Towel in Quenya

Tom Bombadil #469

I would like to translate this word into Quenya and I think that I found two possible compound parts, but I am not shure how they can be connected. I thought about purification/bath(-room) and tissue, so we could use "sovalle" and "lanne", but sovallelanne sounds unusual. Probably Tolkien would connect them differently, like sovallane, but that is just my intuition. Do you know whether it is right?

Tolkiens compounds are often shortened. I know haplology and I would use it (for instance I would call Skywalker a meneldo (menel-eldo)), but there are also some shortened compounds which do not have identical syllables, like

yavanna-hildi (yavannildi) and

ondo-támo (ontámo).

The problem is:

a ≠ hil

and do ≠ tá,

isn't it? Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that haplology requires two identical syllables, and not just two which are a bit similar.

I simply don't want to shorten my word in the same style while I don't understand the principle of "the same style". What is the rule, which allows one to shorten ondotámo (and all the other words) without haplology? Or do the elves have a much more relaxed definition of haplogy?

Dírheron #471

I think in the case of yavannildi, it is that -na disappears and -nh- becomes -nn-.

Sami Paldanius #473

Also at Eldamo one finds the neo-verb * parcata- "to dry", proceeding from which one could suggest a noun + adjective combination lannë parcatálëa as another way of translating "towel".

P.S. It's a pity we don't know the gloss of STUK [ eldamo.org ], as that would have made a nice (phonetically close) mature replacement root for the base of 1910's Gnomish suitha- "to dry, to wipe" (which would most likely resemble and hence be in conflict with middle-period SUG/SUK "to drink" if suitha- had evolved like a Sindarin word). However, after looking at the word-stock of eldamo.org one might perhaps suggest *SUY as such a replacement...

Tamas Ferencz #476

In the case of ontámo I assume it's not haplology as such, but a case of simplification due to the closeness of a voiced and voiceless stop d and t merging in quick colloquial speech: *ondotámo > *ondtámo > ontámo.

Tom Bombadil #479

And do you think, it could be Sovallelanne > Sovalllanne > Sovallanne?

Tamas Ferencz #484

Possibly. I am not a fan of the verb sovalla- - somehow it looks weird to me - but I could see the compound being simplified like that.

Tom Bombadil #485

Sovalla- is a verb? It is not yet in Parf Edhellen ... anyway, using verbs is a good idea. I will just call it Poitalanne (Poita-la-lanne with haplology).

Dírheron #487

Poitalanne is fine as poita-lanne (a cloth for cleaning).