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Select Elvish Words 3.83: Fly (n)

3.83 Fly (n)

ᴱQ. campo n. “flea”
The word ᴱQ. kampo “flea” appeared in the Early Qenya Phonology document of the 1920s, derived from primitive ᴱ✶kampu- based on the early root ᴱ√KAPA “leap”, as opposed to ᴱN. caifr, ᴱT. camparon derived from the variant primitive form ᴱ✶kamp’ru (PE14/66). A similar form ᴹQ. kamparu appeared (unglossed) in the Declension of Nouns of the early 1930s, which might be derived from the variant primitive *kamp’ru or something like it.

Neo-Quenya: For purposes of Neo-Quenya I’d stick with ᴺQ. campo “flea” because it has a clear gloss.

ᴱQ. itis n. “fly bite; *itch”
The word ᴱQ. itis “a fly bite” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root ᴱ√ITI “peck, bite (of flies), annoy” (QL/43). Tolkien first wrote this form as itis(s-) implying a stem from of itiss-, but he erased the second s and wrote “(-s)” separately, which seems to imply a stem form of itis-.

Neo-Quenya: I would adapt this word as ᴺQ. itis [þ] based on the Neo-Root ᴺ√ITITH, chosen to preserve Late Quenya s in all forms, and extend its meaning to include both “fly bite” and “*itch” based on the adjective itisin “itching”.

ᴱQ. itse n. “small fly”
The word ᴱQ. itse “a small fly” appeared in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from the early root ᴱ√ITI “peck, bite (of flies), annoy” (QL/43).

Conceptual Development: A similar (archaic) word ᴹQ. tsette “fly” appeared in notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1940s (PE22/51). This word is questionable given that while ps and ks were listed among valid initial clusters in Quenya, ts was not (PE19/38, 80).

Neo-Quenya: I would retain the Early Qenya word as ᴺQ. itsë “small fly”.

Q. pupso n. “large fly, [ᴹQ.] blow fly”
A word appearing in both the Outline of Phonetic Development (OP1) of the 1930s and the Outline of Phonology (OP1) of the 1950s as a derivative of ✶buzbō “large fly”, where the ancient pair zb was unvoiced to sp and then underwent metathesis to ps, and the initial p was the result of “assimilative unvoicing of the initial b” (PE19/48, 101). In the 1950s the Quenya form was unglossed and so presumably had a meaning similar to its ancient gloss “large fly”, but in the 1930s the Quenya form was glossed “blow-fly”.
S. budhu n. “large fly”
A Sindarin word for “large fly” appearing in the Outline of Phonology (OP1) of the 1950s as a derivative of ✶buzbō “large fly”, where the medial zb became ðv. The u at the end of this Sindarin word was then the result of the v becoming u after the final vowel o vanished.
S. cáfru n. “?flea”
An unglossed word appearing as S. cāfru in a note from around 1962 derived from primitive ✶camprû illustrating the loss of nasals before clusters.

Conceptual Development: In a post from a now-defunct forum from 2009, I saw a suggestion that this word was a later iteration of ᴱN. caifr “flea” likewise derived from primitive ᴱ✶kampru, and mentioned in both the Early Qenya Phonology and Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/140; PE14/66). It seems in the 1920s the vanishing m resulted in the diphthong ai, but in the 1920s the long vowel ā.

Neo-Sindarin: I would use the 1962 word as the basis for “flea” in Neo-Sindarin, but it is unusual in that (a) it has a long vowel before a cluster and (b) retains the ancient final vowel u. As such, I would adapt it as ᴺS. caphr, using the spelling ph rather than f to make the pronunciation clear; compare S. niphredil (LotR/350).

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