Quenya
-iel
suffix. -daughter; feminine suffix
Changes
-yel→ -well- ✧ PE17/190iel→ -uell- ✧ PE17/190-yelde→ -wend- ✧ PE17/190Cognates
- S. -iel “daughter; feminine suffix” ✧ PE17/023
Derivations
- ✶-iel “feminine suffix”
Element in
Variations
- iel ✧ PE17/023; PE17/170; PE17/190 (
iel)- -ĕl ✧ PE17/170
- -ielde ✧ PE17/170
- -well- ✧ PE17/190
- -uell- ✧ PE17/190
- -wend- ✧ PE17/190
- -wel ✧ PE17/190
- -yel ✧ PE17/190 (
-yel)- -yelde ✧ PE17/190 (
-yelde)
The most common Quenya suffix for “daughter of” such as in Elerondiel “✱Daughter of Elrond” (PE17/56) or Uinéniel “Daughter of Uinen” (UT/182).
Conceptual Development: The earliest hint of this suffix was ᴱQ. -il mentioned by Tolkien in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s as the equivalent of feminine patronymic ᴱQ. -wen (QL/103), but its only use in this period was in the masculine name ᴱQ. Indorildo, a variant of ᴱQ. Indorion and hence probably meaning “son of” (LT2/217). In The Etymologies of the 1930s Tolkien mentioned ᴹQ. -iel as a feminine patronymic under the root ᴹ√YEL “daughter” (Ety/YEL¹), but this root was rejected and in that document Tolkien seems to have replaced it with ᴹQ. -ien (EtyAC/YŌ).
In later writings Tolkien considered a bewildering variety of suffixes for the feminine patronymic, including -iel(d), -well, -wend and -ien (PE17/170, 190). In practice, though, only -iel appeared in actual names for “daughter of” (see above), perhaps because it is was the cleanest equivalent of the well-established masculine patronymic -ion “son of”.