S. dual nouns grammar.
Like Quenya, Sindarin once had a dual inflection, used for pairs of objects, but in Sindarin this dual has fallen out of use:
The S. duals of nouns or pronouns early became obsolete, except in written works. A case occurs in Orgalaðad “Day of the Two Trees”, but since these S. nouns were all derived from Quenya names of the 6-day week, brought from Valinor, it may be due to an attempt to imitate Q. duals, such as ciriat 2 ships. In any case -d was later lost, and so we have argonath “the group of (two) noble stones” instead of *argonad (1972 letter to Richard Jeffery, Let/427).
This Sindarin dual was derived from ✶ata the “numerative dual ending”. The other ancient (and more common) dual ending was ✶-ū, but since final vowels vanished in Sindarin this u-dual vanished completely and there are only remnants of it in fossilized forms like the dual of lheweg “ear”:
There are several clear -ad duals attested in Sindarin, however:
It is conceivable that the -ad dual remained active into the First Age (when names like Orgaladhad were introduced) and only fell out of use by the Third Age.
Conceptual Development: Tolkien mentioned an archaic dual form in the Gnomish Grammar of the 1910s that used the dual suffix -wi:
Nouns only preserve in living forms singular and plural. Traces occur of the commonest old duals but these are now confined to such as: ... mabwi “(a pair of) hands” ... talwi “feet” ... hent [or] henwi “eyes” ... hethwi “brother and sister” ... hunt (old -nt ending) “the nose (originally nostrils)”. Dual -wi, -wint, -wid [nominative, genitive, dative]. Adjectives follow in singular but without mutation (GG/10-11).
Signs of both the -wi/-ui and the -(n)t dual suffixes can also be seen in declension charts appearing in Gnomish Lexicon Slips (addendums to the Gnomish Lexicon) written towards the end of the 1910s (PE13/117-118):
Some dual forms are mentioned in the Early Noldorin Grammar of the 1920s, following roughly the same patterns:
There is also a remnant of the -(n)t dual in The Etymologies of the 1930s: the dual hent for N. hên “eye” (EtyAC/KHEN-D-E).
Examples (dual) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
#argonad | ← argonath | ✧ Let/427 | |||||||
Gwanûr | [← gwanunig] | ✧ LotR/1054 | |||||||
gwanûr | “pair of twins” | [← gwanunig] | ✧ PE17/116 | ||||||
gwanūn | “pair of twins” | ← gwanunig | ✧ WJ/367 | ||||||
lhaw | ← lhaw (dual) | ✧ PE17/62 | |||||||
lhaw | [← lheweg] | ✧ PE17/77 | |||||||
lhaw | [← lheweg] | ✧ TT17/33 | |||||||
samarad | ← sammar | ✧ VT48/20 |
Reference ✧ Let/427 ✧ dual
Element In
N. dual nouns grammar.
Examples (dual) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hent | ← hên | ✧ EtyAC/KHEN-D-E | |||||||
lhaw | “ears (of one person)” | ← lhewig | ✧ Ety/LAS² |
Element In
ᴱN. dual nouns grammar.
Examples (dual) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
him | ← hen(n) | ✧ PE13/122 | |||||||
henu | ← hen(n) | ✧ PE13/122 | |||||||
i·badui | ← bad | stop-mutation b-mutation | ✧ PE13/120 | ||||||
i·nuilent | ← duilen | stop-mutation d-mutation | ✧ PE13/120 |
G. dual nouns grammar.
Examples (dual) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
engant | ← engan | ✧ PE13/116 | |||||||
golui | ← †gôl | ✧ PE13/117 | |||||||
golew | ← †gôl | ✧ PE13/117 | |||||||
golwew | ← †gôl | ✧ PE13/117 | |||||||
gui(w) | “men” | ← gweg | ✧ PE13/117 | ||||||
henwi | “(a pair of) eyes, the eyes of one person” | [← hen] | ✧ GG/10 | ||||||
gochenwi | [← hen] | ✧ GG/10 | |||||||
henwi | “eyes (dual)” | ← hen | ✧ GL/48 | ||||||
hethwi | “a brother and sister” | [← †heth¹] | ✧ GG/10 | ||||||
mabwi | “(a pair of) hands, the hands of one person” | [← mab] | ✧ GG/10 | ||||||
gomabwi | [← mab] | ✧ GG/10 | |||||||
celelt | “2 jars” | ← ceral | ✧ PE13/116 | ||||||
talwi | “(a pair of) feet, the feet of one person” | [← tâl] | ✧ GG/10 | ||||||
godalwi | [← tâl] | ✧ GG/10 | |||||||
talwi | “feet” | [← tâl] | ✧ GG/15 | ||||||
mabwid | “hands” | [← mab] | dative | ✧ GG/11 | |||||
mabid | [← mab] | dative | ✧ GG/11 | ||||||
a·ngolui | ← †gôl | soft-mutation genitive ng-mutation | ✧ PE13/117 | ||||||
i·ngolui | ← †gôl | soft-mutation genitive ng-mutation | ✧ PE13/117 | ||||||
na·ngolui | ← †gôl | soft-mutation genitive ng-mutation | ✧ PE13/117 | ||||||
dalwint | “feet” | [← tâl] | soft-mutation genitive t-mutation | ✧ GG/11 |
References ✧ GG/10-11