Gloss “gwîn” by Imported

gwîn

noun. wine, vine

The wine of Dor-Winion occurs in the Lay of the children of Húrin and a place located either in the "burning South" in the first version, or probably east of the Blue Mountains in the second. Then we have Dorwinion as a meadow-land in Tol Eressëa at the end of the Quenta Silmarillion. It reappears in The Hobbit, and was finally placed North-West of the Sea of Rhûn in the decorated map by Pauline Baynes (see HL/115-117 for discussion). The meaning of this name is unknown and has been largely discussed. What do we have indeed in this "Winion", or rather gwinion since the initial w- must come from lenition? According to Christopher Tolkien, the Lay was begun c. 1918 and was composed during his father's stay at Leeds, a date meaning that the word can be Gnomish, possibly Early Noldorin, or in an indigenous language of Beleriand. In Gnomish and later in Doriathrin and Ilkorin, there is a genitive plural ending -ion which may very well be contained in this word. Then we would segment gwin-ion "of gwin". The context calls for "wine", "vine" or something similar. It can hardly be a coincidence that gwin is precisely the Welsh word for "wine", a loan from the Latin vinum, as the English "wine" itself

Sindarin [Dorwinion LotR/Map, LB/11,26,17,112, LR/334,338,] Group: SINDICT. Published by
Leo Newmark #229

Additionally, Tolkien's ties between "gw-" and "v-/m-(?)" should be noted. For example, "new" is "víne" in Quenya, but "gwîn" in Sindarin. So if, in what seems rather Gnomish, Tolkien gave us Dor+gwin+ion, it should actually be expected that we'd get "vin" or "min" from that "gwin". Now, let's take into consideration that some languages have exchanged r's for n's in their respective developments (and vice versa). This would get "vir" or "mir". "Mir" also happens to mean "something precious", especially jewels. Something precious, eh? The Wood-elves, and especially their king, were very fond of wine... So, in Sindarin, "Dorwinion" would then actually be "Dorvirien" or something of the like, assuming that the "-ion" functions the same way as the "-ien" in Lothlórien. Alas, we get "mir" as the Sindarin word for "wine". Have we just solved the mysterious "miruvorë" and it's Sindarin transliteration "miruvor"? Hmmm...

Elaran #230

This word was based on a theory that predates Parma Eldalamberon #17. In this document, Tolkien writes:

[...] Dorwinion is Sindarin meaning "Young-land country" [...] [PE17/54]

The name's elements are dôr, gwain¹, and -ion.

1 - This word comes from ancient WINjā which developed into Sindarin as [winjā > winja > gwinja > gwenja > gwenia > gweni > gwein > gwain]. Two of these phonetic development rules, A-affection (gwinja > gwenja) and I-intrusion (gweni > gwein), cannot take place when a word is not the final element of a compound word. And this is what we see with Dorwinion, as gwain is followed by -ion. Thus, winjā and jānā merged (because of the repeated -jā-) and developed as [winjānā > winjāna > winjǭna > winjauna > gwinjauna > gwiniauna > gwiniaun > gwinion]. This is why gwain seems like "(g)win". As for the actual gwîn, it means "youth", and only that.