A preposition attested only in the phrase “on us” in the Lament of Akallabêth, changing through the drafts as nēnum >> nēnu >> nēnud (SD/247, 312). Most authors identify -nud as the prepositional element (AAD/20, LGtAG, NBA/14), perhaps related to Q. nu “under”. If so, it may be a derivative of the Elvish roots √NŪ/UNU “under” or √NDU “down”, with a semantic shift to the meaning “on”.
Adûnaic
-n
suffix. predicate suffix
-nud Reconstructed
preposition. on
attô
noun. father
A noun for “father” (SD/434). Tolkien gave two forms of this word, attû and attô, with no indication as to which would be preferred. For reasons similar to those given in the entry for ammê “mother”, my guess is that attû is an archaic form, and attô was preferred by the time of Classical Adûnaic. This word is probably related to the Elvish root √AT(AR) “father”, perhaps from Primitive Elvish ᴹ✶atū.
thâni
noun. land
A noun translated “land” (SD/435) appearing in the Adûnaic names for the Blessed Realm: Amatthâni and thâni’nAmân. Its Primitive Adûnaic form was also ✶thāni, though its primitive was glossed “realm" (SD/420).
zâyan
noun. land
An Adûnaic word for “land” (SD/423). It has an irregular plural form zâin which is the result of the phonetic change (SD/423): [[pad|medial [w] and [j] vanished before [u] and [i]]]. Thus, the archaic plural changed from †zâyîn > zâîn > zâin.
Conceptual Development: In earlier names this word appeared as zen (SD/378, 385).
-ân Reconstructed
suffix. agental suffix
A suffix that is used in some examples for agental-formation: creating nouns from verbs that indicate the agent who performs the verb’s action. The clearest example is sapthân “wise man” derived (after some ancient sound modifications) from saphad- “to understand”. This formation means “✱one who understands”. Less clear examples are ✱magân “wright, ✱builder”, perhaps from a verb ✱mag- “to build”, and kathuphazgân “conquerer”, perhaps a combined of katha “all” and a verb ?phazag- “to take”, meaning “✱one who takes all”.
It is not clear how this suffix related to the similar participle suffix -ân used for form adjectives from verbs. See the entry on participle for further discussion. Andreas Moehn suggested (EotAL/TAN) that -ân as an agental formation may be related to anâ “human being”.
-êth
suffix. feminine suffix
A feminine suffix appearing in several names, as suggested by Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynn (AAD/11). On SD/427, Tolkien said that the affix -th was often found in feminine forms.
pharaz
noun. gold
A noun meaning “gold”, the only Adûnaic word defined in The Lord of the Rings (LotR/1114).
Conceptual Development: This noun also appears in “Lowdham’s Report on the Adunaic Language” from the 1940s (SD/426).
-î
suffix. feminine suffix
A suffix used to form feminine nouns from common or masculine nouns (SD/435). Another common variant was -ê (SD/438).
-û
suffix. masculine suffix
A suffix used to form masculine nouns from common or neuter nouns (SD/435). Another common variant was -ô (SD/438).
A suffix appearing at the end of several words in the first draft of Lament of Akallabêth, variously glossed with different forms of the verb “to be”: burudan “heavy-is”, rōkhī-nam “bent-are”, īdōn “now is” (SD/312). Evidentally the suffix -n “is” is the singular form and -nam “are” is plural. The plural form probably includes the plural verbal suffix -m. This use of the suffix -n is probably no longer be valid in later versions of Adûnaic, as discussed below.
Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne suggested (VSH/36) that -nam maybe related to Q. ná- “to be”, but they fail to analyze the singular forms of the suffix. Andreas Moehn (LGtAG) does connect the singular instances of the suffix -n to the plural -nam, but without connecting it to Q. ná-. I think both authors got part of the story right: the suffixal form -na is most likely derived from the same Elvish root √NĀ as Q. ná-, losing its final a in the singular form but preserving it in the plural form when the plural suffix -m is added.
In its first two appearances in the draft version of the Lament, this suffix is attached to the predicate of a copula (a linguistic term for a “to be” expression). For that reason, the discussion here uses the term “predicate suffix” for this use of the -n suffix:
agannūlo burudan nēnum “death-shade heavy-is on-us” subject agannūlo “death-shade”, predicate buruda “heavy” + -n “is”.
īdō kathī batānī rōkhī-nam “lo! now all ways bent-are” subject batānī “ways”, predicate rōkhī “bent” + -nam “are”.
The suffix’s second two appearances in the draft version of the Lament are more ambiguous.
ēphalek īdōn akallabēth “far away lo!now is She-that-is-fallen”.
ēphal ēphalek īdōn athanātē “far far away is now the Land of Gift”.
Going by word order alone, it seems that the -n is attached to the predicate in both of these sentences as well. However, as Andreas Moehn points out (LGtAG), īdō could be the subject of both sentences if the predicates are the final word of each sentence, which is more consistent with the later subjective inflection.
In the later version of Adûnaic described in Lowdham’s Report, the suffix -n has a new function, namely as the common subjective suffix: -an/-n. This new use differs from the older one in that it applies to the subject of a copula instead of the predicate. Despite this grammatical change from draft-Adûnaic, the word form īdōn appears in all later versions of the Lament of Akallabêth except the final manuscript version.
Ēphalak īdōn Yōzāyan “far away now (is) Land of Gift” (SD/247).
Ēphal ēphalak īdōn hi-Akallabēth “far far away now (is) She-that-hath-fallen” (SD/247).
These later appearances of īdōn still have the gloss “now (is)”, so it seems possible that these they are remnants of the predicate suffix from draft Adûnaic. Moehn, Hostetter and Wynne all suggested (LGtAG, AAD/16) that these later appearances of īdōn can be reinterpreted as a subjective inflection. However, this interpretation is still problematic, since îdô would surely be a neuter instead of a common noun, whose subjective form would therefore be ✱îdôwa.
The suffix -n did not appear after īdō in the final manuscript version of the Lament, and the gloss “is” was removed as well:
Ēphalak īdō Yōzāyan “far away now Gift-land” (VT24/12).
Ēphal-ēphalak īdō hi Akallabēth “far far away now She that hath Fallen” (VT24/12).
It is my belief that Tolkien eventually decided that the suffix -n could no longer be used in this context and removed it.