In his article Probable errors in the Etymologies, Helge Fauskanger lists orchel as a misreading, following Christopher Tolkien's note admitting that the e is uncertain. However, though orchal is attested in WJ/305, it does not necessarily mean that the form orchel is incorrect. It might be constructed by analogy with words such as hathol "axe" (from WJ/234 and the name of a Númenórean, Hatholdir, UT:444), which is also found as hathal (in Hathaldir, name of a companion of Barahir, LR/433, untranslated but conceivably cognate) and hathel (LR/389). Without entering into the details, such words end with a syllabic consonant (as in English "people"), and several vocalizations are apparently possible in Sindarin. The epenthetical vowel is generally o, but it seems that a or e are also allowed. Regarding orchal, its origin is of course different, as it is a compound word where the second element clearly derives from KHAL, but it may have been assimilated, later, to this class of words by analogy. We may therefore consider that orchel is a perfectly valid dialectal variant
Quenya
orohalla
adjective. superior
Cognates
- On. orkhalla “superior”
Elements
Word Gloss halla “tall”
In his article Probable errors in the Etymologies, Helge Fauskanger lists orchel as a misreading, following Christopher Tolkien's note admitting that the e is uncertain. However, though orchal is attested in WJ/305, it does not necessarily mean that the form orchel is incorrect. It might be constructed by analogy with words such as hathol "axe" (from WJ/234 and the name of a Númenórean, Hatholdir, UT:444), which is also found as hathal (in Hathaldir, name of a companion of Barahir, LR/433, untranslated but conceivably cognate) and hathel (LR/389). Without entering into the details, such words end with a syllabic consonant (as in English "people"), and several vocalizations are apparently possible in Sindarin. The epenthetical vowel is generally o, but it seems that a or e are also allowed. Regarding orchal, its origin is of course different, as it is a compound word where the second element clearly derives from KHAL, but it may have been assimilated, later, to this class of words by analogy. We may therefore consider that orchel is a perfectly valid dialectal variant