Dual
is used for a natural pair. Body parts often come in "natural
pairs." A married couple is a pair. "Mother
and father" is a pair of parents.
Two
hands belonging to two different people are not "a pair" in
this sense. The parents of two different people are not "a
pair."
Tolkien's
directions for forming the dual are somewhat vague. All duals
end in -u or -t. One reasonable conjecture is:
-u
if the word ends in a consonant
if
the word ends in a vowel,
-u
replaces the final vowel, if the last consonant is -t
or -d
-t
after the vowel, if the last consonant is not
-t
or -d
ontar
(parent) ontaru
(mother & father)
hen
(stem hend-)
(eye) hendu
(both eyes)
alda
(tree) Aldu
(The Two Trees of Valinor)
(Two
ordinary trees would not generally be "a pair". They
would be just atta
aldar,
"two trees.")
Extra
Material for the Geeks:
Analysts
speculate that the duals, which Tolkien never listed, of arm, ranco
(stem rancu-)
and leg, telco
(stem telcu-)
are rancu
and telcu.
Practice – Your Turn
Highlight the shaded
boxes to see the answers.
a pair of:
lár
(stem lar-)(ear) laru
tál
(stem tal-)(foot) talu
occa
(knee) occat
ráma
(wing) rámat
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