Adûnaic

adûn

noun. west, westward

A noun meaning “west(ward)” (SD/435, PE17/18). Tolkien stated that was “a loan word from Eldarin speech in the language of the Folk of Hador, from which Númenórean was later derived” (PE17/18). Probably it is derived from S. dûn “west”, as suggested by several authors (AAD/9, EotAL/NDU). Tolkien stated that it was an adjective and its proper noun form was adûni (SD/435), but adûn was used as a noun in phrases such as Bârîm an-adûn “Lords of the West” (SD/247).

Adûnaic [PE17/018; SA/andúnë; SD/240; SD/247; SD/251; SD/311; SD/312; SD/435] Group: Eldamo. Published by

adûn izindi batân tâidô ayadda

[the] road west once went straight, (lit.) west straight road once went

The 11th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247), whose word order varied considerably in the different drafts of the text. The first two words are the adjectives adûn “west” and izindi “straight, right, true”. They modify the subject batân “road, path, way”, which is in the normal-case rather than the subjective. This is consistent with the grammatical rules of Lowdham’s Report, since the verb ayadda has a pronominal suffix a- “✱it” (SD/429).

The fourth word is an adverb tâidô “once, then”. The verb form yadda seems to be the past tense of #yad- “to go”, functioning here as a pluperfect (see SD/439). This makes sense in the narrative, since this sentence describes the previous state (the road west going straight to Valinor) while the next sentence uses the aorist tense to describe the current state (all roads being bent around the now-round world).

Tolkien’s glosses match the word order of the Adûnaic sentence: “west straight road once went”. This might be rendered in more ordinary English as “[the] road west once went straight”.

The previous (second draft) version of this sentence had more differences from the final version than any other sentence in the second draft (SD/312). It had a different word order, with the adjective izindi “straight” appearing directly before the verb, perhaps functioning as an adverb. It has ēluk instead of tâidô and the verb form yadda is missing the pronominal prefix a-. Unfortunately, Christopher Tolkien did not publish the English glosses for this sentence, so it is hard to decipher the meaning (if any) of these differences.

Adûnaic [SD/247; SD/312; VT24/12] Group: Eldamo. Published by

bârim an-adûn yurahtam dâira sâibêth-mâ êruvô

Lords of [the] West, they rent [the] Earth with assent from Eru

The 4th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). One major conceptual change from earlier versions was that the subject of the sentence was plural Bârim an-Adûn (“Lords of the West”) instead of the earlier singular Bârun an-Adûn (“Lord of the West”). It seems that Tolkien decided that the drowning of Númenor was attributed to all of the Valar rather than just Manwë. A similar change from singular to plural was made in the corresponding Quenya sentence: herunūmen >> númeheruvi.

The subject Bârim of this sentence is the subjective plural of bâr “lord”. It is modified by the adjectival phrase an-Adûn “of the West”, with the genitive prefix an- “of” added to the noun adûn. The verb has the 3rd-plural suffix yu- “they”. In the grammatical rules of Lowdham’s Report this makes the subject emphatic, with a meaning more like “It was the Lords of the West who broke the Earth...” (SD/429).

The verb form rahtam is the aorist tense of rahat- “to break” with the verb plural suffix -m. The object of the sentence, dâira “Earth”, is in the normal-case.

The base sentence is modified by the prepositional phrase sâibêth-mâ Êruvô “with assent from Eru”. The combination sâibêth-mâ is the word sâibêth “assent” and the prepositional suffix -mâ “with”. The final word Êruvô is the name Êru and the prepositional suffix “of”, with the usual glide-consonant [w] (which was sometimes written “v” as mentioned on SD/434) between the u and the following suffix.

Adûnaic [SD/247; SD/249; SDI2/Bârim an-adûn; VT24/12] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Sindarin 

dûn

noun. west

The Sindarin word for “west” based on primitive ᴹ✶ndūne derived from the root √NDU “go down” (LotR/1116; PE17/18; Ety/NDŪ; EtyAC/NDŪ). More exactly it is “the way of the sunset” (SA/andúnë). The related word annûn “sunset”, also used to mean “the West”, was derived from ✶ṇdūnē with syllabic initial .

Sindarin [LotR/1116; LotR/1123; LotR/1130; PE17/018; PE17/121; SA/andúnë; WJ/378] Group: Eldamo. Published by

dûn

noun. west

Sindarin [Ety/376, S/428, LotR/E-F] Group: SINDICT. Published by

dûn

noun. west

_n. _west. Q. -. >> annûn

Sindarin [(PE17 Sindarin Corpus) PE17:18:121] -. Group: Parma Eldalamberon 17 Sindarin Corpus. Published by

annûn

noun. west, sunset

Sindarin [Ety/376, S/428, LotR/VI:IV, LotR/E, LB/354, Lett] Group: SINDICT. Published by

adûn

adûn

Derived from Sindarin dûn and annûn

Sindarin [Tolkien Gateway] Published by

annûn

west

  1. annûn; 2) Dúven (na Núven, o Ndúven). Christopher Tolkien tentatively read the illegible gloss as ”southern” (LR:376 s.v. NDŪ), but the etymology seems to demand the meaning ”west”: dú-ven with the same ending as in Forven ”North” and Harven ”South”. The ending means ”way”, so Dúven may be ”west” considered as a direction. WEST-ELF (Elf of Beleriand, including Noldor and Sindar) Dúnedhel (i Núnedhel), pl. Dúnedhil (i Ndúnedhil). (WJ:378, 386)

annûn

west

dúnedhel

west-elf

(i Núnedhel), pl. *Dúnedhil*** (i Ndúnedhil*). (WJ:378, 386)*

dúven

west

(na Núven, o Ndúven). Christopher Tolkien tentatively read the illegible gloss as ”southern” (LR:376 s.v. NDŪ), but the etymology seems to demand the meaning ”west”: dú-ven with the same ending as in Forven ”North” and Harven ”South”. The ending means ”way”, so Dúven may be ”west” considered as a direction.

Noldorin 

dûn

noun. west

Noldorin [Ety/376, S/428, LotR/E-F] Group: SINDICT. Published by

dûn

noun. west

Noldorin [Ety/NDŪ; Ety/RŌ] Group: Eldamo. Published by

annûn

noun. west, sunset

Noldorin [Ety/376, S/428, LotR/VI:IV, LotR/E, LB/354, Lett] Group: SINDICT. Published by

annûn

noun. west

Noldorin [Ety/NDŪ; Ety/RŌ] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Quenya 

númen

west, the way of the sunset

númen noun "west, the way of the sunset" (SA:andúnë, cf. NDŪ, MEN; capitalized Númen under SA:men and in CO), "going down, occudent" (Letters:361), also name of tengwa #17 _(Appendix E). _According to VT45:38, the word is actually cited as "nú-men" in Tolkien's Etymologies manuscript. Allative númenna "Westward" (LR:47, SD:310, VT49:20, capitalized Númenna, VT49:22; numenna with a short u, VT49:23); adj. númenquerna "turned westward" (VT49:18, 20). See also númenyaron, númessier. - In the pre-classical Tengwar system presupposed in the Etymologies, "nú-men" was intended as the name of tengwa #21, to which letter Tolkien at this stage assigned the value n (VT45:38). However, this tengwa was later given the Quenya value r instead and was renamed órë.

númë

noun. west


Beware, older languages below! The languages below were invented during Tolkien's earlier period and should be used with caution. Remember to never, ever mix words from different languages!

Qenya 

númen

noun. west

Qenya [Ety/MEN; Ety/NDŪ; EtyAC/NDŪ; LR/047; LR/056; LR/071; LR/072; PE22/023; PE22/050; PE22/126; SD/240; SD/303; SD/305; SD/310; SMI/Númen] Group: Eldamo. Published by

núme

noun. west

Middle Primitive Elvish

ndūne

noun. west

Middle Primitive Elvish [EtyAC/NDŪ] Group: Eldamo. Published by

Early Quenya

núme

noun. west

Early Quenya [LT1/085; LT1A/Faskala-númen; LT1A/Númë; LT1A/Sirnúmen; PME/068; QL/068] Group: Eldamo. Published by