4.1  Mutation and assimilation

As lenition is the main driving force of these languages both in phonological development and grammar, it is worthwhile to take a look at the names under this viewpoint. Surprisingly there is little of it in many of the words discussed above. For example,

• Rathcarn ’Redway’ < rath ’way’ + #carn *’red’
• Criscarn ’Red Pass’ < criss ’cleft’ + #carn *’red’
• Narosîr ’Redway’ < sîr ’river’
• Rhascaron *’Red Horn’ < rhas ’horn’ + caron *’red’
• Erceleb < er- + celeb ’silver’
• Pensarn *’stony slope’ < pend ’declivity’ + sarn ’stone’
• Tum Dincelon ’Dimrill Dale’ < #dim- *’dark, gloomy’ + celon ’river’
• Eredhithui ’Misty Mountains’ < orod ’mountain’, pl. ered + #hithui ’misty’
• Llawhen *’ears-eye’ < llaw ’ears’ (dual) + hen ’eye’

show no lenition of the second element at all, Rathcarn has been even changed from Rathgarn. This is surprising, as we know words like basgorn ’loaf’ < bast-gorn < *bast-corn ’round bread’ (MBAS-, KOR-, once glossed Ilkorin and once Noldorin), where in the contact s-c the second word is lenited, although the combination -sc- seems to be permitted both in Noldorin and Ilkorin when it comes from the same stem, compare N. asgar, ascar, Ilk. ascar ’violent, rushing, impetuous’ (SKAR-).
Even more surprising is Erceleb, a unique example of an unchanged contact r-c, although Erchamui ’One-handed’ (KAB-) and numerous other words show that a stop after r would become a spirant or at least undergo lenition.
Pensarn has unchanged contact n-s, while we can see from the name Arassuil (LotR App.A) < *aran-suil ’king-greeting’ that n-s assimilates to -ss- in later Sindarin; although it may be here due to the medial simplification of *pendsarn > pensarn. Still, one would have at least expected *Penharn, as in Calenhir, Tolharn. Note that according to a conception of the later Northern Sindarin dialect s is unlenited initially (PE17:134) and it was also unlenited in Goldogrin and Early Noldorin (GL:7, PE13:121) – perhaps the same applies at that time to Ilkorin?
In Dincelon the word celon is not lenited; instead we are perhaps observing *dim- assimilating to the following c-. However, in examples like

• Carnbeleg < carn ’red’ + beleg ’mighty’
• Mornvenniath ’Black Mountains’ < morn ’black’ + ment ’point’ + iâth ’fence’
• Calenbel, Calen-Bel < calen ’green’ + pel(?) ’fenced field’

we see even a lack of assimilation, with the clusters -rnb- and -rnv- allowed medially, as well as -nb-, although Calenbel or Calen-Bel was changed to Calembel, Cálembel and later Calembrith can be found.

Lenition occurs in the following words:

• Beleghir *’mighty river’ < beleg ’mighty’ + sîr ’river’
• Calenhir *’bright/green river’ < calen ’bright-coloured, green’ + sîr ’river’
• Tolharn *’stony island’ < toll ’island’ + sarn ’stone as a material; or as adj.’
• Nenvithim ’Hoardales’ < nan ’plain, valley’ (pl. *nen) + #mithim *’hoar, grey’
• Hithdilias ’Misty Mountains’ < hith ’mist’ + #tilias ’mountains’
• Eredwethion ’Mountains of Shadow’< orod ’mountain’, pl. ered + gwath ’shade’ + -ion
• Eredvyrn ’Black Mountains’ < orod ’mountain’, pl. ered + morn ’black’, pl. myrn
• Egladil ’elven-point’ < egla ’elf’ + till ’point’
• Calendil ’Green Spit, Green-tine’ < calen ’bright-coloured, green’ + #-til ’point’
• Celebdil ’Silverhorn’ < celeb ’silver’ + till ’point’
• Duin Morghul *’river of sorcery’ < mor- ’black’ + gûl ’magic’
• Dol Dúghul ’Hill of Sorcery’ < dû ’nightfall, late evening’ or ’night, dead of night’ + gûl ’magic’
• Ered Orgoroth ’Mountains of Terror’ < orod ’mountain’, pl. ered + gorgoroth ’terror’
• Angrobel ’Isengard’ < #angr- ’of iron’ + gobel ’walled house or village, ’town”
• Fornobel ’Norbury’ < forn ’right or north’ + gobel ’walled house or village, ’town”
• Tor-dilluin *’Mighty Bluehorn’ < taur ’vast, mighty, overwhelming, awful, high, sublime’ + #til(l)-luin ’horn-blue’
• Nargalad, Anngalad, Carangalad *’red light’ or *’light of the west’ < calad ’light’
• Galbedirs < #gal- ’tree’ + #pedir ’speaker’

One has to point out Beleghir and Calenhir in contrast with Narosîr. The usage of the circumflex for the second unlenited element in Narosîr is noticeable – it is usually used in monosyllables and the other compounds with lenited sîr shorten their vowel. Perhaps this is indeed a different (more loose) kind of compound *Naro-sîr and therefore without lenition.
The lenition of g- to the spirant gh in Morghul, Dúghul ignoring primitive ñg- is also different from later Sindarin, where we find i ngaurhoth *’the wolf-host’ (LotRII ch.4, ÑGAW-), di-nguruthos ’beneath-death-horror’ (LotRIV ch.10, Rgeo:72, ÑGOROTH-, ÑGUR-); also earlier di-ngorgoros (or di-ngorgoroth, reading uncertain) in The Etymologies (VT45:37). Such a special treatment of former nasalized stops goes in fact all the way back to the Gnomish Lexicon (e.g. golda > i·Ngolda ’the gnome’ (GL:8)).
Lenition g > gh may be either an analogical development – historical forms would tend to become forgotten by the time of the Third Age, compare dor ’land’ > i·nnor, indor ’the land’, analogical i·dhor (PE13:161). The voiced velar spirant surely strengthens the effect of -ghul applied to dark magic.
But in Angrobel, Fornobel, Ered Orgoroth initial g- is lenited to zero (gorgoroth also may have had initial ñg-, but The Etymologies give primitive gor-ngoroth). Perhaps they had been lenited *ʒobel, *ʒorgoroth at an intermediate stage before the spirant fell away, although remaining in monosyllabic elements (as Mor-ghul, Dú-ghul) – otherwise those would have become unrecognizable. Or gh only remained after r or a vowel and fell away after other consonants or clusters. Compare the later Sindarin development nāba-grota ’hollow’ + ’excavation, underground dwelling’ > nǭv-ʒrot > novrod (WJ:414).

The forms with hoth ’host’ show three different results – lenition, no lenition and the dropping of h. Perhaps this has to be understood as a suffix rather than part of a compound:

• Rochirchoth
• Haradhoth, Rochirhoth
• Haradoth, Ro(c)hiroth

There are some examples of trailing and lenited adjectives:

• Caradras dilthen ’little Redway’, probably < *tilthen ’little’
• Tol Galen *’Green Isle’ < calen ’bright-coloured, green’
• Tol Varad ’the Defended Isle’ < #barad ’defended’
• davnan < *tavnan ’closed’, from the context: Fenn davnan ’the Closed Door’

But there are about twice as much without lenition:

• Cris Caron ’Red Pass’ < caron *’red’
• Ered Myrn < morn ’black’, pl. myrn (but changed to Eredvyrn)
• compounded Eredhithui < hithui *’misty’
• Ennyn Dûr < dûr ’dark, sombre’
• Nelig Morn >> Nelig Myrn, also Naglath Morn *’black teeth’ < morn, pl. myrn ’black’
• Henneth Malthen *’golden window’ < malthen ’of gold, golden’
• Ramas Coren *’circular/encircling wall’ < coren *circular’ or *’encircling’
  
• perhaps Taur Toralt with toralt *’mighty and large’

The interpretation of Arad Dain *’High Pass’ is too uncertain to work with. Minas-berel may also contain an unlenited adjective berel *’valiant’.