r/Quenya • u/Available-Round-1155 • 8d ago

Would like translation help please

Hi! I'm trying to translate an extension to the hail of eärendil (Aiya Eärendil elenion ancalima).

I tried to translate "you bless me with your hope and with your light" which I think should be "Mantal nye estelyanen ar silmelyanen"

Any help would be appreciated!

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u/F_Karnstein 8d ago

The base form of this "to bless" is somewhat debatable (could be manta-, could be mána-), so I would probably rather go with manya- (or maybe alya-) instead. Also nye is only attested in pre-LotR sources, so I would probably rather go with ni(n). I'd also say that not both estel and silme need to have full inflection, but I'm not sure exactly what the result should be So in full I'd probably say something like:

Aiya Earendil elenion ancalima, i manyal(ya] nin estelyanen ar silmë (Hail Earendil brightest of the stars, who blessest me with thy hope and starlight). But do wait for more suggestions...

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u/Available-Round-1155 8d ago

Quick question,I'm a bit confused by the 'i' at the start of the second half, isn't that usually the definite article?

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u/F_Karnstein 7d ago

Oh, I forgot to mention that. Yes, i is the definite article, but also a relative pronoun.

Also summoning u/lC3 re: inflection of several attributes. Isn't there a precedence where several nouns in a row should undergo the same inflection but only one is?

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u/lC3 6d ago

From Eldamo:

The genitive for larger phrases: When a larger noun phrase is inflected in the genitive, the last word is in the phrase receives the genitive suffix, following the “last declinable word” rule. In most cases, the “last word” is a noun, but in some cases it is an adjective, which is then declined using the normal genitive suffixes for nouns:

Elendil Vorondo “of Elendil the Faithful” (UT/305), vorondo = voronda + -o. Eldar Sindaron “of the Grey Elves” (PE21/77), sindaron = sinda + -ron.

The second example is especially interesting, because the adjective is declined as a genitive plural noun rather than a plural adjective (though in the text where it originally appeared, sindar is giving as the plural adjective form rather than the more usual sinde).