§ echain, Ostechain ’Town build again’, ’Newbold’ (TI:424)
This name was considered as a revision of Osgiliath.
While N. ost ’city, town with wall around’ (OS-) is clear to spot here, the word echain ’built again’ is somewhat difficult to explain. In Quenya we know several derivatives of the stem EN- ’once more, again’; in The Lord of the Rings it appears in Envinyatar ’Renewer’ and enquantuva ’shall refill’, but in Noldorin/Sindarin such an element is not attested. Instead, EN- is said to be replaced by ATA- in Sindarin because of a clash with ET- ’out’ (PE17:167).
Hence, one might rather assume the umlauted prefix ad- ’again’ (ATA-, VT45:6) here. It would then cause stop mutation of the following element. KAT- ’shape’ with EN. echedi ’fashion, shape’, pa. t. echant, echannen (< et-kat-, VT45:19) seems suitable, but the exact derivation is problematic.
Stems like KHAN- ’understand, comprehend’, KAN- ’dare’, *KHEG-, *KEG- would lead to echain just by suffixing an adjectival ending -jā or -nā. But since final -nt does not change to -n(n), KAT- would require both endings and a syncopation: *et-kat-na-jā > *ekkhadn(a)ja > *echain(n) or maybe an ending *-njā: *et-kat-njā > echain, both somewhat uncertain reconstructions. However, compare the discussion of ruin in Dant-ruin above (2.39).