Eldamo : Sindarin : bâr

S. bâr [mb-] n. “house, dwelling, home” (Category: Home)

S. bâr [mb-], n. “house, dwelling, home; ⚠️[N.] earth” (Category: Home): G. gwast “dwelling”; G. ind “house, abode”; G. rû¹ “dwelling, house”; G. -vran “dwelling”

The basic Sindarin word for “house, dwelling” derived from the root √MBAR “settle, dwell” (PE17/109; PE17/164). This Sindarin word (unlike its Quenya counterpart már) can also be used to refer to the “house” of a clan or family, as in Bar Bëora “House of Bëor” (WJ/230) and Narn e·mbar Hador “*Tale of the House of Hador” (MR/373). It could also mean “-home (for a people)” in compound names for regions as in Eglamar “Home of the Eglain” and Brithombar (WJ/379; S/120), but it seems this use was archaic and in more recent names the trend was to use dôr “land” (PE17/164).

This word appears as both bâr with long â and bar with short a. As a general rule, it has a long â when used as an independent word, following the general Sindarin principle whereby short vowels (usually) lengthened in monosyllables. It has a short vowel when appearing in compounds or as a “pseudo-prefix” in names like Bar-en-Danwedh “House of Ransom” (S/203).

Conceptual Development: This word dates all the way back to the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s, where (adverbial?) G. bar appeared as a variant of G. barthi or barai “at home, home” (GL/21). In the Gnomish Lexicon its noun form seems to be G. bara “home” (GL/21), but in the contemporaneous Gnomish Grammar it was bar “home” (GG/8). These Gnomish words were all derived from the early root ᴱ√MBARA “dwell, live” (QL/63).

In Gnomish Lexicon slips, Tolkien modified the word to G. bawr “house” derived from primitive ᴱ✶mbāră (PE13/116). In the Name-list to the Fall of Gondolin Tolkien had G. bar “dwelling” (PE15/21). In the Early Noldorin Grammar of the 1920s it was ᴱN. bâr “house”, though a change in its mutated form {i·bhar >>} i·mâr indicates some vacillation on its primitive form (PE13/120 and note #2). In Early Noldorin word-lists of this period it was bar “house” (PE13/138).

In The Etymologies of the 1930s it was N. bár “home” written in the margin next to the root ᴹ√MBAR “dwell, inhabit” (EtyAC/MBAR), but it also meant “Earth” in the name N. Barthan “Earth-smith” (Ety/TAN). In later notes (date unknown) this name was S. Barthan “World-artificer” (LT1A/Talka Marda). In notes on The Feanorian Alphabet from the 1930s it was †băr “home”, which became bār after vowels lengthened in monosyllables (PE22/36).

In notes from the 1960s, Tolkien described this word in some detail, first saying:

In Sindarin bar [< *mbăr-] (pl. bair) was used for a single house or dwelling, especially of the larger and more permanent sort; barð [< *mbardā̆] was much as English “home”, the (proper) place for one (or a community) to dwell in (PE17/164).

Here it seems bar = “house, dwelling” but bardh = “home”. However, in a later iteration of these notes Tolkien said:

There were thus tendencies both (a) for Noldorin terms for things peculiar to their culture to be translated into Sindarin forms or imitated ... Examples ... were (a) the use of Sindarin bâr (< *mbăr(a)) for “house” a settled built dwelling of a family, larger or smaller: in true Sindarin use it only denoted a small area in which some group had at last settled more or less permanently (PE17/164).

This was revised slightly to read:

There was thus a tendency: (a) for Noldorin words and terms for things peculiar to their culture to be translated into Sindarin, or imitated ... Examples of these processes are: (a) the use of Sindarin bâr (< *mbăr(a)) for “house”: the permanent building serving as the home of a family, larger or smaller, though in genuine older Sindarin use this word referred to a (small) area, in which some group had at last settled, more or less permanently (PE17/164).

Both these later paragraph imply that the original sense of Sindarin bâr was something like “*settlement (of a group or community)” but came to mean “house, dwelling” under the influence of Quenya már.

Of its uses in compounds Tolkien said:

This was also in old compounds used (like Q -mar) for a region, but not in ordinary language ... Only in old names was -bar used like Q -mar for a region inhabited by a people. For this Sindarin used usually -dor (< ndor) “land” (PE17/165).

References ✧ AotM/62; MR/373; PE17/97, 109, 163-164; S/203; SA/bar; SD/129; UT/40, 54, 100; WJ/379, 414, 418

Glosses

“a house” ✧ PE17/164 (bar)
“a single house or dwelling” ✧ PE17/164 (bar)
“dwelling” ✧ SA/bar (bar); WJ/414 (Bar)
“Home” ✧ WJ/379 (Bar)
“house” ✧ S/203 (Bar); PE17/163 (bar)
“house, home” ✧ PE17/109; PE17/109

Variations

bâr ✧ PE17/109; PE17/109
bar ✧ PE17/164; PE17/164; S/203; SA/bar; UT/100; WJ/379; WJ/414; WJ/418; PE17/163 (bar)

†-bar [versus the normal word for regions, for which] Sindarin usually used -dor “land” ✧ PE17/164

Changes

Bair >> Mbair ✧ AotM/62

Inflections

mbar	mixed-mutation; mb-mutation		✧ MR/373
mbar	mixed-mutation; mb-mutation	“home”	✧ UT/40; UT/54
Mbair	nasal-mutation plural; mb-mutation	“lands”	✧ SD/129
m(b)air	nasal-mutation plural; mb-mutation	“houses”	✧ PE17/97
Bair	plural	“lands”	✧ AotM/62
bair	plural		✧ PE17/164
Mbair	soft-mutation plural; mb-mutation	“lands”	✧ AotM/62
†-bar	suffix		✧ PE17/164

Element In

ᴺS. !aemar “rookery, colony of birds”
ᴺS. !thorombar “eagle’s nest, eyrie”
S. alae! ered en Echoriath, ered e·mbar nín “[?behold!] the mountains of Echoriath, the mountains of my home!” ✧ UT/40; UT/54
S. aran Gondor ar Arnor ar Hîr i Mbair Annui “king of Gondor and Arnor and Lord of the Westlands” ✧ AotM/62; SD/128
S. Baravorn “Hamfast”
S. Bar Bëora “House of Bëor”
S. Bar-en-Danwedh “House of Ransom” ✧ S/203; SA/bar
S. Bar Erib “*House of the Lonely Ones”
S. Bar Haleth
S. Barthan “World-artificer”
S. Brithombar “*Brithon Home” ✧ SA/bar
S. Dimbar “*Sad Home” ✧ SA/bar
S. Edelbar “*Elf-home”
S. Eglamar “Home of the Eglain”
S. Ogolmar
S. Othramar “?Stranger Home”
S. bardor “home land, native land” ✧ PE17/164
S. Bar-en-Nibin-noeg “House of the Petty Dwarves” ✧ UT/100
S. Bar-goll “Hollow Dwelling” ✧ WJ/414
S. Bar-in-Gwael ✧ WJ/418
S. Bar-in-Mŷl “Home of the Gulls” ✧ WJ/379
S. i mbair en Ndengin “the houses of the Slain” ✧ PE17/97
S. milbar “dear home, beloved dwelling [place]” ✧ PE17/164
S. Narn e·mbar Hador “*Tale of the House of Hador” ✧ MR/373

Cognates

Q. már “home, dwelling, habitation” ✧ PE17/164 (-mar); SA/bar
Q. mar(da) “dwelling, (great) house, residence, mansion, a thing or place dwelt in, home” ✧ PE17/163 (mar); PE17/164 (mar)

Derivations

< ✶mbar(ă) “dwelling, habitation” ✧ PE17/109; PE17/109; PE17/163 (mbar); PE17/164 (mbā̆r); PE17/164 (mbā̆r); SA/bar (mbár)
- < √MBAR “settle, dwell; establish, fix, decide, determine, make a decision”

Phonetic Developments

✶mbar(ă) > bâr	[mbara] > [mbar] > [bar]	✧ PE17/109
✶mbar(ă) > bâr	[mbara] > [mbar] > [bar]	✧ PE17/109
✶mbar > bar	[mbara] > [mbar] > [bar]	✧ PE17/163
✶mbā̆r > bar	[mbara] > [mbar] > [bar]	✧ PE17/164
✶mbā̆r > bair	[mbarī] > [mbari] > [bari] > [beri] > [beir] > [bair]	✧ PE17/164
✶mbár > bar	[mbar] > [bar]	✧ SA/bar

N. bár n. “home; earth” (Category: Home)

See S. bâr for discussion.

References ✧ Ety/GAWA, MBAR, TAN; EtyAC/MBAR; PE22/35-36; WR/379-380