Elvish or elven, dwarfish or dwarven

[kurt751]

Is there an official choice of words?

Considering unit names, apparently the -ish version is preferred over the more common version of -ven". But it that a official Wesnoth rule, or did it just happen the person who gave the unit names happened to like Elvis and fishes?...

[Flameslash]

There's the Dwarven Doors, but the units are all Dwarvish, so I doubt it matters.

[Tad_Carlucci]

We just had this talk a couple days ago on the dev channel.

Elven and Dwarven.

In mainline there was ONE "dwarf" occurrence, all others were "dwarven" and that sole occurrence was changed. We didn't look at UMC.

[zookeeper]

Obviously it's "dwarvish" in unit names. Aside from them, "dwarven" does seem a lot more common in text, but we also have quite a few cases of "dwarvish". So, apparently no rule (yet, anyway).

[Dugi]

To add more mess, I've also seen the word elfin used as adjective to elf. That word sounds pretty good. Maybe all forms could be used wildly to show that we have a good knowledge of language.

[kurt751]

Seriously, the more common english form seems to be "elven" and "dwarven". I don't know why the units got the name they have.
Anyway, if there are no strong feelings about this, I'll stick to the common version for my campaign, "elvish" and dwarfish" just rasps my (mental) throat.

"Elvish has left the building. He's gone down to the river to catch some dwarfish."


As for elfin, well, that's an ancient form, but if we walk that road there is no way to know where we will end. Maybe at "hvítálfar"?...

[Tad_Carlucci]

There are no strong feelings, but if it's in mainline, it'll be changed to the common form used there (if it has not already).

We had a long talk about the entomology and the consensus was it's mainly due to Tolkien's bad habit of consistently misspelling the words. There were a few other examples of the misspellings but it was hard to tell if they were original or arose from Tolkien's habit.

[kurt751]

Tolkien being a philologist and a professor of english language at Oxford, I'd be hesitant to call his choices "misspelling"...

He might have made choices, but then his influence is big enough for his choices to become legitimate. Example: King Arthur, created by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chretien de Troyes in the form we all recognize today.

[Eagle_11]

Elven - dwarven is more common as you say, idk why wesnoth went with -ish when its the other way around at almost everywhere else.

[Tad_Carlucci]

Tolkien being a philologist and a professor of english language at Oxford, I'd be hesitant to call his choices "misspelling"

His words, not ours.

[kurt751]

That's what the grinning smiley was for, to indicate it was said jokingly.

[Durin_the_great]

Tolkien explained, why he used dwarfs in some places.