Comments by Tom Bombadil
These are the 10 posts of 114 by Tom Bombadil.
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Pronounciation of h
Apologies for my ignorance, but how is that pronounced? I know how to pronounce h and ht, but what about hy and hw? Does it cause any difference if one will omit the h and just write y and w?
By the way: would eht and ehyt be pronounced differently? I know, one can not write that, but just in theory it should be equal, shouldn't it? Secondly: Is there any difference between hy and harma?
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To Start/Begin
Wait, Yesta- is "to desire", isn't it? If it also means "to start", it will have two meanings. Aren't there any verbs, which are more unequivocal?
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To Start/Begin
Are there any simple Quenya verbs for that? I usually say "tyar- yesta", but are there any alternatives? Unfortunately it is not easy to create a causative. Yestata- cries for haplology, and it is not known whether it should be esse or yesse. Additionally esse has two meanings, which is why it is too imprecise.
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Gloss “mëar” by Ardalambion (Helge Fauskanger)
Does this include all English meanings? Blood, triangle, triangular thing/surface and wedge? That Sounds a bit ... much for one word.
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Gloss “-a” by Eldamo Import
I wanted to use this example too. Why do some words, which result in -o, become -oa, while others become -ea? Isn't that a clear hint that -ea is another suffix? It is true that most of my examples follow the principle -a + -a -> -ea, and maybe we should not interpret this as a new suffix but as a sort of a "subcondition" of -a. Anyway, the number suffixes are still a mystery. Apparently numbers are nouns, and their cases and numbers follow noun rules (húme/húmi, nelde/neldion, etc.). Thus toltea, cantea and otsea are adjectives, like carna, vanya, naicelea and eteminya. So why is tolto + -a -> toltea and not toltoa whereas nó + -a is noa and not nea? Apparently there are either two interchangable rules (maybe based on the lenght of the vowel) or suffixes.
I don't say: There is this suffix. How could I? I just say that there are enough signs. At least we should consider the possibility.
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Gloss “-a” by Eldamo Import
May -ea be a variation of this suffix? It seems as if -ea can replace the last vowel of a noun, mostly if the last vowel is -a, but also -o. At first I was just confused by number suffixes like
Tolto + -a -> Toltea,
Otso + -a -> Otsea,
Canta + -a -> Cantea,
but there are also many other adjectives.
ala-óma-a -> alómea
ú-pahta-a -> úpahtea
nem-e-sta-a -> nemestea
ú-fanwa-a -> úfanwea
la-ista-a -> laistea
farasta-a -> farastea
So, might -ea be a suffix too?
At least we can say: -a + -a -> -ea. What do you think?
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Gloss “erdë” by Eldamo Import
Damned. It would be very funny to explain physics not in Latin but "Elf-Latin". Unfortunately that won't be possible without many many neologisms ...
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Gloss “erdë” by Eldamo Import
Shure, and if we consider the development stage of (astro-)physics in most stages of Tolkien's live (maybe except the last few years), it will be a fortiori no, but we can't deny that it is the same word, and I never heard it in another context ...
PS. No one sayd how big Ilmen is. There's no reason why it shouldn't be able to have a radius of a few billion lightyears, like our's has it too. Why not? And if so: Why not with black holes?
The longer I think about it the more I start thinking that the universe structure of lotr is not very different from ours. Vista is the Earth's atmosphere and Ilmen is every other part of the universe. In our universe it is impossible to reach the limit, because of space warp and the theory of relativity. So, if there was something behind the area of stars (Ilmen) in our universe (like Vaiya/Ilurambar), we could not see/reach it unless we had divine power to break the laws of nature (like Melcor, Ulmo, the Valar and Earendil with his Silmaril and ship). The only big difference between Ea and our universe is that Ea has a geocentric world system. Why souldn't Ea have black holes too?
Maybe the Valar told the inquisitive Noldor some basics of astrophysics and mentioned black holes ... ok, now I'm definitely joking, but we "could" use this word "also" in that way, couldn't we?
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Gloss “erdë” by Eldamo Import
Is that a region in spacetime in which tidal gravitational forces become infinite, like a black hole or the big bang?
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Serve (Quenya)
Does one of you know a word for serve? I always used iltur-, but (unfortunately) il- is more than just the opposite-prefix and tur- is more than just govern, so this compound is not univocal enough in my opinion. It's just a temporary solution.
PS. I have an idea. Would Núrota- work? Servant-causative?
PPS. I confess that I never really understood how a causative works. Would Núro-ta- mean "to do what a servant does (i.e. to serve)" or "to make someone a servant/make someone serving (i.e. to subdue)"? My causative-mnemonic was that adding a causative suffix is like transforming the word into an adjective and putting a "make" in front of it. Like Nor- (run) and Norta- (make running). By the way: Is that mnemonic right?