Q. fanya n. “(white) cloud, white and shining [thing]” (Category: Cloud, Mirk)
The usual word for “cloud” in Quenya, appearing within both the Namárië and Markirya poems (LotR/377; MC/223), in the latter as an element in Q. fanyarë “the skies” (MC/222). More specifically, it was a “white cloud” (PE17/26, 175). For dark or stormy clouds, lumbo is a more accurate word.
Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. aulo “cloud” appeared in Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s, but Tolkien wrote ᴱQ. fanya in pencil next to it (PE16/142) and seems to have stuck with that form thereafter. In Fíriel’s Song of the 1930s, however, Tolkien translated ᴹQ. fanya as “sky” (LR/72), while in The Etymologies of the 1930s fanya was “white” and derived from the root ᴹ√SPAN of the same meaning (Ety/SPAN). In that document, ᴹQ. fána was “cloud” (Ety/SPAN), but in later writings Q. fána became “white” (MC/222) and Q. fanya “cloud” (LotR/377; MC/223).
Fanya was derived from the root ᴹ√SPAN “white” in the 1930s, and the root √SPAN did reappear briefly in a discussion from 1967 (PE17/184-185), but in later writings Tolkien usually derived fanya from √PHAN. Tolkien wrote several lengthy essays on this root, and in one them said:
√PHAN-. The basic sense of this was “cover, screen, veil”, but it had a special development in the Eldarin tongues ... The derivative (properly adjectival in form) *phanyā became [in Sindarin] fain, used as an adjective meaning “dim, dimmed” (applied to dimmed or fading lights or to things seen in them) or “filmy, fine-woven etc.” ... the word for “cloud” was in Quenya supplied by the derivative fanya (cf. I, 394), which was no longer used as an adjective. But this was used only of white clouds, sunlit or moonlit, or of clouds reflecting sunlight as in the sunset or sunrise, or gilded and silvered at the edges by moon or sun behind them (PE17/174-175).
References ✧ LotR/377; MC/223; NM/237; PE17/26, 36, 69, 76, 173-175, 180; RGEO/58-59, 66
Glosses
Variations
Related
Inflections
| fanyar | plural | “clouds” | ✧ LotR/377 |
| fanyar | plural | “(white) clouds” | ✧ PE17/36; RGEO/59 |
| fanyar | plural | “(shining) clouds, clouds” | ✧ PE17/69 |
| fanyar | plural | ✧ PE17/76 | |
| fányar | plural | “clouds” | ✧ RGEO/58 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| √phan > fanya | [pʰanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ NM/237 |
| √FAN > fanya | [pʰanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ PE17/26 |
| √FAN > fanya | [pʰanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ PE17/26 |
| √PHAN > fanya | [pʰanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ PE17/36 |
| √PHAN > fanya | [pʰanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ PE17/173 |
| ✶phanyā > fanya | [pʰanjā] > [ɸanjā] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ PE17/175 |
| √Fana- > fanya | [pʰanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ RGEO/66 |
ᴹQ. fanya n. and adj. “sky; white” (Category: White)
References ✧ Ety/SPAN; EtyAC/SPAN; LR/72
Glosses
Changes
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√SPAN > fanya | [spanja] > [ɸanja] > [fanja] | ✧ Ety/SPAN |
ᴱQ. fanya n. “cloud” (Category: Cloud, Mirk)
Reference ✧ PE16/142 ✧ “cloud”
ᴱQ. aulo n. “cloud” (Category: Cloud, Mirk)
Reference ✧ PE16/142 ✧ “cloud”