Posted: January 19, 2000 at 01:02:12: by Tar-Elenion
: On the continuing question of kingship and inheritance (which may never be satisfactorily settled), I found the following entry in "The Etymologies". It is therefore dated information but seems to me to be worth mentioning, as probably having been retained by Tolkien into the 1950s and 1960s. This is a subentry under "TA-, TA3-"::
: *taro king: only used of the legitimate kings of the
: whole tribes, as Ingwe of the Lindar, Finwe of the Noldor
: (and later Fingolfin and Fingon of all exiled Gnomes). The
: word used of a lord or king of a specified region was
: aran (âr), Q haran [see 3AR]. Thus
: Fingolfin taur egledhur 'King of the Exiles' [see LED],
: but Fingolfin aran Chithlum 'King of Hithlum'. Q
: tár (pl. tári). N taur,
: Ilk. tôr, only used of Thingol: Tor Thingol
: = King Thingol.
:
: If I understand the language relationships correctly, "Q" represents "Qenya", the predecessor language for Quenya, spoken only in Aman. "N" represents Noldorin, the predecessor language for Sindarin, spoken by the Exiles, and "Ilk" represents Ilkorin, spoken by the Elves of Beleriand (and perhaps other lands, but mostly Thingol's people and the Danas, who became the Green-elves of Ossiriand). Ilkorin would have become the Doriathian dialect of Sindarin. Ilkorin would have become the dialact of the Laiquendi of Ossiriand which was distinct. While 'Noldorin' did indeed become 'Sindarin' there is a 'Doriathrin' dialect that is distinict from the 'Ilkorin' of the Laiquendi.
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