Gloss “ostimë” by Ardalambion (Helge Fauskanger)

ostimë

blend

ostimë (pl. ostimi is attested) noun "blend", in linguistics a term for a kind of "strengthened" elements within a stem, where a single sound has been expanded into two different elements while maintaining a unitary effect and significance: such as s- being turned into st-, or m being strengthened to mb. (VT39:9)

Tom Bombadil #660

Could someone please explain to me when and how this phenomenon appears? I guess that irregular nouns (like for example mar (mard-), ambar (ambart-) and elessar (elessarn-)) do/have that when they get inflected (respectively when they are not in nominative and singular).

Even if my guess is right, there might be more situations where ostime occurs. At least Ardalambion says that it is a strengthened element "within" the stem, not only at it's end.

So, now I have three questions.

Firstly: Is my guess right that ostime occurs when irregular nouns become inflected?

Secondly: Where else does it happen? "Within the stem"? How does ostime occur "within" a stem? Could you give me some examples?

Thirdly: By the way; What is the precise definition of "element" in this case? Is it just a letter, respectively a phoneme?

PS. What if the stem of an irregular word does not add but replace a letter? Like lunga (lungu-) or ango (angu-)? That is not ostime, is it?

Tamas Ferencz #661

I think you've got things a bit backwards. It's not that a d is being added to mar to become mard-: it's the other way round, the original Primitive Elvish form of the word contained the -rt- (see eldamo.org), but in Quenya in the nominal form it simplified and the -t disappeared from the end; but it reappears in the inflected forms. So that's not ostime.

Ostime, as Helge says, occurs within the stem, and it most probably occurred at an early stage (Primitive Quendian, Common Eldarin). One example could be the root AM "upwards" in which the m gets strengthened to mb to yield the adverb amba "upwards" in Quenya.