lammen

suffix. my tongue

_ n. & poss. suff. my tongue. fennas nogothrim lasto beth lammen _'doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the words of my tongue'. Q. lambenya. >> -en, lam

lammen

adjective. of tongue, spoken with tongue

An adjective for “of tongue, spoken with tongue” appearing in notes on Words, Phrases and Passages from the Lord of the Rings from the late 1950s or early 1960s (PE17/46). In Notes on Names (NN) from 1957 Tolkien instead gave lammen as the first singular possessive (“my”) form of S. lam “tongue” as part of a paradigm of possessive suffixes (PE17/46), which is more consistent with the translation “of my tongue” from The Lord of the Rings in the phrase fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen (LotR/307). The existence of the possessive form doesn’t necessarily preclude the existence of the adjective; see the discussion of Sindarin possessive pronouns for more information.

Cognates

• Q. lambina “of tongue, spoken with tongue” ✧ PE17/046

lammen

noun. my tongue

There was a long controverse between linguists, as to know whether this form was an adjective ("of the tongue, related to the tongue") or the word lam.1 with a suffixed possessive ("my"). See guren for a similar form

lammen

my tongue

lammen.

lammen

my tongue

.

-en

suffix. my

_1st sg. poss. suff. my.See also the paradigm of poss. suff. in PE17:46. Later -nin_. >> lammen, -nin

lam

tongue

_ n. _tongue. Q. lambe. >> lammen

nín

my

nín (following a noun with article: i adar nín, ”my father”). Not to be confused with nîn ”watery, wet” or as noun ”tear”, or the pl. form of nên ”water”. In a very few attested cases, the pronoun ”my” appears as an ending -en added to a noun (lammen ”my tongue”, guren ”my heart”).

nín

my

(following a noun with article: i adar nín, ”my father”). Not to be confused with nîn ”watery, wet” or as noun ”tear”, or the pl. form of nên ”water”. – In a very few attested cases, the pronoun ”my” appears as an ending -en added to a noun (lammen ”my tongue”, guren ”my heart”).

lam

noun. (physical) tongue; language, (physical) tongue; language, [G.] speech

Cognates

• Q. lambë “language, tongue, dialect” ✧ PE17/046; PE17/046; VT39/15; WJ/394
• Q. lamba “(physical) tongue” ✧ WJ/394

Derivations

• ✶lambē “tongue, language, dialect” ✧ VT39/15; WJ/394
  • √LAB “lick, move the tongue” ✧ VT39/15
  • ✶labmē “*language” ✧ WJ/416
• ✶lambā “physical tongue” ✧ WJ/394
  • √LAB “lick, move the tongue”
  • ✶labmā “*(physical) tongue” ✧ WJ/416

Element in

• S. fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen “doorway of the Dwarf-folk listen to the word of my tongue” ✧ LotR/0307; PE17/046
• S. Lammas “Account of Tongues”
• S. lammen “of tongue, spoken with tongue” ✧ PE17/046
• ᴺS. tallam “conlang”
• ᴺS. úlam “dumb, unable to speak, (lit.) untongued”

Phonetic Developments

Development	Stages	Sources
✶lambē > lam(m)	[lambē] > [lambe] > [lamb] > [lamm] > [lamm] > [lam]	✧ VT39/15
✶lambē > lam	[lambē] > [lambe] > [lamb] > [lamm] > [lamm] > [lam]	✧ WJ/394
✶lambā > lam	[lambā] > [lamba] > [lamb] > [lamm] > [lamm] > [lam]	✧ WJ/394

Variations

• lam ✧ PE17/046; WJ/394; WJ/394
• lam(m) ✧ VT39/15

lam

noun. physical tongue

nín

adjective. my

The acute accent in nín has sometimes been regarded as an error for a slanted macron in the manuscript, since all the other attested personal adjectives from Sauron defeated all have a circumflex accent. It was however noted that if the acute accent is confirmed, then this word is probably an enclitic, see HL/73. The acute accent is now confirmed by VT/44

nín

pronoun. my

Derivations

• ✶ni “I, me”

Element in

• S. ae Adar nín i vi Menel “our Father who [art] in Heaven” ✧ VT44/22
• S. alae! ered en Echoriath, ered e·mbar nín “[?behold!] the mountains of Echoriath, the mountains of my home!” ✧ UT/040; UT/054

lam

tongue

(both body-part and = ”dialect, language”) lam (pl. laim, coll. pl. lammath). (WJ:394, 416) Not: lam is also used = ”echo, voice, echoing voice”.

lam

tongue

(pl. laim, coll. pl. lammath). (WJ:394, 416) Not: lam is also used = ”echo, voice, echoing voice”.

lammas

account of tongues