bel

root. *befriend, love

This unglossed root appears only as an element in the name Azrubêl “Friend of the Sea, Sea-lover” (SD/305). It has a sense similar to that of ✶Ad. √ZIR “love, desire”. Perhaps it is distinct from ✶Ad. √ZIR in that it has more to do with friendship than desire. It could be distantly related to the elvish root √MEL, perhaps ✶mel- > ✶mbel- > ✶bel- in the Avari tongue that influenced Primitive Adûnaic, but this is purely speculative.

This root also contradicts statements by Tolkien elsewhere that Primitive Adûnaic only had the vowels a, i and u. Perhaps it should be ✱BIL, as with ✶Ad. √BITH “say” the primitive root of Ad. bêth “expression, saying, word”.

Derivatives

• Ad. bêl- “*to befriend, love”

asad

root. ?

An otherwise unexplained root Tolkien gave to illustrate a pronunciation example (SD/421). It may not be a real root. If it is real, it is either a biconsonantal-root with vowel-prefixion or a triconsonantal-root with a lost initial consonant such as [ɣ] or [ʔ].

Derivatives

• Ad. asdi “[unglossed]” ✧ SD/421

nak

root. ?

An otherwise unexplained root that Tolkien used to illustrate the processes of Primitive Adûnaic word formation (SD/422-3). It may have no real meaning. Even if it were, certainly only a few of its derivatives could be real words in Classical Adûnaic.

Variations

• NAK- ✧ SD/422

sapad

root. ?

An otherwise unexplained root Tolkien gave to illustrate a pronunciation example. It may not be a real root.

Derivatives

• Ad. sapda “[unglossed]” ✧ SD/421