Primitive elvish

kit

root. *small

Tolkien gave the roots √KIN and √KIT with the gloss “small” in Notes on Names (NN) from 1957; given Sindarin derivative S. cidinn, √KIT is the likelier of the two possibilities (PE17/157).

Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I recommend against using the Quenya derivative of this root, as there are other better-known Quenya words for “small”. In Sindarin, however, we have fewer options, and I think it is worth retaining this root for that branch of the Eldarin languages.

Derivatives

  • Q. cinta “small” ✧ PE17/157
  • S. cidinn “[unglossed]” ✧ PE17/157
  • S. cinnog “[unglossed]” ✧ PE17/157

Variations

  • KIN ✧ PE17/157
Primitive elvish [PE17/157] Group: Eldamo. Published by

kin

root. *small

kit

root. *tickle

Derivatives

  • ᴺQ. citya- “to tickle”
  • ᴺS. tisg “ticklish”

Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Early Primitive Elvish

kiti

root. *tickle

An unglossed root in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s whose derivatives had to do with tickling such ᴱQ. kitya- “tickle” and ᴱQ. kityalea “ticklish, susceptible, sensitive” (QL/47). The contemporaneous Gnomish Lexicon contained a couple of possible Gnomish cognates: G. tisc “ticklish” and G. tisca- “tickle” (GL/70). This kind of k/t variation is seen in a few other early Qenya and Gnomish forms, such as ᴱQ. talqe “glass” vs. G. celc (QL/88; GL/25) and probably represents variant roots in ancient Elvish.

I think it is worth preserving this root for purposes of Neo-Eldarin, but the only way I see to preserve a similar k/t variation in the phonetic systems of later Quenya and Sindarin is to posit a root inversion to √TIK in the Sindarin branch, as in the inversion of the CE root √LED’s to √DEL in Quenya (WJ/363).

Derivatives

  • Eq. kitya- “to tickle” ✧ QL/047
  • G. tisc “ticklish”
Early Primitive Elvish [QL/047] Group: Eldamo. Published by

piki

root. *small

Early Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

root. *small

Early Primitive Elvish Group: Eldamo. Published by

pini

root. *small

Derivatives

  • Eq. -pin(ke) “diminutive” ✧ QL/073
  • Eq. “speck, spot, dot, mote” ✧ QL/073
  • Eq. pin “little thing, mite” ✧ QL/073
  • Eq. pinilya “small”
  • Eq. pinqe “slender, thin” ✧ QL/073
  • G. pim “bead, any small round thing, seed”
  • G. “anything very small, a bit, mote”
  • G. pibin “small berry, haw”
  • G. pinig “tiny, little”

Element in

  • Eq. kampin “hips, (wild-rose) berries”

Variations

  • PIKI ✧ QL/073
  • ✧ QL/073
Early Primitive Elvish [QL/073; QL/074] Group: Eldamo. Published by