Etymology: Isengard and Helms Deep

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Tar Elenion

"Khuzdu^l, the tongue of the Dwarves, did not tolerate to initial consonants. But a name such as sulu^n or salo^n would fit the Dwarvish word-formation from the base SLN 'fall, descend swiftly'. The upper course of the Lune was very steep and swift, and no doubt had been so in older days."
VT 48.24

That's a lot shorter than I'd hoped. It does make it clear that Khuzdul words are formed from three-consonant bases, but it's not the sort of explicit statement WCH mentioned. The "set of notes" still seems to be missing, as does any direct documentation of the mention in HoME XII (PM:300) that "this tongue has been sketched in some detail of structure, if with a very small vocabulary". It's unclear to me whether Ardalambion's repeated use of "radicals" to describe the root consonants is from Tolkien, or is just the term as used for Semitic roots.

EDIT: Ah, here we go: Carl Hostetter has seen the notes, and confirms that they were unpublished as of 2004. I guess they're down the same "we will publish them eventually" rabbit-hole as the Taliska grammar. As of a year ago, Parma Eldalamberon is still a going concern (elsewhere I've seen mentions of the next issue maybe coming 2023), so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

hS