tancal

noun. clasp

clasp, brooch

tancala

noun. clasp

clasp, brooch

tancal(a)

noun. brooch, clasp, brooch, clasp, [ᴹQ.] fastener, pin

A word appearing as Q. {tankil >>} tankal or tankala “clasp, brooch” in the second version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ2) from around 1950, derived from primitive ✶tankḷ or ✶tanklā respectively (PE18/100). Q. tañkal “brooch” also appeared in the contemporaneous Outline of Phonology (OP2) with a similar derivation (PE19/83). This word reflected Tolkien’s vision of the phonetic development of syllabic final ḷ in the 1950s and 60s, where syllabic ḷ developed a vowel of the same character as the preceding vowel, producing -al in this case.

Conceptual Development: The deleted form {tankil} from TQ2 hints at earlier developments for syllabic ḷ. The Etymologies of the 1930s had ᴹQ. tankil derived from ᴹ✶tankla “pin, brooch” under the root ᴹ√TAK “fix, make fast” (Ety/TAK). The first version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa (TQ1) from the 1930s instead had tankala “clasp, brooch”, but with tankil, tankḷ added in pencil (PE18/51 and note #51). The original layer of composition from the contemporaneous Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) had tankila from ᴹ✶tanklā “fastener, brooch” with a variant tantya, but the primitive form was updated to ᴹ✶tanklă and the Quenya form to tañkal (PE19/40 and note #72). Thus the tankil forms reflects Tolkien’s original 1930s notion of the syllabification of ḷ to il (PE19/40 note #66), updated at some point to instead produce -al.

The Qenya Lexicon and Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa of the 1910s had an entirely unrelated form ᴱQ. pieksin for “brooch”, an elaboration of ᴱQ. piek “pin” (QL/73; PME/73).

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I would use tancal only for a decorative brooch, and for “hasp, clasp” in clothing I would use [ᴹQ.] tangwa.

Cognates

• S. tachol “clasp, brooch, brooch, clasp, [N.] pin” ✧ PE18/100
• T. tancula “clasp, brooch” ✧ PE18/100

Derivations

• ✶tankla “brooch, clasp, fastener, pin” ✧ PE18/100; PE18/100; PE19/083
  • √TAK “fasten, fix, fasten, fix, [ᴹ√] make fast; [ᴱ√] stick (in), firm; [ᴹ√] make” ✧ PE18/100; PE19/083

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶tankḷ > tancal	[taŋkl] > [taŋkal]	✧ PE18/100
✶tanklā > tancala	[taŋklā] > [taŋkalā] > [taŋkala]	✧ PE18/100
✶tanklă > tañkal	[taŋkla] > [taŋkl] > [taŋkal]	✧ PE19/083

Variations

• tancal ✧ PE18/100
• tancala ✧ PE18/100
• tañkal ✧ PE19/083