Akallabêth is an Adûnaic word meaning "She that hath Fallen" (from the verb kalab, meaning 'fall down'). The Quenya translation of this word is Atalantë, derived from the verbal stem talat. Akallabêth/Atalantë was also a general name for the island of Númenor after its Downfall. The Exiles became reluctant to speak of the land by any other name, or indeed much at all; but at times "they turned towards the West in the desire of their hearts" and remembered Akallabêth, their former home
Adûnaic
akallabêth
proper name. Downfallen
Changes
- Akallabê → Akallabêth ✧ SDI2/Akallabêth
Cognates
Element in
- Ad. ēphalek īdōn akallabēth “far away lo!now is She-that-is-fallen” ✧ SD/312
- Ad. êphal êphalak îdô hi-Akallabêth “far far away now (is) She-that-hath-fallen” ✧ SD/247
Elements
Word Gloss kalab- “to fall (down)” -êth “feminine suffix” Variations
- Akallabēth ✧ SD/247
- akallabēth ✧ SD/312
- Akallabê ✧ SD/375; SDI2/Akallabêth
Akallabêth
Akallabêth
The Adûnaic name of Númenor after its fall, the equivalent of Q. Atalantë (S/281). Tolkien usually translated this word as “Downfallen”, but its literal meaning was “(She) That Has Fallen” (PE17/111, SD/247). The final element -êth seems to be a feminine suffix, also seen in Arminalêth. The middle element -kallab- seems to be the past formation kallaba of the verb kalab- “to fall (down)”. The function of the initial a- isn’t clear, but it may be some sort of perfective augment, as seen in the Quenya perfect tense; see the discussion of the Adûnaic draft-perfect for more information.
Other Interpretations: Carl Hostetter and Patrick Wynne suggested (VSH/36) that the prefix a- is probably some kind of emphatic suffix rather than evidence of another verb tense. Thorsten Renk proposes (NBA/39) that the a- is a relative pronoun “that”, analogous to Q. ya, which is an interesting possibility.