Q. nér (ner-) n. “man, male person” (Category: Man)
The Quenya word for a “man”, or more specifically a person of male gender (WJ/393). This word is derived from the root √N(D)ER, and the é is long in Quenya as a remnant of the lengthened vowel in the primitive subjective form ndēr, but the stem form is ner- because the vowel was not long in ancient inflective forms (PE19/102). Thus the singular is nér but plural neri (MR/213), and likewise for other inflected forms. Nér can be used regardless of species and so is equally applicable to male Elves, Men, or Dwarves, but is unlikely to be used of male animals, for which the word [ᴹQ.] hanu is more applicable.
Conceptual Development: This word was very well established in Tolkien’s mind, appearing as ᴱQ. ner “man, husband” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√NERE (QL/65), though in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa it was glossed “warrior, etc.” (PME/65). The long/short vowel variation had emerged by the time the Early Qenya Grammar was written in the 1920s, where Tolkien gave singular nēr but plural nĕri (PE14/43, 72).
The Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s has this same long/short vowel split (PE21/20) as does The Etymologies from later in the 1930s which had ᴹQ. nér with plural neri as derivatives of the root ᴹ√(N)DER (Ety/DER). This remained the case in later writings as well, except that the unstrengthened form of the root changed from ᴹ√DER to √NER (WJ/393), though this only barely matters, since the actual derivatives were all from strengthened √NDER in pretty much all cases from the 1930s forward.
References ✧ MR/213, 226, 229, 471; UT/211, 229; VT49/17; WJ/393
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Inflections
| neri | plural | “men” | ✧ MR/213 |
| neri | plural | ✧ MR/226; MR/229 | |
| néri | plural | ✧ MR/471 |
Element In
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Phonetic Developments
| ✶nere/nēr > nēr | [nēr] | ✧ WJ/393 |
ᴹQ. nér (ner-) n. “man, adult male” (Category: Man)
References ✧ Ety/DER, NDER, NĒR, NĪ¹, WEG; EtyAC/NĒR; PE21/16-17, 19-21, 52, 60, 62, 65, 69; PE22/120, 124
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Changes
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Element In
Cognates
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Phonetic Developments
| ᴹ√DER > nér | [ndēr] > [nēr] | ✧ Ety/DER |
| ᴹ✶ndǣr > nér | [ndǣr] > [ndēr] > [nēr] | ✧ Ety/NDER |
| ᴹ√der > NĒ̆R | [ndēr] > [nēr] | ✧ Ety/NĒR |
| ᴹ✶dēr > nér | [ndēr] > [nēr] | ✧ Ety/NĪ¹ |
| ᴹ✶nĕrĕ > nēr | [nēr] | ✧ PE21/69 |
ᴱQ. ner n. “man, husband; warrior” (Category: Man)
References ✧ GL/30; PE13/164; PE14/32, 42-43, 47-48, 50, 54-55, 71-72, 79, 81, 83-84; PE15/32, 74-75; PE16/111, 113-114, 135; PME/65; QL/40, 65, 101
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