Post 9Qr31KKGUhB

Wesley Stump Oct 18, 2017 (18:02)

Aiya, mára meldo! Merin maquetital quettalion ata, an ranyal rimbavë!
In a textbook I was reading, I read "epë = after (of time), and nó = before (of time)." I thought that the word epë actually meant before (of time), and nó meant another form of the word "before." What would the correct definitions be, because I am skeptical of the accuracy of the statement?

Александр Запрягаев Oct 18, 2017 (19:52)

You're right to be sceptical of everything. I'm writing an essay about these four concepts, before, after, in front, at back, for more than a year now, and the answers elude more and more. I stopped even trusting explicit statements, such as that glossing Abonnen as 'after-born' implies that ab- is 'after'.

Tamas Ferencz Oct 19, 2017 (11:14)

Yes, this is one of those cases where there is no definitive answer to be found in Tolkien's writings (to date, and to my knowledge), so all one can do is to pick one variant and try to stick to consistently, and hope that the intended meaning will be transparent to the audience, or at least the context will help to understand it.
I personally gravitate towards using nó for 'before (of time)' and opo/pó, or apa for 'after (of time)', and restrict epe to prefixing.

Wesley Stump Oct 19, 2017 (13:48)

Thank you!

Tamas Ferencz Oct 20, 2017 (10:58)

+Wesley Stump BTW what did you want to say with an ranyal rimbave? "you stray a lot"?

Wesley Stump Oct 20, 2017 (13:42)

No wait, I meant " Ranyan rimbavë"

James Coish Oct 23, 2017 (21:52)

+Tamas Ferencz I do the same except I use apa for prefixing. I guess it doesn't matter, apa, epe, and opo could be different colors of the same base.