Also called: Old Noldorin (the only term Tolkien uses!)
Old Sindarin is the last stop before (Classical) Sindarin in the evolution from Primitive Quendian to mature Grey-elven (between PQ and OS we have Common Eldarin and Common Lindarin). It was developed and spoken in Beleriand, but it appears to have evolved into mature Sindarin by the time the Noldor returned. Old Sindarin preserves the general sound of archaic Elvish much better than Sindarin does. There are quite a few cases of Old Sindarin words being identical to Quenya words: Examples include ku, kua "dove", malina "yellow", míre "jewel", parma "book", randa "cycle, age", rauta "metal", rimba "frequent, numerous", rimbe "crowd, host", ringe "cold", runda "rough piece of wood", síre "river", yaiwe "mocking, scorn". Other words are identical to Telerin, the most closely related Amanya language, such as branda "lofty, noble, fine", Bana "Vána" (a Valië) and belda "strong".
Old Sindarin explicitly identified as such is only known from the Etymologies, though a few early Sindarin forms mentioned in Tolkien's essay Quendi and Eldar have been included in the wordlist below. There are no OS texts. Tolkien would mention an OS word as the intermediate stage between Primitive Quendian and Sindarin simply to clarify the derivation of the Sindarin word. In the Etymologies the language is of course called Old Noldorin (abbreviation ON), since Tolkien still had not made the revision that turned the Welsh-sounding language in his mythos into the tongue of the Sindar. In his former conception, "Old Noldorin" was evidently the language that the Noldor spoke in Valinor, the language that turned into classical Noldorin in Middle-earth. Notice that in the Etymologies, "Noldorin" (> Sindarin) is sometimes called "EN" = Exilic Noldorin, as if implying that ON is "non-exilic Noldorin". Unlike other archaic forms, the "ON" words are not usually asterisked, as if they were attested in writing: This agrees with LR:173, where it is stated that the Noldor started to write their tongue in the days of Fëanor's pride. Tolkien later revised all of this. The Noldor came to be speaking Quenya, Noldorin became Sindarin, and we must assume that "Old Noldorin" likewise became Old Sindarin, though Tolkien never uses this term. Would Old Sindarin be attested in writing, or should we asterisk the entire corpus? Perhaps Old Sindarin would be written with Daeron's Runes? However, in WJ:370 Tolkien expresses uncertainty about whether a certain inflection had formerly occurred in Sindarin, as if the older stages of this language were not directly attested. Moreover, forms that seem to belong to about the same stage in the linguistic evolution as the "Old Noldorin" forms from the Etymologies are asterisked in later sources (see for instance ekla-mbar, ekla-rista in the wordlist below).
We will not here attempt to give a full listing of the phonological changes that affected Old Sindarin; see the word-by-word discussions in the wordlist below. Some main points may be summarized all the same. As stated above, Old Sindarin preserves the general sound of primitive Elvish much better than Sindarin does. In particular, the final vowels that were later lost are still in place; the long final vowels so characteristic of Primitive Elvish had merely become short. For instance, primitive alkwâ "swan" yields OS alpha, bélekâ "mighty" becomes beleka. (In one case, though, a long final vowel seems to persist in Old Sindarin, primitive magnâ "skilled" yielding the unchanged form magnâ; this is probably an error, by Tolkien or the transcriber, for *magna.) When not final, the quality of three of the primitive long vowels was altered in Old Sindarin: â became ó (this change is explicitly mentioned in LR:392 s.v. THÔN), ê became í and ô became ú. For examples, see ndóko, khíril, rúma in the wordlist below. There are some words where such changes fail to take place (see gása, tára, róna), but these may be mere mistakes - by Tolkien or the transcriber. Primitive î, û were unchanged (normally spelt í, ú in Old Sindarin).
In very many cases, earlier t, p, k become th, ph, kh following another consonant, though this change fails to take place in some words (Tolkien forgetting his own rules?) See thintha in the wordlist below (where further references to other words are listed). However, there is no evidence that the medial clusters st, sp, sk ever became sth, sph, skh, though this change did occur initially: primitive stankâ "cleft", spangâ "beard" and skalnâ "veiled" yielding OS sthanka, sphanga, skhalla. (This change may not have occurred at the earliest Old Sindarin stage, since stabne "room" is listed as OS as well as the later form sthamne.) Before ph, s disappeared during the Old Sindarin stage, as indicated by the spellings (s)pharasse "hunting" and (s)pharóbe "hunt" (LR:387 s.v. SPAR). It may be that sth-, skh- likewise became th, kh in late OS (in later Sindarin we find th-, h-, which is also how original primitive th- and kh- appear in Sindarin, suggesting that the distinction between, say, primitive sk- and primitive kh- had disappeared altogether in late Old Sindarin). - Some words suggest that t, p, k became th, ph, kh also following another t, p, or k, producing aspirates (?) tth, pph, kkh. See rattha in the wordlist below.
Before a nasal, the unvoiced plosives t, p, k became voiced d, b, g by assimilation to the voiced nasal. Cf. for instance yadme "bridge" from primitive jatmâ, or tulugme "support, prop" from tulukmê. Other assimilations that took place at the Old Sindarin stage include bn > mn, medial sm > mm (unchanged initially), nm > mm, dn > nn, sr > rrh (= long unvoiced R?), ln > ll, ht > tt, hs > ss (for examples, see ammale, Boromíro/Borommíro, etlenna, gêrrha, khalla, matthô-be, watte, wasse in the wordlist below).
In polysyllabic words, final consonants were often lost, but they were preserved in the plural form of nouns (since they were not there final because of the plural ending -i). Hence we have pairs like nele pl. neleki, oro pl. oroti, pele pl. pelehi, skhapa pl. skhapati, thele pl. thelehi (see the next paragraph for the meaning of these nouns).
In Old Sindarin we seem the first hints of the lenitions so prominent in later Grey-elven. There is still no trace of the voicing of all post-vocalic unvoiced stops (OS beleka yielding Sindarin beleg) or the post-vocalic voiced plosives becoming spirants (OS ngolodo "Noldo" yielding Sindarin golodh), but the lenition of s to h following a vowel occurred during the Old Sindarin stage of the linguistic evolution. There are several examples in the Etymologies: barasa "hot, burning" later became baraha, khelesa "glass" became kheleha, pelesi the pl. of pele "fenced field" became pelehi, and thelesi the pl. of thele "sister" became thelehi. (For kheleha and pelehi, listed in the Etymologies in the entries KHYEL(ES) and PEL(ES), the misreadings "khelelia" and "peleki" occur in the text as printed in LR.)
The Old Sindarin plural ending was -i, directly descended from Primitive Quendian *-î and cognate with Quenya -i: boron "faithful vassal" pl. boroni, toron "brother" pl. toroni. Nouns ending in a vowel normally drop this vowel before the plural ending -i is added: poto "animal's foot", pl. poti. However, in several cases nouns in -o have plurals in -ui instead: malo "pollen", pl. malui; orko "goblin, Orc", pl. orkui; pano "plank", pl. panui; ranko "arm" pl. rankui. This phenomenon occurs when the original, primitive form did not end in -o (or actually -ô), but in -u. Malo, orko, ranko derive, according to the Etymologies, from primitive smalu, órku, ranku, and while Primitive Quendian final short -u became -o already at the Common Eldarin stage, Old Sindarin preserves the original quality of the vowel before the plural ending (something Common Eldarin also must have done). However, pano "plank" is said to come from primitive panô, and yet its Old Sindarin plural is panui. This is because Old Sindarin shifted primitive oi to ui; compare OS muina with Quenya moina (primitive *moinâ, my reconstruction; stem MOY). The primitive pl. of panô must have been *panôi, later *panoi, becoming panui in OS. This, however, does not follow the pattern established by the noun poto "animal's foot" mentioned above (pl. poti instead of **potui). For more than one reason, it is tempting to dismiss the plural form panui as some kind of mistake and read simply pano pl. *pani.
As mentioned above, the plural forms of nouns in some cases preserve original final consonants lost in the singular: nele "tooth", pl. neleki (stem NÉL-EK), oro pl. oroti "mountain" (stem ÓROT), skhapa "shore" pl. skhapati (primitive skhyapat-), pele "fenced field", pl. pelesi (later pelehi) (stem PEL(ES)), thele "sister", pl. thelesi (later thelehi) (stem THELES), ró "lion" pl. rówi (primitive râu, stem RAW). Some of the lost final sounds were restored in Sindarin, evidently by analogy with the plurals. For instance, oro pl. oroti corresponds to Sindarin orod pl. ered (post-vocalic T being lenited to D in Sindarin).
In one case the vowel of the sg. and pl. form of a noun differs: mó "hand", pl. mai. This is because Old Sindarin shifted original long â to ó (like ndâkô "warrior" > ndóko), while the diphthong ai was unchanged (like gaia "dread", primitive gais-). So while primitive mâ3 "hand" became mó, the primitive pl. *ma3i, later *mai, remained mai.
Except for the plural inflection there is little direct evidence of inflections in Old Sindarin. There is the word thoronen, said to be the "gen.sg." of the word for "eagle"; the nominative is not given, but it may have been *thoron (as in Sindarin). This genitive ending -en also occurs in the Quenya (or "Qenya") of the Etymologies, but Tolkien later changed it to -o, descended from primitive -ho (WJ:368, cf. 3O in the Etymologies, LR:360). This probably throws considerable doubt upon the ending -en in mature Old Sindarin (if I may use such a term). In WJ:370, Tolkien argues that Sindarin had probably developed inflexional -ô in "the primitive period" (later presumably *-o, after the shortening of the final vowels). He notes that "the placing of the genitive noun second in normal Sindarin [like Aran Moria, "King of Moria"] is also probably derived from inflectional forms" in -ô, *-o. It seems that according to Tolkien's mature conception of the language, we should probably read *thorono for thoronen.
Indirect evidence from later Sindarin suggests that Old Sindarin may still have had a living locative in *-sse (a case ending well known from Quenya, High-elven being much more conservative than Grey-elven). Tolkien-linguists agree that the word ennas "there" in the King's Letter (SD:128-129) must be derived from earlier *entasse, sc. a word enta "that yonder" (known from Quenya, LR:356 s.v. EN) with a locative ending to express "in that yonder [place]" = "there". If Old Sindarin had a locative, perhaps the allative and the ablative were also still living cases?
The infinitive: The infinitival ending -ie, known from Quenya (UT:317), also appears in Old Sindarin: bronie "last, endure, survive", etledie "go abroad, go into exile", ndakie "to slay", orie and ortie "[to] rise", tre-batie "traverse", trenarie *"to recount, tell to end", warie "betray, cheat". (In the Etymologies, trenarie is explicitly called an "inf." form in the entry NAR2, LR:374.) Another group of verbs show the infinitival ending -be: buióbe "to serve, follow", matthô-be "to handle", naróbe *"to tell a story", ortóbe "raise", phalsóbe "to foam", pharóbe (older spharóbe) "[to] hunt", phuióbe "feel disgust at, abhor", puióbe "[to] spit", rostóbe "to hollow out, excavate", wattóbe "to soil, stain". (Naróbe is actually glossed "he tells a story", but it can hardly be a 3rd person present tense form.) In light of these examples, we must conclude that parthóbi "arrange, compose" is probably a misreading for *parthóbe.
The past tense: The corpus contains only three examples of the past tense: lende "fared" (from the stem LED, other forms not attested but cf. the infinitive etledie "go abroad, go into exile", that is essentially the same verb with the prefix et- "out"), narne *"told a story" (infinitive naróbe), and ndanke, past tense of ndakie "to slay". The past tenses lende and ndanke are formed from their stems (LED, NDAK) by means of nasal infixion, a device also known from Quenya (indeed lende is also a Quenya word, with the same meaning). Narne shows the past tense ending -ne, also occurring in Quenya.
The present tense: One possible example of the present tense is the word persôs "it affects, concerns". The ending -s seems to be a pronominal suffix "it". Without it, this verb may appear as *persa "affects, concerns" (since the primitive verbal ending -â, like any other -â, would become -a instead of ô when final).
The aorist (?): There are a few verbs showing the ending -e, or -i- when an ending follows; this would appear to be the same form that has been identified as the aorist in Quenya, with the same endings: yurine "I run" (where -ne = "I") and trenare "he recounts". "He runs" and "I recount" would presumably be *yure, *trenarine.
Only two pronominal endings are attested: -s "it" in persôs "it affects, concerns" (which ending is also known from Quenya), and -ne "I" in yurine "I run". The latter ending may be a cognate of Quenya -nyë (since older *ny, *nj became n in Common Lindarin, the ancestor of both Telerin and Old Sindarin). Alternatively, this ending may represent primitive -ni, sc. the first person sg. stem NI "I" used as an ending (LR:378). The 3rd person singular may evidently be expressed by means of the verbal stem alone, as in trenare "he recounts, tells to end", where no pronominal element seems to be present.
Most of the words come from the Etymologies; a few words from other sources (UT, WJ, PM) have been included. The latter group of words is not explicitly identified as Old Sindarin, but it seems best to place them in this list. Usually, they are also included in the Primitive Elvish wordlist, with a note that they may be Old Sindarin.
Notice that the combinations ph, th, kh represent aspirated p, t, k (LR:322), not the spirant sounds heard in English philosophy and think and German ach. (It is possible, however, that the spirant sounds are intended in certain combinations; for instance, the word rattha may be meant to contain an aspirate tth, sc. t followed by th as in think). Both circumflexes (in the sources macrons) and accents are used. The circumflexes must mark long vowels; the accents seem in some cases to mark the stress (e.g. spíndele, ngalámbe, trenárna), but normally an accent indicates that a vowel is long (as in ró "lion"; of course, there could be no doubt about which syllable is accented in a monosyllabic word). Tolkien's spelling is not wholly consistent; for instance, we have both ô and ó for long o. There is no reason to assume that any subtle distinctions in vowel-length are intended here (as in later Sindarin, where Tolkien uses circumflexes to indicate super-long vowels). Cf. for instance such verbs as buióbe and matthô-be; surely these could just as well have been spelt buiô-be and matthóbe.
Primitive words "reconstructed" by Tolkien himself are not here asterisked, though he usually did asterisk them. Notice that in the primitive words, circumflexes (for macrons in the sources) always indicate long vowels, while accents indicate stress. In primitive words, we generally prefer the spelling j for the sound of y as in English you (Tolkien's spelling is inconsistent, and sometimes it was even altered by the transcriber).
abóro "Avar", "Elf who never left Middle-earth or began the march [from Cuiviénen]". In the Etymologies, this word was derived from a stem AB-, ABAR- "refuse, deny" (LR:347), and the primitive form was given as ábârô (or ábâro), including the personal (masculine/agental) ending -ô: An ábârô is thus a "refuser" (that is, one who refused the invitation of the Valar to come to Valinor). When not final, primitive long â becomes ó in Old Sindarin; for another example cf. ndóko (q.v.) from ndâkô. (In monosyllabic words, â may become ó even when final; cf. mó "hand" from mâ.) However, final primitive long -â, -ê, -î, -ô, -û merely become short; the quality of the vowels is unchanged: Hence the final -ô of ábârô becomes -o in abóro. - The reconstruction ábârô and the stem AB-, ABAR- are superseded by information provided by Tolkien in a source that is about a quarter of a century younger than the Etymologies, namely the essay Quendi and Eldar from about 1960 (WJ:360-423). In WJ:370, the stem from which the Quenya and Sindarin words for Avari are derived is said to be ABA. This stem "probably derived from a primitive negative element, or exclamation, such as *BA 'no'! (...) it expressed refusal to do what others might wish or urge". The oldest form is now said (in WJ:371) to be abaro, not as in Etym ábârô with long â and ô. While Tolkien originally held the r to be a part of the stem ABAR given in Etym (LR:347), abaro must be analyzed as the new stem ABA with the longer agental ending -ro. The new reconstruction abaro is said to have yielded Common Eldarin abar (WJ:371), which would also have been the Old Sindarin form. The plural form *abari would have yielded the Sindarin plural Evair, which is attested in WJ:380 (said to be a word known to the loremasters only). The earlier reconstruction ábârô, yielding Old Sindarin abáro, instead produced Sindarin ("Noldorin") Afor, pl. Efuir, later Efyr (LR:347 - f in these words is just a peculiar way of spelling v; read Avor pl. Evuir, Evyr). It would seem that all of these forms were obsoleted by Tolkien's more mature concepts as set out in Quendi and Eldar.
alpha "swan". Primitive form given as alk-wâ, derived from a stem ÁLAK "rushing" (LR:348). Alk-wâ would seem to be an adjectival formation (ending -wâ, concerning which see katwe), so the primitive word probably had the same meaning as the stem: "rushing", later used as a noun "rushing (one)" and applied to an animal. In the entire Lindarin branch of the Elvish language family, primitive kw very early became p (WJ:375 cf. WJ:407 note 5), so alk-wâ, alkwâ first became alpa (which form persisted in the Telerin of Aman), but in the evolution of Old Sindarin, a subsequent change turned p, t, k following a liquid l or r into ph, th, kh, respectively. Hence the form alpha (in turn yielding Sindarin alph pl. eilph - see UT:265, footnote). Compare salpha, and for other examples of p, t, k > ph, th, kh following l or r see bértha-, parkha, parthóbi, pelthaksa, sulkha. (For words where this change fails to take place, see awarta, ngurtu, orko/orkui, ortie, ortóbe. Since the later Sindarin forms are awartha, gurth, orch/yrch and ortho, it would seem that the change eventually occurred after all; the abnormal forms may be explained as early Old Sindarin, later becoming *awartha, *ngurthu, *orkho/orkhui, *orthie, *orthóbe.)
ammale, ammalinde "yellow bird, 'yellow hammer' ", derived from a stem SMAL "yellow" (LR:386). The primitive forms are given as asmalê, asmalindê; these examples indicate that in Old Sindarin, the cluster sm was assimilated to mm between vowels. Both words show a prefixed a that is probably just the stem-vowel reduplicated, and the suffix -ê is probably a feminine ending. Asmalindê shows a longer feminine ending -indê, not otherwise mentioned as a primitive form, but cf. Quenya -indë as in Serindë (Þerindë) "Needlewoman" (PM:333).
anda "long", only attested in the compound andatektha, q.v. Derived from the undefined stem ÁNAD, ANDA (LR:348); the primitive form is there given as andâ with the common adjectival ending -â, though no Old Sindarin form is listed there (but later Sindarin and, ann is mentioned).
andatektha "long-mark" (= Q andatehta, a symbol used in writing to indicate that a vowel is long; listed in LR:391 s.v. TEK). Compound of anda and tektha (q.v.), not otherwise attested in Old Sindarin. The "Noldorin" form descended from andatektha is given in Etym as andeith, corresponding to Sindarin andaith in LotR Appendix E: "In this mode [the Tengwar mode of Beleriand] length of vowel was usually indicated by the 'acute accent', called in that case andaith 'long mark'."
ango "grandchild, descendant". Derived from a stem ÑGYÔ, ÑGYON (LR:377) that is similarly glossed; this is probably to be understood as a strengthening of the stem YÔ, YON "son" (LR:400), since Tolkien made a cross-reference to that stem. The Quenya and Telerin cognates of ango are indyo and endo, respectively; these forms together point to a primitive form ñgjô, identical to the form ÑGYÔ listed by Tolkien (y = j). The details can be debated but we are probably to assume a development more or less like ñgjô > *ñdjô > *ñdô > *añdo > ango (compare the Quenya development *ñdjo > *iñdjo > indyo, and Telerin ñgjô > *ñdjô > *ñdô > *eñdo > endo). The reason why an a (in Quenya an i, in Telerin an e) developed before ñ is evidently that this initial sound had become syllablic; PM:360 gives evidence that before a syllabic ñ, a vowel a would develop in Sindarin (and an i in Quenya), as in the name Angolodh from ñgolodô when the initial consonant was syllabic (Quenya Ingoldo; the Sindarin form Angolodh was not actually used, but its Old Sindarin form would nonetheless have been *Angolodo). - The word ango "grandchild, descendant" did not yield any Sindarin word, probably because it became identical to ang "iron" (Old Sindarin *anga) after the loss of the final vowels.
anu "a male (of Men or Elves), male animal. Derived from a stem 3AN (LR:360), simply defined as "male". The primitive form would be *3anû, a fairly well attested masculine ending being added to the stem (cf. for instance kherû "master" [Letters.282], whence Quenya heru "lord"). For the loss of initial 3 (also reconstructed as h), cf. elwa from *3elwâ.
Araume < Oroume "Oromë", name of a Vala. In the Etymologies, this word was derived from ORÓM (LR:379), a reduplicated form of ROM "loud noise, horn-blast, etc." (LR:384; cf. romba, róma). The primitive form of the name was given as Orômê (LR.379). The ending -ê is surprising in the name of a male Vala, since this ending is normally feminine. In this case, -ê is perhaps best taken as an abstract ending; cf. WJ:400, where it is said that the Eldar interpreted the name as "horn-blowing". From Orômê Tolkien first derived Old Sindarin Oroume; we would rather expect **Orúme, since primitive ô yielded OS ú (see brúna for an example). Perhaps "ou" is just another way of spelling ú; see doume under dogme. This strange "ou" then turns into au in Araume (though ú should regularly be unchanged in Sindarin!), and at the same time, the initial o mysteriously becomes a (some kind of dissimilation?) The development seems to be pretty ad hoc; Tolkien is heading straight for the Classical Sindarin form Araw, perhaps already decided upon before he tried to sort out the phonological intricacies. The precise meaning of the name remains vague; it simply has something to do with horns or horn-blasts. However, this explanation of the name Oromë/Araw is obsoleted by information provided in the essay Quendi and Eldar, written about a quarter of a century later. Tolkien rejected the interpretation "horn-blowing" or "horn-blower" as a mere folk etymology on the part of the Elves; there was not really any connection with the stem ROM after all. Tolkien decided that Oromë's name was actually adapted from the form his name had in the language of the Valar. In Valarin, the name simply denoted Oromë and had no etymology beyond that (WJ:400-401). The original Valarin form was Arômêz (with a special open, A-like variety of ô); the oldest Elvish adaptation was Arâmê, later becoming Arômæ (with A-like ô), then Araum(a), then Araumh (mh = nasalized v) and Arauv, finally becoming Araw in classical Sindarin. The form Arômæ may be seen as Old Sindarin. In the phonological scheme used by Tolkien in the Etymologies, primitive Arâmê would have yielded Old Sindarin *Aróme, which is at least close (but Tolkien's ideas about the development of Sindarin were clearly modified over the years, so it is no surprise if there is not full agreement between the Etymologies and the essay Quendi and Eldar, written much later).
awarta "forsake, abandon". Derived from a stem WAR- "give way, yield, not endure, let down, betray" (LR.397); the primitive form would be awartâ-. The verbal suffix -tâ is very common; the prefixing of the stem-vowel is probably simply intensive. Contrast the simpler verb warie "betray", derived from the same stem, but with no prefixed vowel (and neither any ending). - The form awarta must be early Old Sindarin, for later, t following r became th (presumably producing awartha-, which form is attested in later Sindarin). Compare bértha- from *bertâ-.
Bala "Power, God, Vala". In the Etymologies derived from an undefined stem BAL (LR:350); a later entry BEL "strong" is however compared to BAL, so the basic meaning may have something to do with "power". The primitive form of bala is given as *bálâ, a formation that seems to parallel Bánâ from BAN; see Bana below. In WJ:403 Tolkien provides some information about Quenya Vala, the close cognate of Bala. Vala (and hence Bala) is properly a verb "has power", and the plural form Valar (Old Sindarin *Bali?) can be interpreted "they have power". Subsequently these verbs were also used as nouns: "a Power, the Powers". - The word Bala as such does not seem to have any independent descendant in Sindarin; the Sindarin word for Vala, Balan, descends from the longer forms Balane, Balano.
Balandor "Valinor", *"Vala-land" (LR:350 s.v. BAL). Compound of Bala "Vala" and ndor "land", q.v.
Balane fem. form of Bala, "Valië" (LR:350 s.v. BAL). Primitive *Balanê, sc. the more basic form Bala (see above) with the feminine ending -nê added to produce a gender-specific form. See Balano.
Balano masc. form of Bala, "(male) Vala" (LR:350 s.v. BAL). Primitive *Balanô, sc. the more basic form Bala (see above) with the masculine ending -nô added to produce a gender-specific form. In later Sindarin, after the loss of the final vowels, masc. Balano and fem. Balane converged to produce a gender-neutral word for Vala, Balan.
Balthil a name of the White Tree of Valinor (LR:350 s.v. BAL). The umlauted Sindarin form descended from it, Belthil, is translated "Divine Radiance" in the Silmarillion index. The word seems to be simply a compound of two stems, BAL and THIL (LR:350, 392). BAL yields words for "Vala" and hence "divine" (see Bala above), while THIL is stated (in LR:392) to be a variant of the stem SIL, meaning "shine silver" (LR:385, compare Letters:425, third footnote). The formation Balthil seems to be quite similar to Narsil, said (in Letters:425) to be "composed of 2 basic stems without variation or adjuncts".
Bana "Vana", name of a Valië (the Quenya form is spelt Vána in the published Silmarillion). Primitive form given as Bánâ. The ending -â is usually adjectival and never explicitly feminine; it may simply be the stem-vowel suffixed and lengthened, but bánâ may originally have been an adjective that was later used only as an epithet of this goddess (compare the Quenya name of another goddess, Varda, originally an adjective "lofty, sublime"; see barada). Bánâ is derived from a stem BAN (LR:351) that is not defined as such, but it seems to have to do with beauty; it is the source of Quenya vanya "beautiful". If bánâ is properly an adjective, it may have a similar meaning. In Old Sindarin, the compound Bana-wende (*"Vána-maiden" or even *"Beautiful-maiden") was also used; see wende. - In WJ:383, reproducing a late source (ca. 1960), it is
said that the Quenya name of this Valië, Vána, is derived from a stem
WAN instead; this stem has to do with pale colour, also associated with beauty (much like English fair). Here, the primitive form is probably meant to be
*Wânâ, that would yield *Wóna in Old Sindarin.
barada "lofty, sublime" (or "steep" if = Sindarin baradh, the word it yielded). Derived from a stem BARÁD (LR:351), itself undefined but suggested to be an expanded form of BAR, tentatively said to mean "raise" (LR:351); BARÁD could mean something like *raised, uplifted" and hence "lofty, sublime". The primitive form is given as barádâ, showing the normal adjectival ending -â (in Quenya, the name of the goddess Varda, The Sublime, is derived from this primitive adjective).
baraha, earlier barasa, "hot, burning". Derived from an undefined stem BARÁS (LR:351) said to be found only in "Noldorin" (read: Sindarin). The primitive form is given as barasâ (accented on the final syllable), showing the common adjectival ending -â. The oldest OS form was barasa, later becoming baraha with the lenition of intervocalic s to h. (For other examples of this lenition, cf. pelehi, thelehi under pele, thele; see also kheleha.)
barane "brown, swart, dark brown". The primitive form would be *baráni, sc. the stem BARÁN (LR:351) with the ending -i, very common in primitive colour-adjectives (compare in particular karani "red" from KARÁN, LR.362). The Quenya compound form varni- preserves the original quality of the final vowel (uncompounded varnë, with the same change of final short -i to -e as in Old Sindarin; this change seems to have occurred at the Common Eldarin stage, and is therefore common to Old Sindarin, Quenya and Telerin).
barasa "hot, burning"; see baraha (the later form).
Barathi, also Barathil "Varda, Elbereth" (LR:351 s.v. BARATH). The form Barathil seems to be secondary, with a longer feminine ending -il also seen in khíril "lady" (and in Bradil, another name of Varda, later struck out). The second element in the normal Sindarin name of the goddess Varda, Elbereth, descends from Barathi (with an element el- "star" prefixed); see elen-barathi. According to RGEO:74, Sindarin bereth (from barathi) means "spouse", used of the spouse of a king, hence coming to mean "queen": Varda is both the Queen of the Valar and the spouse of Manwë. In Letters:282, Elbereth is translated "Star-lady", providing yet another gloss for bereth and hence barathi: "lady". In the Etymologies, the stem BARATH from which Barathi is derived is not clearly defined, but merely suggested to be "related to BAR and BARÁD". Concerning the latter, see barada. The most basic stem here is clearly BAR, tentatively defined as "raise" and hence capable of yielding words for something high or lofty; BARÁD and BARATH are clearly simply extended forms of BAR, and BARÁD (yielding words for "lofty, sublime, steep") is said to have been "blended" with BARATH. Tolkien derived Barathi from primitive Barathî, showing the feminine ending -î. Since Barathî was defined as "spouse of Manwe, Queen of Stars", it seems implied that this was the first name the primitive Elves gave to Varda. Barathî should have yielded *Varsi in Quenya; however, Tolkien imagined that this primitive name had been blended with the adjective barádâ "lofty, sublime", which was the true origin of the Quenya name Varda. However, the ancient name persisted in Sindarin, to provide the final element of the later name Elbereth. - It seems somewhat doubtful that Tolkien intended barathî to mean simply "spouse" when he wrote the Etymologies, though this was how he defined Sindarin bereth in RGEO:74 many years later. Barathî was probably first meant to signify *"she that is sublime/lofty". Perhaps Tolkien later, after adopting the "spouse" interpretation, imagined that bereth included the Sindarin feminine ending -eth, primitive -ittâ (PM:345); if so the primitive form would rather be *berittâ or *barittâ (and the Old Sindarin form *berittha or *barittha).
bata "beaten track, pathway". Derived from a stem BAT (LR.351); the primitive form is given as bátâ (or báta, but this would have yielded Old Sindarin **bat instead). The ending -â is sometimes used to form nouns (more often adjectives), but in this case it may be simply the stem-vowel reduplicated and suffixed. It is also possible that -â has a local meaning here; compare rattha, yura.
batthô "trample" (indicated to be accented on the final syllable). Derived from a stem BAT "tread" (LR:351); the primitive form is given as battâ- (like batthô indicated to be accented on the final syllable). It is said that in battâ, the "medial consonant [is] lengthened in frequentative formation": The T of the stem BAT "tread" is doubled to symbolize the repeated action: *"tread repeatedly" = "trample". In Old Sindarin, earlier tt becomes tth (compare rattha, q.v., from rattâ; it is probable that primitive kk, pp similarly became kkh, pph: Though we have no explicit examples, later Sindarin words suggest such a development in OS). Normally, final long -â in polysyllabic words becomes -a in Old Sindarin words (see abóro). Therefore, we might have expected battâ- to yield *battha- instead of batthô. Non-final long â may regularly becomes ó (here spelt ô), and so does final â in monosyllabic words (see mó). What makes the difference is evidently that in battâ-, the final -â was stressed (just like the final vowel of batthô still is). The stress would have moved to the first syllable in batho, the later Sindarin form. When Tolkien wrote this, he must already have decided that the original final vowels were lost in Sindarin. Here he seems to be toying with a concept that final stressed vowels were not lost, that batthô (stressed on -ô) first became bathó in Sindarin, the final vowel surviving because it was accented, the accent moving to the first syllable only later, as the classical accent pattern evolved. A Sindarin verb in an earlier entry in the Etymologies points in the same direction: berio "to protect", derived from a primitive form barjâ (baryâ); once again, Tolkien carefully indicated that the final -â was accented (LR:351 s.v. BAR). He probably assumed that barjâ became Old Sindarin *baryô (baryó), still stressed on the final vowel, which in turn yielded Sindarin *berió, later berio with the stress on another syllable. However, the evidence is that Tolkien shortly afterwards decided upon a quite different way of deriving Sindarin verbs in -o from primitive forms in -â, rejecting the "stressed final vowel"-idea he experimented with in the early entries of the Etymologies. (In later entries, even stressed final -â becomes -a rather than -ô in Old Sindarin; see khalla.) Instead of assuming that -â was originally stressed, he introduced an infinitive ending -be; in the Etymologies, it first turns up in the entry BEW (where buio "to serve, follow" is derived from Old Sindarin buióbe, q.v. concerning the phonological development). Perhaps Tolkien would have derived Sindarin batho from Old Sindarin *batthóbe, not batthô, if he had found the time to revise all his notes to bring them into accord with his new insights.
belda "strong", derived from a stem BEL of similar meaning (LR:352); the primitive form would be *beldâ with medial fortification l > ld and adjectival -â. (Compare kuldâ "golden-red" from KUL, LR:365.)
beleka "mighty, huge, great". Derived from the same stem BEL "strong" (LR:352) as belda above. Tolkien first mentions a form bélek, which is probably to be understood as an extended variant of BEL, with the stem-vowel reduplicated and suffixed (so-called ómataina, vocalic extension) and a consonant -k added. Then follows the primitive form bélekâ, which is clearly this extended stem with the common adjectival ending -â.
belka "excessive" - attested as a Telerin word, but "possibly from ON", Old Noldorin (LR:352). Of course, no Old Sindarin word could get across the ocean to enter the speech of the Teleri of Aman. Apart from the difficulties caused by Tolkien's revision of the history of this language, belka would be simply a variant form of beleka, derived from the same stem BEL "strong". In the case of belka, the primitive form would be *belkâ with an adjectival ending -kâ added directly to the stem (rather than the shorter ending -â added to the extended stem bélek- as above). Concerning the adjectival ending -kâ, cf. for instance poikâ "clean, pure" from POY, LR:382.
belle "(physical) strength". Derived from same stem BEL (LR:352) as belka and belda above; the primitive form of belle would most likely be *bellê, since the ending -ê is often abstract. The doubling of the l could be a "medial fortification", though l > ld is more common. (Notice that Ilkorin bel is said to derive from belê with no doubling of the l.) Conceivably bellê could also be the stem BEL with the universal and abstract ending -lê (VT39:16).
berina "bold, brave". Derived from a stem BER "valiant" (LR:352); this is an adjectival formation paralleling malina (q.v.) from smalinâ: primitive *berinâ.
bértha- "to be bold" (the accent probably indicates that it is the first syllable that is accented, not that the e is long). Derived from a stem BER "valiant". The primitive form would be *bertâ-, the common verbal suffix -tâ being used in a rather uncommon way: to form a stative verb, describing something one is rather than something one does. Normally, -tâ forms transitive or even causative verbs (e.g. tultâ- "make come" from TUL- "come", LR:395). - Following r and l, primitive t becomes th in Old Sindarin; see alpha. Since ngurtu (not *ngurthu) is said to be an Old Sindarin form, it may be that this change occurred during the Old Sindarin stage, so that an earlier form of bértha- was *bérta-
besse "wife" (or "woman"?) Derived from a stem BES "wed" (LR:352); the primitive form is given as bessê. The word could include the (feminine?) ending -sê seen in NDIS-SÊ (LR:375), whence Quenya nissë "woman". Alternatively, the doubling of the S of BES is some kind of medial fortification, and the ending is simply the feminine suffix -ê. - We cannot be absolutely sure whether besse means "wife" or simply "woman"; primitive bessê is defined as "wife" (reflecting the root meaning "wed"), while Sindarin bess had a generalized meaning "woman". The intermediate Old Sindarin form besse is mentioned, but not defined. It probably still meant "wife"; the wording in the entry BES seems to indicate that it was Sindarin bess and not the earlier form besse that was used to replace earlier words for "woman". See also LR:378.
bioro, also biuro, "follower, vassal". Derived from a stem BEW "follow, serve"; the primitive form is given as beurô with the masculine (often, as here, agental) ending -rô (WJ:371). It seems that primitive eu first became iu and then io; biuro is probably to be understood as an older form, later (but still during the Old Sindarin stage) becoming io. Compare sniuma "snare" from *sneumâ; the later "Noldorin" form hniof (Sindarin *nýw) suggests that iu later became io (*snioma). - In the Etymologies, the name Bëor is derived from bioro. The published Silmarillion (ch. 17) agrees that Bëor means "Vassal", but in this book, the name is said to be derived from the language of Bëor's own people, not from Elvish: Tolkien's concept seems to have undergone some revisions. (In Sindarin, older bioro, biuro would yield býr rather than beor; perhaps Tolkien, wishing to keep the long-established name Bëor even after he had revised Sindarin phonology, transferred it from Grey-elven to Mannish for this very reason.)
Boromíro masc. name, *"Steadfast Jewel", Boromir (LR:353 s.v. BOR; the variant Borommíro is found in LR:373, under MIR). The entry BOR indicates that Boromíro represents Boronmíro; the form Borommíro in the entry MIR would reflect nm in the form of a double mm, n being assimilated. The first element, unassimilated boron, is apparently more or less identical to the independent word boron, see below. The element míro is evidently a variant of míre "jewel", q.v., the masculine ending -o substituting -e when the word is used as the final part of a masc. name. - In a footnote in LotR Appendix F, it is said that the name Boromir is a "mixed" form, the context indicating that this means that it contains both Quenya and Sindarin elements; this is probably Tolkien's way of explaining why the m of Boromir is not lenited to v. In the Etymologies, where the forms Boromíro, Borommíro, Boronmíro are quoted as the historical origin of this name, there is no trace of this later notion that the name is somehow "mixed". In the Etymologies, Boromir is described as "an old N[oldorin] [later: Sindarin] name of ancient origin". So while the name existed before LotR was written, Tolkien's ideas about its precise history would seem to have undergone revisions.
boron "steadfast, trusty man, faithful vassal", pl. boroni (LR:353 s.v. BOR). Derived from a stem BOR- "endure" (LR:353); a primitive form is given as bóron- (the hyphen suggesting that some final vowel, perhaps masculine -o, was originally present). The form bóron- shows ómataina (reduplication of the stem-vowel) and the ending -n; indeed the stem BORÓN, also listed in LR:353, is said to be an "extension" of BOR and a "verbal form" of borón- (notice the difference in stress). The plural ending seen in boroni descends directly from primitive -î. - For a possible parallel to boron pl. boroni from BOR, see toron pl. toroni from TOR (cf. also *thoron).
Boronmíro > Boromíro (masc. name) (LR:353 s.v. BOR). See Boromíro.
[Bradil] (struck out) "Varda". This rejected name of the Star-goddess was derived from a stem BARÁD (LR:351), concerning which see barada. The form brad- has lost the first, unaccented vowel of BARÁD (cf. branda below); the ending -il is a feminine suffix also found in Barathil and khíril (q.v.)
branda "lofty, noble, fine". The same word occurred in the Telerin of Aman. Derived from a stem BARÁD, not itself defined; see barada for some comments on this stem. The primitive form of branda is given as b'randâ, showing loss of the first A, nasal infixion (or medial fortification d > nd) and the common adjectival ending -â. Perhaps we are to understand that the very oldest form was *barandâ with the first vowel intact; later it was lost (because it was unaccented?) Compare a primitive form like b'rônâ from the stem BORÓN; see brûna.
brasse "white heat". Derived from an undefined stem BARÁS (LR:351); it yields words for "hot, burning, fiery". A primitive form b'rás-sê is given (simply defined as "heat"); an even older form may have been *barás-sê with the first A intact (the loss of unaccented vowels in such primitive forms is not uncommon; compare *b'ron- from BORÓN; see bronie below). The precise meaning of the ending -sê is uncertain (though the final vowel -ê could denote abstracts). In some words, -sê apparently denotes something that is made by the action denoted by the stem: khotsê "assembly" from KHOTH "gather" (LR:364), sjadsê (later sjatsê) "cleft, gash" from SYAD "shear through, cleave" (LR:389), wahsê "stain" from WA3 "[to] stain, soil" (LR:397). If the undefined stem BARÁS means something like "burn" or "heat up", brás-sê might fit into this pattern.
bronie "last, endure, survive". Derived from a stem BORÓN (LR:353), said to be an extended form of BOR "endure", supposedly originally a verbal form. As is usual in such extended forms, the stem-vowel has been reduplicated and suffixed (ómataina, vocalic extension), before a consonant has been added (here -n). Bronie shows the infinitive ending -ie also known from Quenya (see Tolkien's comments on the word en-yalië in UT:317; for other examples of Old Sindarin infinitives in -ie, see etledie, ndakie, orie, ortie, tre-batie, trenarie, warie). Removing this ending, we are left with bron-, that must descend from *b'ron-, a form of the stem BORÓN that has lost the first, unaccented vowel; see brûna.
Bronwega *"Enduring Man"; masc. name (LR:353 s.v. BORÓN, LR:398 s.v. WEG). The element bron- is the same as the stem of the verb bronie, see above. Concerning the ending -wega "-man", see separate entry.
brûna (simply another way of spelling brúna) "that has long endured, old" (of things only; implies that they are old, but not changed or worn out). Derived from the same stem BORÓN (LR:353) as bronie above. The primitive form is given as b'rônâ, with loss of the first O of BORÓN; a similar reduced stem must underlie the verb bronie (see above). B'rônâ shows lengthening of the stem-vowel and the common adjectival ending -â. As we see, long non-final ô yields Old Sindarin ú (compare rúma from *rômâ, or wanúre from *wonôrê).
buióbe "to serve, follow". Derived from a stem BEW of similar meaning (LR.352); the primitive form is given as beujâ- (beuyâ-) with the frequent verbal ending -jâ, that here adds nothing to the meaning of the stem itself. There seem to be some inconsistencies regarding the development of primitive eu in Old Sindarin. In beurô > bioro, biuro, this primitive diphthong becomes io or iu. It similarly becomes iu in *sneumâ > sniuma. However, eu becomes ui in *pheujâ > phuiobe, and so also in the word before us: beujâ > buióbe. It may be noted that Tolkien first derived núma, not sniuma, from *sneumâ (see núma). He changed it later, but he seems to have considered the possibility that eu became ú (û) instead of iu or io. If so, we may assume a development beujâ- > *bûjâ- > buió-. If we ignore the rejected example núma, we may simply assume that while eu became iu, euj (probably via -eui- > -iui-) yielded ui instead of becoming a "triphthong" **iui (compare puióbe, tuio, q.v.) - The ending -be occurring in the word buióbe is interesting. It is not really descended from any element in the primitive form beujâ-, but is a later addition. It seems to be an infinitive ending, and it has been suggested that it is somehow related to the Quenya preposition ve "as, like", Sindarin be (attested in the form ben, "according to the", in the King's Letter), if Tolkien imagined that primitive *be (bi?) was some ancient adverbial element. The adverbial ending -vë seen in Quenya, as in andavë "long" (as adverb, adjective anda) also points in this direction. - Primitive *beujâ-bê (or *beujâ-bi?) becomes buióbe because non-final â yields Old Sindarin ó (see abóro). In later Sindarin, buióbe became *buiauv > *buiau > buio. The infinitive ending -be is thus responsible for the fact that in later Sindarin (or at in least the "Noldorin" of the Etymologies), verbal stems in -a have infinitives in -o. For other examples of the infinitive ending -be, see matthô-be, naróbe, ortóbe, phalsóbe, parthóbi (read *parthóbe), spharóbe (pharóbe), phuióbe, puióbe, rostóbe, wattóbe.
daer "bridegroom" (LR:354 s.v. DER). One wonders whether this may be a misreading for *dair; compare ndair (also said to mean "bridegroom") from NDER. But an even more probable error is that the language is misidentified. The context in the entry DER is as follows: Tolkien, explaining why the initial D of the stem DER "man" irregularly becomes N in the Quenya word nér (also meaning "man"), states that this unexpected development is partly due to the "strengthened stem ndere bridegroom, ON daer". The "strengthened stem ndere" forms an independent entry in the Etymologies: NDER, expressly stated to be a strengthened form of der "man" (LR.375). But in this entry, the "ON" (Old "Noldorin"/Sindarin) word for "bridegroom" is said to be, not daer, but ndair. On the other hand, the entry NDER lists an "N" ("Noldorin"/Sindarin) word doer, that is listed as the descendant of ndair. While writing the Etymologies, Tolkien kept changing his mind about whether older ai became ae or oe in later Sindarin, so doer clearly corresponds to daer in the entry DER. It seems, then, that the word daer in this entry is actually Sindarin, not Old Sindarin. Perhaps Tolkien accidentally wrote "ON" in front of this word when he intended to write "EN", Exilic Noldorin, or perhaps the transcriber misread "EN" as "ON". Daer would be a most atypical Old Sindarin ("Old Noldorin") word; it would be the sole word in the language to have the diphthong ae. The true Old Sindarin form, from which Sindarin daer descends, is ndair (q.v.)
dalma "palm of hand". The dal- part derives from a stem DAL- "flat". It would be tempting to identify the element -ma with a common Eldarin nominal ending - compare parma "book" from the stem PAR "compose, put together" (LR:380), hence parma = *"composed thing". A dalma would then simply be a "flat thing, something flat". However, this was not what Tolkien had in mind: In LR:353 s.v. DAL we are informed that dalma is actually a compound, the second element being a form of mâ "hand" (cf. LR:371 s.v. MA3-). Thus, the literal meaning of dalma is *"flat-hand". The independent Old Sindarin form of this word is mó (q.v.) showing the normal change â > ó when â is not the final sound in polysyllabic words, but a final â in polysyllabic words is simply shortened to -a, so also in dalma. This Old Sindarin word might still have been vaguely felt to be a compound by speakers of the language, but the descendant Sindarin word dalf would definitely be perceived as a unitary word.
dî "woman", said to be rare and poetical: "bride, lady" (LR:378; this word is also mentioned in LR:354 s.v. DER). This word was earlier nî, essentially identical to the stem NÎ1 "woman". The shift n > d did not occur for phonological reasons; according to LR:378 it was due to the influence of the word dîr "man" (q.v.) - not that the words for man and woman were actually confused, but since the word for "man" was dîr, it was apparently felt to be appropriate and symmetrical that its feminine counterpart should also be a word in d-.
dîr "adult male, man" (elf, mortal, or of other speaking race). Derived from a stem DER of similar meaning (LR:354); this Old Sindarin word is also mentioned in LR:378 (under NÎ1, where Tolkien tells how it influenced nî "woman" to become dî). The primitive form from which dîr must be derived is mentioned in the beginning of the same entry (LR:377): dêr with a long vowel. This example demonstrates that long ê became î (í) in Old Sindarin; compare khíril.
Dirghel a masc. name (LR:354 s.v. DER), apparently meaning *"man of joy". This form is mentioned simply as an older form of Sindarin Diriel and is not said to be Old Sindarin as such; we include it here, though it is probably intended to be younger than the rest of the OS forms (the "pure" OS form may be *Dirgelle). The first element is clearly identical to dîr "man" (see above); the long vowel is apparently shortened before a consonant cluster. The later name Diriel is also mentioned in the entry GYEL (LR:359) in a context suggesting that the element -ghel (later -iel) is to be equated with Sindarin gell "joy" (primitive *gjellê, perhaps showing the abstract ending -lê; the OS form would be *gelle). In Dirghel, the lenition of g to gh following a liquid (here r) has already occurred; this is a later development that does not belong to the Old Sindarin stage. On the other hand, neither has it reached the Classical Sindarin stage, since gh no longer occurred in Sindarin (in this particular environment, gh apparently became i: Dirghel > Diriel). - Narrative texts outside the Etymologies employ the form Díriel with a long í, preserving the long vowel of dîr (dír-) "man".
dissa "young woman". In the Etymologies, this word is mentioned in the entry BES (LR:352), but the stem is obviously another. Dissa seems to be basically the same word as ndissa, q.v. for a discussion of the endings involved. A form with initial d- instead of nd- is rather difficult to explain. The stem of ndissa is NDIS, said to be a strengthened form of NIS "woman" (LR:378). The form dissa would require a stem *DIS, that is nowhere attested. Did Tolkien consider the idea that NDIS is a strengthening of *DIS instead of NIS? In LR:375 s.v. NDIS- it is said that this stem-form was made as a strengthening of NIS to parallel the relationship between NDER and DER, two stems meaning "bridegroom" and "man", respectively (LR:375, LR:354). Perhaps this parallel was carried one step further, so that the Elves extrapolated a new stem *DIS from NDIS to fully mimic the relationship between NDER and DER, and that a noun dissa was formed from it, co-existing with the more correct form ndissa? Or was ndissa, like dî (for nî) influenced by dîr "man" to produce a form with simple initial d-? In later Sindarin, both ndissa and dissa would become dess (but the behavior of this word in mutation position depends on which derivation is preferred).
dogme, dougme, doume "Night [as phenomenon], night-time, shades of night". Derived from a stem DO3/DÔ (LR:354), clearly indicating a basic stem DO3 with an alternative form DÔ that arose when the back spirant 3 was lost and the vowel was lengthened in compensation. The stem DO3/DÔ is not defined, but yields words for night and gloom. A primitive form do3mê is mentioned in LR:355; the ending -mê is abstract. It often forms a kind of verbal nouns; see ragme (cf. also tulugme), but here -mê > -me seems to denote something that is simply intangible: Night. In the form dogme, 3 has become g; this is our sole explicit example of this shift. However, later Sindarin forms suggest that 3 regularly became g before nasals; for instance, taen "height", derived from a stem TA3 (LR:389), must represent Old Sindarin *tagna (in turn derived from primitive *ta3nâ; a form ta3na is mentioned). - The alternative forms dougme, doume are strange. If the "ou" of doume represents long ú, this word could be derived from *dômê, sc. an alternative form of do3mê where 3 was lost instead of becoming g before a nasal, the vowel o being lengthened to ô in compensation. Primitive long ô yielded long ú in Old Sindarin; perhaps "ou" is just another way of spelling ú; cf. Oroume (see Araume). If doume is the same as *dúme, it could also be derived from dômi- "twilight", a form mentioned in LR:354 s.v. DOMO-: It is said that Quenya lómë "night, twilight" derives from both do3mê "night" and dômi "twilight", since these forms fell together in Quenya. Perhaps they were confused in Old Sindarin as well, dogme representing do3mê and doume representing dômi-, with dougme as an historically unjustified compromise between the two.
Eide "Rest, Repose", used as the name of a Valië (in Quenya called Estë), the wife of Lórien. An earlier Old Sindarin form was Ezde, a later form was Ide. In the Etymologies, Eide (Ezde, Ide) is listed under an entry-head EZDÊ (LR:357), but with a cross-reference to SED, which is the basic stem here: EZDÊ is rather a reconstruction of a primitive word. (Under SED [LR:385] a form Ezda is mentioned; this is probably simply a misreading for Ezde.) In WJ:403, Tolkien derives this name from a stem SED, stating that esdê became ezdê in Common Eldarin (s being voiced to z by contact with the voiced consonant d). Esdê would seem to be the most primitive form, with a rearranged form of the stem SED (vowel-consonant-consonant instead of normal consonant-vowel-consonant); the ending -ê can be both abstract and feminine. Originally esdê was evidently a common noun "repose"; in WJ:404, Pengolodh observes that while the Quenya and Telerin forms (Estë, Êde) had come to be used only as a name of the goddess, the Sindarin word îdh still had a general meaning "rest". This suggests that here, the ending -ê was originally abstract only, though the fact that there was a feminine ending of the same form would have made the word easily applicable as a fem. name. The Common Eldarin form Ezdê connects with the Old Sindarin form Ezde listed in the Etymologies. Before a consonant, z became i (compare mazga "soft" > maiga), producing Eide. Later, ei was monophthongized, yielding Ide (which in turn yields Idh as the Sindarin/"Noldorin" name of Estë; compare the noun îdh from WJ:404 mentioned above).
ekla-mbar "Eglamar", a name of Beleriand: "Home of the Forsaken", with reference to the Elves that were left there. This form, mentioned in WJ.365, is there asterisked as unattested. This form, like ekla-rista below, is not explicitly said to be Old Sindarin, but seems to belong to the same stage of the linguistic evolution as the Old Sindarin ("Old Noldorin") forms from the Etymologies, regardless of the revised history of the language (transplanted from the Blessed Realm to Middle-earth). The element ekla must be derived from heklâ (WJ:361), said to be an adjectival form (with the common adjectival ending -â) of hekla, a Primitive Quendian word defined as "any thing (or person) put aside from, or left out from, its normal company" (later used of Elves that did not go to Aman, but stayed in Beleriand). The stem is HEKE, said to be probably an adverbial element "aside, apart, separate" (WJ:361; this stem is not found in the Etymologies). The ending -la (in hekla) is simply a noun-former here. In the Etymologies, -la is found in the names of a number of implements: makla "sword" from MAK "sword, fight with sword" (LR:371), tekla "pen" from TEK "write" (LR:391, hence *"thing for writing"), and, with a nasal-infixed stem, tankla "pin, brooch" from TAK "fix, make fast" (LR:389). But in the word magla "stain" from the stem SMAG- "[?to] soil, stain" (LR:386) the ending simply acts as a noun-former, as in hekla. Heklâ, the adjectival form of hekla, becomes ekla in Old Sindarin because "P[rimitive] Q[uendian] h- only survived in the dialects of Aman. It disappeared without trace in Sindarin" (WJ.365). - The second element of ekla-mbar comes from the stem MBAR "dwell, inhabit" (LR:372), here used as a noun "home". In the Etymologies, it is suggested that MBAR is a strengthened form of BAR, probably meaning "raise", but the how the meaning "dwell, inhabit" could develop from "raise" is not explained.
ekla-rista "Eglarest", a place-name apparently including rista "cut; ghyll, ravine". Like ekla-mbar above, this form is asterisked as unattested in WJ:365. Concerning the element ekla, see ekla-mbar. The element rista must be referred to the stem RIS "slash, rip" or "cut, cleave" (LR:384, where two different entries are devoted to this stem). An Old Sindarin verb rista- "rend, rip" (q.v.) is here mentioned. The rista of ekla-rista would seem to be a noun derived from this verb, referring to a cut in the landscape, hence a ravine. The ending -ris in Sindarin Imladris "Rivendell" would be related. See rista.
elen-barathi a name of Varda, ancestral form of Sindarin Elbereth (intermediate form between Old Sindarin and Classical Sindarin: Elmbereth) (MR:387). Concerning barathi, see separate entry. Elen "star" is "according to Elvish legend" derived from the primitive exclamation ELE "lo!", "behold!" ("made by the Elves when they first saw the stars"); elen represents an extended form of ELE, with -n suffixed to the reduplicated stem-vowel (ómataina). This was Tolkien's later concept, as described in WJ:360 (also alluded to in the Silmarillion Appendix, entry êl, elen). In the Etymologies, the corresponding stem (EL, LR:355) is simply defined as "star" or "starry sky", and there is nothing to suggest that the later connection with "behold!" had yet arisen in Tolkien's mind.
elle "sky". Derived from a stem 3EL (LR:360) of similar meaning; Tolkien imagined that after the loss of 3, the Elves confused this stem with the originally distinct stem EL "star, starry sky" (cf. LR:355). This word, together with the Quenya cognate hellë, point to a primitive form *3elli or more probably *3ellê. The doubling of the l could be some kind of medial fortification; the ending -ê may simply be the stem-vowel suffixed and lengthened. Conceivably a longer ending -lê could be present, but this ending is normally abstract or universal (see belle), and "sky" is a relatively concrete phenomenon. - In the Etymologies, the primitive sound spelt 3 is said to be a "back spirant" (LR.360, in an editorial note); this would be the spirant equivalent of g, spelt gh in Orkish (as in ghâsh "fire"). It is very much possible that Tolkien later decided that this primitive sound was rather a normal h; notice that while the Quenya word ho "from" and the plural genitive (partitive) ending -on are derived from a stem 3Ô in the Etymologies (LR:360), the prefix hó- of similar meaning, as well as the genitive ending, are derived from a stem HO in the essay Quendi and Eldar written decades later (WJ:368-369). 3 in Tolkien's early ideas about Primitive Quendian would therefore seem to correspond to H in his later conception. Notice that this 3, like later H, is lost in the Sindarin branch, but yields h in Quenya (elle = Quenya hellë; compare Ekla-mbar = Q Heceldamar above). It seems, then, that the primitive form of elle could be reconstructed as hellê just as well as 3ellê (and the stem 3EL should perhaps be updated to *HEL).
elwa "(pale) blue". Derived from the same stem 3EL "sky" (LR:360) as elle above; the primitive form would be *3elwâ with the adjectival ending -wâ (concerning which see katwe): literally *"sky-like" with reference to colour, hence "(pale) blue".
elyadme "rainbow", lit. "sky-bridge" (LR:360 s.v. 3EL). The initial element el- represents the stem 3EL "sky" itself. (Conceivably, elyadme could also be interpreted *"star-bridge" after the loss of 3; compare elle above - but rainbows obviously do not appear at night when the stars are visible.) Concerning yadme "bridge" (only attested in this compound), see separate entry.
et- prefix "forth, out", in Old Sindarin only attested in the word etledie (see below). This prefix has the same origin as the identical Quenya prefix mentioned in the entry for the stem ET (LR:356), though no OS form is there listed (but the later Sindarin form ed- is).
etledie "go abroad, go into exile". An infinitive consisting of three elements: the prefix et- "forth, out" (see above), the verbal stem led- "go, fare, travel" (LR:368 s.v. LED - this is where the OS form etledie is listed) and the infinitive ending -ie (concerning which see bronie). The past tense of etledie would be *etlende; see lende.
etledro "exile" (LR:368 s.v. LED). This word may refer to an exiled person rather than "exile" as an abstract: The literal meaning may be *"out-goer", used with reference to the Noldor who left Valinor to become Exiles in Middle-earth. To the verb etled- "go out" (see etledie above) is added the (masculine/) agental ending -ro (primitive -rô, WJ:371; compare bioro). However, -ro does seem to function as an abstract ending in the Old Sindarin word ndakro "slaughter, battle" (verb ndak- "slay"). Therefore, etledro may be intended to mean "exile" as an abstract after all.
etlenna "exiled" (LR:368 s.v. LED). The must be considered a past participle of the verb etled- "go out" (q.v.), hence literally "outgone". The primitive form must be *etlednâ with the ending -nâ, often used to form adjectives and past participles. Notice that dn is assimilated to nn in Old Sindarin.
Ezde > Eide "Rest", name of a Valië, the wife of Lórien (LR:356 s.v. EZDÊ; the form Ezda given under SED [LR:385] may be a misreading). See Eide.
Findekâno masc. name, "Fingon". (LR:381 s.v. PHIN). This language this form is supposed to belong to is not identified; it is mentioned as the ancestral form of the Sindarin name Fingon, so we include it here. It seems to be a hybrid that could never actually have occurred at any stage in the linguistic evolution; Tolkien mixes things up. The element finde did not have this form in Old Sindarin; it was phinde (q.v.), for ph became f only in later Sindarin. On the other hand, the element kâno must be earlier than even Old Sindarin, for in this language non-final â became ó. The actual Old Sindarin form must have been *Phindekóno. In the scenario of the Etymologies, phinde means "skill", while the element *kóno is to be derived from the stem KAN "dare" (LR:362). In this entry the later Sindarin form caun, in compounds -gon, is mentioned; these forms would be derived from Old Sindarin *cóno, primitive *kânô (later kâno) with the masculine ending -ô; the meaning would then be *"daring one", *"brave one". *Phindekóno or "Findekâno" thus means *"Skillful Brave One". However, this is not how Tolkien later explained the name Fingon. In PM:345, Fingon is said to be a Sindarized form of Quenya Findecáno (Findekáno). The first element is said to be findë "hair" (a tress or plait of hair); it is mainly meant to echo the fin- of the name of Findecáno's father, Finwë. Findë "hair" is derived from primitive phindê, which would yield Old Sindarin *phinde, clashing with phinde "skill" from the Etymologies (in the Etymologies, Quenya findë "tress, braid of hair" corresponded to Old Sindarin sphinde instead, since in Tolkien's earlier concept the stem for "hair" was SPIN [LR:387] instead of PHIN). Cáno in Tolkien's revised concept means "commander", derived from a stem KAN "cry, call aloud" (PM:361-362) that is obviously not the same as KAN "dare" in the Etymologies. The primitive form of cáno is given as kânô (said to be the older and simplest agental form, with lengthening of the stem-vowel and the masculine ending -ô), which would again yield Old Sindarin *kóno. However, since the name Fingon is now said to be Sindarized from Quenya Findecáno, there is not now any need to involve any Old Sindarin forms.
gaia "dread". Derived from a stem GÁYAS "fear" (LR:358). This stem seems to be an expanded version of a simpler stem GAY; see gêrrha below. Gaia must be derived from such a simpler stem: primitive *gâjâ (*gâyâ), *gaiâ. If the stem has a verbal meaning "fear", this would be some kind of verbal noun: "fearing, fear" = "dread". For a similar formation, compare kânâ "outcry" from the stem KAN "cry, call aloud" (PM:361-362; not the same stem as KAN "dare" in the Etymologies, LR:362).
gása "the Void". Derived from a stem GAS "yawn, gape" (LR:357; the form gása is listed on the next page; it is not glossed but simply equated with Quenya cúma, in turn glossed said to refer to the Void, sc. the emptiness beyond the World: LR:365 s.v. KUM). A primitive form gâsa is given (LR:358), but the most primitive form must have been *gâsâ, before the shortening of the long final vowels (an original short final -a would not appear in Old Sindarin, but be lost already at the Common Eldarin stage). The word shows lengthening of the stem-vowel and an ending -â that may here be used as a noun-former; it may be simply the stem-vowel suffixed. It is surprising that the first â of gâsa, *gâsâ comes out as á in Old Sindarin, since non-final â normally becomes ó instead: *gósa. This may be a misreading; compare tára. - A later OS form would be *góha, after the change of s to h in such positions (cf. kheleha from khelesa).
gêrrha (earlier gæ^sra) "dreadful". Derived from a stem GÁYAS "fear" (LR:358). This looks like an expanded form of a simpler stem GAY, but while such a stem is indeed listed above GÁYAS, it does not seem to have a suitable meaning (GAY itself is undefined but yields words for "red, copper-coloured, ruddy"). However, a stem GAYA "awe, dread" is actually mentioned in later writings (PM:363; Silmarillion Appendix s.v. gaer). Whatever the case, the primitive form of gêrrha is given in LR:358 as gaisrâ, the gais- part representing the stem GÁYAS and -râ being a primitive adjectival ending (concerning which see tára). The first Old Sindarin form of gaisrâ was gæ^sra, the original diphthong ai becoming a long æ (like a in English cat, but longer). It seems that primitive ai turned into long æ only before a consonant cluster; notice that ai is unchanged in a word like yaiwe, q.v. (primitive *yaiwê). In the later form gêrrha, the long æ has turned into a long e (ê). The earlier medial cluster sr now appears as rrh; this is probably to be understood as long unvoiced R (since unvoiced r is often spelt rh in Tolkien's works). It seems that sr was assimilated to rr (compare medial sm becoming mm, see ammale), but this double R was unvoiced like the s that had become assimilated. This word gerrha in turn produced Sindarin gaer. With the introduction of a new stem GAYA in Tolkien's later writings, possibly replacing GÁYAS of the Etymologies, it may be just as well to derive gaer from a simpler adjectival form gairâ (WJ:400) Old Sindarin *gaira. This would make gaer the cognate of Quenya aira "holy" (PM:363).
Gondambar "Stone of the World", a name of Gondolin. It is not said what language this form (mentioned in LR:359 s.v. GOND) belongs to; it is just mentioned as an "old" form underlying Sindarin Gondobar, so we include it here. The element gond- "stone" probably represents a full Old Sindarin word *gondo, cognate with Quenya ondo, clearly derived from primitive *gondô (cf. Letters:410, PM:374). Ambar "world" (as an Old Sindarin word only attested in this compound, unless Phind-ambar is also taken as OS) is derived from the stem MBAR "dwell, inhabit" (LR.372). In the form ambar (the same word is used in Quenya), the stem-vowel has been prefixed to produce an "intensive" form: cf. the spelling a-mbar in LR:372 s.v. MBAR. In the Etymologies, Tolkien defined a-mbar as "oikumenê", a Greek word for the world as the home or dwelling-place of the human race. Compare the meaning of the stem MBAR. - The compound Gond-ambar is literally "Stone-world"; the second element is to be understood as a genitive, hence "Stone of World" rather than "World (made) of Stone" or similar. Perhaps an explicit genitive marker was present at an earlier stage; compare WJ:370, where it is suggested that Sindarin may well have developed inflectional -ô in the "primitive period". A long final -ô would belong to the Common Lindarin stage or only shortly after it; Old Sindarin would already have -o. Perhaps Gondambar is a form intermediate between later Gondobar and Old Sindarin *Gondo-ambaro.
*gósa possible correction of gása, q.v.
gæ^sra > gêrrha "dreadful" (LR:358 s.v. GÁYAS). See gêrrha.
hwesta "puff, breath, breeze". Derived from a stem SWES "noise of blowing or breathing" (LR:388). A primitive form swesta- mentioned by Tolkien is evidently a verb "to puff"; read probably *swestâ- with a long final â, for final short a would have disappeared at the Common Eldarin stage. The ending -tâ is a frequent verbal ending, sometimes causative (see bértha-), but here it simply forms a verb from a non-verbal stem. The noun hwesta is in turn derived from this verb; Quenya had the same word. Notice the precise wording in LR:388 s.v. SWES: "Q hwesta- to puff; hwesta breath, breeze, puff of air; ON [Old "Noldorin"/Sindarin] hwesta". Tolkien's intention may be that Old Sindarin hwesta is both noun and verb, corresponding to both meanings of the identical Quenya word. - This word is our sole explicit example of how primitive sw behaves in Old Sindarin; it becomes hw. This digraph is surely meant to represent the same sound as in Quenya, unvoiced w (English wh, in dialects where which is audibly distinct form witch). - Initially, primitive st becomes sth in Old Sindarin, but this does not happen here (**hwestha). This example, as well as rista, may suggest that this change did not occur medially.
hyúle "incitement" (or "cry of encouragement in battle", if = Sindarin hûl, the word it yielded). Derived from a stem SIW "exite, egg on, urge" (LR:386). The Quenya cognate siulë points to a primitive form *siulê with the abstract ending -lê (VT39:16), the W of the stem SIW becoming a full vowel before a consonant, producing a diphthong iu. It seems that at the Common Lindarin stage, this diphthong became yu (ju) following a dental consonant, the i turning into a semi-vowel y before u. (A footnote in LotR Appendix E states that by the Third Age, Quenya iu had likewise come to be pronounced like yu in English yule; in the Lindarin branch, a similar change had evidently happened ages earlier, if only in certain environments.) The Common Lindarin form of *siulê was evidently *syûlê (*sjûlê); notice how u becomes long ú to maintain the prosodic length of the lost diphthong iu. The combination sy (sj) later becomes hy in Old Sindarin; the digraph hy undoubtedly represents German ich-Laut, as in Tolkien's normal spelling of Quenya (e.g. hyarmen "south"). Indeed Quenya hy also comes from older sy- in many cases, though this change must be wholly independent from the similar change taking place in Middle-earth. (Hy did not survive into later Sindarin, but became h, hyúle yielding hûl.)
Ide "Rest", name of the wife of Lórien, a Valië (Quenya Estë) (LR:357 s.v. EZDÊ). See Eide.
ien-rinde "year" (LR:400 s.v. YEN). Literally "year-circle", apparently referring to the year as a cyclus (compare the Quenya term coranar, "sun-round"). The language this word belongs to is not identified; it is mentioned as the ancestral form of Sindarin idhrin, so we include it here. Ien represents the stem YEN "year" (so in the Etymologies; in LotR, Tolkien used the Quenya derivative yén to denote a "long year", an Elvish century of 144 solar years - but this is apparently not the meaning here). Normally, primitive initial y remains y in Old Sindarin (compare yaiwe, yura and possibly even yen in yen-panta, though it is not explicitly said that the latter is Old Sindarin). The development ye > ie seems to have happened after the stage normally called Old Sindarin, so perhaps ien-rinde would be *yen-rinde in "pure" OS. The second element rinde is clearly the same as an identical Quenya word for "circle" mentioned in the Etymologies in the entry RIN (LR:383); the later Sindarin word descended from ien-rinde (idhrind > idhrin) is also mentioned here. The stem RIN itself is not glossed, but all the words derived from it have to do with circles or something circular. Rinde should probably be derived from *rindê or possibly *rindi, with medial fortification N > ND.
impanta see yen-panta
in-fant see yen-panta
Indlour, a masc. name (LR:361 s.v. ID). The language this word belongs to is not identified; it seems to be an older form of the name Inglor, so we include it here. Two primitive forms are suggested: Indo-klâr or Indo-glaurê. The element indo means "heart", derived from the stem ID, not itself defined but cf. îdî "heart, desire, wish". The most primitive form would be indô with nasal-infixion and an ending -ô that may be simply a noun-former, perhaps also an agental ending (if the heart is considered a "desirer"). Klâr occurs nowhere else, but it must be derived from the stem KAL "shine" (LR:362); a form k'lâ is said to underlie Quenya cala "light", so perhaps we are to assume that there was a primitive agental form *k'laro "shiner" (the agental ending -ro is mentioned in WJ:371), later becoming klâr in Common Eldarin. The alternative suggestion glaurê (in Indo-glaurê) must be taken as a g-prefixed variant of laurê, "gold, golden light", derived from the stem LÁWAR - which stem in LR.368 is said to have the alternative "Noldorin" (later: Sindarin) form GLÁWAR. Thus, Indo-glaurê must mean something like "heart of gold", while Indo-klâr may be interpreted "Shining Heart". The later form Indlour has lost the final o of indo and the initial consonant of glaurê or klâr (g could be lost through normal Sindarin lenition, though this process belongs to a later stage than Old Sindarin; the k of klâr was perhaps assimilated to g by the preceding d, this g later disappearing through lenition again). The earlier diphthong au, alternatively the long vowel â, now appears as ou - a strange combination that sometimes turns up in Tolkien's spelling. In Oroume, later Araume, ou becomes au - but here earlier au becomes ou instead! Alternatively, long â (as in klâr) should normally become Old Sindarin ó (see abóro). In the entry dogme, dougme, doume we suggest that ou may there be a way of spelling long ú; perhaps ou in Indlour is a way of spelling long ó? (Compare "Féanour" from Phay-anâro in LR:381 s.v. PHAY; normally, primitive â produces Old Sindarin ó and Classical Sindarin au, aw.) In short, Indlour is a rather curious form. In LR:381, "Féanour" is listed as a "N[oldorin]" form, corresponding to "ON"/OS Phayanôr, so perhaps the name Indlour should similarly be taken as later "Noldorin" for "ON" *Indoklôr. If so, the name Indlour should not be included here at all.
kamba ?"(hollow) of hand". In the Etymologies, this word is mentioned in the entry MA3, LR:371. However, kamba itself is derived from the stem KAB "hollow" (LR:361). No Old Sindarin form is there mentioned, but Quenya kambe (better spelt cambë) is there translated "hollow (of hand)" (which gloss we here tentatively assign to kamba as well). This Quenya form may suggest that kamba in the entry MA3 is a misreading for *kambe. If we accept kamba, the primitive form would most likely be *kambâ with nasal infixion and the (here nominal) ending -â. Since this ending is more commonly adjectival, we could speculate that *kambâ was originally an adjective "hollow" (same meaning as the stem), later also being used as a noun "a hollow", the meaning eventually being specialized: the hollow of a hand. The later Sindarin word cam came to mean simply "hand".
katwe "shaped, formed". The primitive form is given as katwâ, derived from a stem KAT "shape". The ending -wâ is adjectival; compare for instance some primitive colour-adjectives "reconstructed" by Tolkien: laik-wâ "green", smalwâ "fallow, pale", narwâ "red" (LR:368 s.v. LÁYAK, LR:386 s.v. SMAL, LR:374 s.v. NAR1 - narwâ is not asterisked, but because of the long final vowel it cannot be Quenya). Since final -â normally yields Old Sindarin -a, we might have expected **katwa instead of katwe. However, a special phonological rule may be in effect here. Compare some forms given in LR:400 s.v. YAT, where jatmâ (yatmâ) "bridge" yields Quenya yanwë instead of **yanwa (cf. also Old Sindarin yadme in elyadme). It seems that the endings -mâ, -wâ were altered to -mê, -wê following a t (or possibly following any dental consonant, but if so, pathwa rather than **pathwe from *pathmâ is a curious exception). Hence, katwe may actually descend from an altered form *katwê.
kelepe "silver". Derived from a stem KYELEP of similar meaning (LR:366; the form TELEP also given there is the later Telerin form of this stem). The primitive form is not explicitly given in the Etymologies, but Letters:426 has kjelepê (there spelt kyelepê). This is our only explicit example of primitive kj (ky) being simplified to k in Old Sindarin. (This change occurred already at an earlier stage, in Common Lindarin, when all the primitive palatalized sounds were depalatalized: kj > k, nj > n etc. This change is therefore reflected in the descendant languages: Sindarin, old and classical, and the Telerin of Aman.) The ending -ê in kjelepê could be simply the stem-vowel suffixed and lengthened, but -ê is also found in a number of other primitive nouns denoting substances, e.g. mazgê "dough" (LR:371 s.v. MASAG) or srawê "flesh" (MR:350).
khalla "noble, exalted" (compare orkhalla), derived from the stem KHAL2 "uplift" (LR:363). The primitive form is given as khalnâ (indicated to be accented on the final syllable) with an ending -nâ that sometimes simply forms adjectives (compare magnâ), but often it also functions as a past participle ending. In this case, khalnâ is literally *"uplifted", the past participle of the verbal stem "uplift". For other examples of the assimilation *ln > ll, see skhalla (< skalnâ) and skhella (< skelnâ).
kheleha "glass", from earlier khelesa. (Kheleha was misread as "khelelia" by the transcriber of the Etymologies: LR:365 s.v. KHYEL(ES). Primitive khjelesê could not possibly yield OS khelelia, but for the change of intervocalic s to h, cf. for instance baraha [q.v.] from barasa. Khelesa > kheleha is therefore wholly plausible. Another, similar misreading turned pelehi into "peleki"; see pele.) The stem, already mentioned, is given as KHYEL(ES) (simply defined as "glass"), apparently indicating a simple stem KHYEL with an expanded form KHYELES showing reduplication and suffixing of the stem-vowel (so-called ómataina, vocalic extension) and a suffixed -S. Tolkien's "reconstructed" primitive form khjelesê (spelt khyelesê in LR:365) shows the ending -ê, one function of which is to derive nouns denoting substances (see kelepe above for some examples). It is surprising that this original final -ê becomes -a in Old Sindarin khelesa/kheleha, for normally, -ê yields -e (cf. for instance kelepe from kjelepê, see above). It may be that this is a misreading and that the OS forms should actually be *khelese, *khelehe; it would not be the first case of an editor confusing e and a in Tolkien's difficult handwriting. - This is the only explicit example showing how primitive khj- comes out in Old Sindarin; it becomes kh-, merging with original kh- (unchanged in OS). The depalatalization of khj- to kh- simply reflects the general loss of palatalization in Common Lindarin; compare kj > k (kjelepê yielding kelepe). - Kheleha produced "Noldorin" hele, but in Tolkien's later vision of Sindarin, the word for "glass" is heledh, and this is now said to be a loan from Khuzdul (Dwarvish) kheled and not originally an Elvish word at all: See the Silmarillon Appendix, entry khelek-.
khelelia - misreading for kheleha, q.v.
khelesa (later kheleha) "glass" (LR:365 s.v. KHYEL(ES))
khéro "master". Derived from a stem KHER "rule, govern, possess" (so glossed in LR:364; simply "possess" in Letters:178). The Quenya word heru "master" is also mentioned in this entry, and the primitive form of this noun is given in Letters 282: kherû. In this word, the masculine/agental ending -û appears. However, kherû should have yielded Old Sindarin *kheru, not khéro. The latter may rather represent another example of the "older and simplest agental form" (PM:362) derived by means of the masculine/agental ending -ô combined with lengthening of the stem-vowel: *khêrô "ruler, governor, possessor". This is still not wholly unproblematic, for since long non-final ê yielded Old Sindarin í (see dîr), we would have expected *khíro instead. In the Sindarin word descended from khéro, hîr, former ê, é has indeed become î. It may be that khéro is an error, by Tolkien or the transcriber, for *khíro. Compare the word khíril (not **khéril) "lady", that is listed immediately after khéro "master". - Letters:282 also lists a simpler primitive form khêr. The context suggests that Tolkien had now decided to derive Sindarin hîr from this form, in which case the Old Sindarin form should be altered to *khír.
khíril "lady". Derived from the same stem KHER "rule, govern, possess" (LR:364) as its masculine counterpart khéro above. Instead of masculine -o, this word shows the feminine ending -il. Here the expected change from primitive long ê to Old Sindarin í does take place: khêr- > khír-, supporting the assumption that khéro should similarly read *khíro.
ku, kua "dove". The primitive form Tolkien derived from the undefined stem KÛ is kukûwâ. Kukû- may be onomatopoetic, while the ending -wâ is probably adjectival (see katwe concerning this ending). Perhaps kukûwâ is an adjective referring to the sound made by a dove, later used as a noun referring to the animal itself (for another primitive bird-name in -wâ, compare alpha "swan" from alk-wâ). Old Sindarin kua must come from a shorter form *kûwâ, perhaps formed from kukûwâ simply by haplology. The semi-vowel w evidently merged into the u before it, producing *kûâ, *kuâ > kua. The alternative form ku has lost the final vowel as well, though final -â regularly becomes -a in Old Sindarin.
kúma "empty, void". Derived from the stem KUM "void" (LR:365); the primitive form would be *kûmâ with lengthening of the stem-vowel and the adjectival ending -â.
lende "fared". A past tense formed from the verbal stem LED "go, fare, travel" (LR:368) by nasal infixion and the ending -e; this is also a common way of forming the past tense in Quenya, which language indeed has the same word with the same meaning. The infinitive of this verb is ledie, attested with a prefix (see etledie). Compare ndakie "to slay", nasal-infixed past tense ndanke.
linde "singer / singing", used as a name or part of the name "of many rivers of quick course that make a rippling sound". Mentioned in WJ:309 as the origin of the second element of the Sindarin river-name Taeglind (the published Silmarillion has the form Teiglin). In WJ:309, this linde
is not explicitly said to be Old Sindarin, but it seems to belong to the same stage of development as the "Old Noldorin" forms of the Etymologies. The most primitive form would probably be *lindê. The stem is obviously LIN, having to do with "melodious and pleasing sound" (WJ:382; compare the stem LIN2 "sing" listed in the Etymologies, LR:369). The form *lindê shows medial fortification N > ND and the ending -ê, that may be both abstract (hence the interpretation "singing") and feminine/agental (hence the interpretation "singer"; cf. the final element of Quenya lómelindë "nightingale, *night-singer").
líre "row, range". Derived from a stem LIR1, itself not defined. The primitive form would most likely be *lîrê, with lengthening of the stem-vowel and final -ê, in this case just a noun-former (not abstract or feminine as this ending often is).
litse , later litthe "sand". The stem LIT (LR:369) is not defined. Litse would derive from *litsi or more probably *litsê. Exactly what the ending -sê would mean here is far from clear (see brasse for some thoughts about this ending); the final vowel -ê is not uncommon in words denoting substances. The change ts > tth evidently occurred during the Old Sindarin stage; this seems to be our sole explicit example of this change, though earlier tt also becomes tth in Old Sindarin (see batthô, rattha).
loga "fenland". This form, mentioned in UT:263 as the origin of Sindarin lô, is not explicitly said to be Old Sindarin (only identified as an "earlier" form). However, loga is said to be derived from a stem log- "wet, soaked, swampy" (not in the Etymologies) and could represent an intermediate form between primitive *logâ and Sindarin ló. A form *logâ may simply be an adjective (with the common adjectival ending -â), having much the same meaning as the stem; later this adjective may have been used with reference to a concrete "swampy" place, hence developing into a noun "fenland". (OS loga may still have been an adjective; the gloss "fenland" in UT.263 primarily applies to Sindarin lô.)
magnâ "skilled". Derived from a stem MAG "use, handle", said to be related to MA3 "hand" (LR:371); "handle" would thus seem to be the most literal definition of MAG. The form magnâ cannot be correct Old Sindarin, but is an obvious mistake, by Tolkien or the transcriber, for *magna. The primitive form, also mentioned in LR:371, was indeed magnâ; perhaps the two were confused: In Old Sindarin, earlier long final â was shortened to -a in polysyllabic words; all the long final vowels were so shortened (see abóro). - The meaning of this word is somewhat surprising. Since the adjectives formed with the ending -nâ are often seen to be a kind of past participles, we might have expected magnâ, derived from a stem meaning "use, handle", to mean "used, handled" (compare skalnâ "hidden" from a stem SKAL1 "hide"; see skhalla). Instead, -nâ is here used as a very generalized adjective-former; the meaning "use, handle" is developed in the direction of "being good with regards to using or handling things" and hence "skilled". Compare maite "handy, skilled", derived from the related stem MA3 "hand".
mai pl. of mó, q.v. (LR:371 s.v. MA3)
maiga "pliant, soft", earlier mazga. Derived from a stem MASAG "knead, make soft by rubbing, kneading, etc." (LR.371). A primitive form mazgâ is listed; the very oldest form may have been *masgâ, before s was voiced to z in contact with the following voiced consonant (something that seems to have happened in Common Eldarin; see Eide). Mazgâ shows the common adjectival ending -â. In (later) Old Sindarin, z became i before a consonant; compare Eide, from earlier Ezde. Hence mazga > maiga.
maite "handy, skilled". Derived from the stem MA3 "hand" (LR:371); the primitive form is given as ma3iti with an adjectival ending -iti. An shorter ending -ti is seen in such adjectives as neiti- "moist, dewy" (LR:376 s.v. NEI), phoroti "right" or "north" (LR:382 s.v. PHOR). There seem to be no direct attestations of the longer ending -iti in words "reconstructed" by Tolkien himself, but the Quenya ending -itë in adjectives like uruitë "fiery" (LR:396 s.v. UR) is clearly descended from -iti. Primitive ma3iti became maite already at the Common Eldarin stage, after the loss of medial 3 (H) and the change of final short -i to -e. - In "Noldorin", maite yielded moed (LR:371); this would correspond to maed in later Sindarin. (A similar, though semantically distinct word maed "shapely" is mentioned in PM:366; this is said to be derived from magit-, presumably indicating a complete form *magiti.)
malda "gold" (as metal). In LR:386 derived from a stem SMAL "yellow"; the primitive form is given as smaldâ, evidently showing medial fortification l > ld and a (here nominal) ending -â, possibly simply the stem-vowel reduplicated and suffixed. This example, as well as malina and malo below, demonstrate that the primitive initial cluster sm- is simplified to m- in Old Sindarin. Tolkien also considered letting Old Sindarin ("Old Noldorin") retain sm-, in turn yielding Sindarin/"Noldorin" hm- (unvoiced m); see LR:387. However, this idea was evidently dropped (Anthony Appleyard has pointed that if this idea were valid at the LotR stage, mallorn would have been hmallorn instead). In David Salo's reconstruction of Old Sindarin, primitive initial sm yields OS hm- (unvoiced m), which in turn becomes voiced m- in Sindarin. - It seems doubtful that the explanation of the Eldarin words for "gold" that is offered in the Etymologies was still valid in Tolkien's later scenario. For one thing, according to the entry SMAL in Etym, the Quenya word for "gold" was also malda. In LotR Appendix E, the Quenya word for "gold" is said to be malta instead (mentioned as the name of tengwa #18). In accordance with this, a late source states that the Eldarin stem for "gold" was MALAT (PM:366) - not SMAL. Tolkien had evidently decided to derive Quenya malta from *malatâ instead. The latter would produce Old Sindarin *malata, in turn yielding Sindarin malad (as in the name Rathmalad, WJ:191).
malina "yellow". Derived from a stem SMAL (LR:386) of similar meaning; the primitive form is given as smalinâ. The ending -inâ seems to be basically an extended variant of the common adjectival or participial ending -nâ. Other Old Sindarin words exemplifying this ending are berina "brave" and pikina "tiny", that must be derived from *berinâ, *pikinâ. Via Old Sindarin -ina, primitive -inâ gave rise to Classical Sindarin -en, one of the most common adjectival endings in Grey-elven.
malo pl. malui "pollen, yellow powder". Derived from a stem SMAL "yellow" (LR:386); the primitive form is given as smalu with a very unusual ending; where -u occurs, it tends to denote body-parts (e.g. ranku "arm", LR:382 s.v. RAK) or localities (e.g. jagu- "gulf", LR:400 s.v. YAG). Smalu is the sole word in -u that denotes a substance; it seems that it is here simply a noun-former used to derive a word for "something yellow". - In Common Eldarin, smalu presumably became *smalo, producing malo when initial sm was simplified to m in Old Sindarin. As suggested in the main article above, the fact that the plural form still shows -u- as a part of -ui could be explained by assuming that the final syllable of the primitive plural *smaluî, *smalui did not change in Common Eldarin (while final -u became -o).
map- "seize, take away by force". Simply the stem MAP "lay hold of with hand, seize" (LR:371) with no additional elements. Tolkien probably intended MAP to be related to MA3 "hand", found on the same page in the Etymologies.
matthô-be "to handle" (this is evidently simply another way of spelling matthóbe, matthó-be; compare for instance buióbe). Derived from a stem MA3 "hand" (LR:371). The primitive form is given as ma3-tâ (the hyphen emphasizing that -tâ is a derivational ending added to a stem ma3-). The suffix -tâ is a very common verbal ending, and it can be seen that the gloss "to handle" is very literal, since ma3- means "hand". Tolkien notes that ma3-tâ in turn yielded (Common) Eldarin mahtâ. Here, the letter h probably represents [x], sc. German ach-Laut: The back-spirant 3 was eventually devoiced in contact with the unvoiced sound t, becoming [x]. Compare wahtê "stain, soil" from the stem WA3, evidently Common Eldarin for Primitive Quendian *wa3tê. Wahtê became Old Sindarin watte (q.v.), ht being assimilated to tt, and mahtâ- must similarly have become *mattó- in early OS, later turning into matthó- when double tt became tth (see batthô - we must likewise assume that watte later became *watthe). Matthô-be shows the infinitive ending -be (see buióbe), and since the primitive verbal ending -tâ thus was not final, the â becomes ó (here spelt ô) instead of -a.
mazga "pliant, soft" (LR:371 s.v. MASAG). See maiga (the later form).
míre "jewel". Derived from an undefined stem MIR (LR:373); the primitive form would be either *mîri or (more likely) *mîrê. The ending -ê can denote substances, so perhaps *mîrê originally meant "jewel" as a substance rather than as a concrete gem. However, Quenya mírë can be used of a (single, concrete) jewel, and this is probably also true of the identical Old Sindarin word (we know it is true of the descendant Sindarin word mîr; compare The Lays of Beleriand p. 354, where the moon is apparently called menel-vîr or *"jewel of heaven" [-vîr being the lenited form of mîr]).
mó pl. mai "hand". Derived from a stem MA3 (LR:371), similarly defined as "hand". In this entry in the Etymologies, the Primitive Quendian word for "hand" is said to have been mâ3 with a long vowel (but short ma3- before an ending). After the loss of the guttural 3, only mâ would be left, and this form is attested in the entry DAL, LR:353 (where it is said that Old Sindarin dalma "palm of hand" probably derives from a compound of dal "flat" and mâ "hand"). Normally, final long -â becomes Old Sindarin -a (as the word dalma demonstrates), but in a monosyllable like mâ this vowel turns into ó, as â normally does in polysyllabic words when not final (see abóro). The plural form mai preserves the original quality of the stem-vowel: In the linguistic scenario of the Etymologies, the plural form of primitive mâ3 would be *ma3î, becoming *mâî, *maî, mai after the loss of 3: If the a was ever long (it may have been lengthened in compensation when 3 was lost), it quickly became short again when it merged into the plural ending -î to produce a diphthong aî/ai that remained ai in Old Sindarin. - This scenario may have to be modified a little in light of Tolkien's later vision of the development of the Eldarin word for "hand". In VT39:11, in a document dating from about 1960 (hence well over two decades after the Etymologies was written), it is said that the primitive word for "hand" was maha rather than mâ3. After the early loss of medial h in Common Eldarin (WJ:368), maha would become *maa = mâ with a long vowel, which would again yield old Sindarin mó as above. The plural form of primitive maha would presumably be *mahaî, *mahai, which could easily evolve into mai after the loss of h (probably via *mâi).
muina "familiar, dear". Derived from an undefined stem MOY (LR:374); the primitive form would be *moinâ (compare Quenya moina) with the adjectival (or participial) ending -nâ. If MOY could be assigned the meaning "love", *moinâ could be considered a past participle "loved" and hence "dear". Notice the Old Sindarin change oi > ui (cf. Uigolosse corresponding to Quenya Oiolossë).
naróbe is glossed "he tells a story" (pa.t. narne), but this gloss clearly cannot be taken literally: naróbe is transparently an infinitive *"to tell a story", showing the infinitive ending -be seen in many other words glossed as infinitives, while the past tense narne simply means *"told a story", with no pronominal elements. Derived from the stem NAR2 "tell, relate" (LR:374). This corresponds to Quenya nyar- (cf. words like nyarna "tale, saga"). The wording in the entry NAR2 in the Etymologies suggests that NAR is the basic form of this stem, with nyar- as a Quenya variant. Actually it would have made no difference if one assumed that the original stem was *NYAR, for since ny (nj) like all other palatalized consonants was de-palatalized at the Common Lindarin stage (see kelepe), the Old Sindarin form would still have been nar-. It seems that this was not how Tolkien imagined it, though. - The form naróbe shows the Old Sindarin infinitive ending -be (see buiobe). Naró- would seem to represent a primitive verbal stem *narâ-, sc. the stem NAR2 with a suffixed -â that is apparently a verbal ending here; such formations are relatively rare (see spharóbe for another example). The stem NAR2 would much rather be expected to function as a "basic" verbal stem, the verb simply being nar- (aorist nare), with the infinitive narie instead of naróbe. We do not asterisk nare, narie, for these forms actually do occur in Tolkien's material, only with a prefix: trenare, inf. trenarie "recount, tell to end". Naróbe seems to be an alternative formation, but its past tense narne is formed directly from the stem nar- (not **naróne or something). Surely the past tense of trenarie is similarly *trenarne. The past tense ending -ne is well known from Quenya, but in our small Old Sindarin corpus, it is attested here only. Most derived verbs (with infinitives in -be) probably form their past tenses in -ne, e.g. buiobe "to serve", pa.t. *buione. However, the pa.t. of spharóbe "to hunt" may be *spharne (instead of *spharóne), following the pattern established by narne.
ndagno "slain [as noun], corpse". Derived from a stem NDAK "slay" (LR:375), concerning which see ndakie. If there is a primitive form, it would be *ndaknô with the masculine ending -nô. However, this ending is generally agental when added to a stem with a verbal meaning. Cf. such primitive words as *besnô "husband" from BES "wed" (LR:352; hence literally "one who weds, one who has wedded somebody") and tirnô "watcher" from the stem TIR "watch, guard" (LR:394, mentioned as part of the compound khalatirnô "fish-watcher"). Hence, a form *ndaknô would mean "slayer" rather than "slain one". It may be better, then, to assume that ndagno is actually a personalized form of *ndagna, a past participle "slain" derived from *ndaknâ with the frequent adjectival/participial ending -nâ (see khalla). - Before a nasal consonant, unvoiced plosives become voiced in Old Sindarin, hence kn > gn. Compare ragme, tulugme, yadme.
ndair "bridegroom". Derived from a stem NDER (LR:375), said to be a strengthened form of DER "adult male, man" (LR:354); the "strengthening" manifests as nasalization of the initial consonant. The primitive form of ndair is given (in LR:375) as ndêro with the masculine ending -o; this form yields "Eld." (= Common Eldarin) ndæ^r. The long æ then turns into Old Sindarin ai. This development seems rather strange; it is difficult to find any parallel to it. Old Sindarin ai must in turn become Sindarin ae (or "Noldorin" oe; in the entry NDER, ndair yields "Noldorin" doer, corresponding to mature Sindarin daer - which is attested, but the language is misidentified; see daer in this list). However, other examples of primitive non-final ê produce Sindarin î, not ae: Examples include nêthê > S nîth and thêrê > S thîr (LR:376-377, 392 s.v.