Quenya words for "Orc" (was Re: tolkien?))

Hallo!

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:23:37 +0100,
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:

> Quoting Greg <greg.johnstons@...>:
>
> > Funny you should mention this, as I had too much caffeine last night and was
> > reading the Appendices. The Quenya word for orc is evidently "orch," which
> > uses the archaic Quenya spelling.
>
> Nope, it most certainly isn.t It's the Sindarin word for "orc", however. Pl
> _yrch_.
>
> Quenya has a couple variants; etymological _urco_, pl _urqui_, and Sindarin-
> influenced _orco_, pl _orqui_ or _orcor_. (This following the later info in
> Quendi and Eldar; back in the 30s, when the Professors was writing the
> Etymologies, _orco_ was a perfectly regular Q derivation.)
Of course, Quenya didn't have a word for "Orc" at all before the Noldor
left Aman, as there were no Orcs in Valinor.  The cognate _urco_
meant something like "nightmare" or "phantom".

Greetings,

Jörg.

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