Sunday, January 03, 2010

Birthday, in my words

byrnadaes : birthday

The Illunse word for birthday is byrnadaes.

Today is J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday. He was born on the 3rd of January 1892 in what is now South Africa.

This word is a mixture of the Old English word for birthday which is gebyrddæg and the Latin word for birthday which is natalis (birthday / anniversary; date of birth / founding / manufacture / origin; birthplace).

It was like mixing apples and oranges to come up with this word. I decided to follow the example of Old English and end the word with day (dæg is day in Old English, daes is day in Illunse). My word byrnadaes attempts to look like "born-day".

There doesn't seem to be any words for birthday in Quenya or Sindarin.

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