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).