Roquen atta yestat sé lár atta. Ilya roquen norta i exenna min lár ilya lúmesse. Pí yesta min roquende ar vile i exenna; íre anyas ilya roquen, nanwenis i exenna arta. I pí vile lár atta ilya lúmesse. Íre i roqueni omentat i endesse, manóte lári i pí ivíliéva?
I pí vile i minya roquello i atteanna mi neldesta atta min lúmeo: lan vilis i attea roquenna, tana roquen nortea senna. Ter tana lúme vilis lári min ta neldesta. Vilis i attea roquello i minyanna mi neldesta atta neldesta atto min lúmeo ambe: i minya roquen norteane lan vilis. Sí ivílies lári min ta neldesta ta nerestar canta. Tana nonwe same únotie tyeller. Ea fintale lá carien tana nonwe: i roqueni omentat pó min lúme ar i pí mene lár atta ilya lúmesse; etta ivílies lár atta.
Atan menne omentienna *napanqueno ar cestane ta min imíca ten ye náne ammára napanien. I *napanquen sanne lintie ar hanquente “lár atta”. I atan quente “Ai: istal i fintale! Rimbe quelli ricir care i nonwe.” I *napanquen quente “Ma fintale? Carnen i nonwe.”
A long time ago, my grandfather told me a story:
Two riders begin at two leagues. Each rider rides at the other one league per hour. An insect starts at one rider and flies to the other; when it reaches each rider, it goes back to the other and so on. The insect flies two leagues per hour. When the riders meet in the center, how many leagues will the insect have flown?
The insect flies from the first rider to the second in two thirds of one hour: while it flies to the second rider, that rider is riding toward it. During that time it flies one and one third leagues. It flies from the second rider to the first in two thirds of two thirds of one hour more: the first rider was riding as it flew. Now it has flown one and one third and four ninths leagues. That calculation has infinite steps. There is a trick to not do that calculation: the riders meet after one hour and the insect travels two leagues per hour; therefore it has flown two leagues.
A man went to a conference of mathematicians and asked that to one of them who was very good at adding. The mathematician thought quickly and answered “two leagues”. The man said “Wow: you know the trick! Many persons try to do the calculation.” The mathematician said “What trick? I did the calculation.”
________________
ivíliéva future perfect 'will have flown'
mi neldesta atta min lúmeo and similar: 'in two thirds of one hour'
*napanquen 'mathematician, (lit. adding-person)' (far from ideal as mathematics is primarily about deductive logic far beyond just addition; this may better fit 'accountant' or similar)
sanne strong past of sana- 'to think'
lintie 'quickly' used instead of 'briefly'
rimbe quelli partitive plural of quen 'many persons', used instead of 'most persons'
minor coincidental irony, noticed while deciding how to say 'mathematician': nolmoron 'of wise persons' contains English 'moron'
The version that my grandfather literally told had bicycles instead of riders. It used miles instead of leagues with different distances and speeds and specific hours instead of arbitrary time units; the math works as long as a lúme is the same time unit in each usage here.
Edits: replaced er with min throughout, double corrected únotea tyelli to únotie tyeller, changed yestat lár atta er i exello to yestat sé lár atta to remove Anglicism, corrected atteallo to atteanna (typo), corrected mi talume to ter tana lúme, fixed math typo (neldesta atta neldesta atto lá nerestar tolto!), reordered several numbers and sums to put them after the noun instead of before, updated uien to lá carien
James Coish Nov 09, 2017 (04:36)
Ицхак Пензев Nov 09, 2017 (07:08)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 09, 2017 (09:08)
"yestat lár atta er i exello" - I feel 'start two miles from" is an Anglicism, for clarity I would add a preposition line sé: yestat sé lár atta "start at two miles"
vile i minya roquello i atteallo: I think you meant atteanna
Tamas Ferencz Nov 09, 2017 (09:56)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 09, 2017 (10:03)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 09, 2017 (10:08)
Robert Reynolds Nov 09, 2017 (14:28)
+James Coish Are there good resources for Tolkien's later thoughts on numbers? I don't have the original sources cited on Eldamo for them and I learned most of what I know from Helge Fauskanger's excellent, in-depth course that was out-of-date even then.
+Tamas Ferencz *menu- seems an interesting possibility. I too recall the section on inceptives like kelu- in PE22. It notes that the consonant is properly the inceptive part and gives nu as one of the favored combinations for inception. Another related possibility is *mennu- in analogy with thillu-, thilnu- on the second page, given as always having inceptive force.
Tamas Ferencz Nov 09, 2017 (14:40)
James Coish Nov 09, 2017 (22:18)
Robert Reynolds Nov 10, 2017 (16:28)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 10, 2017 (16:47)
James Coish Nov 15, 2017 (18:37)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 15, 2017 (19:46)
Robert Reynolds Nov 15, 2017 (23:05)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 15, 2017 (23:48)
Tamas Ferencz Nov 15, 2017 (23:50)
James Coish Nov 16, 2017 (01:59)
Robert Reynolds Nov 16, 2017 (13:09)