Sauron Defeated (72 page)

'hearings', and which I have called Avallonian, appears to be distinct and unrelated, at least not 'cognate'. But I guess that originally, or far back beyond these records, Avallonian and Adunaic were in some way related. It is in fact clear now that Avallonian is the Nimriye or 'Nimrian tongue' referred to in the very early Exilic text that we have managed to get concerning the Downfall. In that case it must be the language of the Nimir, or a western form of it, and so be the ultimate source of the languages of Men in the west of the Old World. Perhaps I should rather say that the glimpses of the 'Nimrian tongue' that we have received show us a language, itself doubtless much changed, that is directly descended from the primeval Nimrian.

From that Nimrian in a later stage, but still older than the Avallonian, the ancestor of Adunaic was partly derived.

But Adunaic must then for a long time have developed quite independently. Also I think it came under some different influence. This influence I call Khazadian; because I have received a good many echoes of a curious tongue, also connected with what we should call the West of the Old World, that is associated with the name Khazad. Now this resembles Adunaic phonetically, and it seems also in some points of vocabulary and structure; but it is precisely at the points where Adunaic most differs from Avallonian that it approaches nearest to Khazadian.

However, Adunaic evidently again later came into close contact with Avallonian, so that there is, as it were, a new layer of later resemblances between the two tongues: Adunaic for instance somewhat softened its harder phonetic character; while it also shows a fairly large number of words that are the same as the Avallonian words, or very similar to them. Of course, it cannot always be determined in such cases whether we are dealing with a primitive community of vocabulary, or with a later borrowing of Avallonian terms. Thus I am inclined to think that the Adunaic Base MINIL 'heaven, sky' is a primitive word, cognate with the Nimrian Base MENEL and not borrowed from it at a later time; although certainly, if Menel had been so borrowed, it would probably have acquired the form Minil

[struck out: and the actual Adunaic noun Minal could be explained as an alteration to fit Minil into the Adunaic declen-sional system]. On the other hand it seems plain that the Adunaic word lomi 'night' is an Avallonian loan; both because of its sense (it appears to mean 'fair night, a night of stars', with no connotations of gloom or fear), but also because it is quite isolated in Adunaic. According to Adunaic structure, as I shall try to exhibit it, lomi would require either a biconsonantal Base LUM, or more probably a triconsonantal Base LAW M; but neither of these exist in our material, whereas in Avallonian lome (stem lomi-) is a normal formation from an Avallonian biconsonantal Base LOM.

I will try now and sketch the structure and grammar of Adunaic, as far as the material that we have received allows this to be done. The language envisaged is the language about the period of the Downfall, that is more or less during the end of the reign of King Ar-Pharazon. From that period most of the records come. There are only occasional glimpses of earlier stages, or of the later (Exilic) forms of the language among the descendants of the survivors. Some of our chief texts, notably The Drowning, are in point of time of composition Exilic: that is they must have been put together at some time later than the reign of Ar-Pharazon; but they are in a language virtually identical with the 'classical' Adunaic. This is probably due to two causes: their drawing on older material; and the continued use of the older language for higher purposes. For the actual daily speeches of the Exiles seem in fact to have changed and diverged quickly on the western shores. Of these changed and divergent forms we have only a few echoes, but they sometimes help in elucidating the forms and history of the older tongue.

*

General Structure.

The majority of the word-bases of Adunaic were triconsonantal. This structure is somewhat reminiscent of Semitic; and in this point Adunaic shows affinity with Khazadian rather than with Nimrian. For though Nimrian has many triconsonantal stems (other than the products of normal suffixion), such as the stem MENEL cited above, these are rarer in Nimrian, and are mostly the stems of nouns.

The vocalic arrangements within the base, however, do not much resemble Semitic; neither does Adunaic show anything strictly comparable to the 'gradations' of languages familiar to us, such as the e/o variation in the Indo-European group. In an Adunaic Base there is a Characteristic Vowel (CV) which shares with the consonants in characterizing or identifying the Base.

Thus KARAB and KIRIB are distinct Bases and may have wholly unrelated meanings. The CV may, however, be modified in certain recognized ways (described below under the Vowels) which can produce effects not unlike those of gradation.

In addition to the triconsonantal Bases, there existed also in Adunaic a large number of biconsonantal Bases. Many of these are clearly ancient, though some may have been borrowed from Avallonian, where the biconsonantal Base is normal. These ancient biconsonantal Bases are probably an indication that the longer forms are in fact historically a later development. A few of the commonest verbal notions are expressed by biconsonantal forms, though the verb form of Adunaic is usually triconsonantal: thus NAKH 'come, approach', BITH 'say', contrasted with SAPHAD 'understand', NIMIR 'shine', KALAB 'fall', etc. [Footnote 1]

A number of ancient elements also exist: affixes, pronominal and numeral stems, prepositional stems, and so on, that only show one consonant. When, however, a 'full word', a noun for instance, has a uniconsonantal form, it must usually be suspected that an older second consonant has disappeared. Thus pa

'hand' is probably derived from a Base PA3.

Consonants.

The following is a table of the Consonants which Adunaic appears originally (or at an earlier stage) to have possessed:

[Footnote 2]

(a) (b) (d) (d)

p-series t-series c-series k-series

STOPS

1. Voiceless: P. T. C. K.

2. Voiced: B. D. J. G.

3. Voiceless aspirated: Ph. Th. Ch. Kh.

CONTINUANTS

4. Voiceless: - S. 2. H.

5. Voiced (weak): W. L, R, Z. Y. 3. ?.

6. Voiced: Nasals: M. N. - 9.

[Footnote 3]

The sounds of the c-series: c, J, Ch, z were front or palatal consonants originally; that is roughly consonants of the K-series made in the extreme forward or y-position, and they might be so represented, but the above notation has been adopted, because their later development was to simple consonants. The sign 2 represents a voiceless hissed v, that is the German ich-laut, or a rather stronger form of the voiceless v often heard initially in such an English word as huge.

It will be noted that the T-series is the most rich, and possessed three voiced continuants. The T-series is probably the most frequently employed in Ease-formation; and is certainly the most used in pronominal and formative elements (especially those of uniconsonantal form). The P-series is the poorest and possesses no voiceless hiss; but it is very probable that one anciently existed, a voiceless w (as English wh), but became H

prehistorically.

H represents the voiceless back hissing sound, the ch of Welsh, Gaelic, and German (as in acht). 3 is the corresponding voiced spirant, or 'open' G.

Adunaic employs affixion in word-formation, though more sparingly than Avallonian; and in contrast to Avallonian employs prefixion more frequently than suffixion: the latter is sparingly used in forming stems (where the two elements become merged), but is more frequent in inflexion (where the two elements usually remain distinct). The primitive Adunaic combinations of consonants, in consequence, are due mainly to the contact of the basic consonants, and are predominantly of the form 'Continuant + some other consonant', or vice versa.

This is so, because the predominant (but not exclusive) form of the Adunaic Bases, when triconsonantal, is X + Continuant +

X; or X + X + Continuant, where X = any consonant.

A much employed method of derivation, however, is the lengthening or 'doubling' of one of the basic consonants. The consonant doubled is usually either the medial or final consonant of the Base, though in certain formations the initial may be doubled (only one of the basic consonants is so treated in any one word).

Similar to this method, and so to some extent competing wit-h it in functions, is the infixion of an homorganic nasal before the final, or less frequently the medial, basic consonant: thus s to MB; D to ND; G to NG. This method cannot, of course, be distinguished from doubling in the case of the Nasals. It is doubtful if it originally occurred before the other continuants: the apparent cases of NZ may be due to * NJ, which became NZ, or to the analogy of such cases. [Footnote 4]

Adunaic, like Avallonian, does not tolerate more than a single basic consonant initially in any word (note that Ph, Th, Kh, are simple consonants). Unlike Avallonian it tolerates a large number of combinations medially, and there consonants in contact are very sparingly assimilated. Finally, in the 'classical'

period Adunaic did not possess consonant-combinations, since affixes always ended in a vowel or a single consonant; while basic stems were always arranged in the following forms: ATLA, TAr.(A) in the case of biconsonantal bases; AK(A)LAB(A), (A)KALBA in the case of triconsonantals. But the omission of short final A (not I or U), both in speech and writing, was already usual before the end of the classical period, with the consequence that a large number of consonant combinations became final.

The following list will show the normal development of the more primitive consonants in later Adunaic. The consonants are here set out in the order of the former table, and not according to the phonetic classification.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

1. P. T. S. K.

2. B. D. Z. G.

3. Ph. Th. S. Kh.

4. - S. S. H.

5. W. L,R,Z. Y. - (G). -.

6. M. N. - (N) [Footnote 5]

It will be observed that the consonants have not suffered any very material change except in the case of the c-series, which has become dental (apart from v, which remains unchanged).

With the development of c, ch, 2 to s may be compared the development of Latin fronted c in part of the Romance area; and the development of Indo-European K to s in Slavonic.

Similarly the development of J (fronted c) to z may be compared with the change of Indo-European fronted c and Gh to z in Iranian and Slavonic. The assumption of a primitive c-series is based partly on scraps of internal evidence (such as the presence of an infixion NZ, whereas infixion of Nasal does not occur before the genuine consonants); partly on early forms, especially some scraps of an early inscription, [Footnote 6]

which shows two different s-letters and z-letters. The treatment of Avallonian loans is also significant; in early loans the Avallonian Ty and Hy (approximately equivalent to the English t in tune and h in huge) both become s in Adunaic: as for instance Adunaic sulum 'mast', sula 'trump' from Nimrian kyuluma, hyola, Avallonian tyulma, hyola.

In the earlier language Ph, Th, Kh had plainly been aspirated stops, as in ancient Greek. This is most clearly seen when these sounds came into contact with others (see below). But it appears from various signs in the spelling, from the later developments in Exilic, and from the actual pronunciations of words coming through in audible form, that before the Downfall these aspirates had become strong spirants: F (bilabial), p (as English voiceless th), and x (the ach-sound originally belonging to H, with which Kh now coalesced in cases where H had not gone on to the breath-H). At the same time the combinations PPh, TTh, KKh became the 'affricates' PF, TP, KX, and then the long or double spirants FF, pp, XX. PTh and KTh appear to have become Fp> Xp).

H was originally, as noted above, the voiceless back-spirant; but in the classical language it had usually become the breath H.

So, always initially, and medially between vowels. It never, however, becomes silent in these positions. [Footnote 7] The spirantal sound of H was retained before s [added: and where long or doubled HH] (where it later therefore coalesced with Kh); and in some 'hearings' it seems to occur before T and Th, though usually before consonants it is heard as a breathless puff, having the timbre of the preceding vowel. On the development of H in other contacts, see below.