Thread: Name Changes?
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Old 11-07-2003, 11:41 AM   #9
Aiwendil
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Of course we could just say that -ros had two unconnected meanings, regardless of whether or not this makes any sense, claim as is said in 'Of Dwarves and Men' and 'Rivers and Beacon Hills of Gondor' that the rendering of the names within Gondor was inncaurate because of the inadequate knowledge of Sindarin of the people who named the places in Gondor and so and so keep -ros as a word for the colour red, and -ros also as a Bëorian word for spray/spindrift.
You seem to be assuming (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that if "ros" has two distinct meanings, then one must be from Beorian and one from Sindarin.

But prior to the writing of "The Problem of Ros", it had two distinct meanings, both in Sindarin; and in fact these two senses, according to the Etymologies, are from different stems. One is ROS- and the other RUS-. In fact, Etymologies even has some instances of the same stem bearing two distinct meanings; there is, for example, another ROS- meaning "plain".

So what I had been assuming, in light of the rejection of the revised "Ros" idea, is that we would return to the situation where ROS- refers to "spray/spindrift" and RUS- to "reddish-brown, copper". In this case, "Maedhros", "Russandol", "Ambarussa", and so on, can all be retained alongside "Cair Andros", "Elros", etc.

The other option is to eliminate the RUS- stem and leave ROS- as it is. But it is perhaps significant that this solution (which would seem the simplest) was never proposed by Tolkien. It would also leave us in a difficult spot with regard to other names and words derived from RUS-. For "Maedhros" we have a possible replacement, but not for "Russandol", "Ambarussa", or anything else.

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As am I. It would be helpful if a language expert interjected, or anyone from this forum, it would be nice for other opinions, beside mine and yours.
Alas that Jallanite lost interest in the project!

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No one really called him A/Umbarto. They called each other Ambarussa, and everyone else called them Minyarussa and Atyarussa. Fëanor of course would have adress them by their father names.
I think it's possible that he was referred to by his mother-name sometimes in Valinor. Would not Nerdanel have called him by it? Also, it seems unlikely that the sons of Feanor would Sindarize their mother-names rather than their father-names if the former had never been used.
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