Q. cirya¹ n. “(sharp-prowed) ship; swift gliding” (Category: Ship)
Cirya has been the Quenya word for “ship” for much of Tolkien’s life, and is very well-attested with this meaning. ᴱQ. kirya “ship” first appeared in the Early Qenya Grammar of the 1920s (PE14/46, 79) and in the English-Qenya Dictionary of this same period, where Tolkien described it as the “general term” for a ship, as opposed to ᴱQ. lunte “boat” (PE15/77).
Tolkien regularly used ᴹQ. kirya “ship” in lists of noun declensions from the late 1920s and early 1930s (PE16/112-115; PE21/4, 46, 53). In one of these it was glossed “boat” rather than “ship” (PE21/53). ᴹQ. kirya “ship” appeared in The Etymologies from around 1937 under the root ᴹ√KIR (Ety/KIR), and it was derived from the root √KIR in later notes as well (PE22/150). It continued to be used in declension examples all the way up to the famous Plotz letter of 1966-7 (VT6/14).
The second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950 specified that its primitive antecedent had two variants: noun ✶kíryā “small swift sailing ship” and adjective kiryā́ “swift (especially of things that pass easily through obstacles)”, distinguished only by ancient patterns of stress (PE18/106). Hints of this second adjectival meaning can be seen in Late Notes on Verb Structure (LVS) from 1969, where Tolkien glossed kirya as an adjective meaning “swift gliding” in a note where he tried to distinguish the meaning of the roots √KIR and √KER (PE22/150).
Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use cirya only as a noun for “ship”, and would assume its adjectival use “swift” was archaic. I would further assume cirya is used of faster ships with deeper hulls that cut through the water (especially if driven by sails or other motor), as opposed to a slower or flatter Q. luntë “boat” which moves mainly by floating on top of the water. Thus [in my opinion] the distinction between cirya and luntë is mainly the relative depth of the hull rather than the size of the vessel, so that luntë could refer to a large barge and cirya to a small but swift sailboat.
References ✧ Let/427; MC/221-222; PE17/58, 74, 147; PE21/80; PE22/150; PE23/128-129; Plotz/1-10; S/265; SA/kir
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| √KIR > kirya | [kirja] | ✧ PE22/150 |
| √kir- > círya | [kirja] | ✧ SA/kir |
ᴹQ. kirya n. “ship, boat” (Category: Ship)
References ✧ Ety/KIR; PE19/60; PE21/4, 8, 44, 46-47, 53-54, 69; PE22/120-121; PE23/79, 81, 111; VT28/8
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| ᴹ√KIR > kirya | [kirja] | ✧ Ety/KIR |
| ᴹ✶kiryā́ > kíryā | [kirjā] > [kirja] | ✧ PE19/60 |
| ᴹ✶kiryā́va > kíryăvă | [kirjāwa] > [kirjawa] > [kirjava] | ✧ PE19/60 |
| ᴹ✶kiryālī́nen > kiryalīnen | [kirjālīnen] > [kirjalīnen] | ✧ PE19/60 |
ᴱQ. kirya n. “ship, boat” (Category: Ship)
References ✧ MC/213-214, 216, 220-221; PE14/46, 79; PE15/70, 77; PE16/56-57, 60-62, 72, 74, 77-78, 100, 104, 112-115, 147
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