Here the syntax relating to the imperative particle á may be summarized. The Lord’s Prayer provides four examples: ámen anta "give us", ámen apsene "forgive us", áme etelehta "deliver us" and (with both a negation -la- and a pronominal ending -me suffixed) álame tulya "lead us not". To these examples may be added á hyame for "pray" in Hail Mary (see below). In the latter example we see the imperative particle by itself, without suffixes, as we do in the sentence á vala Manwe "may Manwe order it" (or literally *"do rule Manwe") in WJ:404. The particle also occurs by itself, in the variant (short) form a, in a sentence from the Cormallen Praise: A laita te, laita te, "bless them, bless them".
The verb that follows the imperative particle á (standing alone or with negations/pronouns suffixed) will appear as an uninflected stem. Anta, etelehta, tulya are examples of A-stems, or "derived" verbs (which must also be the case with vala "rule" in á vala Manwe). On the other hand, apsene and hyame would seem to represent "basic" verbs, the essential component of which is just a naked root with no suffixed verbal ending like -ta or -ya (in apsene we may have an element prefixed to the root, but that is irrelevant). Such a verb adds an -e, evidently representing primitive short -i, when the verb appears as an infinitival or uninflected "stem". Á hyame "pray!" may be compared to the phrase áva kare in WJ:371: "A longer form áva…which shows combination with the imperative particle *â, was commonly used as a negative imperative Don’t!, either used alone or with an uninflected verbal stem, as áva kare!" – a negative command "don’t do it!" (WJ:371). Kare here counts as the "uninflected verbal stem" of the verb kar- "make, do", itself representing the naked root kar (LR:362). The negation (áva instead of á) does not affect the syntax; one could certainly scramble the attested examples á hyame and áva kare to produce *áva hyame "don’t pray!" and *á kare "do!" The uninflected verbal stems coincide in form with certain tense-forms: an A-stem like anta, as well as the actually infinitival stems hyame and kare, could by their form also be examples of the aorist. However, when preceded by the imperative particle á (or its negated forms áva, ála) such a form must be taken as infinitival/uninflected.
The Quenya versions of the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary reveal one new thing about the imperative particle: it easily attracts pronominal elements. The pronoun denoting the object of the imperative phrase (in accusative for a direct object or dative for an indirect object) may be directly suffixed to the imperative particle, before the verb follows. Hence we have for instance áme etelehta "deliver us", ámen anta "give (to) us". Yet the sentence a laita te "bless them" in LotR has the pronoun following the verb. We must assume that te "them" could also in this case have been suffixed to the imperative particle, so that "bless them!" would be expressed as *Áte laita, "do-them bless!" Conversely, in light of this example from LotR we must assume that the pronouns could have been placed after the verb also in the text before us: *á anta men "give us", *á apsene men "forgive us", á etelehta me "deliver us", *ála tulya me "do not lead us". Yet it may be a feature of Quenya grammar that when a short pronoun that functions as a direct or indirect object cannot be suffixed to this verb (which is perhaps always impossible in the case of an indirect/dative object), then the pronoun typically appears before the verb instead – even though the preferred word order is otherwise subject-verb-object rather than subject-object-verb. Compare such French constructions as je t’aime, though French is normally subject-verb-object and not subject-object-verb; the Quenya equivalent can be found in LR:61: Inye tye-méla "I love thee" with tye "thee" prefixed to the verb rather than following it. Even in Namárië (including the prose version) we have sí man i yulma nin enquantuva? for "who now will refill the cup for me?"; notice that the dative pronoun nin comes before the verb, though its equivalent "for me" in the English translation comes after it. It seems that when placed in front of the verb, such short pronouns easily glue themselves to a preceding particle when such is present. In light of the examples found in the text before us, an imperative "refill the cup for me!" would probably be *ánin enquate i yulma! with nin "for me" directly suffixed to the imperative particle.
II. HAIL MARY
Aia María quanta Eruanno
Hail Mary full of grace,
Aia "hail" (later form/alternative spelling of aiya), María "Mary" (the "Quenya" form is based on the Latin pronunciation, as is Yésus = "Jesus" later), quanta "full", Eruanno "of grace" – evidently the genitive of *Eruanna "grace" or literally *"God-gift". This example shows that "full of" something is rendered as quanta + genitive. This use of the genitive has never been attested before[10].
i Héru as elye ·
the Lord is with thee.
i article "the", Héru "Lord" (other sources have heru with a short e), as "with", elye "thee" (or "thou", which is the meaning this word has in Namárië; we know little of what case Quenya prepositions normally govern, accusative or nominative). It will be noted that there is no Quenya word corresponding to "is" in the English version. Presumably it would have been possible to slip in such a word (before a prepositional phrase denoting a position it would probably be ëa rather than ná, hence *i Héru ëa as elye) – but it is clearly not required. This is a nominal sentence, the word "is" being left out and understood. Such constructions are common enough in the languages of our own world (e.g. Russian and many Semitic tongues), and this construction may be common or even dominant in Eldarin as well. In Hail Mary, this line is the first of three consecutive nominal sentences. Such constructions are not unheard of in material that has been published earlier, either: in LR:47 we have ilya sí maller raikar for *"now all roads [are] bent". Vahaiya sín atalante Tolkien himself translated "far away now (is) the Downfallen", the parenthetical "is" clearly indicating that this copula is not directly expressed in Quenya (SD:247). It may be that nominal sentences without an explicit copula are normal rather than exceptional in Quenya.
10
Earlier versions of the Quenya Ave Maria here uses the instrumental case instead: VT43:26, 27.