Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Words 1:1

Azanulbizar kutaerbo kutaernu Azanulkizar Meneltermo

V1: The valley of shadows ('znlbzr), it is directly onward, It is straight below the shadow of your king's Pillar of Heaven.

Azanulbizar is from Tolkien. It's the Khuzdul (Dwarvish) name for the Dimrill Dale. Azan can be an adjective meaning "dark, dim" or the plural of uzn "dimness, shadow." The suffix -ul means "of" (as in the language name Khuzdul, "of the Dwarves"). Bizar means "dale or valley." Thus "the valley of shadows."

(I assume that Daymon's consonantal spelling, 'znlbzr, refers to the fact that Khuzdul, like Semitic languages, is based on triconsonantal roots. Transcribing all these words, I actually got the impression that the language had a very Semitic feel; specifically, it felt Akkadian, so much so that I actually tried looking some words up in an Akkadian dictionary. I think it's the prevalence of doubled consonants and words ending in -u. In fact, except for names, I don't believe any of Daymon's words ends in any other vowel than -o or -u.)

Kutaerbo and kutaernu apparently incorporates Noldorin taer "straight." Sindarin bo means "on," so taer-bo apparently means "straight on," here in the sense of "directly onward." Quenya nu means "under, beneath." I can't find any relevant meaning for ku in Tolkien, but based on Daymon's translation it should mean "it is."

Azanulkizar should mean "the [something] of shadows" (whatever kizar may mean), but Daymon translates it as "the shadow of" something. This doesn't seem right, since azan is plural (singular "shadow" is uzn) and is the object of "of." I don't see how a word that parallels Azanulbizar so closely can be so grammatically different. Since every other morpheme is accounted for, kizar must (if Daymon's translation is correct) mean "your king's." I can't find anything resembling this word in Tolkien, but we might very tentatively propose that it is kiz-ar, with the second element meaning "king" (as in the Adûnaic prefix ar- "king or queen"), in which case kiz- must mean "your."

Note added: In an unpublished spreadsheet, Daymon gives the alternative translation "canyon of shadows," which fits better. I'm not sure where "canyon" in particular comes from. We have so little informatio about Khuzul that we're really just guessing.

Meneltermo translated by Daymon as "Pillar of Heaven," meaning he apparently sees it as either a variant or an inflected form (unattested in Tolkien) of Quenya Meneltarma, from menel "heavens, firmament, the sky" and tarma "pillar." If termo is not a form of tarma, it could be ter-mo, the latter element of which means "(some)one" and is a suffix indicating a particular kind of person, especially one who does something. Ter is the preposition "through," possibly from a root meaning "to pierce." So an alternative translation might be "sky-piercer" or "the one who [passes] through the heavens."

So, my analysis would be as follows, with italics indicating translations for which I could find no confirmation in Tolkien.

Azan-ul-bizar: valley of  shadows
ku-taer-bo: it is straight on
ku-taer-nu: it is straight under
Azan-ul-kizar: kizar (your king?) of shadows (Daymon: the shadow of your king's / canyon of shadows)
Menel-termo: the sky-piercer (Daymon: Pillar of Heaven)

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