Noldorin
ul-
prefix. *ugly
Derivations
- ᴹ√ULUG “*hideous, deformed” ✧ Ety/ÚLUG
Element in
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ√ÚLGU > Ul- [ulg-] > [ulɣ-] > [ul-] ✧ Ety/ÚLUG Variations
- Ul- ✧ Ety/ÚLUG
eil-
verb. to rain
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
Development Stages Sources ᴹ✶ulyā > œil > eil [uljā] > [ulja] > [olja] > [olia] > [œlia] > [œli] > [œil] > [eil] ✧ Ety/ULU Variations
- eil ✧ Ety/ULU
- oeil ✧ EtyAC/ULU
An impersonal verb appearing as N. eil “it is raining” in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from primitive ᴹ✶ulyā- (> œil > eil) under the root ᴹ√ULU “pour, flow” (Ety/ULU; EtyAC/ULU). This verb is abnormal in that its final a disappeared rather than surviving as it usually did for derived verbs, giving eil rather than ✱elia-, ✱eilia- or ✱eila-. However, as an impersonal verb there would never be any pronominal suffix to help preserve the final a by analogy, which probably explains the vowel loss.
Conceptual Development: The verb for “rain” in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s was G. ubra-, probably related to G. ub “wet, moist, damp” (GL/74).
Neo-Sindarin: In Sindarin, the likely developments of primitive ✶ulyā would be to ✱oly(a) > ᴺS. uil “it rains”; I believe this form was first suggested by Helge Fauskanger in his Parviphith Edhellen wordlist. Compare ᴺS. uil to: S. ruin “fiery red” < (perhaps) ✱runyā and S. fuir “north” < (perhaps) ✱phoryā, and see the entry on how [[s|[œi] became [ui] or [y]]] for further discussion. Any inflected forms would probably restore the stem, such as (hypothetical) intransitive past and future forms ✱eilias “it rained” and ✱eiliatha “it will rain”).