Q. nanwen- v. “to return, go/come back” (Category: to Return, Give Back)
A verb for “return, go/come back” in notes from around 1959, a combination of √NDAN “back” with √MEN “go” (PE17/166), where ancient nm became nw.
Conceptual Development: Quendian & Common Eldarin Verbal Structure (EVS1) from the 1940s had a similar (probably archaic) past tense form ᴹQ. ndanne “went back” based directly on √NDAN “back”, as part of the phrase á e·ndanne anda né “oh! he went back long ago” (PE22/96).
Neo-Quenya: In a 2024-09-16 conversation on the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord Server (VLDS), Luinyelle suggested that nan- might mean “retreat, give way, revert, ebb” based on later verbal glosses of its roots √NDAN “retreat, go back, give way (as one advances), revert” (VT48/32). If so, these two verbs could coexist with nanwen- meaning “go back = return to somewhere you’ve been before”, as opposed to nan- = “go back = go backwards, not necessarily to a prior position”.
References ✧ PE17/166
Glosses
Elements
nan- | “back (again)” | ✧ PE17/166; PE17/166 |
men- | “to go, proceed, move (generally); to come, arrive” |
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
✶nan-men > nanwen- | [ndanmen-] > [nanmen-] > [nanwen-] | ✧ PE17/166 |