lal

root. laugh

A root for “laugh” appearing in notes written around 1959 (PE17/159), likely connected to S. Lalaith “Laughter”, the name of Túrin’s deceased sister (S/198). Some possible precursors appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s: unglossed ᴱ√LALA whose derivatives had to do with babbling (QL/50), and ᴱ√KAKA “laugh” with derivatives in both Qenya and Gnomish (QL/44; GL/24).

Tolkien gave a different primitive form ✶glada- as the basis for “laugh” words in The Shibboleth of Fëanor from the late 1960s; this produced S. glað- but still resulted in Q. lala- (PM/359). This new primitive had two problems (1) it is not compatible with S. Lalaith and (2) it shows a rather unusual assimilation of primitive d to preceding l in Quenya rather than the normal change to r: ✶(g)lada- > laða- > Q. lala- instead of ✱✱lara-. Elsewhere such assimilation did not occur, for example Q. lerembas < ✶led(e)mbasse (PE17/52).

Thus for purposes of Neo-Eldarin I think it is preferable to assume √LAL was the root for “laugh” words. However, I also think it is worth retaining √GLAD as a Sindarin-only root for similar concepts, perhaps “guffaw” and “joke”, given the limited semantic space we have in Elvish roots.

glada-

verb. laugh

lala-

verb. laugh

lala-(1) vb. "laugh" (PM:359), possibly with pa.t. *landë because the stem is given as g-lada-.

lala-

verb. to laugh

lalda

noun. laugh

lalta-

verb. to make laugh

@@@ Discord 2022-07-21

laltaula

adjective. funny, (lit.) apt to make laugh

@@@ Discord 2022-07-21

gladh-

verb. to laugh, to laugh [at a joke], *guffaw

This word is not compatible with the name Lalaith “Laughter” attested in The Silmarillion. The most likely explanation of this name is that it is the unattested verb ✱lala- “laugh” with the abstract noun suffix -th seen in tirith “watch(ing)” and sirith “flowing”. This indicates a primitive form ✶lala- instead of ✶glada- (both primitives produce Quenya lala-). If you were to accept gladh- as the Sindarin word for “laugh”, then the word for “laughter” would perhaps be the equivalent abstract noun ✱gladhath, and the name Lalaith might be a mix of Quenya and Sindarin. @@@ Neo-Sindarin uses

lala-

verb. to laugh

gladh-

verb. to laugh

lall

noun. laugh

gladha

laugh

(verb) gladha- (i **ladha, in gladhar**)

gladha

laugh

(i ’ladha, in gladhar)

gladhweg

adjective. cheerful, (lit.) apt to laugh

laltha-

verb. to amuse, make laugh

iaeda-

verb. to mock, deride, make fun of, laugh at

lalweg

adjective. cheerful

glada-

verb. to laugh