Middle Primitive Elvish
syal
root. *resound
syalmā
noun. shell, conch, horn of Ulmo
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!
An unglossed root in The Etymologies of the 1930s with derivatives ᴹQ. hyalma “shell, conch, horn of Ulmo” and N. half “seashell” (Ety/SYAL). The verbs ᴱQ. hyal- “ring, resound” and ᴱQ. hyalta- “strike, make ring” from Early Qenya Word-lists of the 1920s might be related. If so, the meaning of the root may be “✱resound”, and the shell-words might have originally meant “✱a resounding thing” based on the noise they made from blowing through them.