#linguistic post

[fuckyeah-valarin]

In all seriousness the verbal paradigms are going on forever. They have independent reflexives depending on which pronoun you're using and aiya....

[fuckyeah-valarin]

I'm trying to figure out how the Black Speech works, and it reminds me of Latin with a dash of Sumerian and some wannabe polysynthesis in the works. Mairon what were you doing

[fuckyeah-valarin]

Ullubōz

This is the Valarin name of the Vala Ulmo. 

[ulːuboːz]

There's not much for me to say about this word, except that it adds to my Valar honorofic -z hypothesis.

[fuckyeah-valarin]

Tulukhedelgorūs

This is the name of the other Tree of Valinor, the Gold one. 

[tulukxedelɡoruːs]

Though no gloss is given for this word, I can see that root. I seeee iiiit... It makes sense, anyway, to give the root <tulukhan> 'yellow' to a golden tree, especially when the same root was previously used to describe Tulkas' golden hair.

This name also makes something clear about the lenition involved in the creation of <Tulukhastâz>; the part of the <tulukhan> root that survives compounding is <tulukh>. The <an> is lenited when it joins with another word, thus we can conclude that in <Tulukhastâz> the ambiguous <a> is a result of <ašata>. It's possible that this rule could be extended to other forms of adjectival compounding, which bears investigation.

[fuckyeah-valarin]

Tulukhastāz

This is the original Valarin name of the Vala Tulkas. 

[tulukxastaːz]

Look upon this word, ye mighty, and despair, for WE HAVE A MORPHEMIC GLOSS.

Supposedly, this word literally means 'golden haired', but is specifically glossed as being composed of the morphemes <tulukha(n)> 'yellow' and <(a)šata> 'head of hair'. So literally, this is a yellow head of hair. This does the loveliness of further confirming the head-finality of compounded involving adjectival modifiers to nouns, but there's something else more interesting here as well. And I'm not talking about the lenition of <n> from <tulukhan> and initial <a> from <ašata>. That's pretty normal.

No, I'm talking about the sudden appearance of the final <z> once these two components are made into a name. It has no precedent in either root, yet it's there -- and what's more, it's familiar! Remember these guys?

Aʒûlêz : Aulë

Arômêz : Oromë

Look at those final <z>s. Mmmmmm. What's more, these are all names. So, is final <z> some kind of honorific? A nominalizer? A vocative?

But we have some other names for animates that don't get a final <z>.

Næxærra : Nahar

Ošošai : Ossë

Nahar is a horse, and there's a long tradition of treating perceived sentients differently from 'animals'. But Ossë is a Maia, and obviously sentient. There's no final <z> for em in either case. However, that doesn't mean we have to abandon our idea, because while Ossë is a Maia, Tulkas, Oromë, and Aulë are Valar.

So final <z> seems to be an honorific given to the names of Valar.

[fuckyeah-valarin]

Phanaikelūth

This is the Valarin term for the moon. It is literally translated as 'bright mirror'.

Here we see <ph> and <th> again. Going with the concept of <h> as [x], we get an interesting phonetic transcription. Again, we also see an actual <k> in the orthography, which continues to vaguely annoy me in its inscrutability.

[pxanaɪkeluːtx] or [pxanaikeluːtx]

I'm not sure how feasible this actually is, pronunciation wise. Technically it's possible, but going from labial straight to velar in a single consonant cluster is a heck of a strain on the tongue, even for a holy angelic spirit such as an Ainur (and we can debate how 'holy' and 'angelic' they really are another day). 

[fuckyeah-valarin]

Oš(o)šai

This particular word is translated as 'spuming, foaming' and is given as the precedent for the name of the Maia Ossë.

[oʃ(o)ʃaɪ] or [oʃ(o)ʃai]

The fact that this is a participle of some sort intrigues me, considering that we've only seen the <ai> once before, in <aþâraigas>. Perhaps there is some sort of back-formation to be derived here.

[fuckyeah-valarin]

næxærra

This is the Valarin name of Oromë's horse. Supposedly it is onomatopoeic, and oh but I have to laugh at the mental image that presents. Expect a picture later.

I have no idea what the void the <æ>s are doing. Considering the Quenyan correspondence <nahar>, it's likely that the <x> is just [x] like normal. <rr> is probably geminate [r]. I'm going to call the <æ>s [æ] because it's just simpler, and I doubt they're properly valarin <a>.

[næxærːa]

This reading sounds surprisingly like 'nicker' or 'nacker', which, considering its onomatopoeic nature, surprises me not at all.