Ad. *-phel suf. “?-daughter” (Category: Daughter)

Ad. *-phel suf. “?-daughter” (Category: Daughter)

An element appearing only in the name Zimraphel (UT/224). Though unglossed, her Quenya name Míriel seems to be mírë “jewel” + -iel “daughter”. The Adûnaic element zimra appears elsewhere as the Adûnaic equivalent of Q. mírë: in Zimrathôn whose Quenya name is Hostamir. These leaves the -phel to be “daughter” as suggested by several authors (AL/Adûnaic, EotAL/PHIL), perhaps the feminine equivalent of -thôr “son” appearing in Sakalthôr “*Shore-son”.

Phonetically, this element does not fit the earlier Adûnaic phonetic rules of Lowdham’s Report, which state that only a long [ē] was allowed in Adûnaic (SD/423). When Tolkien wrote Lowdham’s Report, Zimraphel’s Adûnaic name was instead Zimrahil, so perhaps -hil was an earlier form of this suffix. If the suffix -phel were to be used in the phonetic context of the Adûnaic of Lowdham’s Report (Middle Adûnaic) it might have the form *-phêl. See the entry on conceptual-changes-in-late-Adûnaic for further discussion.

Element In