massamma, noun with pronominal ending: our bread. Concerning the ending -mma for exclusive our, see separate entry below. The word for bread is here #massa, though both the Qenya Lexicon (QL:59) and the Etymologies (LR:372 s.v. mbas-) give masta instead. Yet in PM:404, reproducing a source written at some point in the fifties and probably early in the decade (cf. PM:395), a word for bread-giver appears as massánie. This seems to presuppose #massa as the word for bread, allowing us to conclude that the text before us is post-Etymologies. In PM:404, Tolkien also mentioned lenn-mbass as the combination that produced Sindarin lembas, journey-bread (cf. the entry for lembas in the Silmarillion Index). Hence the stem was still thought of as mbas-, though the form of the actual noun bread had been adjusted. The primitive form would be *mbassâ, which may also be represented as *mbaS-â (see esselya regarding esse). While often adjectival, the ending -â is also common in the case of nouns denoting inanimate objects. The stem mbas- itself means (at least according to the Etymologies) knead, which in the case of the words for bread would refer to the kneading of the dough. mbas- is evidently related to masag- knead, make soft by rubbing, kneading, etc. (LR:371). Probably both stems should be seen as elaborated variants of a simpler root *mas-.
-mma possessive pronominal ending, exclusive our, occurring in the words Átaremma our Father and massamma our bread. This ending as such is previously unattested, but it has precisely the form we would expect it to have. It has long been recognized that pronominal endings denoting possession generally correspond to pronominal endings denoting the subject of a verb, the former ending in the vowel -a and the latter in -e (-ë). For instance, the ending -lya thy, your (as in esselya thy name, q.v.) corresponds to the ending -lyë thou (as in hiruvalyë thou shalt find in Namárië). Since the ending for exclusive we is -mme (as in vamme we won’t in WJ:371), people had already deduced that the pronominal suffix for exclusive our would be -mma; it is nonetheless nice to have this confirmed (demonstrating that Tolkien’s languages are indeed sufficiently symmetrical for intelligent extrapolation to be of some value). In a sense, the ending -mma for our was already attested, but with an inclusive rather than exclusive meaning. It occurs in an early LotR manuscript in the sentence eleni silir lúmesse omentiemman, "the stars shine on the hour of our meeting" (RS:324). Since omentiemman of our meeting here means the meeting of the parties involved, one of them talking to the other, "our" is here inclusive. Perhaps Tolkien did not make any distinction between inclusive and exclusive "our" (and by implication "we") at this time. However, this greeting came to be worded elen síla lúmenn' omentielmo "a star shines upon the hour of our meeting" in the first published edition of LotR, the ending -mma being changed to *-lma (here with the genitive ending: -lmo), the latter denoting a specifically inclusive "our": By now, the ending -mma had probably had its meaning limited to exclusive "our" only. Later still, in the revised edition of LotR, Tolkien changed omentielmo of our meeting to omentielvo of the same meaning, but this incorporates a specifically dual "our" and does not imply that *-lma as such had been rejected[23].
mónalyo, noun with pronominal ending inflected for genitive: of thy womb. The ending -lyathy (concerning which see esselya) is here combined with the genitive ending -o, producing -lyo (for **-lyao) of thy… Removing the endings leaves #móna as the word for womb, not previously attested. Not much can be said about it except observing that the ending -a, when not adjectival, often occurs in words denoting inanimate things. The word would seem to require a stem *mon- (or *smon-, *mbon-). #Móna could conceivably be connected to the undefined stem mô- which yields words having to do with "labour" or toiling (LR:373), if the bringing forth of children is perceived as such: In English at least, the verb labour is used in connection with giving birth.
na, optative particle denoting a wish (or indeed a prayer). The relevant syntax has already been outlined. Nothing certain can be said about the origin of this particle (it must be distinct from the preposition na to, towards listed in the Etymologies, LR:374 s.v. na1-). If it can be related to any published element, it must be the verb ná is (as in Namárië, cf. LR:374 s.v. nâ2- where this base is said to be the "stem of verb to be in Q"; see also QL:64). If we see na as the imperative be! we can make sense of the phrase na aire esselya, which could be interpreted *be holy thy name = hallowed be thy name. It is interesting to notice that in one manuscript now in the Bodleian (MS Tolkien 21, fol. 2v), Tolkien observed that the wishing-particle nai means be it that, comparing it to ná is and "Namárie be well, be in well-being = Farewell." So namárie is #na be + #márie [in] well-being (the latter would be an abstract formation derived from mára good, LR:371 s.v. mag-). However, the "be!" interpretation cannot be made to fit the other examples, where the particle is used in conjunction with finite verbs. Aranielya na tuluva obviously cannot be analysed as *thy kingdom be will come. An entirely speculative theory of how an imperative #na be! could have evolved into a general optative particle: Originally, na aire esselya was intended to mean *be holy thy name as outlined above. However, this construction was later reinterpreted as a nominal sentence aire esselya holy [is] thy name with an optative particle na prefixed to turn a declarative sentence into a wish or a prayer. This reinterpretation made speakers feel free to use na in conjunction with any declarative sentence, also sentences incorporating finite verbs. From now on, you could take a complete sentence like aranielya tuluva *thy kingdom will come and turn it into a wish/prayer by inserting na in front of the verb. (A further development would allow the omission of the subject of the sentence, leaving only the object of the finite verb: na care indómelya, *wish-that [one] does thy will – unless, as we speculated above, care itself can be taken as an impersonal form *one does.)
23
The assumption that omentielvo includes a dual form of
"our" is based on information from Humphrey Carpenter’s edited version
of Tolkien’s letters, but it is unclear whether this was a lasting idea,
or indeed whether or not Carpenter may have misunderstood whatever
manuscript he had before him. There are apparently late manuscripts in
which omentielvo is explained as containing an