(?i thlaw or ?i law).
Sindarin
lhaw
noun. ears (referring to one person's pair of ears only)
lhaw
noun. ears (of one person)
Element in
- S. lheweg “ear”
lheweg
noun. ear
Cognates
- Q. hlas “ear” ✧ PE17/062; PE17/062; PE17/077
Derivations
- √SLAS “ear” ✧ PE17/062
Element in
Elements
Word Gloss lhaw “ears (of one person)” -eg “diminutive/singular ending” Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources √S-LAS > lhaw [slasū] > [slasu] > [l̥asu] > [l̥ahu] > [l̥au] ✧ PE17/062
lhaw
ears
lhaw
ears
(pair of ears): lhaw (?i thlaw or ?i law).
lhewig
ear
lhewig (?i thlewig or ?i lewig the lenition product of lh is uncertain). This ia a singular formed from the collective
lhewig
ear
(?i thlewig or ?i lewig – the lenition product of lh is uncertain). This ia a singular formed from the collective
The Sindarin word for “ear” was derived from primitive √S-LAS, an elaboration of √LAS “listen” (PE17/62). Its singular form lheweg is somewhat unusual. Based on its Quenya cognate Q. hlas (< ✶slas), its historical singular should probably be ✱lhâ. However, it seems the modern Sindarin form was actually based on the (fossilized) dual lhaw < ✶slasū, from which a singular form lheweg “ear” was derived using the singular suffix -eg, though it isn’t clear why the base vowel also changed from a to e.
Conceptual Development: Tolkien described a similar scenario in The Etymologies of the 1930s, except the singular was N. {lhaweg >>} lhewig and it was derived directly from ᴹ√LAS “listen” (Ety/LAS²; EtyAC/LAS²). The voiceless lh- in this word was the result of the Noldorin sound-change of the 1930s whereby ancient initial r-, l- were unvoiced. This Noldorin dual lhaw made it into Lord of the Rings drafts as part of Amon Lhaw “Hill of Hearing, (lit.) of Ears” (TI/364), a form that Tolkien retained in the published version (LotR/393). Since the unvoicing of initial l was no longer a feature of Sindarin of the 1950s and 60s, Tolkien needed to contrive a new derivation from primitive √S-LAS.
The Gnomish word for “ear” from the 1910s had a completely different basis: it was G. unc “ear, handle (of a jar)” (GL/75), cognate to ᴱQ. unk derived from the root ᴱ√ṆQṆ (QL/98).