alf

noun. flower

Cognates

• Q. alma “flower” ✧ PE17/153

Derivations

• √GALAB “flower” ✧ PE17/153
  • √GAL “grow (like plants), flourish, be healthy, be vigorous, bloom, grow (like plants), flourish, be healthy, be vigorous, bloom, [ᴹ√] thrive” ✧ PE17/153

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
√GAL-AB > alf	[alba] > [alva] > [alv]	✧ PE17/153

alph

noun. swan

alph

noun. swan

n. Zoo. swan.

alph

noun. swan

The Sindarin noun for “swan” derived from primitive ✶alkwā (NM/378; UT/265; Ety/ÁLAK), where first the [[at|ancient [kw] became [p]]] and then the [[os|[lp] became [lf] (spelled lph)]].

Conceptual Development: In the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, this word appeared as {alcwi >>} alfa (GL/18), which is perhaps the moment that Tolkien decided that labialized velars became labials in the Sindarin branch of Elvish (though in Gnomish this sound change applied only medially). In Gnomish Lexicon Slips modifying this document, the word became alf (PE13/109), and Tolkien stuck with this form thereafter, though eventually revising the spelling to alph once he decide that final [f] was spelled ph. In The Etymologies of the 1930s, N. alf “swan” appeared under the root ᴹ√ALAK “rushing” (Ety/ÁLAK).

Cognates

• Q. alqua “swan” ✧ NM/378; SA/alqua; UT/265; VT42/07

Derivations

• ✶alkwā “swan” ✧ NM/378; VT42/07
  • √ALAK “rushing, rushing, [ᴹ√] swift” ✧ PE18/100
• √ALAK “rushing, rushing, [ᴹ√] swift” ✧ SA/alqua
• T. alpa “swan” ✧ UT/265
  • ✶alkwā “swan” ✧ UT/265
  • √ALAK “rushing, rushing, [ᴹ√] swift” ✧ PE18/100

Element in

• ᴺS. alfeg “cygnet, young swan”
• ᴺS. alfuil “large white sea-bird, albatross, †swan”
• S. Alphros
• S. Elphir
• S. Nîn-in-Eilph “Swanfleet, Waterlands of the Swans” ✧ NM/378; VT42/07

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶alkwā > alpa > alf	[alkwā] > [alpā] > [alpa] > [alpʰa] > [alɸa] > [alfa] > [alf]	✧ NM/378
T. alpa > alph	[alpa] > [alpʰa] > [alɸa] > [alfa] > [alf]	✧ UT/265
T. alpa > eilph	[alpi] > [alpʰi] > [alɸi] > [alfi] > [elfi] > [eilf]	✧ UT/265
✶alkwa > alf	[alkwa] > [alpa] > [alpʰa] > [alɸa] > [alfa] > [alf]	✧ VT42/07

Variations

• alf ✧ NM/378; VT42/07

mallos

noun. a golden flower

loth

noun. flower, inflorescence, a head of small flowers

The noun is collective, a single flower being lotheg

loth

noun. flower

_n._flower, a single bloom. Q. lóte, lōs.

elanor

noun. a flower, a kind of enlarged pimpernel bearing golden and silver flowers

elloth

noun. (single) flower

lotheg

noun. (single) flower

ninglor

noun. golden water-flower, gladden

niphredil

noun. a pale winter flower, snowdrop

alph

swan

alph (pl. eilph)

alph

swan

(pl. eilph)

gwaloth

collection of flowers

(i ’waloth) (blossom), pl. gwelyth (in gwelyth). Also goloth (i ’oloth) (blossom), pl. gelyth (i ngelyth = i ñelyth). Archaic pl. gölyth. (VT42:18). Specific flowers, see

loth

flower

loth, pl. lyth (but loth is also glossed ”blossom” and may itself function as a collective term: all the flowers of a plant. For individual flowers cf. the following:)

loth

flower

pl. lyth (but loth is also glossed ”blossom” and may itself function as a collective term: all the flowers of a plant. For individual flowers cf. the following:)

lotheg

single flower

lothod (”singulars” derived from the more collective term loth; it is unclear whether lotheg, lothod can themselves have ”plural” forms. If so it would be lethig, lethyd, for archaic löthig, löthyd.) (VT42:18, VT45:29) Another word for a single flower is elloth (pl. ellyth) (VT42:18). An alternative to loth is loss (construct los; pl. lyss), but the form loth seems to be more common (and loss also means ”fallen snow” and ”wilderness”).

edlothia

flower

(verb) #edlothia- (i edlothia, in edlothiar) (to blossom);

edlothia

flower

(i edlothia, in edlothiar) (to blossom);

edlothiad

flowering

(blossoming), pl. edlothiaid if there is a pl.**