Kinship and Affection Among the Elves: Familial Terminology in Quenya and Sindarin
It has bothered me for quite some time that J. R. R. Tolkien did not develop a complete system of kinship terminology in either Quenya or Sindarin, and some of the words we do have are outdated Qenya and Gnomish which are linguistically incongruous with the later lexicon, so I have taken it upon myself to invent one.
This is primarily for my own usage, but please feel free to use them as well.
NOTE 1: The terms for mother, father, son, daughter, brother and sister as well as the Quenya terms for grandchildren are all from Tolkien’s preexisting lexicon; except for ‘nessa’, which, while an existing Quenya word, normally means ‘young’, but I have extrapolated this colloquial form from ‘hanno’. The rest are all constructed from preexisting words and elements in Quenya and Sindarin. I have not introduced any new elements to either language.
NOTE 2: Due to the Sundering occurring rather early in the elves’ history and, presumably, before they have had enough generations to necessitate such words, I have made it so that it appears that Quenya (Valinórëan) and Sindarin (Endórëan) kinship terminology had developed independently of each other.
METHOD: For Quenya, I primarily made use of prefixes to indicate extended familial relationships. For grandparents, I used the reversible root ‘on’ or ‘ono’ (to beget) to indicate grandparents as ascendants. For aunts, uncles and cousins, I used the prefix ‘ara’ (beside) to indicate them as collateral relatives.
Note on Sindarin: Due to certain linguistic features of Sindarin, I have made it so that they distinguish between older and younger collateral relatives of the same generation. As for descendants, grandchildren are distinguished as grandchildren from sons or daughters.
Nana or Nanethig [diminutive]
Ada or Atheg [diminutive]
Neth or Nîth older sister
Hawn or Haun [archaic] older brother
METHOD: For Sindarin, I used reduplication to derive the terms for grandparents. This has already been suggested in Gnomish with the word for grandmother ‘mâm’, a reduplication of the word for mother ‘mamil’. Aunt and uncle are derived from attaching the diminutive suffix to grandmother and grandfather respectively, as in Latin 'avus’ (maternal grandfather) and 'avunculus’ (maternal uncle, 'little grandfather’). Cousins use the prefix 'ar’ (beside) to indicate collateral relationship. Nieces are distinguished between brother-daughters and sister-daughters while nephews are distinguished between brother-sons and sister-sons.
Iondion grandson through a son
Sellion grandson through a daughter
Iondiel granddaughter through a son
Selliel granddaughter through a daughter
Arneth or Arnîth older or same-aged female cousin
Arnethig younger female cousin
Arhanar older or same-aged male cousin
Arhawn or Arhaun [archaic] older or same-aged male cousin
Arhoneg younger male cousin
Hanariel brother’s daughter
Nethiel sister’s daughter
