A Doriathrin noun for “silver light, starlight”, also given as istel, which developed from the root ᴹ√SIL (Ety/SIL). Tolkien said that it was probably originally a (ancient?) Quenya word learned from Melian. This apparently this means its development was unusual. Along with the identical Istil “Moon”, it is the only Ilkorin noun with a medial [st]. Helge Fauskanger suggested it must have developed by a strengthening of [s] to [st]. It may also be another example of a development from syllabic [ṣ], though elsewhere [[ilk|initial [s] became [es] before voiceless stops]].
Doriathrin
istil
noun. Moon
Cognates
- ᴹQ. Isil “Moon, (lit.) Sheen” ✧ Ety/I²
Derivations
- ᴹ✶Ithil “moon” ✧ Ety/I²
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ✶ITHIL > Istil [itʰil] > [istil] ✧ Ety/I²
istil
noun. silver light, starlight
Cognates
- ᴹQ. silme “moonlight, light of Silpion, †silver” ✧ Ety/SIL
Derivations
- ᴹ√SIL “shine silver” ✧ Ety/SIL
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ√SIL > istel/istil [isil] > [istil] ✧ Ety/SIL Variations
- istel/istil ✧ Ety/SIL (Dor. istel/istil)
The Doriathrin word for the “Moon” developed from the primitive name ᴹ✶Ithil (Ety/I²), though it is unclear how the [st] developed. Perhap it was of the same origin as istil “silver light, starlight” (Ety/SIL).