qelet

noun. corpse

A noun for “corpse” in The Etymologies written around 1937 derived from primitive ᴹ✶kwelett- under the root ᴹ√KWEL “fade (away)” (Ety/KWEL). It had a plural form qeletsi indicating a stem form of qelets-, but that is inconsistent with its attested primitive form; its plural may instead be a conceptual remnant of the Early Qenya sound change whereby [[eq|[ti] became [tsi]]] (PE12/23).

Conceptual Development: ᴱQ. qelet “corpse” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s under the early root ᴱ√QELE “perish, die, decay, fade”, but there its stem form was qelekt- (QL/76). ᴹQ. qelet “corpse” reappeared in the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, but there its stem form seems to be qelet- (PE21/33, 35). Its early 1930s nominative plural qeletsin also shows ti > tsi (PE21/35).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya, I’d assume a stem form quelett- (and plural queletti) consistent with its primitive form. If the stem form was quelets-, then the uninflected form would be ✱✱queles, since final -ts became -s (PE19/104).

Derivations

• ᴹ✶kwelett- “corpse” ✧ Ety/KWEL
  • ᴹ√KWEL “fade (away), die away, grow faint; wither” ✧ Ety/KWEL
  • ᴹ√KEL “flow, flow away (downhill), run (of water or rivers), run away especially downwards or at end” ✧ Ety/KEL

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
ᴹ✶kwelett- > qelet	[kwelette] > [kwelett] > [kwelet]	✧ Ety/KWEL