Black Speech

[Morgoth]

I was just wondering whether anyone knew if Tolkien had thought about the language of Black Speech as much he did as Quenya, and whether any documents existed of how to learn Black Speech. I mean, I can only deduct so much from the Black Speech inscription on the One Ring (see signature), for example
Nazg- Ring
Ash- One
uluk- Them All
ul- Them
uk-All
Agh-And
etc.....
So therefore:
Nazgul- Those with the rings. Correct?
Or hideously wrong?

 

[Gil-Galad]

Well this may provide you some interesting things about the Black Speech:

The inscription on the Ring was in the ancient Black Speech," Appendix F informs us, "while the curse of the Mordor-orc...was in the more debased form used by the soldiers of the Dark Tower, of whom Grishnâkh was the captain. Sharku [sic, read sharkû?] in that tongue means old man." (Does "that tongue" mean Black Speech as such or the debased form? The wording is not perfectly clear, but probably the latter. In the footnote in LotR3/VI ch. 8, sharkû - the origin of Saruman's nickname Sharkey - is said to be "Orkish".)

Our sole example of pure Black Speech, then, is the inscription on the Ring: Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them." (LotR1/II ch. 2) Nazg is "ring", also seen in Nazgûl "Ring-wraith(s)". Ash is the number "one", agh is the conjuction "and", disturbingly similar to Scandinavian og, och. Burzum is "darkness", evidently incorporating the same element búrz, burz- "dark" as in Lugbúrz "Tower-dark", the Black Speech name that Sindarin Barad-dûr translates. Hence, the -um of burzum must be an abstract suffix like the "-ness" of the corresponding English word "darkness". Burzum has a suffix ishi "in". In the transcription it is separated from burzum by a hyphen, but there is nothing corresponding in the Tengwar inscription on the Ring, so this may be considered either a postposition or a locative ending. (It is remarkably similar to Quenya -ssë and may support the theory advanced by Robert Foster in his Complete Guide to Middle-earth, that the Black Speech was to some extent based on Quenya and a perversion of it. The element burz- "dark" is also vaguely similar to the Elvish stem for "black", MOR.) Though burzum-ishi is translated "in the darkness", there does not seem to be anything corresponding to the article "the", unless it is somehow incorporated in ishi. But the evidence is that the Black Speech does not mark the distinction between definite and indefinite nouns; see below.

In the word durbatulûk "to rule them all" the morphemes may be tentatively segmented as durb-at-ul-ûk "rule-to-them-all" (the alternative is durb-a-tul-ûk, but suffixes of the pattern vowel-consonant create a tidier system; remember that we are dealing with a constructed language). Similarly we have gimb-at-ul "find-to-them", thrak-at-ul-ûk "bring-to-them-all" and krimp-at-ul "bind-to-them". Verbs with the ending -at are translated by English infinitives: durbat, gimbat, thrakat, krimpat = "to rule, to find, to bring, to bind". Hence we may speak of verbs in -at as infinitives, though it may also be a specialized "intentive" form indicating purpose: The Ring was made in order to rule, find, bring and bind the other Rings of Power. The Black Speech does not only employ a suffix -ul to express "them", but also, and more remarkably, a suffix rather than a separate word to express "all": -ûk.

by H. K. Fauskanger
well if you are really interested in Black Languages you can find more information about them here(a wonderful lecture I would say):

http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/orkish.htm

 

[arisen pheonix]

i was told that Tolkien did not elaborate on the black speach as he did elvish....how true this is i have no idea

 

[Morgoth]

Thank you, Gil-Galad, for that exceptional link, it has been of great help. I think the Black Speech sounds great, really dark and threatening. So that page will keep me amused for some time.

 

[Helcaraxë]

Yes, I enjoy the Black Speech as well. However, our knowledge of it is unfortunately very limited.

MB

 

[Inderjit S]

Tolkien, would not, of course want to go into the same detail with the Black Speech as he did with Sindarin and Quenya. The Elven languages were beautiful whereas the Black Speech was filthy and repulsive.

The fact that the main characters didn't speak Black Speech and that the Númenórean or Elven scribes would know little about the Black Speech would have added to the *lack* of knowledge of the Black Speech.

 

[Helcaraxë]

True, but wouldn't Tolkien, being the world's finest philologist, want to expand on even the most vulgar language to make a "linuistically consistent" story? If Sauron's servants only spoke the fifteen-odd words that we know, they'd be in a bit of a fix.

MB

 

[Belegmacar]

i was told that Tolkien did not elaborate on the black speach as he did elvish....how true this is i have no idea

If JRRT was to build the vocabulary of the Orcs higher than that of the Elves, he would really be putting the emphasis on the wrong people...obviously he did not. Tolkien was also quite fond of the Elves.

True, but wouldn't Tolkien, being the world's finest philologist, want to expand on even the most vulgar language to make a "linuistically consistent" story? If Sauron's servants only spoke the fifteen-odd words that we know, they'd be in a bit of a fix.

There are more words in the Black Speech than 15, but much less than the hundreds of Quenya and Sindarin words. There isn't a conversational vocabulary for them, though, of course.

 

[Gil-Galad]

http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/valarin.htm

This link will show you some interesting things about the language of the Valar.

 

[Scatha]

http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/

If one just follows the main link, you will be able to retrieve more.

One of the more expansive sites on Tolkiens languages is this site:
http://www.ardalambion.com

Enjoy.

 

[Gil-Galad]

That is a wonderful link Scatha!!!!!!!!!

 

[AraCelebEarwen]

I think I know someone who might be interested in seeing this thread.

And as far as I can tell, all the links still work!