Another word analysis, this time on a cluster of related roots: DAL and LAD, TAL and LAT.

TALA appears in the Quenya Lexicon as the basis for “foot” and remains so throughout all of Tolkien’s writings. In QL it is glossed “support” (QL/88), and based on its Gnomish derivatives, Roman Rausch suggested it might be blended with another root DALA, since in Early Quenya initial [d] became [t] instead of [l] (HPG/§2.1). By the time of the Etymologies, however, it is glossed “foot” and is associated primarily with that sense; the extended root TALAM is glossed “floor, base, ground” (Ety/TAL, TALAM). The sense “foot” seems to be its primary sense in later writings as well (PE21/70).

The first precursor to LAD is the early root LAŘA (actually LAÐA), which was unglossed but seems to have the sense “*broad, wide” (QL/51). It’s Gnomish derivative G. land retains that sense through both Noldorin and Sindarin, though its form shifts from G. land >> N. lhann >> S. land/lann (GL/52, PE13/148, Ety/LAD, PE17/144). However, in writings from the 1940s is LAD was glossed “lie flat, be flat” (PE22/126), and in the Etymologies, DAL “flat” is given as a variant of LAD (Ety/DAL). In Tolkien’s later writings, LAD appears again as a (Quenya only) variant of DAL, this time with the gloss “bottom, ground” (PE17/150). Its attested derivatives all have something to do with “wideness” or “flatness”.

The root LATA also appears in the QL lexicon, unglossed but with derivatives having to do with “level” or “smooth” (QL/51). In the Etymologies LAT is glossed “lie open” (Ety/LAT) and in this period is said to be related to or confused with the root LAD (Ety/LAT, PE22/126). In Tolkien’s later writings LAT is variously glossed as “open, unenclosed, free to entry” (PE17/159) or “low, at ground level” (VT48/30), but all of its later attested derivatives have more to do with “openness” than “lowness”.

The root DAL appears clearly for the first time in the Etymologies with the gloss “flat” (Ety/DAL) though as noted above, DALA might have been blended with TALA in QL. DAL has three Noldorin derivatives: dalath “plain”, dalf “palm” and dalw “flat”; it has a single Qenya derivative lára “flat”, though Tolkien states this could be derived instead from *lāda < LAD (Ety/DAL). This root gets a single mention in Tolkien’s later writing with the gloss “bottom, ground” beside its (Quenya only) variant of LAD, as mentioned above (PE17/150). In this note, Tolkien considers revising dalath “plain” >> dalad.

Ultimately, however, Tolkien went on to revise dalath >> talath as in the name Talath Dirnen “Guarded Plain” (S/168). Based on this change, some Sindarists have gone so far as to assume DAL > TAL generally, and in Didier Willis’s Sindarin dictionary, there are proposed neologisms talf and talu as replacements for N. dalf and dalw, and similarly in David Salo’s A Gateway to Sindarin (GS/287). This may or may not be true, but it might be better to replace N. dalf with attested S. plâd “palm” (VT47/9) and N. dalw “flat” with laden which was glossed “flat (and wide)” in the 1940s (PE22/126).

With these changes, I think it is safe to assume DAL “flat” can be abandoned, but LAD “flat” can remain with all its derivatives from the Etymologies. It’s probably best to assume LAT means “open” rather than “low”. TAL probably principally remains “foot” but with some sense of “flatness” or “lowness” as reflected in S. talath plain and the extended root TALAM.

As a side issue, in one late note LAT is given as a variant of DAT “fall” (VT47/29) which might be a transient reversion to the early root LANTAN/LṆTṆ (QL/51). Elsewhere Tolkien pretty consistently uses the root DAT/DANTA for “fall” (Ety/DAT, VT48/24, PE17/62), but the variant LAT might help explain the root TALAT “slip down” and S. lanthir “waterfall” (PM/349).