eil-

verb. to rain

An impersonal verb appearing as N. eil “it is raining” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶ulyā- (> œil > eil) under the root ᴹ√ULU “pour, flow” (Ety/ULU; EtyAC/ULU). This verb is abnormal in that its final a disappeared rather than surviving as it usually did for derived verbs, giving eil rather than ✱elia-, ✱eilia- or ✱eila-. However, as an impersonal verb there would never be any pronominal suffix to help preserve the final a by analogy, which probably explains the vowel loss.

Conceptual Development: The verb for “rain” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s was G. ubra-, probably related to G. ub “wet, moist, damp” (GL/74).

Neo-Sindarin: In Sindarin, the likely developments of primitive ✶ulyā would be to ✱oly(a) > ᴺS. uil “it rains”; I believe this form was first suggested by Helge Fauskanger in his Parviphith Edhellen wordlist. Compare ᴺS. uil to: S. ruin “fiery red” < (perhaps) ✱runyā and S. fuir “north” < (perhaps) ✱phoryā, and see the entry on how [[s|[œi] became [ui] or [y]]] for further discussion. Any inflected forms would probably restore the stem, such as (hypothetical) intransitive past and future forms ✱eilias “it rained” and ✱eiliatha “it will rain”).