For me, it is simple. KOY is 'life', KUY is 'awaken', they were related and in common use they were occasionnally confused, especially after the influence of Sindarin, where they actually coincide.
I agree with KOY = life and KUY = awaken, though I also think Tolkien vacillated over the question. For example, KUY was glossed “life” in the late 1960s (PE22/156).
Well, I don't there there is any point in time where Tolkien ascribed the meaning "awaken" to the root KOY. Where it appeared, KOY pretty consistently had to do with "life" (though as +Александр Запрягаев points out both merged into cui- in Sindarin). But at various points Tolkien seems to have considered having a single root KUY with the sense of both "life" and "awakening".
In his later writings, I think Tolkien mostly used two roots, KOY and KUY, with occasional aberrations as noted above. Thus we have both Q. cuita- and Q. coita- for "to live". Personally I prefer two roots, and using Q. coita- for "to live". You might treat cuita- as a Sindarin-influenced variant.
Александр Запрягаев Dec 25, 2017 (15:48)
Paul Strack Dec 25, 2017 (17:31)
Ицхак Пензев Dec 25, 2017 (20:45)
Paul Strack Dec 25, 2017 (20:53)
In his later writings, I think Tolkien mostly used two roots, KOY and KUY, with occasional aberrations as noted above. Thus we have both Q. cuita- and Q. coita- for "to live". Personally I prefer two roots, and using Q. coita- for "to live". You might treat cuita- as a Sindarin-influenced variant.
Ицхак Пензев Dec 26, 2017 (05:21)