Etymology: Isengard and Helms Deep

[Mithadan]

Vinyar Tengwar is now available on Amazon (at least in the US) in packs (I believe "bound" in some way, though they are short pamphlets) of 5 issues, FYI. I have several that I've acquired over the years, but I do not have VT 48.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

Vinyar Tengwar is now available on Amazon (at least in the US) in packs (I believe "bound" in some way, though they are short pamphlets) of 5 issues, FYI. I have several that I've acquired over the years, but I do not have VT 48.

Oh! They're even better in the UK - 5 volumes of 10 issues each, available on Prime for next-day(-ish) delivery.

Sooo... from a primary-source perspective, are they worth it? Looking through the title pages for the final volume on the Gateway, it contains:

• Osanwe-kenta
• Something from the Shibboleth
• Notes on 'Ore'
• Rivers & Beacon Hills
• Five Catholic prayers
• The Lord's Prayer
• Another prayer
• Additions to the Etymologies
• Eldarin Hands, Fingers, and Numerals "and related writings"
• Five volitive inscriptions
• The Turin Wrapper

... most of which is now in NoME, at least in some form. So is there enough that's of interest to anyone other than scholars of early Quenya (sorry, Etymologies, but you're very dry) to make it worth the money?

(I know there's also discussion, analysis, and articles, moreso in the earlier issues, but first and foremost I'm interested in the Tolkien.)

hS

[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

[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

[Mithadan]

Huinesoron, in response to your question above "are they worth it?" This depends upon your preference. VT focuses upon Tolkien's languages primarily, and only incidentally includes lore or philosophy, often because the latter include information of interest to the enthusiasts of the linguistics of Middle-Earth. This is discussed, in part, in the introduction to NoME (which does include versions of many of the most interesting "non-linguistic" pieces published in VT). At least a partial index is found at https://www.elvish.org/VT/shop.html at the bottom of the page.

If your focus is "lore," then the later issues, which include sections written by Tolkien himself, will be the latter issues (again, somewhat repetitive now that NoME has been published). If your interest is JRRT's languages, many of the issues will be rewarding, though Parma Eldalamberon may be a better (difficult to find and more expensive) option. Some of the earliest issues of VT have little substance at all.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

The nature and content of VT took a dramatic turn after Carl H took over and made it a journal for shorter original JRRT linguistic material (PE handling the long-form works)

[William Cloud Hicklin]

There is also this, from 'Lowdham's Report on the Adunaic Language' associated with The Notion Club Papers (HME IX):

I think [Adunaic] came under some different influence [than 'Avallonian' or Elvish]. This influence I call Khazadian; because I have received a good many echoes of a curious tongue, also connected with what we should call the West of the Old World, that is associated with the name Khazad. Now this resembles Adunaic phonetically, and it seems also in some points of vocabulary and structure; but it is precisely at the points where Adunaic most differs from Avallonian that it approaches nearest to Khazadian.

[...]

The majority of the word-bases of Adunaic were triconsonantal. This structure is somewhat reminiscent of Semitic; and in this point Adunaic shows affinity with Khazadian rather than with Nimrian [Elvish again, here the Adunaic name for it]. For though Nimrian has many triconsonantal stems (other than products of normal suffixion), such as the stem menel cited above, these are rarer in Nimrian, and are mostly the stems of nouns....