tolkien 's elvish languages : austronesian ? ( this , of course , started as a spoof of proto - world ) is elvish austronesian or has sakao ( espiritu santo ) an elvish substratum ? that is the question . as i was looking for an elvish cognate for my proto - world * hu ( n ) t i came across ( and the whole effort took me perhaps five minutes , writing it down much longer , however ) : 1 . - losgar ( red snow ) . the place where feanor burned the ships of the teleri . los = snow , gar from car = red ( noel 1980 : 164 ) . - sakao kar = red . 2 . - minas tirith s ' tower of watch ' , ' tower of guard ' ( ibid . p . 170 ) ' minas ' being ' tower ' , ' tirith ' is evidently ' watch , guard ' . - sakao t ( y ) ry = to look at , to watch out . 3 . - lad ' plain ' , ' valley ' , s / 361 ( p . 160 ) - sakao la ^ dh = earth , ground 4 . - kel ' go away ' , ' flow away ' , ' flow down ' . s / 360 ( p . 159 ) - sakao gher ' to go past ' , ' to flow ' . 5 . - in ( of the ) . see various place names , including haudh - in - gwanur . ( p . 158 ) - sakao - yn , same meaning , as in ' waldhyn ietar ' 's on of yetar ( god ) ' . 6 . - ia ^ ' void ' , ' abyss ' s / 360 ( p . 156 ) - sakao ia ' oral cavity ' , ' opening ( of a cave ) ' 7 . - ondo q [ uenya ] 's tone ' s / 359 ( p . 180 ) - sakao iedh 's tone ' ( there is a pervading correspondence e / o throughout austronesian languages , and i am * not * making that up ! ) . or perhaps also : - sakao dhon ' mountain ' ( with metathesis and semantic shift ) . enough ? are n't you convinced yet ? all right . . . 8 . - vorn ' black ' . s / 360 ( p . 205 ) - sakao vyr ' black ' . 9 . - galadh s . ' tree ' ( p . 146 ) - sakao gholadh a tree sp . ( bislama " nangkalat " , a tree with urticant leaves ) 10 . - esse q [ uenya ] ' name ' ( p . 142 ) - sakao ase - ' name ' 11 . - sil q [ uenya ] 's hine with white or silver light ' ( p . 189 ) - sakao hoel ' cooking stone ' , regularly derivable from * s ( ui ) l ( aeo ) - sakao syl ' to singe ' and let 's make it an even dozen : 12 . - loa ' growth ' ( p . 163 ) - sakao lu ' to grow ' . work cited : ruth s . noel . the language of tokien 's middle - earth . houghton mifflin . boston 1980 .
