Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 - Duals

The Dual[/b]
 
‘Dual’ is another way to make something plural in Elvish,where rather than there being many things- there are only two. These two mustusually be a natural pair to receive the dual ending, though.
 
To make something ‘dual’ you can add a ‘u’ or a ‘t’[/b] to the end. Euphony, orwhat sounds best, is usually used to determine which letter to use. ‘u’ is used to show natural pairs.
 
Atta ciryar(two ships)      or        Ciryat (apair of ships) vs. Ciryu
 
When the ‘u’ is added to the end of a word, an ‘a’ at theend is dropped.
 
Aldu (the pair of trees in Valinor) – This could not be aldauor aldaru.
 
Some other natural pairs- also notice how sometimes stressesdrop or letters are added to help the word fit the language better. Thesechanges often occur because of rules in Primitive Elvish that made certainendings drop. When necessary, I’ll tell you how to change certain words likethat. See ‘hen’:
 
            ‘peu’ (a pair of lips / kiss) from‘pè’ (lip)
            ‘rancu’ (pair of arms) from ‘ranco’ (arm) 
            ‘verno’/’vessë’ (husband, wife) = veru( a married couple)
 
(Remember what Legolas said atHelm’s Deep about shooting below the arm? You can seethe connection between Sindarin and Quenya already! I believe he said something like ‘nu i ranc’-but I don’t know Sindarin well yet.)
 
            talu (a pair of feet) from ‘tàl’ (foot)
 
            *hen(hand)      ‘hendi’(hands)….’hendu’ (pair of hands)
            This willalways be shown by ‘hen(d-)’ which shows that a ‘d’must be added before adding any ending to the word. These sorts of words happenwhen Primitive Elvish rules only allowed certain letters to end a word.
 
 
 
Stem Variation!![/b]
 
Words like ‘hen’:
 
            Talan(talam-) (floor)      Talami (floors)
            Filit(filic-) (small bird)     filici (small birds)
 
Stem variations that make you shorten words. These are very very rare, and I (and the dictionary at ardalambion)will always say how to make weird words like these plural.:
 
            Sindel (grey elf) is short for sindelda– the plural becomes sindeldi[/b],rather than sindeli or even sindeldar.This should probably apply to all elf types ending with ‘el.’
 
            Silmaril (jewel crafted by Fëanor)was shortened from Silmarille. The plural becomes Silmarilli rather than Silmarili.
 
            Feren (beech tree) has the plural ferni
            Laman (animal) has the plural lamni
 
Just like when making plurals, when adding endings tocertain vowels, they sometimes change. The two changes are ‘e’ to ‘i’ and ‘o’ to ‘u’.
 
            Lòmë (a night) = lòmit (a pair ofnights) rather than lòmu
            Rusco (a fox) = ruscut ( a couple of foxes)
 
Luckily[/i][/b], all of thiscraziness is not very common! Tolkien didn’t evenfinish planning much of the dual pluralizing rules. I wouldn’t blame you forjust sticking ‘atta’ in front of every thing thatneeded to be a pair. In any case, here are the exercises.
 
 
 
Vocabulary atta"two"hen (hend-)"eye"
ranco"arm"
ando"gate"
cirya"ship"
aiwë"bird"
talan(talam-) "floor"
nér(ner-) "man" (adult male of any race)
nís(niss-) "woman" (adult female of any race)
sar(sard-) "stone" (a small rock – not material)
alda"tree"
oron(oront-) "mountain"
 
 
 
Exercises 
1. Translate into English:
 
A. Hendu
B. Atta hendi (and answer:what is the difference between this and henduabove?)
C. Aldu
D. Atta aldar (and answeragain: what is the difference between this and Alduabove?)
E. Minë nér ar minënís.
F. I sardi.
G. Talami.
H. Oronti.
 
 
2. Translate into Quenya:
 
I. Two ships (justany two ships that happen to be seen together)
J. Two ships (thathappen to be sister ships)
K. Arms (the twoarms of one person)
L. Two mountains (within the same range; Twin Peaks, if you like – use a dual form)
M. Double gate (usea dual form)
N. Two birds (that have formed a pair)
O. Two birds (just any two birds)
P. Men and women[/b]
 [/b]
 [/b]
 [/b]
 [/b]
Answers!![/b]
 
1.
A. (Two) eyes, (natural pair of) eyes.
B. Two eyes (= attahendi, referring to "two eyes" onlycasually related, like two eyes of two different persons, one eye from each.The dual  form hendu, on the other hand, refers to a natural pairof eyes.)
C. Two trees.
D. Two trees (= attaaldar, referring to any two trees. Aldu, on the other hand, refers to some kind ofclosely related pair of trees, like the Two Trees of Valinorin Tolkien's mythos.)
E. One man and one woman.
F. The stones.
G. Floors.
H. Mountains.
 
2.
I. Atta ciryar.
J. Ciryat.
K. Rancu (ifthe example peu "pair of lips"holds, the dual ending -u rather than -t is always used in thecase of bodyparts occurring in pairs, even wherethere is no d or t in the noun)
L. Orontu (sinceoron "mountain" has the stem oront-, a t turning up in the word, the dualending would be -u rather than -t)
M. Andu (ending-u rather than -t because of the d occurring in this word)
N. Aiwet.
O. Atta aiwi.
P. Neri ar nissi.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment