ᴺS. [N.] ^anu n. and adj. “male (person or animal)” (Category: Male)
N. anw n. and adj. “male (person or animal)” (Category: Male)
A word appearing as N. anw in The Etymologies of the 1930s derived from ON. anu under the root ᴹ√ƷAN “male”, where its positioning makes it appear as if it was a cognate of ᴹQ. hanu “a male (man or animal)” (Ety/ƷAN). In the original version of this entry, it was simply glossed “male”, and was initially given as (deleted) {ganw} (EtyAC/ƷAN).
Conceptual Development: Precursors to this word include G. an “person” and G. anos “man” from the Gnomish Lexicon (GL/19).
Neo-Sindarin: Most Neo-Sindarin writers adapt this word as ᴺS. anu to better fit Sindarin’s phonology. In Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary (HSD), Didier Willis suggested (as originally proposed by David Salo) that this word is most likely an adjective, the cognate of adjective ᴹQ. hanwa “male” rather than the noun ᴹQ. hanu “a male (man or animal)”. This is because it is generally believed that final -u (as in ✶ʒanu) vanishes in Noldorin/Sindarin, while the final -wa (as in ✶ʒanwa) would have developed into -u (Noldorin -w). However, I think the evidence of the loss of final -u in Noldorin is ambiguous and in fact N. anw might be a counterexample, especially since the Old Noldorin form was anu; see the entry on how final [i], [u] generally vanished for further discussion.
In any case, I think anu “male” can be used as a both a noun and an adjective for purposes of Neo-Sindarin.
References ✧ Ety/ƷAN, INI; EtyAC/ƷAN
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| ON. anu > anw | [anu] | ✧ Ety/ƷAN |
G. an¹ n. “person, -body, one, anyone, someone, they; creature” (Category: Human Being)
A word in the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s for “person”, also used pronominally as “one, anyone, someone, they” and as a suffix meaning “-body” (GL/19). It is probably derived from the same (undefined) root that is the basis for ᴱQ. anu “a male” and ᴱQ. anai “woman” (QL/31).
References ✧ GG/9; GL/19
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