nai

1 imperative verb "be it that", used with a verb usually in the future tense to express a wish. The translation "maybe" in Tolkien's rendering of Namárië is somewhat misleading; he used "be it that" in the interlinear translation in RGEO:67. Apparently this is na as the imperative "be!" with a suffix -i "that", cf. i \#3. It can be used with the future tense as an “expression of wish” VT49:39. Nai hiruvalyë Valimar! Nai elyë hiruva! *"May thou find Valimar. May even thou find it!" Nam, VT49:39. Nai tiruvantes "be it that they will guard it" "may they guard it" CO. Nai elen siluva parma-restalyanna *“may a star shine upon your book-fair” VT49:38, nai elen siluva lyenna *”may a star shine upon you” VT49:40, nai elen atta siluvat aurenna veryanwesto *”may two stars shine upon the day of your wedding” VT49:42-45, nai laurë lantuva parmastanna lúmissen tengwiesto “may a golden light fall on your book at the times of your reading” VT49:47. Nai may also be used with a present continuative verb if an ongoing situation is wished for: Nai Eru lye mánata “God bless you” VT49:39 or literally *”be it that God is already blessing you”. The phrase nai amanya onnalya *”be it that your child will be blessed” omits any copula; Tolkien noted that “imperative of wishes precedes adj.” VT49:41. VT49:28 has the form nái for “let it be that”; Patrick Wynne theorizes that nái is actually an etymological form underlying nai VT49:36 2 prefix “ill, grievously, abominably” PE17:151, cf. naiquet-. Earlier material also lists aninterjection nai "alas" NAY; this may be obsoleted by \# 1 above; Namárië uses ai! in a similar sense