Ad. common-nouns grammar.
Common nouns are used for animals and people in cases where no sex is specified (SD/426). They are also used for the names of the races of people, such as Adûnâ “Númenórean", Nimir “Elf" or uruk “Orc”. Many common nouns can be converted to masculine-nouns or feminine-nouns by adding the suffixes -î (feminine) or -û (masculine) or their variants -ê and -ô (SD/434).
According to Tolkien, common nouns have the same general form as neuter-nouns (SD/427). This means that they favor a as their last vowel, cannot have long î or û as their last vowel and cannot have a final long -ô or -ê. There are a number of seemingly common nouns that contradict this statement, however: khô “crow”, manô “spirit”, nûph (or nîph) “fool”. Perhaps such formations were merely rare with common nouns rather than completely forbidden as with neuter nouns.
| Examples (common) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #Adûnâ | “Númenórean, (lit.) Westerner” | ||||||||
| anâ | “human being” | ||||||||
| *bên | “servant, ?person” | ||||||||
| #Êruhin | “Child of God” | ||||||||
| izindu-bêth | “true-sayer, prophet” | ||||||||
| kadar-lâi | “city folk” | ||||||||
| karab | “horse” | ||||||||
| khô | “crow” | ||||||||
| lâi | “folk” | ||||||||
| manô | “spirit” | ||||||||
| #miya | “infant” | ||||||||
| #narak | “eagle” | ||||||||
| Nimir | “Elf, (lit.) Shining One” | ||||||||
| #nimruzîr | “Elf-friend” | ||||||||
| nûph | “fool” | ||||||||
| nuphâr | “parent” | ||||||||
| raba | “dog” | ||||||||
| urug | “bear” | ||||||||
| uruk | “orc, goblin” | ||||||||
References ✧ SD/426-427, 432, 434
Element In