View source for Adûnaic

{{short description|Fictional language in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Adûnaic
|creator=[[J. R. R. Tolkien]]
|setting=[[Fantasy]] world of [[Middle-earth]]
|fam1=[[constructed language]]s
|fam2=[[artistic language]]s
|fam3=[[fictional language]]s
|fam4=[[languages of Arda]]
|posteriori=[[a priori language]], but related to other [[languages of Arda]]
|iso3=none
|glotto=none
|ietf = [https://www.kreativekorp.com/clcr/ art-x-adunaic]
}}

'''Adûnaic''' (or '''Númenórean''') ("language of the West") is one of [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|the fictional languages]] devised by [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] for his fantasy works.

One of the [[languages of Arda]] in Tolkien's [[Middle-earth]] [[Tolkien's legendarium|legendarium]], Adûnaic was spoken by the [[Man (Middle-earth)|Men]] of [[Númenor]] during the [[Second Age]]. By the time of the [[War of the Ring]] at the end of the [[Third Age]], it had developed into the common speech or [[Westron]].

==Fictional history==

Adûnaic was invented by the first Men as they awoke in  Hildórien. It was the language of [[Númenor]],<ref>{{ME-ref|Silm|p. 313, entry for Adûnakhor}}</ref> and after its destruction in the [[Akallabêth]], the "native speech" of the people of [[Elendil]] in the kingdoms of Arnor and [[Gondor]] in the west of Middle-earth, though they usually spoke the Elvish language [[Sindarin]]. By the time of the [[War of the Ring]], it had developed into the common speech or [[Westron]].<ref name="Hammond Scull 2005">{{ME-ref|RC|pp=16, 78–79, 686}}</ref> Tolkien called Adûnaic "the language of the culturally and politically influential Númenóreans."<ref name="Solopova 2009"/>

== Concept and creation ==

{{further|Númenor}}

Although Tolkien created very few original words in Adûnaic, mostly names, the language serves his concept as the ancestor of a [[lingua franca]] for [[Middle-earth]], Westron, a shared language for [[Middle-earth peoples|many different peoples]].<ref name="Solopova 2009">{{ME-ref|Solopova|pp. 70, 84}}</ref>

Tolkien devised Adûnaic (or Númenórean), the language spoken in [[Númenor]], shortly after World War II, and thus at about the time he completed ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', but before he wrote the linguistic background information of the Appendices. Adûnaic is intended as the language from which [[Westron]] (also called ''Adûni'') is derived.
This added a depth of historical development to the Mannish languages. Adûnaic was intended to have a "faintly Semitic flavour".<ref name="sauron_defeated">{{ME-ref|Sauron Defeated|pp. 241, 247–250, 413–440}}</ref> Its development began with his 1945 work ''[[The Notion Club Papers]]''. It is there that the most extensive sample of the language is found, revealed to one of the (modern-day) protagonists, Lowdham, in a visionary dream of [[Atlantis]]. Its grammar is sketched in the unfinished "Lowdham's Report on the Adunaic Language", included in ''[[Sauron Defeated]]''.<ref name="sauron_defeated"/>
 
Tolkien remained undecided whether the language of the Men of Númenor should be derived from the original Mannish language (as in Adûnaic), or if it should be derived from  "the Elvish Noldorin" (i.e. [[Quenya]]) instead.<ref>{{ME-ref|Peoples|p. 63}}</ref> In ''[[The Lost Road and Other Writings]]'' it is implied that the Númenóreans spoke Quenya, and that [[Sauron]], hating all things Elvish, taught the Númenóreans the old Mannish tongue they themselves had forgotten.<ref>{{ME-ref|LROW|p. 68 and note p. 75}}</ref>

==Phonology==

The phonology is as follows:<ref name="sauron_defeated"/>

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
! &nbsp;
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[stop consonant|Occlusive]]
| {{IPA|p}} {{IPA|b}}
|
| {{IPA|t}} {{IPA|d}}
|
| {{IPA|k}} {{IPA|ɡ}}
|
|-
! [[Fricative]]
| {{IPA|f}}
| {{IPA|θ}}
| {{IPA|s}} {{IPA|z}}
|
| {{IPA|x}}
| {{IPA|h}}
|-
! [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| {{IPA|m}}
|
| {{IPA|n}}
|
| {{IPA|ŋ}}
|
|-
! [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
| {{IPA|r}}
|
|
|
|-
! [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
|
| {{IPA|l}}
| {{IPA|j}}
| {{IPA|w}}
|
|}

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
||{{IPA|i}} {{IPA|iː}}||{{IPA|u}} {{IPA|uː}}
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
||{{IPA|eː}}<sup>1</sup>||{{IPA|oː}}<sup>1</sup>
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
|colspan=2|{{IPA|a}} {{IPA|aː}}
|}
<sup>1</sup><small>Adûnaic is fundamentally a three-vowel language, with a length distinction; the long {{IPA|eː}} and {{IPA|oː}} are derived from diphthongs {{IPA|aj}} and {{IPA|aw}}, as is the case in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and in most [[Varieties of Arabic|Arabic dialects]], in line with the Semitic flavour that Tolkien intended for both Adûnaic and Khuzdul, which influenced it.</small>

== Grammar ==
Most information about Adûnaic grammar comes from an incomplete typescript ''Lowdham's Report on the Adûnaic Language'', written by Tolkien to accompany ''The Notion Club Papers''.<ref name="sauron_defeated"/> The report discusses phonology and morphological processes in some detail, and starts to discuss nouns, but breaks off before saying much about verbs, other parts of speech or the grammar as a whole. It appears that Tolkien abandoned work on the language after writing this portion of the Report, and never returned to it.<ref name=sauron_defeated/>

=== Nouns ===

Most Adûnaic nouns are triconsonantal, but there are a number of biconsonantal nouns as well. Nouns can be divided into three declensions, called Strong I, Strong II and Weak. The two strong declensions form their various cases by modifying the last vowel, similarly to English ''man/men''. The weak declension forms its cases by appending a suffix.<ref name="sauron_defeated"/>{{rp|413–440}}

There are three numbers, singular, plural and dual. Dual is used mainly for "natural pairs", like eyes and shoes. There are three cases, Normal, Subjective and Objective. The Subjective case is used as the subject of a verb. The Objective case is used only in compound expressions and appears only in the singular. The Normal case is used in all other circumstances, such as the object of a verb.<ref name="sauron_defeated"/>

Example declensions:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|
! Strong I
! Strong II
! Weak
|-
| Meaning
| house
| sea
| strength
|-
| Singular Normal
| ''zadan''
| ''azra''
| ''abār''
|-
| Singular Subjective
| ''zadān''
| ''azrā''
| ''abārā''
|-
| Singular Objective
| ''zadun''
| ''azru''
| ''abāru''
|-
| Dual Normal
| ''zadnat''
| ''azrāt, azrat''
| ''abārat''
|-
| Dual Subjective
| ''zadnāt''
| ''azrāt''
| ''abārāt''
|-
| Plural Normal
| ''zadīn''
| ''azrī''
| ''abārī''
|-
| Plural Subjective
| ''zadīna''
| ''azrīya''
| ''abārīya''
|}

== Sample text ==

{{further|The Notion Club Papers}}

This Adûnaic text, part of the tale of the Fall of [[Númenor]], appears in ''The Notion Club Papers''. It is fragmentary because it appeared in a dream to [[Tolkien's frame stories|Tolkien's frame story]] character Lowdham, and is only partially translated by him because he did not know the language. Words in bold are not translated at the point in the text where the translation is first given, but their translation is given later in the story.<ref name=sauron_defeated/>

{{interlinear|indent=3
|Kadō   zigūrun zabathān unakkha ... ēruhīnim
|{and so} '''[[Sauron]]'''  humbled  he-came ... {'''Children of God'''}|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|dubdam ugru-dalad    ... ar-pharazōnun azaggara
|fell   shadow-under  ... '''[[Ar-Pharazôn|Ar-Pharazon]]'''   {was warring}|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|avalōiyada     ... bārim an-adūn yurahtam dāira
|{against Powers} ... Lords of-West  broke   Earth|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|sāibēth-mā   ēruvō    ... azrīya du-phursā    akhāsada
|assent-with  '''God'''-from ... seas  so-as-to-gush {into chasm}|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|... anadūnē zīrān    hikallaba    ... bawība dulgī
|... Numenor beloved {she-fell down} ... winds  black|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|... balīk hazad an-nimruzīr azūlada
|... ships seven of-'''[[Elendil]]'''  eastward|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|Agannālō     burōda nēnud ... zāira   nēnud
|Death-shadow heavy  on-us ... longing on-us|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|... adūn izindi   batān tāidō ayadda: īdō kātha batīna lōkhī
|... west [[Old Straight Road|straight]] road  once  went    now all   roads  crooked|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|Ēphalak   īdō    Yōzāyan
|{far away} {now (is)} Land-of-Gift|}}
{{interlinear|indent=3
|Ēphal ēphalak   īdō    hi-Akallabēth
|far   {far away} {now (is)} She-that-hath-fallen|}}

== References ==

{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==

* {{cite web | work=Ardalambion | url=http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/adunaic.htm | title=Adûnaic – the vernacular of Númenor | access-date=10 January 2006 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090706090619/http://lalaith.vpsurf.de/Tolkien/Grammar.html Andreas Moehn – Lalaith's Guide to Adûnaic Grammar]
* [http://www.science-and-fiction.org/elvish/index.html#course_adunaic Thorsten Renk's ''Ni-bitha Adûnâyê'']
* [http://www.ilfossodihelm.it/id_nav8.asp?id_nav=8&id_sottonav=130#sottonav Adûnaic from Almavarno in Italian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420062748/http://www.ilfossodihelm.it/id_nav8.asp?id_nav=8&id_sottonav=130#sottonav |date=2019-04-20 }}

{{Languages of Middle-earth}}
{{Middle-earth}}
{{Constructed languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adunaic}}
[[Category:Middle-earth languages]]
[[Category:Constructed languages]]