Ad. biconsonantal-verb grammar.
Tolkien states that “a few of the commonest verbal notions are expressed by biconsonantal forms, though the verb form in Adunaic is usually triconsonantal” (SD/416). Despite this statement, there are quite a few attested biconsonantal verbs, though the majority are only attested in an agental-formation: bêl-, bith-, zîr- and more ambiguously mag- and bat-. Since the vowel of verb stem is often lengthened or fortified in such formations (SD/427), it isn’t clear in all cases what the vowel of the verb stem is.
The only unambiguous biconsonantal verbs with inflections are nakh-, yad-, and in the draft Adûnaic grammar khay- and nek- (an earlier form of nakh-). Based on these forms, my best guess for the conjugations of biconsonantal verbs is as follows:
Tense | Formation | Examples |
---|---|---|
aorist | Add an -a to the verb stem | nakh- → *nakha; yad- → *yada |
continuative-present | Lengthen the vowel, add an -i to the verb stem | nakh- → nâkhi (SD/251); yad- → *yâdi |
past | Double the last consonant, add an -a to the verb stem | nakh- → nakkha (SD/247); yad- → yadda (SD/247) |
continuative-past | ? | ? |
There are no attested examples of the aorist form of a biconsonantal verb and the rules above are an educated guess based on formations for the triconsonantal-verb. There isn’t enough information on the continuative past to make even a wild guess as to its formation. See the entries for the individual verb tenses for further discussion.
Examples (biconsonantal-verb) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
*bat- | “to walk” | ||||||||
#bêl- | “*to befriend, love” | ||||||||
#bith- | “to say” | ||||||||
kan- | “to hold” | ||||||||
#khay- | “to lie (down)” | ||||||||
?mag- | “to build” | ||||||||
#nakh- | “to come” | ||||||||
#yad- | “to go” | ||||||||
zîr- | “*to love, desire” |
Reference ✧ SD/439 ✧ for example: kan “hold”
Element In