Contribution “Orvincë” by Ollorin Máma (aka Clint)

Approved

These are the comments on (Deleted 2022-07-30 14:30:50)'s contribution “orvincë”.

orvincë

 noun. little apple, pommel

Compound consisting of orva "apple" [PE13/116] and -ince diminutive ending [UT/195].

Pommel origin

From Etymonline © 2022 (confirmed by Webster-Mirriam © 2022) mid-13c., pomel, "ornamental knob or ball, decorative boss;" c. 1300, "knob at the end of the handle of a sword hilt or the grip of a dagger," from Old French pomel (12c., Modern French pommeau), "rounded knob," diminutive of pom "hilt of a sword," and directly from Medieval Latin pomellum, diminutive of Latin pomum "apple" (see pomona), the connecting notion being "roundness." It serves to keep the hand from slipping and for striking a heavy blow at an adversary too close for the sweep of the weapon.

Though process

The word pommel is Franco-Latin in origin and refers to the knob at the end of a European style sword as a little apple. It seems appropriate that Quenya, which is flowing like French and is often referred to as "Elf Latin" should also refer to the balancing knob at the end of a sword as a "little apple." English also uses pommel as the primary word for a knob at the end of a sword handle.

Compound word reasoning

Orvincë was chosen instead of orvaincë for aesthetic beauty as well as simplicity of speech. To my knowledge, no Quenya word begins with orvi, thus generating no conflict with the compound word form.

Quenya [Orva - Apple (PE13/116), -incë: diminutive ending (UT/195), Eldamo© 2008 - 2022, Paul Strack — v0.8.1 — generated January 24, 2022)] Group: Eldamo - neologism/reconstructions. Published by
Quenya hilt macil mahta mahtë orvincë pommel pummel sword
Thank you! Your contribution was approved by Gilruin.
Gilruin #2122

I like this word! Opening a thread though to get opinions from other experts.

(Deleted 2022-07-30 14:30:50) #2164

[Deleted]

Ruilalwen #2165

No problem. I don't like those pronunciation guides online especially because they said Galadriel was pronounced galaDRIEL instead of gaLAdriel. Egh. But thanks anyways! Annon allen! :D

Gilruin #2167

Orvincë should be pronunced [ɔrˈviŋkɛ] with the stress on the i because it is followed by a constant cluster. Galadriel split into syllables is ga-lad-ri-el and because the second to last syllable ri is light (no diphthong, long vowel or following constant cluster) the stress retracts to the third to last syllable: galAdriel. For a good pronunciation guide for Quenya I would recommend tolklang.quettar.org (of course in conjunction with reading Tolkien's own description in LotR Appendix E).