Sauron Defeated (74 page)

Basic U: u - u - u; o - au.

Declension of nouns.

Nouns can be divided into two main classes: Strong and Weak. Strong nouns form the Plural, and in some cases certain other forms, by modification of the last vowel of the Stem.

Weak nouns add inflexions in all cases.

The stems of strong nouns were doubtless originally all Basic stems in one or other of the fuller forms: as NAKA, GIMIL, AZRA; but the strong type of inflexion had spread to most nouns whose stem ended in a short vowel followed by a single consonant. No nouns with a monosyllabic stem are strong.

The stems of Weak nouns were either monosyllabic, or they ended in a lengthened or strengthened syllable (such as -a, -an,

-u, -on, -ur, etc.), or they were formed with a suffix or added element.

It is convenient also to divide nouns into Masculine, Feminine, Common, and Neuter nouns; though there is not strictly speaking any 'gender' in Adunaic (there is no m. f. or n. form of adjectives, for example). But the subjective case, as it may be called, differs in the four named varieties in the singular; and is formed differently in the plural neuter from the method employed in the m. f. and c. This arises because the subjective was originally made with pronominal affixes, and Adunaic distinguishes gender (or rather sex) in the pronouns of the third person.

All nouns are Neuter, except (i) Proper names of persons, and personifications; (ii) Nouns denoting male or female functions; and male or female animals, where these are specifically characterized: as 'master, mistress, smith, nurse, mother, son'; or

'stallion, bitch'.

Masculine or Feminine are the personifications of natural objects, especially lands and cities, which may have a neuter and a personalized form side by side. Often the 'personification' is simply the means of making a proper name from a common noun or adjective: thus anaduni 'western', Anadune f. 'Westernesse'. Abstractions may also be 'personified', and regarded as agents: so Agan m. 'Death', agan n. 'death'. In such cases, however, as nilo n. 'moon', and ure n. 'sun', beside the personalized forms Nilu m. and Uri f., we have not so much mere personification but the naming of real persons, or what the Adunaim regarded as real persons: the guardian spirits of the Moon and the Sun, in fact 'The Man in the Moon' and 'The Lady of the Sun'.

Common are the noun ana 'homo, human being'; the names of all animals when not specially characterized; and the names of peoples (especially in the plural, as Adunaim). [Footnote 11]

The stems of nouns can end in any single basic consonant, or in a vowel. It must be noted, however, that the original basic consonants w, Y, 3 have become vocalized finally, and that these final forms tend to become regarded as the actual stems. So pa hand probably from * pa‡a, pl. pai,. khau and kho crow from

* khaw and * khaw; pls. khawi(m) and khoi (the latter should historically be khawi).

Long consonants or combinations of consonants do not occur finally in classical Adunaic. [Footnote 12] The stems of nouns consequently can end only in one (or no) consonant. Suffixal elements usually end in a vowel, or in dental stops: t, th, d; or in continuants, especially s, z, l, r, the nasals n and m; less commonly in consonants of the other series such as h, g, p, ph, b, though k is not uncommon.

Where, however, a noun has a basic stem there is no limitation. Thus puh 'breath'; rukh 'shout'; niph 'fool'; urug

'bear'; pharaz 'gold'. Such 'basic' forms are not very common, except as neuters; and they are very rare as feminines (since specifically feminine words are usually made with the suffixes -t,

-e from the masculine or common stem). The only frequent f.

noun of this type is nithil 'girl'. The word mith 'baby girl, maid-child' appears to be of this type, but is probably made with an affix -th (often met in feminines) from a base MIYI

'small'; cf. the m. form mik, and the dual miyat '(infant) twins'.

In compound nouns and names, however, a bare stem (often containing a lengthened or fortified vowel) is very frequent as a final element. In such formations, whatever the function of the stem used as a simplex, this final element very frequently has an agental force, and so requires the objective form in the preceding element (on the objective form see below). So izindu-beth

'true-sayer, prophet'; Azrubel p.n. 'Sea-lover'. Contrast the simplex beth 'expression, saying, word'.

Masculine nouns usually have o, u, or a in the final syllable.

If they have affixed elements they end in -o, or -u; or in the favoured 'masculine' consonants k, r, n, d preceded by o, u, or a.

Feminines usually have e, f, or a in the final syllable; and if they have affixed elements (as is usual) they end in -e or -f; or in the favoured 'feminine' consonants th, l, s, z preceded by e, t, or a.

Common nouns have 'neuter' stem forms, or favour the ending -a or -a in the final syllable.

Neuter nouns do not show F, or u, in the last syllable of their stems, nor do they employ suffixes that contain u, o, or s, e, as these are signs of the masculine and feminine respectively.

[Footnote 13]

Nouns distinguish three numbers: Singular, Plural, and Dual.

In most cases the Singular is the normal form, and the others are derived from it. There are, however, a good number of words with a more or less plural significance that are 'singular' (that is uninflected) in form, while the corresponding singulars are derived from them, or show a less simple form of the base. Thus gimil 'stars', beside the sg. gimli or igmil (the latter usually meaning a star-shaped figure, not a star in the sky). These plural-singulars are really collectives and usually refer to all the objects of their kind (either all there are in the world, or all there are in any specific place that is being thought or spoken of).

Thus gimil means 'the stars of heaven, all the stars to be seen', as in such a sentence as 'I went out last night to look at the stars'; the plural of the singulars gimli, igmil - gimli, igmil - mean

'stars, several stars, some stars', and will in consequence be the only forms to be used with a specific numeral, as gimli hazid

'seven stars'. Similarly in the title of the Avale or 'goddess'

Avradi: Gimilnitir 'Star-kindler', the reference is to a myth, apparently, of her kindling all the stars of heaven; gimlu-nitir would mean 'kindler of a (particular) star'.

The Duals are collectives or pairs, and mean 'both' or 'the two'. Hence they never require the article. They are made with a suffix -at. The Dual is only normally used of things that go in natural or customary pairs: as shoes, arms, eyes. For the expression of, say, two separate shoes not making a pair Adunaic would use the singular noun with the numeral 'two'

following. But in the older language things only belonging casually, where we should say 'the two', are sometimes into the dual.

The chief use in classical Adunaic of the Dual was to make pair-nouns when (a) two objects are generally associated, as

'ears'; or sometimes (b) when they are generally contrasted or opposed, 'day and night'. The first case gives no difficulty: so huzun 'ear', huznat 'the two ears (of one person)'. In the second case, if the two objects are sufficiently different to have separate

, then either (a) the two stems can be compounded and inflexion added at the end; or occasionally (b) one only of the stems is used, the other being understood, or added separately in the singular. Thus for 'sun and moon' are found uriyat, urinil(uw)at, and uriyat nilo.

Nouns distinguish two forms or 'cases' in each number: 1.

Normal 2. Subjective. In addition in the singular only there is an Objective form.

The Normal (N) shows no inflexion for 'case'.

It is used in all places where Subjective (S) or Objective (0) are not obligatory. Thus: (i) as the object of a verb. It never immediately precedes a verb of which it is the object. (ii) Before another noun it is either (a) in apposition to it, or (b) in an adjectival or possessive genitive relation. The first noun is the one in the genitive in Adunaic (adjectives normally precede nouns). For that reason cardinal numerals, which are (except

'one') all nouns, follow their noun: gimli hazid = 7 of stars. The two functions: apposition, and genitival adjective, were normally distinguished by stress and intonation. [Footnote 14] (iii) Predicatively: Ar-Pharazonun Bar 'nAnadune 'King Pharazon is Lord of Anadune'. (iv) As subject when it immediately precedes a fully inflected verb. In that case the verb must contain the requisite pronominal prefixes. If the subjective is used the verb need not have any such prefixes. Thus bar ukallaba 'the lord fell', or barun (u)kallaba; the latter is rather to be rendered 'it was the lord who fell', especially where both subjective and pronominal prefix are used. (v) As the base to which certain adverbial 'prepositional' affixes are added; such as o 'from', ad, ada 'to, towards', ma 'with', ze 'at'.

The Subjective (S) is used as the subject of a verb. As shown above the subjective need not be used immediately before a verb with pronominal prefixes; an object noun is never placed in this position. The S. also represents the verb 'to be' as copula; cf. (iii) above. When two or more nouns in apposition are juxtaposed in Adunaic only the last of the series receives the subjective inflexion: thus Ar-Pharazon kathuphazganun = 'King ArPharazon the Conqueror'. Contrast Ar-Pharazonun kathuphazgan = 'King Ar-Pharazon is (was) a Conqueror'.

The Objective form (0) is only used in compound expressions, or actual compounds. Before a verb-noun, or verb-adjective (participle), or any words that can be held to have such a sense, it is then in an objective-genitive sense. Thus Minul-Tarik 'Pillar of Heaven', the name of a mountain. Here minul is the O. form of minal 'heaven', since tarik 'pillar' here means

'that which supports'. minal-tarik would mean 'heavenly pillar', sc. a pillar in the sky, or made of cloud. Contrast Azru-bel (where azru shows the O. form of azra 'sea') 'Sea-lover', with azra-zain.

Plural nouns are seldom (and Dual nouns never) placed in such a position. When a plural noun is so used it always stands in object and not adjectival or possessive relation to the noun that follows, so that the plural nouns need no special objective form. The genitive of a plural noun can only be expressed with the prefix an- described in the note above [see Footnote 14]; thus Aru'nAdunai 'King of the Anadunians'.

Plurality is expressed in Adunaic either by F as the last vowel of the stem before the final consonant (in strong nouns), or by the suffixion of the element -s. It is suggested above that the suffix originally had the form -yt [see page 424].

Duality is expressed by the suffix -at. There are no 'strong'

forms.

The Subjective: in Neuter nouns this is expressed by a-fortification of the last vowel of the stem, in the case of strong nouns: as zadan with the S. form zadan; in weak nouns the suffix -a is used. In Masculine nouns, strong or weak, the suffix

-un is used; in Feminines the suffix -in; in Common nouns the suffix -an, or -n. In plurals it has the suffix -a in Neuters, and in all other nouns the suffix -im.

The Objective has either the vowel u in the last syllable of the stem, or else the suffix -u.

Examples of Declension

Nouns may be divided as noted above [see page 425] into Strong and Weak. In Strong nouns the cases and plural stems are formed partly by alterations of the last vowel of the stem (originally the variable vowel of the second syllable of basic stems), partly by suffixes; in the Weak nouns the inflexions are entirely suffixal.

The Strong nouns may again be divided into Strong I, and Strong II. In I the variable vowel occurs before the last consonant (Base form KULUB); in II the variable vowel is final (Base forms NAKA, KULBA).

Neuter Nouns

Strong I

Examples: zadan, house; khibil, spring; huzun, ear.

Singular N. zadan khibil huzun

S. zadan khibel huzon

O. zadun khibul huzun, huznu [Footnote 15]

Dual N. zadnat khiblat huznat

S. zadnat khiblat huznat

Plural N. zadin khibil huzin

S. zadina khibila huzina

The Dual usually shows, as in the above examples, suppression of the final vowel before the suffix -at; but the final vowel of the N. form is often retained, especially where suppression would lead to the accumulation of more than two consonants, or where the preceding vowel is long: so usually tarikat 'two pillars'.

In all nouns the N. and S. of Duals was only distinguished in earlier texts. Before the Exilic periods the ending -at was used for both N. and S. This doubtless was due to the coalescence of N. and S. in the very numerous class Strong II.

Strong II

Examples: azra, sea; gimli, star; nilu, moon.

Singular N. azra gimli nilu S. azra gimle nilo

O. azru gimlu nilu