Post JGkYsAQjt9T

Hjalmar Holm Feb 14, 2015 (01:47)

I found the S reconstruction pess for feather (either on a bird or on a arrow or as a primitive pen, I guess). I think it's from the Q quesse. Does it look solid? Can it be added to VQP and safely used?

Tamas Ferencz Feb 14, 2015 (09:56)

The qu > p correspondence is well established (cf. Q quet S ped for instance), so I would say yes

Александр Запрягаев Feb 14, 2015 (09:57)

Seems OK. But the Q. word is from the Etymologies; if we are to believe that the absence of corresponding word in Noldorin means its absence — then no? The Ilkorin cognate cwess is glossed "down", possibly Sindarin would give the same meaning shift, especially having the derived pesseg "pillow"…

Tamas Ferencz Feb 14, 2015 (10:47)

I don't think feather > down is such a significant semantic shift that we could not imagine the S cognate to have the meaning "feather" (and "down")

Paul Strack Feb 15, 2015 (00:29)

There is also G. pecthon “plume, feather” from the Gnomish Lexicon (GL/63). The word is still phonetically possible in Sindarin: cth in S. Belecthor.

Jenna Carpenter Feb 16, 2015 (15:08)

scratches head I don't see there is a difference in meaning, you say 'down' you mean 'a small feather (from the underside of a bird)' but people just hear 'feather' (with the probable premodifier of 'soft' or 'small'). I also wouldn't ever use it to mean a quill (which is what I assume you mean by 'primitive pen') given we have tegil/tegol.

In answer to the question as I've reconstructed this myself as pess from quesse, yes I would use it as a later Sindarin word. If I were after an earlier Doriathrin word I'd probably go down the aforementioned G. route, but my focus is always later Sindarin.

Hjalmar Holm Feb 18, 2015 (15:23)

Thank you very much! I will use pess as feather, but keep using tegil as pen.