Q. ve¹ prep. “as, like, similar, after the manner [of]” (Category: Like, Similar)
This was the Quenya preposition for “as, like” for much of Tolkien’s life. Its first appearance was all the way back in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s where ᴱQ. ve “as, like” appeared under the early root ᴱ√VĪ “as” (QL/101), though in that document there was another preposition ᴱQ. se or sen “as, like, in manner of” under the root ᴱ√SĒ (QL/82). The preposition ᴱQ. ve was used for “like” in the Oilima Markirya poem from around 1930 (MC/213), but in the Quenya Verbal System (QVS) from 1948 was translated as “with” (PE22/119).
In the 1950s and 60s, ve appeared often with the translation “like” or “as”, most notably in the Namárië poem from The Lord of the Rings (LotR/377), the 1960s version of the Markirya poem (MC/222), and the Ambidexters Sentence from 1969 (VT49/6-8). In this period ve was given several different derivations, from ✶wē in 1957 (VT49/10), ✶bē in notes from the late 1950s or early 1960s (VT49/32), and ✶vai in notes from 1968 (VT49/32).
References ✧ LotR/377; MC/222; PE17/36, 63, 69, 76, 130, 174-175, 189; RGEO/58-59; VT49/10, 22, 32
Glosses
Variations
Related
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ✶wē > vē̆ | [wē] > [βē] > [vē] | ✧ VT49/10 |
| ✶bē > ve | [bē] > [βē] > [vē] | ✧ VT49/32 |
| ✶vai > ve | [bai] > [βai] > [vai] > [ve] | ✧ VT49/32 |
ᴹQ. ve prep. “with” (Category: Preposition)
Reference ✧ PE22/119 ✧ “with”
Element In
ᴱQ. ve prep. “as, like” (Category: Like, Similar)
References ✧ GL/21; MC/213-214; PE15/69; QL/101; VT40/8
Glosses
Variations
Inflections
| V’ | elided | ✧ VT40/8 |
Element In
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ᴱ√VĪ > ve | [βi] > [βe] > [ve] | ✧ QL/101 |