Sindarin
lheweg
noun. ear
Cognates
- Q. hlas “ear” ✧ PE17/062; PE17/062; PE17/077
Derivations
- √SLAS “ear” ✧ PE17/062
Element in
Elements
Word Gloss lhaw “ears (of one person)” -eg “diminutive/singular ending” Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √S-LAS > lhaw [slasū] > [slasu] > [l̥asu] > [l̥ahu] > [l̥au] ✧ PE17/062
lheweg
du
lhaw
noun. ears (referring to one person's pair of ears only)
lhewig
ear
lhewig (?i thlewig or ?i lewig the lenition product of lh is uncertain). This ia a singular formed from the collective
lhewig
ear
(?i thlewig or ?i lewig – the lenition product of lh is uncertain). This ia a singular formed from the collective
lhaw
ears
(?i thlaw or ?i law).
The Sindarin word for “ear” was derived from primitive √S-LAS, an elaboration of √LAS “listen” (PE17/62). Its singular form lheweg is somewhat unusual. Based on its Quenya cognate Q. hlas (< ✶slas), its historical singular should probably be ✱lhâ. However, it seems the modern Sindarin form was actually based on the (fossilized) dual lhaw < ✶slasū, from which a singular form lheweg “ear” was derived using the singular suffix -eg, though it isn’t clear why the base vowel also changed from a to e.
Conceptual Development: Tolkien described a similar scenario in The Etymologies of the 1930s, except the singular was N. {lhaweg >>} lhewig and it was derived directly from ᴹ√LAS “listen” (Ety/LAS²; EtyAC/LAS²). The voiceless lh- in this word was the result of the Noldorin sound-change of the 1930s whereby ancient initial r-, l- were unvoiced. This Noldorin dual lhaw made it into Lord of the Rings drafts as part of Amon Lhaw “Hill of Hearing, (lit.) of Ears” (TI/364), a form that Tolkien retained in the published version (LotR/393). Since the unvoicing of initial l was no longer a feature of Sindarin of the 1950s and 60s, Tolkien needed to contrive a new derivation from primitive √S-LAS.
The Gnomish word for “ear” from the 1910s had a completely different basis: it was G. unc “ear, handle (of a jar)” (GL/75), cognate to ᴱQ. unk derived from the root ᴱ√ṆQṆ (QL/98).