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Forum Home » Languages » Sindarin Discussion » Plural of a word ending in a vowel?
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Ireth_Telrunya
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Post Plural of a word ending in a vowel?
on: April 01, 2015 01:36
I wanted to know the Sindarin word for "pearl", which according to the dictionary on this site is "brithla". The dictionary didn't give a plural form, and the Sindarin workbooks don't cover words that end in vowels (which seems to be mainly a Quenya thing). Nor did the word show up in the irregular plurals section. I don't know whether to treat "brithla" like a word that ends in one vowel, or two, or to do something else entirely with it. Can anyone help me out with this, please?
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old. We must away ere break of day, to claim our long forgotten gold.
Galadivren
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on: April 01, 2015 06:13
That's not an attested word. I personally use aearvir for pearl 'sea jewel', but to answer your question about how to do the plurals...

There are some words (older words) in Sindarin that end in either an a or a u, and you treat them the same as any other unless they have an irregular plural (e.g. fela = cave, which takes the irregular plural Fili).
Some examples:
Haru = Wound, Hery = Wounds (a -> e nonfinal, u -> y final, normal plural mutation)
Gwî = Web, Gwî = Webs (î remains î in both final and nonfinal positions) etc.
Ireth_Telrunya
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on: April 01, 2015 09:51
Thanks very much, Galadivren! So if I wanted to use "brithla" regardless, I'd pluralize it as "brithlai"? Sounds easy enough. ^^
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old. We must away ere break of day, to claim our long forgotten gold.
Galadivren
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on: April 01, 2015 07:00
Yip, that's correct! (Assuming it's just meant to be regular, I don't know what they made it from, but I'd imagine it is).
Tyrhael
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on: April 02, 2015 07:22
Galadivren said:I don't know what they made it from

It was taken as-is from the Gnomish Lexicon.
Galadivren
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on: April 02, 2015 11:12
Ah, righty ho. Didn't think to check that, so assumed it was a Qenya/Quenya import.
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