Harma
harma is a noun meaning "treasure" in Quenya.[1]
Harma (the h was pronounced as ch) was also the name in Quenya of the eleventh letter of the Tengwar alphabet.[1] It is the third letter of the third grade or Tyellë, which contains "voiceless spirants" and it is the third letter in the third series of consonants.
For written Quenya, the third series is used for the k-series, the Calmatéma.[2] Originally Harma represented spirant CH in all positions. While it retains this value in medial positions, over time the sound softened into breath H at the beginning of words and the letter was then called Aha. For breath H Quenya originally used a letter called Halla, which was simply a raised stem (telco) without any bow (lúva).[3] In Sindarin this letter represents CH.
In Westron, the third series is used for a variety of consonantal sounds and this letter represents SH.[2] The Westron name for this letter is Shé.[4]
Etymology
The word derives from the Primitive Quendian root ƷAR.[5]
See Also
- Quenya Corpus Wordlist edited by Helge Fauskanger
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, "Writing", "The Fëanorian Letters", Note, The names of the letters
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, "Writing", "The Fëanorian Letters"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, "Writing", "The Fëanorian Letters", Note, The names of the letters, footnote 1
- ↑ See Westron Tengwar
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part Three: "The Etymologies", ƷAR-
