ᴹQ. mál n. “grit” (Category: Sand, Grit)
A word in Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s glossed “grit” with various forms representing the inflections of nouns with lost ancient vowels: malǝ- (PE21/19, 24). It may be a later iteration of ᴱQ. mar (mard-) “grit, course grain or powder” from the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s, a derivative of the root ᴱ√MṚŘṚ [MṚÐṚ] “grind” (QL/63). Later still Tolkien gave the primitive form ✶smalŭ with the gloss “dust, grit” in Common Eldarin: Noun Structure (EVS2) from the early 1950s, though this primitive form had no derivatives.
Neo-Eldarin: For purposes of Neo-Eldarin, I prefer to use ᴹ✶smalu with its 1930s sense “pollen, yellow powder”, as this form has derivatives in The Etymologies (Ety/SMAL), and its root meaning ᴹ√SMAL “yellow” is a better match to the later root √MAL “yellow, gold”. I think it is possible to retain ᴹQ. mál “grit”, however, by assuming that it is a derivative of ᴹ√MBAL “*pound”, which is a better match with 1910s ᴱQ. mar < ᴱ√MṚÐṚ “grind”.
References ✧ PE21/19, 24
Glosses
Variations
Related
Inflections
†mallo | ablative; assimilated | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malullo | ablative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
†mallon | ablative plural | ✧ PE21/24 | |
mala | accusative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
†malta | allative; assimilated | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malunta | allative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
†maltan | allative plural | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malen | dative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malo | genitive | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malanen | instrumental | ✧ PE21/24 | |
†malmen | instrumental | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malumet | instrumental dual | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malesse | locative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
mál | nominative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malin | nominative plural | ✧ PE21/24 | |
†mallin | nominative plural | ✧ PE21/24 | |
maluva | possessive | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malanon | similative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
†maldon | similative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malundon | similative | ✧ PE21/24 | |
mal- | stem | ✧ PE21/24 | |
malǝ- | stem | “grit” | ✧ PE21/19 |
ᴱQ. mar⁴ (mard-) n. “grit, coarse grain or powder” (Category: Sand, Grit)
References ✧ QL/63
Glosses
Variations
Inflections
mard- | stem | ✧ QL/63 |
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
ᴱ√MṚŘṚ > mar | [mṛð] > [marð] > [mard] > [mar] | ✧ QL/63 |