In this setting the aberrant Q. lemenya and S. levnui may be better understood. The form lemenya in Quenya plainly supports the view that the Common Eldarin numeral for 5 differed from the others from 3 to 9: it was not originally a triconsonantal stem, the final nasal was an inflexion, and there was no ómataima beyond it at the primitive time when these adjectives were devised; the adjectival -ya was therefore added direct to the nasal. The m however is a Quenya alteration based on lempe. In Telerin, in contrast to Quenya and Sindarin, the ordinals, under the influence of minya, tatya, nelya, and lepenya, generalized the pattern in which -ya was added direct to the final consonant of the stem: so T. 4th canatya, 6th enetya, 7th ototya,{64} 8th tolodya,{65} 9th neterya, 10th paianya. It may be observed that 5th was lepenya; since the cardinal was lepen and there was no such form as Q. lempe to induce a change to lemen-. That Telerin, though in many ways the most archaic of the Eldarin tongues, was not immune from analogical changes is seen in the form ototya (with tya instead of sya) after -tya in 2nd, 4th, 6th; but it would be unreasonable to suppose that T. lepenya has p after lepen instead of m as in the Q. lemenya; since the m is isolated in Quenya and satisfactorily explicable from lempe, whereas a variant stem *lemen would be obscure in its relations to lepen, which has credible etymological connexions.
The S. levnui does not support *lemen. It is true that *lemnui made on a pattern similar to the other numerals would yield levnui; but so would a stem-form lepn- in Sindarin. In Sindarin voiceless stops [i.e., p, t, k] before nasals became voiced > b, d, g, and then together with the original voiced stops in this position became nasals before homorganic nasals (tn, dn > nn; pm, bm > mm), but before other nasals became spirants as generally medially (pn, bn > vn; tm, dm > ðm, later > ðv, ðw; kn, gn > gn > in; km, gm > gm > im > iv, iw). Since, however, Quenya and Telerin show clearly that the stem lepen was originally a distinct stem not primitively capable of extrusion of the second vowel, the actual history of the Sindarin aberration is probably this: the sequel of C.E. lepenya would have produced *lepein(a) [deleted: more probably lebein(a)], but its aberration from its neighbours would have only the support of the distant *neil(a) 3rd, which was not a triconsonantal stem; it was therefore remodelled to lepni(a) after enki(a) 6th and nerti(a) 9th and the similar pattern of the stems in *kantaia 4th, otsoia 7th, toltoia 8th. This lepni then followed the normal Sindarin development to levni, subsequently adopting as all the others of its neighbours the ending ui.
A torn half-sheet placed among this discussion of Eldarin numerals reads:
Far too complicated.lemenya must be abandoned, the Old Quenya reflex in Vanyarin was lepenya (as in Telerin). In Noldorin Quenya its aberration was corrected by lempea (with -ea of other ordinals) derived from lempe, and before the Exile this was already the usual spoken form of 5th in Noldorin Quenya, though the Noldor all knew lepenya since that was used in Vanyarin and also in Telerin.
Note 1: The simpler, and probably older, bi-consonantal forms occur, however, in adverbial or prefixed forms: as AT(A) ‘double, bi-, di-’, in numerals signifying ‘doubled'; similarly NEL-, KAN-, etc.{66}
Note 2: Cf. the probable ultimate relationship between five, finger, and fist.{67} It was considered probable that originally it was a plural *lepem—m being certainly an ancient plural indicator in Common Eldarin—‘fingers', sc. of one hand. But if so lepem must have been altered by dissimilation > lepen and the final -n associated with the third consonant of the other numerals.
Note 3: But the chief reason, no doubt, was the strong predilection which Quenya showed for the sequences of sonants: m, n, n; l, r before stops, as against those in which the sonants followed. Transposition also occurs in Quenya in ancient forms of tr, tl, etc. > rt, lt. Of this an example occurs in C.E. *netere which in Quenya appears as nerte.
Note 4: The reason for the Quenya divergence in the ordinaclass="underline" Q. atta 2, but T. tata, S. tad is not certain. The appearance of at(a) in adverbial or prefixal use in Quenya, Telerin, and Sindarin; [and] of Q. atatya ‘double' and S. edaid ‘double', suggest that the most primitive form was AT, reduplicated to Atat to enforce the duality. Of a primitive atata the normal Quenya development was atta, while atatya remained because the second a was not syncopated, being in a long syllable.{68} But whatever its origin ATATA was treated as a triconsonantal stem: those in which there was no actual initial consonant were in ancient modes of derivation often deprived of the initial vowel when the accent was placed on the second syllable. T. tata, S. tad may thus be referred to (a)táta. The placing of the accent would not affect Quenya since in PQ the accent became placed on the first syllable in all cases, except for words formed with still recognized prefixes.{69}
Note 5: The forms canthui, enchui, tolthui are those of the southern Sindarin dialect adopted by the Noldor. In the Northern dialect (which perished in the course of the war against Morgoth) nt, nc, mp had remained unchanged. In the Southern dialects nt, ñk, mp remained when standing finally—or more probably the spirant was re-stopped in this position; for similarly final lth > lt, though rth remained finally. Medially however nth (nþ), nch (ñx), mf (mp with bilabial f), and lth (lþ) became long voiceless n, ñ, m, l, though the old spelling was mostly retained (beside nh, ñh, mh, lh), and among those to whom Sindarin became a language of lore, as the men of Gondor who were or claimed to be of Númenórean race, the spirant was reintroduced from the spelling. In true Sindarin of the Elves or Elf-friends of the early ages the final form was often introduced medially. In the transcription of Elvish Sindarin in The Lord of the Rings ll is used in the manner of modern Welsh for the medial voiceless l; as in mallorn < malhorn < malþorn < malt ‘gold' and orn ‘tree’.{70}
66
As first typed, the latter part of this note read: "AT- ‘a second time, once more, again'; and in numerals signifying ‘squared, multiplied by itself'. Similarly NEL-, KAN-, etc."
67
The
68
A long syllable is one that contains either a long vowel (or diphthong), or, as in this case, a short vowel followed by two (or more) consonants.
69
The abbreviation "PQ" is nearly always used by Tolkien to indicate Primitive Quendian, but it cannot have that meaning here, since it would imply that the fronting of the accent took place in the primitive language, before the differentiations that led to the divisions resulting in the separate languages. Quenya, Telerin, and Sindarin; the fronting would in this case be expected to have the same consequence in all three languages, not just in Quenya. "PQ" is thus here perhaps to be expanded as "Prehistoric Quenya".
70
This surprising statement regarding the pronunciation of S.