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Old 10-04-2002, 07:09 PM   #7
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
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Sting

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FG -16 - is everyone agreed on Ork/s [replacing the published Orc/s]?
I am not. We have here two important principles conflicting: JRRT's latest wish was clearly to go with Ork, but to adopt this would contradict LotR's Orc. I am inclined to keep Orc, though I certainly understand the argument in favor of Ork.

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FG 23 So JRRT changed -iath to iad in a late[r] note, What exactly are the implications for *Doriath* then?
Excellent question. I'll have to check the Etymologies on both Doriath and Echoriath and see if they shed any light on this. Just off the top of my head: "Doriath" is I think "(n)dor-" = "land" and "iath" = "fence", "Fenced Land". I believe (though I could very well be wrong) that the "-iath" in "Echoriath" is also from the "fence" root. Even if it is not, we also have "Amon Gwareth" to "Amon Gwared", indicating, it seems, that the change is not in the root but rather a mutation for final -th.

I definitely agree that "Doriath" should remain. This obviously suggests that we retain "Gwareth" and "Echoriath". I can think of one possible explanation for making the change to those latter two and not to Doriath: perhaps final -th became -d only in later Sindarin. It would make sense for "Doriath" to be a more archaic name; it is an old name, first of all, and also it is said that the Sindarin spoken in Doriath was a more archaic form than that spoken elsewhere (the manner of speech that Turin never rid himself of).

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as for the actual justifying it linguistically, perhaps Aiwendil or Antoine can explain, I am dashing off for now, but if it remains un-answered till tonight I wll try and dig it up. BoLT Fog has some good info in the back notes if I recall.
I can't recall the details of the argument at the moment. The central problem is that Elves tend not to reuse names. This is not (despite one note of JRRT's that says it is) a fixed rule - cf. Galdor, Haldir. It has been argued that Thranduil would not have named his son after a Noldorin prince. I'm not certain that he wouldn't have. There may be some clever way around this problem relying on the fact that "Legolas" has a double-meaning: "keen-sight" and "greenleaf".
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