ar-pharazôn

King Pharazon

A short phrase illustrating the Adûnaic compositional genitive (SD/435).

ar-pharazôn kathuphazgânun

King Ar-Pharazon the Conqueror

A phrase given by Tolkien as an example of how a pair of nouns would be declined into the subjective case, with only the last noun inflected (SD/429). The entire noun phrase would be the subject of the sentence. It is contrasted with Ar-Pharazônun kathuphazgân, where the first noun is inflected instead. This would be a the sentences “Ar-Pharazôn (is) a conquerer”.

ar-pharazônun azaggara avalôiyada

[Ar-Pharazôn] was warring against [the] Powers

The 3rd phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/247). It differed from its earlier drafts only in its use of grammar. Tolkien’s gloss was “‽ was warring against Powers”, omitting the name Ar-Pharazôn because Lowdham was unsure how to translate it. In more ordinary English might be “Ar-Pharazôn was warring against the Powers”.

The subject Ar-Pharazônun is the subjective form of the name Ar-Pharazôn. The verb azaggara “was warring” is a form of azgarâ- “to wage war”, either the past tense or continuative-past tense (see the entry for that continuative-past tense for further discussion). The last word Avalôiyada “against the Powers” is the plural form of Avalô “Power, God” with the prepositional suffix -ada “toward, against” separated from the i of the plural by the usual glide-consonant y.

The previous (second draft) version of this sentence differs from the final version in two ways (SD/312). First, the subject is in the normal-case instead of the subjective case, perhaps because Tolkien had not finalized the rules for the subjective case. Second, its verb form was azagrāra, although the final verb form azaggara was written nearby as an alternative. See the verb azgarâ- for possible interpretations.

ar-pharazônun kathuphazgân

King Ar-Pharazon is (was) a Conqueror

A phrase given by Tolkien as an example of how the subjective case can be used to represent the verb “to be” (SD/429). Since the first noun the subject, the second noun is the predicate and the verb “is” is implied. Depending on context, the sentenced could refer to the past so that the subjective would represent “was” instead. This sentence is contrasted with Ar-Pharazôn kathuphazgânun, where the second noun is inflected in the subjective instead, so that the entire noun phrase would be the subject: “King Ar-Pharazon the Conqueror...”.

ar-pharazônun bâr ’nanadûnê

King Pharazon is Lord of Anadune

An example sentence illustrating Adûnaic grammar: it is a copula (a “to be” expression) without an explicit verb for “is” (SD/428). The subject of the sentence, Ar-Pharazônun, is in the subjective case, which represents the verb “to be”. The rest of the sentence, Bâr ’nAnadûnê “Lord of Anadune (Númenor)” is the predicate and is in the normal-case. This sentence also provides an example of the use of the genitive prefix an- “of”, here elided to ’n because of the preceding uninflected noun.

Ar-Pharazôn

Ar-Pharazôn

Pharazôn means "Golden" in Adûnaic, and is derived from the word pharaz, 'gold'.