wil

root. fly, float in air

Tolkien used a similar set of Elvish roots for both “air” and “flight” for much of his life. Their earliest manifestation was in a pair of unglossed roots from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s: ᴱ√GWILI with derivatives like ᴱQ. ’wili- “sail, fly, float”, ᴱQ. ’wilin “bird”, and ᴱQ. ’wilwarin “butterfly” (QL/104), versus ᴱ√VILI with derivatives like ᴱQ. vīle “breeze - gentle”, ᴱQ. vilina “airy, breezy, light”, and {ᴱQ. Vilna >>} ᴱQ. Vilya “air (lower)” (QL/101). Both these roots had distinct sets of derivatives in the contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon, such as G. gwail “air”, G. gwil- “sail, float, fly”, and G. gwilbrin “butterfly” < ✶gu̯il {<< u̯il} [ᴱ√GWILI] (GL/45), versus G. bilin(c) “small bird”, G. biltha- “flutter, flit”, and G. blith “air, breeze, zephyr” < ✶bil [ᴱ√VILI] (GL/22-23).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien gave the root as ᴹ√WIL “fly, float in air” with derivatives like ᴹQ. vilwa {>> wilma} “(lower) air”, N. gwelw “air”, and ᴹQ. wilwarin/N. gwilwileth “butterfly” (Ety/WIL). Tolkien introduced an alternate root ᴹ√WIS in The Etymologies as the basis for ᴹQ. vista “air as substance” (Ety/WIS), though there are no clear signs of ᴹ√WIS in later writings. However, Tolkien’s continued use of words like Q. vilya “air, sky” and Q. wilwarin “butterfly” (MC/222) indicate the ongoing validity of the root ᴹ√WIL.

Tolkien’s vacillation between w- and v- in Quenya derivatives of this root may indicate a variant strengthened root ✱√GWIL. Tolkien use of vilya/wilya as the name of tengwa #24 [n] (LotR/1123) is a strong indication that the root had an ancient form ✱√GWIL, as this sign is in the quessetéma series of labialized velars. However, it is also possible Tolkien was simply unwilling to abandon well-established forms like wilwarin “butterfly”, and continued to write them with an (archaic) w- rather than the expected v-.

wilin

noun. bird

A noun in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “bird”, derived from the early root ᴱ√GWILI that was the basis for words having to do with flight (QL/104).

aiwe

noun. bird

oi(we)

noun. bird

oive

noun. bird

wil-

verb. to fly

vil-

verb. to fly, to fly, [ᴱQ.] float, sail

A verb given as {vilin >>} wilin “I fly” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√WIL “fly, float in air” (Ety/WIL). Tolkien gave a past form ville that was allowed to stand even after {vilin >>} wilin.

Conceptual Development: The Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s had ᴱQ. ’wili- “sail, fly, float” under the early root ᴱ√GWILI (QL/104). The contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon had ᴱQ. vil- as the cognate to G. gwil- “sail, float, fly” (GL/45).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I would use the form vil- “to fly” in keeping with the general principle that w was pronounced and spelt v in modern Quenya; see the entry for [w] for discussion. For “sail, float” I would use other verbs such as lut-.

oio

noun. bird

tsette

noun. fly

porogwil

noun. hen

The word G. porogwil appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s as a combination of G. porog “fowl (domestic)” and G. uil “hen” (GL/64, 74).

Neo-Sindarin: I would adapt this word as ᴺS. porochuil for purposes of Neo-Sindarin, updating the second element to the neologism ᴺS. huil “hen”. The longer form is better distinguished from ᴺS. huil “bitch, female dog”.

bil

noun. bird

A word for “bird” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s appearing next to G. bilinc “sparrow”, but this word was deleted and the gloss for bilinc was expanded to “a small bird, especially sparrow” (GL/22-23). The form bil appeared in a couple other places in the Gnomish Lexicon (GL/23, 31), but seems to represent a “root” rather than a word. Tolkien indicated bil was derived from ᴱ✶du̯il (GL/31), but the exact mechanism whereby du̯- became b- isn’t clear, but a similar change is seen in 1920s ᴱ✶du̯ag- > ᴱT. baga- “beat” and ᴱ✶tu̯ak- > ᴱQ. pak- “apply, attach” (PE14/66).

uil

noun. hen

The word G. uil “hen” appeared in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/74), almost certainly a cognate of ᴱQ. oi “bird, hen” which Tolkien considered deriving from ᴱ√OHO “cry” (QL/69). In Common Eldarin: Noun Structure from the early 1950s, Tolkien had the primitive word ✶kholjē “hen” derived from the root √KHOL “crow, cry aloud” (PE21/82), which may be a later iteration of this Gnomish uil “hen” word.

Neo-Sindarin: Based on the above, Gábor Lőrinczi proposed a neologism ᴺS. hŷl “hen” as recorded in the VQP (VQP). However, my analysis of Sindarin phonology indicates that ᴺS. huil is the more likely result ✶kholjē: compare thuil and thuin plurals of thôn and thôl, and possibly also ruin < ✱runyā and fuir < ✱forya. For further details see the entry on how [[s|final [i] intruded into preceding syllable]] in Sindarin.

In any case, I recommend ᴺS. huil for “hen” in Neo-Sindarin, or its more elaborate form ᴺS. porochuil.

aigli

noun. bird

duila-

verb. to fly

A verb in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s glossed “to fly”, based on G. duil “flight” (GL/31).

sitha

noun. fly

A word for “fly” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/68), perhaps related to the early root ᴱ√ITI “peck, bite (of flies), annoy” (QL/43).

aiw

noun. bird