Eldamo : Sindarin : air

S. air adj. “lonely” (Category: Alone, Only)

S. air, adj. “lonely” (Category: Alone, Only)

A word for “lonely” in notes probably from the early 1960s related to the initial element of Eriador “Lonely Land”, which in this document was called a “Silvan” name (PE17/28). It was derived from ✶eryā, with *eri(a) > eir via i-intrusion and then ei > ai in the final syllable as was usual for Sindarin. See S. îr for an alternate phonetic development from the 1950s.

Reference ✧ PE17/28 ✧ “lonely”

îr “*alone” vs. air “lonely”

Cognates

ᴹQ. erya “single, sole”

Derivations

< ✶eryā “isolated, lonely” ✧ PE17/28
- < eir < eryā ✧ PE17/28
- < √ER “one, single, only, alone”

Phonetic Developments

✶eryā > eir > air

[erjā] > [erja] > [eria] > [eri] > [eir] > [air]

✧ PE17/28