Re: Pablo is back, Job, Argentina, Relay, Lord of the Rings

Scriobh Sally Caves:

>          ...          I loved the LotR:FotR.  Legolas:
> "Crebain from Dunland!"  (It's been a while since I've
> read these books, but I know someone else speaks this);
> but doesn't this look like an "Elvish" version of L. corvinus,
> "raven"?  Or am I just fishing in the dark?  What's the
> Irish for "raven"?
"fiach dubh" /f'ax duv/ , '=palatalisation x=velar fric. voiceless.
Actually 'fiach' alone seems to mean 'raven', as in the phrase "comh
dubh leis an bhfiach" (with urú [lenition] of bh- on the initial f), =
"as black as the raven" but the 'dubh' (black) seems to be part of the
name when quoted in dictionaries etc. Similarly the blackbird is called
"lon dubh" where "lon" = "blackbird" and "dubh"="black"! The word for
"crow" is "préachán" /pr'e:axa:n/.

So not much similar to "crebain", except the second syllable of "préachán".
I'd suggest that a number of these forms - crebain, corvinus, (préaCHÁN ?),
crow, corby are slightly inspired by the sound of the bird. Though they're
all words (except crebain?) for crow rather than raven.


> Or the Norse?  What language does
> Tolkien make this word come from?
Probably as I said above slightly onomatapaeic.


> Did anybody else interpret these birds as other than
> hideous Mordorish crows?
Isengardish? ;)

Stephen Mulraney

PS. The relay game looks wonderful - All I need now is a conlang! I don't
want to rush ahead though. Just investigating other peoples', getting a
hang of some interesting grammatical ideas ('ergativity' took a bit of
work, but came in a flash!).

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