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Originally Posted by Huinesoron
Well, we do use what we're used to. I think Maedhros would be quite put out at being referred to as a vassal-lord, but that doesn't mean a Beoring wouldn't do it.
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That's the thing though - "knyaz" doesn't have to be a vassal-lord, he
can be an independent ruler in his own right. Could technically be a landless ruler too, a chieftain, especially if said in the diminutive. The whole lot of them could be knyaz. But they can't all be thanes. So Maedhros will stick to being a lord, I think.
(Knyaz is just a very difficult word, but "thane" is an absolutely inspired suggestion for the bulk of its meaning)
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Originally Posted by Hui
(It is possible that I choose my words based entirely on what would wind House Feanor up the most.)
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You and Beren have that in common.
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Originally Posted by Hui
No need to invent diminutives when you can just find another language and mug it for vocab!
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Lol. I mean, a mishmash of stolen vocab is both English's beauty and its downfall.
My most recent language discovery is actually in relation to "happy", and happened (pun totally intended) because of the French Red and Black. I remember putting "malheur" there for "misfortune" or something similar, and it got me thinking, and that got me searching, and I discovered a three-language correlation between positive emotions and luck. ^.^ Because in French, the words malheur (misfortune), bonheur (wellbeing, happiness), and the adjectives hereux (happy) and malhereux (unhappy) all come from "heur", an obsolete word meaning something like "chance, luck, fortune". And what do you know? In English, if you happen (=chance) to be happy (=lucky), your hap (=luck) probably works in your favour, you just always hap (=have the fortune) to choose right. And if you are unhappy (=unlucky), you probably ran into a lot of mishaps (=misfortune, mischance) - and if it's real bad, you might be right hapless (=unfortunate). There is a similar pattern in Russian that I will not go into in detail, but there too the words for "happy things" and "lucky things" come from the same word family. I am slightly too happy to have happened upon this! It's something I obviously knew already but haven't consciously thought of before, and this is a delightful word family to have discovered - and rather large for English too! Which begs a slightly philosophical question. From the perspective of language development, at least for English, a lucky man is a happy man; but may it also be that a happy man is a lucky man?
And with that somewhat removed thought to chew on, I shall return to the business of notes and words... Thank you for all your comments and suggestions and detailed editing!!!