Re: tolkien?

Quoting michael poxon <m.poxon@...>:

> Hmm, not sure about that, since S "Yrch" looks uncannily like umlauting (or
> i-affection, take your pick) from an ancestral *uruki (plural) or something
> similar. Words of this type (not just in elvish!) have a propensity for
> losing interconsonantal vowels and then de-leniting the stop, so uruki -
> urki - /urxi/ - yrch! Which always sounds to me like an expression of
> disgust. Maybe the origin of "Yukkkh!!" :-)
Tolkien provided a few different etymologies for the Elvish words for "orc",
but according to the scenario set out in Quendi and Eldar, S _orch_ is from
_urkô_ or _urkâ_. The pl would then descend from _urki_<_urkai_/_urkoi_. The
route from _urki_ to _yrch_ is pretty straightforward, methinks.

There's said to be a little-used variant _urug_ "bogey" <_urukV_; the pl of
this would be _yryg_<_uruki_.

                                                            Andreas