View Single Post
Old 04-22-2008, 09:27 AM   #33
Bęthberry
Cryptic Aura
 
Bęthberry's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 6,003
Bęthberry is wading through snowdrifts on Redhorn.Bęthberry is wading through snowdrifts on Redhorn.Bęthberry is wading through snowdrifts on Redhorn.Bęthberry is wading through snowdrifts on Redhorn.
Tolkien on the tip of a tongue

Quote:
Originally Posted by Formendacil View Post
Rohirrim is Sindarin, and is the plural of "rohir", or "knight". It does not function as an adjective, and so another term is required to modify nouns so as to make them more "Rohanian". "Rohirric", in my opinion, in the most Tolkien-like option.
You are absolutely correct that Rohirrim is of course a substantive, but all grammars leak and some require a bit more bailing than others. When Gandalf says of the People of The Mark, "the Rohirrim, the Horse-lords, do not sleep," is he being descriptive or derivative?

As for this Quenyan/Sindarin thing, would it be a tad too post-modern to suggest that a possible course would be to import the most common name into all the languages? Yes, I know this flies in the face of Tolkien's delight in many-named things, but such a habit has an etymological pedigree. After all, the English language gobbled up many a word from other languages and did English them and in doing so could overlook inflection. And while English took Eskimo from French and Spanish, at least in official Canadian English that word is now eschewed in favour of the Native People's own word for themselves, Inuit. Other countries may, however, lag behind in this recognition. We could perhaps go with Markist I suppose or Markic or even Riddermarket.

Or would that be Eorlingian?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Morthoron
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bęthberry
And what is wrong with Rohirrim?
Nothing at all. Why do you ask?
You could say I delight in stirring the melting pot of language.
__________________
I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away.

Last edited by Bęthberry; 04-22-2008 at 02:28 PM.
Bęthberry is offline   Reply With Quote