A noun for “mother” (SD/434). Tolkien gave two forms of this word,
ammî and
ammê, with no indication as to which would be preferred. However,
ammî resembles a plural word, and Tolkien elsewhere stated that such forms tended to change their final vowel to
-ê (SD/438), so my guess is that
ammî is an archaic form. This word is probably related to the Elvish root √
AM¹ “mother”. Some authors have suggested it is directly related to ᴹQ.
amme (
AAD/10,
AL/Adûnaic), but as Andreas Moehn points out (
EotAL/MAM) such basic words are rarely borrowed from other languages, so the relationship is more likely from the Primitive Elvish
root.