-u-

suffix. objective inflection

The inflection used to mark nouns in the objective case (SD/430), used either as a suffix (for weak-nouns) or replacing the last vowel (for strong-nouns). Feminine nouns sometimes use -i- instead for their objective forms (SD/432), owing to the association of the final vowel -u with masculinity.

u

pronoun. he

A well-attested pronominal prefix, the masculine singular pronoun “he” (SD/433). See the entry on pronominal-prefixes for more discussion. Tolkien said that it had another variant hu- (SD/433), but this variant was only appears in the early and rejected hunekkū, which was changed to unekkū (see nakh-). Tolkien further indicated that the form u- primitively had an initial consonant [ɣ] or [ʔ] that was lost (SD/433).