Quenya 

máma

sheep

máma noun "sheep" (WJ:395)

máma

noun. sheep

A word for “sheep” appearing in the Quendi and Eldar essay of 1959-60 as a derivative of ✶māmā (WJ/395). It appeared again in notes from 1968 as a derivative of ✶mbāba (VT47/35), apparently with some amount of assimilation since the second primitive b > m as suggested by Patrick Wynne (VT47/36).

Conceptual Development: A similar word ᴱQ. moa “sheep” appeared in both the Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s, in the former under the entry for the early root ᴱ√MAWA “cry, bleat” (QL/060). In Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s, the word for “sheep” was instead ᴱQ. sauve (PE16/132).

Cognates

  • ᴺS. maf “sheep”

Derivations

  • māmā “sheep” ✧ VT47/35; WJ/395

Element in

Phonetic Developments

DevelopmentStagesSources
mbāba > māma[māmā] > [mbāmā] > [māmā] > [māma]✧ VT47/35
māmā > máma[māmā] > [māma]✧ WJ/395

Variations

  • māma ✧ VT47/35
Quenya [VT47/35; WJ/395] Group: Eldamo. Published by

mámandil

sheep-friend

mámandil noun *"sheep-friend" (máma + -ndil), i.e. "shepherd"? (UT:209)