N. toltha- v. “to fetch” (Category: to Bring)
A verb in The Etymologies of the 1930s appearing in its (Noldorin-style) infinitive form toltho “fetch” under the root ᴹ√TUL “come, approach, move towards”, cognate to ᴹQ. tulta- “send for, fetch, summon” (Ety/TUL). Both N. toltha- and ᴹQ. tulta- appear to be a causative verbs, whose original meaning was “*to make come”.
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. tultha- “lift, carry” (GL/71), clearly based on the early root ᴱ√TULU whose original meaning was “uphold, support, bear, carry”, and only by extension “fetch, bring; move, come” (QL/95). Gnomish of the 1910s did not have the Noldorin/Sindarin sound change whereby short u usually became o, which is why Tolkien had G. tultha- rather than N. toltha-.
Neo-Sindarin: The base meaning of the root √TUL changed from 1910s “support, carry” to 1930s “come”. Despite this, I think toltha- might still be used in the sense “carry” for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, since “fetch” and “carry” are not that different in meaning. I would propose a scenario in which ancient *tultā- meant “*to make come = summon”, evolving into “*to make bring = fetch” (that is, bring someone or something to someplace or someone), and from there broadening to “carry” in other cases, but with the specific connotation of “fetch = carry towards someone or someplace” = “*bring”. I envision a similar semantic development for Q. tulya-.
I would therefore assume toltha- lost its original sense “summon” (also absent in The Etymologies) in the Sindarin language branch; for this I would use [ᴺS.] nachav-.
References ✧ Ety/TUL
Inflections
toltho | infinitive | “fetch” | ✧ Ety/TUL |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
ᴹ✶tultā- > toltho | [tulta-] > [tultʰa-] > [tulθa-] > [tolθa-] | ✧ Ety/TUL |
G. tultha- v. “to lift, carry” (Category: to Bear, Carry)
References ✧ GL/71; LT1A/tulielto
Glosses
Changes
Cognates
Derivations