Re: tolkien?

michael poxon scripsit:
> 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.
Indeed it is.  But in Sindarin, i-affection has become the standard way
of making plurals, and it is applied by analogy in many cases even where
etymology would dictate otherwise.  In particular, the synchronic plural
of words with o in the final syllable replaces the o with y:  orch/yrch
'Orc(s)', amon/emyn 'mountain(s)', e.g.  I-affection is carried through
all the syllables, but the rules are different in final and non-final
syllables, as might be expected: the pl. of Golodh 'Noldo, a member of
the Second Kindred of the Elves' is Gelydh, not *Gylydh (which would be
the plural of *Guludh or *Gulodh).

For details, see http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/sindarin.htm#vow-o .

--
It was dreary and wearisome.  Cold clammy winter still held way in this
forsaken country.  The only green was the scum of livid weed on the dark
greasy surfaces of the sullen waters.  Dead grasses and rotting reeds loomed
up in the mists like ragged shadows of long-forgotten summers.
        --"The Passage of the Marshes"          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

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