[< Previous Phrase] Lament of Akallabêth [Next Phrase >]

The 12th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (VT24/12). The first word is the adverb îdô “now” and the second is the adjective katha “all”. Curiously, the adjective katha is not pluralized to agree with the noun as is the case with adjectives elsewhere in the text, including the pluralized lôkhî at the end of this very sentence.

The subject batîna “roads” is the subjective plural form of the noun batân “road, path, way”. There is no verb, so the subjective form functions as the “to be” verb (SD/429). The final word lôkhî seems to be a pluralized adjective, perhaps #lôkho.

The typescipt version has kātha instead of katha, but is otherwise identical to the manuscript except some minor differences in translation (SD/247).

[< Previous Phrase] Lament of Akallabêth (first draft) [Next Phrase >]

The first draft of the 12th phrase of the Lament of Akallabêth (SD/312). Although all of its word are similar to the final version, each has differences in grammar or spelling from the later versions of the text.

• The first word īdō is the same as in the final version, but is glossed “lo! now” instead of simply “now”.
• The adjective kathī “all” is the plural form of katha, not singular as it is in the final text, perhaps indicating a shift in the rules for adjective-noun agreement.
• The subject batānī “ways” is the normal plural form of batân, not inflected to the subjective case as it is in the final text.
• The final word rōkhī-nam “(are) bent” has the plural adjective rōkhī instead of later form lōkhī. It also use the suffix -nam “are”, likely the plural of the predicate suffix -n “is”. This probably serves the same function as the subjective inflection of the final version: to represent the “to be” verb “are”.