Etymology: Isengard and Helms Deep

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I can't place it, but I definitely have a recollection of Tolkien, somewhere, saying that he constructed (the little bit of) Khuzdul vocabulary from triconsonantal bases, similar to Semitic languages.

The Ardalambion page (I know, I know) suggests there is some discussion of Khuzdul structure in Vinyar Tengwar #48, but also drops two HoME abbreviations that show up so rarely I couldn't place them at first: RS and TI: The Return of the Shadow & The Treason of Isengard.

Those two books repeatedly refer (eg, RS:466, TI:174) to a set of notes written "long after" LotR. Christopher doesn't provide the text, but in his discussion he gives several triconsonantal bases, once in JRRT's own words: "that NRG was Khuzdul for 'black' is seen in the Dwarf-name for Mordor: Nargun."

My guess is that VT48 provides the full text of those notes; apparently it comes up as part of a discussion of the name of the river Lhûn.

hS