A word for “bird” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s appearing next to G. bilinc “sparrow”, but this word was deleted and the gloss for bilinc was expanded to “a small bird, especially sparrow” (GL/22-23). The form bil appeared in a couple other places in the Gnomish Lexicon (GL/23, 31), but seems to represent a “root” rather than a word. Tolkien indicated bil was derived from ᴱ✶du̯il (GL/31), but the exact mechanism whereby du̯- became b- isn’t clear, but a similar change is seen in 1920s ᴱ✶du̯ag- > ᴱT. baga- “beat” and ᴱ✶tu̯ak- > ᴱQ. pak- “apply, attach” (PE14/66).
Gnomish
fileg
noun. fern
Cognates
- Eq. filqe “fern”
Derivations
- ᴱ√FILI “fine, thin”
Element in
- G. helfileg “frost on panes, etc.” ✧ GL/48
Variations
- filc ✧ GL/35
filc
noun. fern
bil
noun. bird
Changes
bil→ bilin “bird” ✧ GL/22Derivations
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴱ√bīl- > bil [βil] > [bil] ✧ GL/22 ᴱ✶du̯il > bil [dwil] > [bil] ✧ GL/31
aigli
noun. bird
Cognates
- Eq. aiwe “bird” ✧ GL/17
Derivations
- ᴱ√AYA ✧ GL/17
A noun appearing as G. fileg or filc “fern” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s (GL/35), cognate to ᴱQ. filqe “fern” under the early root ᴱ√FILI “fine, thin” (GL/35).
Neo-Sindarin: In Tolkien’s later writing, N. fileg was “small bird”, so I would adapt this Gnomish word as ᴺS. fileb “fern”, assuming a primitive form of ✱philikwe with kw becoming p (and then b) as usual for Sindarin of the 1950s and 60s. I would also assume that, like N. fileg “small bird”, the singular fileb “fern” was reconstructed based on the plural filib “ferns”.