, it would seem to make sense that there's a word for cheers, and probably a ritual to go along with it.

This seems like too important a cultural flourish for Tolkien to overlook, so I assume that there's got to be something out there that corresponds to a 'hail' or a cheers.

Can anyone help me out???
dirk_math
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on: February 08, 2017 05:17
Alar! means "hail, blessed be thou!"
Yassë engë lómë, anarties calali.
mouthfulofair9
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on: February 08, 2017 05:36
Any ideas about the etymology? I know there's quite a bit of the Finnish in Quenya, but the root here looks more Semitic
dirk_math
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on: February 08, 2017 07:09
There is almost no influence of Finnish on the vocabulary of Quenya. This influence can however be found in the vowels and in the grammar. But Latin has made an equally large mark on the grammar.

Quenya vocabulary is just like Sindarin vocabulary an application of phonological changes to the roots of primitive Elvish. This word has evolved from the PE root GALA.
Yassë engë lómë, anarties calali.
Tamas Ferencz
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on: February 09, 2017 08:01
Indeed as dirk_math says there seems not to be any word in the known vocabulary of Quenya or Sindarin that was specifically glossed as having been used when toasting with drinks; nor do I know of any writing of Tolkien that describes the customs associated with that. People have been using whatever word they thought fit the purpose.
I, for instance, would use the Quenya word mále "good health" for a toast, if only because in my native language we also say "on your health" so it comes to me naturally. But Tolkien may have chosen something entirely different and unique, had the idea occurred to him...

[Edited on 02/10/2017 by Tamas Ferencz]
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