corco ("k")noun "crow" (KORKA, see KARKA)
Noldorin
corch
noun. crow
corch
noun. crow
Quenya
corco
crow
carco
crow
[carco ("k")noun "crow" (KARKA)] (Changed by Tolkien to corco.)
quáco
crow
quáco ("q")noun "crow" _(WJ:395; _Etym also has corco, q.v.)
quáco
noun. crow
Sindarin
corch
crow
corch (i gorch, o chorch), pl. cyrch (i chyrch). Also *craban (i graban, o chraban), pl. crebain (i chrebain). Only the pl. crebain* is attested. The sg. could be either craban, creban or croban**, but the first of these seems the most likely.
corch
crow
(i gorch, o chorch), pl. cyrch (i chyrch). Also ✱craban (i graban, o chraban), pl. crebain (i chrebain). Only the pl. crebain is attested. The sg. could be either ✱craban, ✱creban or ✱croban, but the first of these seems the most likely.
craban
noun. kind of crow of large size, raven
Adûnaic
khô
noun. crow
A noun translated “crow” (SD/426). Tolkien listed this noun in two forms, khâu and khô, both as examples of seemingly uniconsonantal nouns that prehistorically were biconsonantal (from prehistoric ✶khaw). Most authors have suggested these are simply variations on the same noun illustrating different paths of phonetic development (AAD/18, AL/Adûnaic). Another interesting possibility is that khâu is an (archaic?) subjective form of khô, produced from the usual a-fortification of primitive ✶khaw → ✶khāw, which would develop phonetically in Classical Adûnaic to khâu and khô. As support for this idea, the plural form of khâu is given as khāwī(m), which appears to include the subjective plural suffix -im.
This line of reasoning is quite speculative. Nevertheless, it is probably easier to use the form khô over khâu, since the inflections of khô would be more regular: plural khôi, dual ✱khôwat, objective ✱khôwu, etc.
Primitive elvish
kawāk
noun. crow
Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!
Early Noldorin
corch
noun. ?crow
crunc
noun. crow
Middle Primitive Elvish
korka
root. crow
A root in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “crow”, with derivatives ᴹQ. korko and N. corch of the same meaning; it replaced a root ᴹ√KARKA with derivatives ᴹQ. karka and N. carach (Ety/KARKA). The deleted form conflicted with contemporaneous ᴹ√KARAK “sharp fang, spike, tooth” (Ety/KARAK). This deleted form nevertheless may be connected to S. crebain from The Lord of the Rings (LotR/285), whose singular craban “bird of crow-kind” (PE17/37) might be derived from ✱k(a)rak-wan.
There is another primitive form ✶k(a)wāk used as the basis for “crow” in the Quendi and Eldar of 1959-60 (WJ/395), but even later this primitive form was the basis for Q. quácë “frog” (VT47/36); see the entry on √KAWAK for discussion. As a result, I think earlier ᴹ√KORKA is probably the best choice for “crow” words for the purpose of Neo-Eldarin.
Qenya
korko
noun. crow
A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “crow” derived from the root ᴹ√KORKA of the same meaning, replacing rejected ᴹQ. karko derived from ᴹ√KARKA (Ety/KARKA).
Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. karon “crow” (QL/45), a word that was also mentioned in the contemporaneous Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa (PME/45). In the Quendi and Eldar essay from 1959-60, Tolkien had Q. quáco “crow” derived from primitive ✶k(a)wāk (WJ/395), but in notes from the late 1960s Tolkien instead had Q. {koake >>} quácë “frog” < ✶kāwāk, with primitive ✶kā for “crow” (VT47/36).
Neo-Quenya: Since quácë “frog” is later than (and possibly replaces) Q. quáco “crow”, I prefer corco as “crow” for purposes of Neo-Quenya.
Gnomish
crunc
noun. crow
Early Quenya
karon
noun. crow
Primitive adûnaic
khaw
noun. crow
A Primitive Adûnaic word glossed “crow” (SD/426). Tolkien gave two primitive forms of this word, khāw and khăw, which could just be variant forms of the same root ✱KHAW. A more intriguing possibility is that khāw is actually the subjective form of khăw, since this would indicate that this subjective formation dates back to the primitive stages of the language. As evidence of this, the derived plural khāwī(m) (SD/426) does resemble the Classical Adûnaic subjective plural.
Contradicting this conjecture is the fact that khaw, as an animal name, should be declined as a common-noun, using the common subjective suffix -an. Elsewhere, though, Tolkien declined some animal names as if they were neuter nouns, for example narîka as the subjective plural of #narak (SD/251). Perhaps not all animals were common nouns, or perhaps Tolkien’s ideas for the subjective tense were not fully formed when these examples were written.
A noun in The Etymologies of the 1930s glossed “crow” derived from the root ᴹ√KORKA of the same meaning, replacing rejected N. carach derived from ᴹ√KARKA (Ety/KARKA).
Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had G. crunc “crow”, probably related to G. crug “beak” (GL/27) and possibly also to ᴱQ. karon “crow” from the contemporaneous Qenya Lexicon (QL/45). The forms crunc and crwnc “crow” appeared in Gnomish Lexicon Slips modifying that document (PE13/111), and ᴱN. crunc “crow” appeared in Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/141). The word ᴱN. corch also appeared in the same Early Noldorin Word-lists, but was unglossed, so it is not clear whether it was connected to 1930s N. corch “crow”.