nengwe

noun. nose

A word for “nose” in The Etymologies written around 1937, derived from ᴹ√NEÑ-WI (Ety/NEÑ-WI), an elaboration of the shorter root ᴹ√NEÑ (EtyAC/NEÑ-WI). Given its primitive form, its stem ought to be nengwi-, but in attested compounds this word is consistently nengwe-, so perhaps Tolkien changed his mind on its primitive form.

Conceptual Development: The earliest percursor to this word seems to be ᴱQ. nen (neng-) “nostril” in several documents from the 1920s (PE14/72; PE15/75; PE16/113), whose dual nenqi was also used for a “nose” of one person (PE14/76; PE15/75). In the Declension of Nouns from the early 1930s, Tolkien had nin (ning-) “beak, nose” < ᴹ✶nengǝ (PE21/26), though this phonetic shift of short e to i is rather unusual and seems to be limited to this document.

nengwea

adjective. nasal

A word for “nasal” in The Etymologies from the 1930s, simply an adjectival form of ᴹQ. nengwe “nose” (Ety/NEÑ-WI). It also appeared in the version of Tengwesta Qenderinwa from the 1930s (TQ1) as a nominalized plural Nengwear “nasals”, labeling the nasal row of a chart of sounds (PE18/30).

nengwetanwa

adjective. nasal-infixed

nengwetehta

noun. nasal sign

nin

noun. nose, beak