Well, people, I asked Helge K. Fauskanger himself (the author
of most of the Ardalambion site*) for a good Quenya translation
of our sentence, and he said:
[this is me suggesting:]
> >=20
> > Nai lambelya y=E9va sinome
> > 'May your language be here'
>=20
> Not bad. The problem is that _y=E9va_ may be obsolete (when Tolkien use=
d that
> form, he also used _ye_ for "is", but in sources both earlier and later=
he
> uses _n=E1_ instead...it would seem that _ye_ was just a passing experi=
ment).
> I have sometimes used _y=E9va_ all the same, since it is at least genui=
ne
> Tolkien and it is uncertain what the future tense of _n=E1_ would be
> (_nauva_? _n=E1va_?)
[...]
> However, it *may* be appropriate to use a form of _ea_ rather than _n=E1=
_
> here. _Ea_, though sometimes translated "is", really means "exists" and=
may
> refer to *position*. One text refers to Eru (God) as the one who _ea or
> ilye mahalmar tennoio_ =3D "is above all thrones forever": Eru EXISTS i=
n this
> position. If _ea_ is the word to use when you are talking about somethi=
ng
> that "is" in a specific position, it could be appropriate in the contex=
t
> you are after. The future tense of _ea_ isn't entirely certain either, =
but
> I *think* _euva_ is a reasonably plausible form. More certain than the
> suggested future forms of _n=E1_, anyway! Then "may your language be he=
re"
> could be rendered as _nai lambelya euva sinome_.=20
>=20
> If you want something that is certainly grammatically correct, but perh=
aps
> slightly more awkward, try _nai lambelya maruva sinome_ =3D "may your
> language dwell here".
I like this last one, or plain _lambelya ea sinome_ 'your language Is her=
e'.
What do you think, people?
[And then I said, just in case]: =20
> > Plus, any idea about a Sindarin translation?
>=20
> The problem is that we don't know the pronoun "your" in Sindarin. It is
> sleeping uselessly in the papers the Elfconners may or may not publish =
at
> some point during the next fifty years. I could propose something very
> hypothetical, but it would be so uncertain that I couldn't recommend
> putting it on a shirt and imply that this is Tolkien's Sindarin. _Lam
> [g=EDn???] hirithar hi aen_?=20
* Ardalambion ('The Tongues of Arda') is at <http://www.uib.no/People/hno=
hf/>.
--Pablo Flores
http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/