yes

“k” interjection? “it is may be seeming” sic VT49:28 Patrick Wynne believes the unclear gloss is “best understood as elliptical”: i.e. as representing “it is or may be seeming”, probably “indicating a qualified or hesitant ‘yes’.” VT49:29 As first written, the gloss was “not as it is or may be seeming” ibid.

1 vb. "is" am. Nam, RGEO:67. This is the copula used to join adjectives, nouns or pronouns “in statements or wishes asserting or desiring a thing to have certain quality, or to be the same as another” VT49:28. Also in impersonal constructions: ringa ná “it is cold” VT49:23. The copula may however be omitted “where the meaning is clear” without it VT49:9. Ná is also used as an interjection “yes” or “it is so” VT49:28. Short na in airë na, " is holy" VT43:14; some subject can evidently be inserted in the place of. Short na also functions as imperative: alcar mi tarmenel una/u Erun "glory in high heaven ube/u to God" VT44:32/34, also na airë "be holy" VT43:14; also cf. nai “be it that” see nai \#1. The imperative participle á may be prefixed á na, PE17:58. However, VT49:28 cites ná as the imperative form. Pl. nar or nár “are" PE15:36, VT49:27, 9, 30; dual nát VT49:30. With pronominal endings: nányë/nanyë “I am”, nalyë or natyë “you sg. are” polite and familiar, respectively, nás “it is”, násë “she is”, nalmë “we are” VT49:27, 30. Some forms listed in VT49:27 are perhaps to be taken as representing the aorist: nain, naityë, nailyë 1st person sg, and 2nd person familiar/polite, respectively; does a followingna represent the aorist with no pronominal ending? However, the forms nanyë, nalyë, ná, nassë, nalme, nar changed from nár are elsewhere said to be “aorist”, without the extra vowel i e.g. nalyë rather than nailyë; also notice that *“she is” is here nassë rather than násë VT49:30.Pa.t. nánë or né “was”, pl. náner/nér and dual nét “were” VT49:6, 9, 10, 27, 28, 30, 36. According to VT49:31, né “was” cannot receive pronominal endings though nésë “he was” is attested elsewhere, VT49:28-29, and such endings are rather added to the form ane-, e.g. anen “I was”, anel “you were”, anes “she/it was” VT49:28-29. Future tense nauva "will be" VT42:34, VT49:19, 27; another version however gives the future tense as uva, VT49:30. Nauva with a pronominal ending occurs in tanomë nauvan “I will be there” VT49:19, this example indicating that forms of the verb ná may also be used to indicate position. Perfect anaië “has been” VT49:27, first written as anáyë. Infinitive or gerund návë “being”, PE17:68. See also nai \#1. 2, also nán, conj. "but, on the contrary, on the other hand" NDAN; the form nan, q.v., is probably to be preferred to avoid confusion with ná "is", *nán "I am".

1 adv. “no, not" LA, VT45:25 According to VT42:33, lá is the stressed form, alternating with la when the negation is unstressed. – In another conceptual phase of Tolkien's, lá had the opposite meaning "yes" VT42:32-33, but this idea is contradicted by both earlier and later material: usually lá is conceived as a negation. – The negation can receive tense markers and be used as a negative verb “when another verb is not expressed” VT49:13, apparently where the phrase “is not” is followed by a noun or an adjective as a predicate, or where some verb is understood, as in English “I do not” i.e. “I do not do whatever the context indicates”. With pronominal endings la- in the aorist, e.g. lanyë “I do not, am not” etc. Tolkien abandoned the form lamin. Exemplified in the sentence melin sé apa ulanyë/u hé *“I love him but uI do not love/u him” another person VT49:15. Present tense laia, past lánë, perfect alaië, future lauva. 2 prep. “athwart, over, across, beyond” PE17:65, also used in phrases of comparison, e.g. "A ná calima lá B", A is bright beyond = brighter than B VT42:32. 3 interjection? "please" reading of gloss uncertain VT45:25

interjection “it is that” emphatic word for “yes”? VT49:28, 29

1 neuter personal pronoun "something, a thing" VT42:34. It may occur with the meaning “thing” in the ejaculation yé mána ma = “what a blessing” or “what a good thing!”“ VT49:41 2 Ma has also been theorized to be a particle used to turn declarative statements into yes/no questions.

vb. “was”; see ná \#1. Also used as interjection “yes” when the meaning is “it was so, it was as you say/ask” VT49:31. Pl. nér “were”, dual nét VT49:30. Nésë “he was” VT49:29, though Tolkien elsewhere stated that né did not “take any inflection of person” VT49:31, pronominal endings rather being added to ane- the form anes *he was” is attested. Anda né “long ago” VT49:31. vb. in pa.t. “was”; see ná \#1.

1 vb. "desire" YES, VT46:23; the latter source indicates that Tolkien did write yesta- with a final hyphen, indicating that this is "desire" as a verbal stem, not as a noun.