[Man-of-the-Wold]

In response to Aiwendel, I might note that I was purpounding no particular logic, beyond a practical one.

I likewise am at a loss to decide "how it makes any difference what sort of a name it is." So, why not use the name Rôg, as the only one we have for a truly great character that otherwise deserves to be retained?

This Project in many ways needs to do what JRRT and CRT were either unable or unwilling to do, which is take all that there is and put it together as best as possible, and not sweat details that do not create any substantive and irresolvable conflict.

The problem as discussed here is perfectly valid, but is it all that meaningful?

In other words, "so what" if we can't really explain how Rôg fits in ... as a name?

This matter seems comparable to any variety of ambiguities, which will arise, and that should be treated lightly and appropriately, so that the uncertainty that underlies them is subtly implied. Also, avoid dwelling on the matter too much, so not to boorishly belabour it. In such cases, paring back on the actual matter that is ambiguous might be sensible (eg: Rôg appears in the BoLT text maybe 6 to 8 times, try to avoid naming him per se for half of those instances).

(For an entirely different situation, a footnote might be useful to provide alternative or ancillary information from JRRT, which is itself neither more or less certain, perhaps, than the text to which it relates)

What is stricken would be material, characters, events and so forth that directly contradict substantive facts to be maintained elsewhere in the RS, or something such as the multitude of Balrogs that plainly clashes or is nonsensical in the overall context of JRRTs published works or his more or less final writings.

To return to the specific question at hand, I find it a bit rich to suggest that we know everything about Sindarian or how it was used by its speakers.

My understanding is that JRRT never finalized his ever-changing tinkering with the Elven tongues, and that even for these, with which he played the longest, he could never come close to exhaustively charterizing them in the naturalistic way to which he aspired.

I do not think it is this Project's objective to resolve his linquistic avocations. As long as we maintain the meanings of words as we know them to be, that is enough. If some meanings or uses of words are not fully explanable or consistent with generally commone patterns, then so be it.

Bottom-line, we don't know everything about Sindarin, and there is no reason to suggest that we can or should.

To suggest that Rôg is Mannish or Dwarvish in origin is (I agree) implausible, given that Gondolin's isolation began early during the Siege of Angband. Although if Rôg was a leader of great craftmen, he might have sought out interaction with the Naugrim very early on. (I also see where JRRT used the acute circumflex at times)

The people of Gondolin, of course, were not all Noldor. There would have been the odd spouse or other relation from another kindred that had joined the Exiles. And, Turgon's people from Nevrast had been in large part Grey-elves, and perhaps even some Green-elves. When this issue first arose, and I had not read BoLT for some while, I thought Rôg could be more from among these Sindarin elements.

But clearly, given the nature of the people he led, he was a true, blue Noldor, and perhaps in that lies not so much an explanation, but a reason to be comfortable with ignorance.

Even as I try to work through HoME X-XII (somewhat simultaneously), I wonder if Quenya was not already an Elf-Latin in Eldamar. I see that JRRT switched to Sindarin as the language adopted by the Noldor (for the most part), and as the main Elven language for later ages, and even on Tol Eressëa, rather than the Exiles' vernacular of "Noldorin."

But might he have retained the idea of "Noldorin" (in abeyance per CRT) as the Exiles' common tougue before Sindarin, and that even for the Noldor, Quenya was already a rarefied language of lore and special occasion?

Perhaps, Rôg could be attributed as a form of "Noldorin" that was favored for reference to that (very Noldorian) person. Why? ... who knows? What does it means? I wish I knew, but "Oh Well."

I understand that the names that come down to us are in Sindarin form. But in terms of this rule, I'm not sure if there are not or could not be exceptions.

These exceptions would not need to be accounted for in their entirety, merely accepted as conceivable.