S. cáfru n. “?flea” (Category: Fly (n))
An unglossed word appearing as S. cāfru in a note from around 1962 derived from primitive (or Old Sindarin) ✶camprû illustrating the loss of nasals before clusters.
Conceptual Development: In a post from a now-defunct forum from 2009, I saw a suggestion that this word was a later iteration of ᴱN. caifr “flea” likewise derived from primitive ᴱ✶kampru, and mentioned in both the Early Qenya Phonology and Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s (PE13/140; PE14/66). It seems in the 1920s the vanishing m resulted in the diphthong ai, but in the 1920s the long vowel ā.
Neo-Sindarin: I would use the 1962 word as the basis for “flea” in Neo-Sindarin, but it is unusual in that (a) it has a long vowel before a cluster and (b) retains the ancient final vowel u. As such, I would assume the ā shortened and the u vanished, and adapt this word as ᴺS. cafor, with the final r becoming syllabic as usual.
Reference ✧ PE17/131 ✧ cāfru
Cognates
Derivations
Phonetic Developments
| ✶camprû > camfrū > cāfru | [kamprū] > [kampru] > [kampʰru] > [kamɸru] > [kamfru] > [kafru] | ✧ PE17/131 |