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Neo Black Speech (Ghashnumorfîn)
Neo Black Speech (Ghashnumorfîn)
(Ghashnumorfîn)
(from Black Speech School)
Dialects
It's possible to find a plenty of different dictionaries of Arda languages. But
only few of them develop Tolkien's ideas. Some of the dictionaries are too
small, made just for fun or simply have nothing common with Black
Speech linguistics. And some good vocabularies are dead for a long time...
MERP (Middle-Earth Role Play) – I don't know the history of this dialect,
but it seems the dictionary came from The Orcish Nations site. It looks like
Svartiska without diacritic marks and with some inconsistent additions to
vocabulary. For the Slavs some words would sound almost just funny as the
ones from humorous dictionaries because of their similarity to Turkish and
Slavic words. Apparently the association of Orcish horde with Mongol-
Tartarian has played a role. There also borrowings from other Middle-East
languages. Because this dialect was created by a group of users, it contains
a lot of contradictions and too large number of synonyms and omonyms.
On the other hand MERP has very big vocabulary. Note: this dialect doesn't
contain long vovels, so you'll meet a word with them in dictionaries only in
shared entries for several dialects. In this case just omit ^ above vowel for
translation into MERP.
There also other dialects, but they are whether disappeared from the web
(as Mugbûrz) or are purely compilative. Example of the last case is Red
Hand, lead by Lugrekh. It has even more adoptations from languages of
real world including Slavic. This situation can be explained by looking at
home country of its contributors (Poland, Bulgaria). Officially Red Hand
dialect is a subset of Shadowlandian. But Lugrekh is the first one who
mixed all the dialects described above indeed. There were also Bulgarian
and Russian dialects, defunct now. Both of them were created on the basis
of LOS. Distinction is in some grammatic rules.
Sounds
Rin LO MER HOR
TK SV
g S P N
59. 55. 59. 60
Sonorants 61 57.9
1 4 7 .2
34. 34. 35.
Vowels 37.9 36.6 34.1
7 6 5
Glides 0 0 0.3 1 1.4 0.1
(j, qu, w, y)
Liquids 14. 15.
12.1 16.6 14.5 16
(l, r) 3 4
Nasals
9.1 6.4 8.2 8.4 8.5 7.7
(m, n, ng)
40. 44 40. 39.
Non-Sonorants 39 42.1
9 .6 3 8
Fricatives 15. 15.
(f, v, th, dh, s, z, sh, zh, h, gh, 15.1 17.1 13.7 17.6
kh)
1 1
Affricates
0 0 0 0.2 0 <0.1
(ch)
Stops 25. 29. 23. 24.
25.3 24.5
(p, b, t, d, c, k, g) 8 5 2 5
Syllabes
All words were splitted in syllabes. “Opened” syllabes are ended with vowel
(V) and “Closed” – with consonant (C)
Syllab
LO MER HOR
es TK SV
S P N
count
62. 37. 31.
1 34.5 37.2
3 9 9
37. 46.
2 51.4 45.2 52.8
7 8
21.
≥3 0 10.7 20.3 10
3
Conclusion
As you can see from tables above difference in sound's distribution
between dialects is small enough to consider it as statistical error. However
in syllabic structure deviation is little more sufficient. But groups of
dialects (Tolkien vs LOS and Horngoth vs. Svartiska and MERP) differ
mostly in average number of syllabes per one word.
Morphological analysis
Black Speech is considered as synthetic and agglutinative language with
suffixal derivation which means that words are grammatically modified
(inflected) by adding numerous suffixes. But Classical Black Speech has
lack of grammatical categories (no gender, few cases etc.), at least in
Tolkien examples, and very short words (one or two syllabes); sole word
stem could mean noun, present tense verb or adjective, which brings
some analyticness similar to English. Pure agglutinative languages have a
lot of grammar categories and distinct morphemes for each of them. But
modern Black Speech dialects have lack of grammar forms (even having
added some to Tolkien's inheritance) with some morphemes having dual
meaning, and some meaning several categories at once, which brings a bit
of fusional model of inflection in addition to analytic feel. Svartiska has
rich set of cases for nouns and pronouns but lacks category of person for
verbs. Shadowlandian has no cases but case postpositions (similar to
English prepositions “of”, “by”). Horngoth has perfect verb times in
addition to indefinite. Horngoth's vowel reduction in forming verbs from
nouns indicates more fusional properties. All modern dialects have
tendency to make new words by joining two existing (i.e. names for
animals) and also to spell some phrases as one word, that
signifies polysynthetic derivation. But after all in my opinion Black Speech
is still agglutinative language, with strong analytic properties however.
Swedish two-man band Za Frûmi comes even further. Their debut album
“Za Shum Ushatâr Uglakh” (The Great Warrior Uglakh) contains
compositions with orcs talking! They used Svartiska dialect of course. Only
3 of 7 albums has Black Speech, on the last releases the band started to use
other languages of their created world.
There are also a lot of bands using Black Speech words in their names
(these bands plays Black Metal as a rule), The most famous of them is
Burzum of course. But these artists didn't go further than citing Ring verse
and inventing names for themselves.
Lessons
Introduction
Scatha
Note from author of this site: I let myself change the order of lessons
according to my point of view about their difficulty and consistency.
Lessons marked with asterisk are written by me. My notes to Scatha's
original lessons are marked with different font. Lessons for russian- and
english-speaking users are different because of distincts in grammar and
phonetics. Language-specific parts of lessons are marked with a flag and
dashed border (all of russian-specific parts and some of english-specific
parts are mine).
WARNING: however dictionaries featured here contain words from
almost all dialects of Black Speech, grammatical rules of these lessons are
applicable only to Shadowlandian dialect (LOS).
“One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring
to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”
There is also an orc curse by Tolkien, which appears in Book 3 of The Two
Towers:
“Ugluk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob bûb-hosh
skai!” which is translated as:
Apparently Tolkien later forgot that he had already translated the orc curse
and so made up a new translation:
This dictionary, which was created for the Mordor, Land of Shadows
Message Board (abbreviated “LOS”), uses both translations. I decided to do
this for several reasons: first, we have so little original JRRT Black Speech,
that I thought it would be best to follow both translations, even if the
results can be a little confusing. Second, I noticed that folks on that
Message Board were already mixing up the two translations, so I decided
just to go with the flow. Third, using both translations gives us a little more
flexibility with the vocabulary. Finally, the orcs in Mordor were constantly
fighting over stupid, trivial causes, so I didn't think it would be a problem
to mix things up a bit more by creating confusion with word meanings.
Other than the phrases above (and about half a dozen orc names invented
by Tolkien), all phrases and words are new and were invented by people
other than JRRT. The dictionary that comes with these lessons was partly
based on A. Appleyard's work, which appears in this
site: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/misc/local/TolkLang/articles/Appleyard.Bla
ckSpeech (I placed a readable copy of this document here).
My dictionary also uses ideas from the Ardalambion site. I don't know the
name of the author: http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/orkish.htm -- and
on this one by Craig
Daniel: http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/blackspeech.htm. But my
impression is that Daniel's work is controversial, and I don't agree with
everything he says. Still, his ideas on pronunciation and on Black Speech
sounds and letters are correct. The English-Orcish dictionary was based on
the work of Rob Eaglestone, also a contributor to Tolklang. A word of
caution: several online RPG groups have created new words and phrases.
Because many of these people are making up the words to suit their
activity, not to conform with Tolkien's language or grammar, these sites are
not completely reliable as guides to Tolkien's ideas. Some are better than
others, so be careful. For other URL's, please see the dictionary.
I will try to avoid technical terms (because I don't know many) but I do
think it would be helpful to have a basic understanding of English grammar
before you begin.
One other point: Sauron invented the original Black Speech. This language,
which he mostly drew from the ancient languages of Arda, is
considered Classical Black Speech (abbreviated CBS). The Ring inscription
is the only example we have of CBS. The orc curse is an example
of Debased Black Speech (DBS), which is a mixture of CBS, orcish dialects,
and so on. As stated in the appendix to LOTR, the orcs spoke a debased
version of CBS. I am assuming that the Black Speech in this dictionary and
in these lessons is basically Debased Black Speech, and will therefore allow
for small variations and errors.
Here is a very quick overview of Black Speech grammar, to get you started:
Black Speech has no articles, either definite (the) or indefinite (a, an). All
verbs are quite regular. Sentences appear to be constructed similarly to
English: subject–verb–object (Lat bugd Uruk = you call the Uruk). BS
differs from English in that adjectives and adverbs follow the words they
modify. (Lat bugd Uruk gothurz = you call the powerful Uruk.) By the way,
misplacing adjectives seems to be the most common mistake beginners
make – be careful always to put the adjective after the word it modifies.
In Black Speech prepositions like to, of, in, by are suffixed to the word they
modify (for example, Mordor-ishi = in Mordor; Gondor-ob = of Gondor,
Saruman-irzi = by Saruman). You might already have noticed that the orc
was using poor grammar in his curse, when he said “Ugluk u bagronk”. He
should have said, “Ugluk bagronk-u”. This is a good example of orc
grammatical sloppiness, but such mistakes occur frequently in orc speech.
Feel free to use this information any way you like, but please be careful to
give the appropriate credit to all the various web sites/inventors who have
contributed to the development of Black Speech. I would appreciate any
feedback or criticism of these lessons or the dictionary. Please email me at
[email protected]. Thanks!
How to use these lessons
The lessons are more or less in order of difficulty. The second set, 6–10,
includes some tricky exercises and grammatical rules. I have not yet
worked out the third set, but obviously that will be even more difficult. It
might be very helpful to have on hand a basic book on English grammar.
Good luck!
Pronouncing Consonants
The following consonants are pronounced more or less as they appear in
English: b, d, f, g, h, k, m, n, p, qu, s, t, z.
a little harder, more like the Italian, not the softened American versions.
For example, pronounce these letters the way you would at the beginning
back of the throat, as though you were “gargling”. Tolkien made a special
point of this; apparently the elves hated both pronunciations and found
them ugly.
American English).
GH. (As I know this cluster appears in Italian before e and i only, and
pronounced as usual “g”. It's used for distinction from ge and gi where
assume that it sounds like softened, devoiced “g” at the end of the words
(something like modern Greek, Russian, Spanish) or voiced “h”, but
The clusters thr, kr, gl, sk usually occur at the beginnings of words,
and zg, mb, mp, rz, nk at the ends of words, at least according to the
The Ardalambion author has also assumed that the following sounds
include: dh (like the English “the”) and zh (as in “pleasure”). Some other
sounds he has suggested are dhl, zg, ls, rs, lz, ng, and sk (ng would be
like that of the English word “ring”). I assume BS also contains the sound
“mp” (as in “dump” = doom). Just remember that unlike in English, the L
problem is that it appears at the end of some words too, where aspirated
separate sounds.
probably be pronounced like the u in “put”. The long û (also spelled uu)
short a and the long aa, although it's only one of length, not
or the lessons.
Once again, Scatha forgot about some other sounds. Probably words with
long vowels “î” (as in “cheese”) and “ô” (English “more”) were added in
dictionary later. All long vowels with ^ often spelled as double: aa, ii, oo,
uu.
In two words I've also found a semi-vowel “y” which is pronounced like
very short i (as in “yoga”). Many words of Svartiska use “j” which sounds
Stress
Because this is an invented language, rules for stress are simple and
regular; in fact, most Black Speech words consist of only one syllable. In
words of more than one syllable, the syllables should be stressed rather
evenly. You do stress the first syllable, but the stress should not be
exaggerated. When you add a suffix (like -hai or -ishi), then stress the
suffix. The stressed syllable in the examples below is in bold. Again,
remember: the accent marks over the long u and long a are only indicative
of the length of the vowel, not of stress. (So Nazgûl would be pronounced
with the stress on the first syllable, but with a long “u” sound).
Uruk (orc)
uruk-hai (orc-people)
Mordor
Mordor-ishi (in Mordor)
Nazgûl (Ring Wraith)
Nazgul-ob (of the Ring Wraith)
Exercise
Pronounce the following words. Check your pronunciation against the rules
above.
Plural nouns
There are only three simple rules for pluralizing nouns.
Names for races or people are never pluralized. For example, the
word Nazgul is both singular and plural. The word Uruk is both singular
and plural. If you wanted to say “bring the three uruk”, you would simply
say, “Thrak Uruk gakh”. If you are talking about an entire race of people,
use the suffix -hai, which means peoples or folk. So uruk-hai means “the
uruk-people”, olog-hai means “the troll-people”, and so on.
Nouns ending in consonants become plural by adding “u” (note that this is
the short u, not û). Nazg, (ring) = singular, nazgu = plural.
Nouns ending in vowels become plural by adding “z”. (goi = city, goiz =
cities). There are very few Black Speech nouns that end in a vowel.
Exercise
Pluralize the following nouns:
goi (city)
mau (warrior)**
mokum (hatred)
sharkû (old man)
duf (knife)
lug (tower)
hont (hand)
ronk (pit)
shara (human man)
krimp (rope)
golug people (elf)
goth (lord)**
horn (beast)
olog (troll)
ufum (fear)
** note that words for people, like warrior or goth, do not take a plural.
Declension
Basing on different plural suffices I suppose that Black Speech nouns have
two declensions. 1st for consonant-ending nouns and 2nd for vowel-
ending.
Cases
English has only two noun cases: the common and the possessive.
Shadowlandian Blackspeech had only the first. So if you want to say “orc's
axe”, you should say “pilik uruk-ob” = “axe of orc”. Svartiska dialect has
seven cases! It's too hard for the most students and confronts with idea
about simplicity and regularity of Black Speech. But I think that Black
Speech case system resembles to Finnish, where there are a lot of
postpositions which take role of both prepositions and nouns' cases (like if
every preposition was used with it's unique noun case). I also propose
Oblique (or Objective) case for nouns, similar to English pronouns (“me”,
“us” etc.). It is formed by suffix -ish if the noun is ended with consonant
and by suffix -sh if it's ended with vowel. More on cases in Lesson VII.
Articles
Shadowlandian Black Speech has no articles. However some other dialects
have them. Some people use words “agh” (one) as indefinite article and
“za” (this) as definite article. They are placed before nouns in examples I
saw, but if Black Speech had articles, they should go after noun as a suffix.
Remember, confusing the articles is one the most common error of non-
English speaking people, also articles in Black Speech would not carry any
grammatical information as opposed to German or French, and Black
Speech shall be pretty simple. So don't use them.
Gender
Black Speech nouns don't have gender, as in English. But in example, for
German or Russian students it's strange. There are gender modifiers in
English (she- and -ess), but in Shadowlandian BS there is only one gender
modifier, the “-lob” suffix. It's used only with words referring to person or
sometimes animal. Example: durub – durublob (ruler – femine ruler),
sharkû – sharkûlob (old man – old woman), naur – naurlob (wolf – she-
wolf). Because “-lob” is a bad interpretation of the name “Shelob”, I offer
an alternative “-niz” taken from Quenya.
Collective Plural
The most of Black Speech linguists think that it has special Collective
Plural nouns. But some of them call -hai (people) suffix so, others are for -
ûk (all) suffix. But look, both variants are correct! In case of races (orc, elf,
human) all of them become the whole nation (-hai), and for objects,
animals or other individuals all of them are -ûk. Example: nazg – nazgu –
nazgûk (one ring – several rings – all rings).
English word “to” means also a purpose of action. As the Ring inscription
says, BS also use “-at” for indicating a purpose (“ash nazg durbatulûk” =
one ring to rule them all).
Find several other verbs in the dictionary and give the infinitive
form for each.
In Black Speech, we assume that all verbs are regular and are
conjugated in the following way:
Gimbat, to find:
gimb I find gimb we find
gimb you find (sing.) gimb you find (pl.)
gimbat he/she/it finds gimbut they find
Thrakat, to bring:
thrak I bring thrak we bring
thrak you bring (sing.) thrak you bring (pl.)
thrakat he/she/it brings thrakut they bring
Vocabulary
Some new words:
azat to kill
bugdat to call
durbat to rule
dûmpa
to doom
t
to hide / to lie
fauthat
hidden
srinkh
to gather
at
prakha
to lure
t
Exercise
Translate the following (verbs only, don't translate pronouns):
he rules
they bind
I devour
I find
they hide
I hide
you (sing.) doom
I call
we find
it brings
you (sing.) lure
you (pl.) gather
she devours*
it kills
he calls
they devour*
he devours*
you (pl.) bind
they gather
I lure
we bring
they rule
it hides
we kill
*note that the verb stem “throqu-” ends in a “u”, so you will have to add
another “u” to form the present 3rd plural or future tense: throqu, I
devour, throquub, I will devour (pronounced “throw-kwoob”). In many
European languages, it is customary to add a “u” after the “q” to indicate
the “kw” sound. In Middle Earth, of course, Black Speech would be written
in tengwar or runes, not in English letters, so the extra “u” would not be an
issue. In other words, the fact that you happen to have two “u's” together
here doesn't mean you should pronounce them as a long “uu”.
You might notice that all verb forms in this lesson are Present Simple. And
what about Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous forms? Black
Speech doesn't have them! It's very hard to understand for English
students, but evident for slavic students. I suppose you should use Past
Tense in Black Speech instead of Present Perfect, use Present Tense in
other cases. So phrases “I eat”, “I am eating” and “I have been eating (for
10 minutes)” will be all translated as “throqu”. And “I have (just) eaten”
may be translated as “throquuz”.
To be or not to be?
Most of developers of Black Speech agree with that verb “to be” should be
used much less frequent than in English or even not used at all. So
sentences like “The sky is blue” should be translated like “Nût ulb” (lit. “sky
blue”). There is no problem with omiting “is” or “are”, but what to do in
other tenses, when first word in such sentences is a pronoun, or when both
words are nouns? Author of Zhâburi dialect offers special grammatic
constructions for such cases, but I will stick with simplicity. While there is
no solution for this, many examples will contain “kulat” (to be) in required
tense but will be changed in the future.
Lesson V – Verbs: Future Tense
Future tenses are formed by adding the suffix “ub” to the verb stem. In
third person singular and plural, add the verb ending after “ub”. For
example:
Vocabulary
dulgat to point
fulgat to dwell
gashna to speak, to
t command
globat to fool (someone)
gundat to stand
Translation Exercise
Translate the following sentences into Black Speech:
A Little Tip
I noticed that Black Speech tenses are similar to Russian. And Russian
non-perfect future verbs are formed similar to English Future Continuous.
Therefore I've decided to copy this rule to Black Speech. So, translate
Future Continuous and Future Perfect Continuous following way: kulat (to
be) in required tense and person plus infinitive (instead of English V-ing).
Future Indefinite and Future Perfect are translated with -ub suffix as
described above. I'll give you some examples:
Adjectives are fairly simple: they do not take the gender (nor case) of the
noun they modify; they are the same for male, female, or neutral nouns.
They do agree with the noun in number, however. Plural nouns take plural
adjectives.
If the noun is plural, add the correct ending to the adjective (u for
adjectives ending in a consonant, z for adjectives ending in a vowel).
Caution: Here's a rule that might confuse you, so be careful – even though
you know that words for people or races don't take a plural, the adjectives
modifying them do take a plural. For example, uruk mokurz = the hateful
uruk. Uruk mokurzu, the hateful uruk (plural). This is done for clarity – it
is easier to understand that someone is talking about more than one orc or
more than one elf if he/she uses a plural adjective to describe that
individual.
Adjective Plur
(singular) al
kû = old kûz
kûf = ugly kûfu
lorz = stupid lorzu
snork
snork = worthless
u
uf = scary ufu
Please notice that in cases such as sharkûk (sharkû + ûk, “all the old men”)
or nazgûk (nazgû + ûk) “all the rings”, you would drop one of the û's.
Similarly, if you wanted to say, “the scary old urûk”, you would say
“urûkûf” (urûk + kû + uf). This sounds very similar to urûkuf, “the scary
urûk” (urûk + uf, an scary uruk who isn't old), except that you don't have
the long û. This may seem a little confusing at first, but it is just a matter of
practice (and absence of misspellings). The difference
between urûkûf (scary old orc) and urûkuf is just a slight difference in
pronunciation. (The best way to say “the scary old urûk” without
ambiguity is “urûkufkû”, because you can confuse original variant also
with just “ugly urûk”.)
A good rule of thumb to remember is that in Black Speech, whenever two
similar consonants or vowels meet in this way, they are usually slurred
together. This is especially true of Debased Black Speech. Later on you'll
encounter a lesson in dropping sounds, so if this frightens you now, don't
worry about it.
*Remember that this is not true of words that end in the “qu” sound.
Translation Exercise
Translate the following sentences into Black Speech:
**When you have two adjectives, use the more important one first. In this
case, it's more important to identify the men as mortal than to describe
them as evil.
Lesson VII – Pre- and Postpositions, Noun
Cases, Phrase Verbs
In Black Speech, prepositions (from, in, of, to, by, etc.) are suffixed to the
noun they modify (thus becoming postpositions). However, this rule is
often ignored in hasty speech, especially when orcs curse one another (and
for preposition “to”). The following examples are grammatically correct,
although orcs sometimes incorrectly place the prepositions before the word
when they are speaking to one another (another example of Debased Black
Speech).
Postposition Examples
I si II si II p Meaning Black Translati Remarks on usage
I pl.
ng. ng. l. Speech on
- across the
-as -zas -asu across dot-as *
zasu sea
In English it's mostly
used with phrasal verbs,
it's better to invent
off the
-bo -boz off thop-bo special translations for
rock
them. When it's not it
could be replaced with “-
ghâra” (= from).
against,
against
-bug -bugu opposite durub-bug *
the ruler
to
near,
Orodruin- next to
-dhog -dhogu next to,
dhog Orodruin
(near)by
from
-ghâra -ghâraz from Lugbûrz-ghâra
Lugbûrz
-gus -gusu about Morgoth-gus about Tell regarding, mention
Morgoth somebody or something
For approximate time of
ending an action or
interval use “-kurn” (=
around) instead. For
Postposition Examples
I si II si II p Meaning Black Translati Remarks on usage
I pl.
ng. ng. l. Speech on
approximate place use
also “-dhog” (= near).
Can be used to indicate
place (“kneel before your
lord”). When used to
indicate time, it is
supposed that action will
be definitely finished
(Perfect tenses). When
used with dependent
clauses (i.e. “before it
before, by explodes”, “before the
- (some before first beam of sun will
-ik -zik -iku agon-ik
ziku time), in dusk show up”) it's written
front of separately and
preceeding them. Because
such examples are more
often, this word has
tendency of being used as
real preposition with
nouns too, which are
placed in Instrumental
case (-irzi = by): “ik agon-
irzi” (lit.: before dusk-by).
Also marks regular time
intervals (on Mondays,
on the
-ir -r -iru -ru on anar on holidays etc.), but if
edge
you want say “on (next)
Monday” use “-shi” (= at).
Use it in passive
constructions, to indicate
usage of instrument,
means, etc. Also means
by, via,
moving or transporting
by
via some environment or
mean(s)
media: “Skâtubut dot-
of, by use
irzi” (= They will come by
of, with
sea), “hîst Internet-irzi”
- use of
-irzi -rzi -rziz grish-irzi by blood (= send via Internet, if it
irziz
existed in Middle-Earth).
(Instrume
If you mean “(near)by”
ntal or
(i.e.: by the lake) then use
Ergative
“-dhog” (= near, next to)
case
or “-or” (= at) instead. If
suffix)
you mean ending an
action by some time, then
use “-ik” (= before) or “-
zi” (= until) instead.
Postposition Examples
I si II si II p Meaning Black Translati Remarks on usage
I pl.
ng. ng. l. Speech on
Actually not a
preposition, but a marker
of direct object, which
corresponds to Accusative
case in many languages.
With nouns it is used only
to avoid ambiguity
(Accusativ
because in most
e or
- Uruk honat Orc sees sentences where is
-ish -sh -shu Objective
ishu golug-ish an elf subject and where is
case
object is clear from
suffix)
context and word order
(and Nominative case is
used then). It's more
often used with
pronouns. It can be
employed in poetry with
fluent word order.
While canonical
translation by Tolkien
himself is “in”, it's better
to use next meanings in
the list clarifying the
meaning better. If you
want to answer the
question like “where is
in, within,
- - in(to) it?” better use “-or” (= at).
-ishi -shi inside, Mordor-ishi
ishiz shiz Mordor You can notice that
into
form -shi for Declension
II is the same as
preposition meaning “at”
which has similar
meaning but without a
tone of belonging or
moving to interior part of
smth.
behind
-it -ht -itu -htu behind druht *
tree
around
-kurn -kurnu around masl-kurn *
the neck
often written separately
after
-la -laz after zabûrz-la (see comments to -
tonight
ik suffix)
under,
under the
-lata -lataz beneath, nût-lata *
sky
below
-lût -lûtu out of, Orthanc-lût out of Indicates motion outside,
Postposition Examples
I si II si II p Meaning Black Translati Remarks on usage
I pl.
ng. ng. l. Speech on
leaving a place,
outside Orthanc transformation of
material.
amongst
-nâdar -nâdaru among glob-nâdar *
the filth
You may think that if
noun is ending
with au adding -b could
make confusion with
of (Geniti some verb ending
ve or with a in future tense
of the
-ob -b -obu -bu Possessiv Nazgûl-ob (suffix -ub), but actually
Nazgûl
e case there are no such verbs in
suffix) Shadowlandian. If verb
stem is ending with u it
will become long û in
future tense, so no
confusion also.
Preferable over “-ishi” at
-or -r -oru -ru at (place) Orthanc-or at Orthanc answering questions like
“where is it?”
There were no examples
by Scatha, so I've decided
that if it's used with two
between different nouns, it should
-ri -riz between lug-riz
towers be added to both of them:
“drâgh-ri agh ânghâsh-ri”
(= between hammer and
anvil).
-sha -shaz (together) Saruman-sha with * Means collectivity,
with ** Saruman action shared with some
person. If you want to
express usage of tool, say
“-irzi” (= by) instead.
Example: “Kill with axe”
is translated as “az pilik-
irzi”, “Kill elf with that
orc” = “az golug uruk-
zasha” (this is also and
example of bad order, it's
not clear whether he
should kill an elf with the
help of that orc, or kill
both elf and orc).
However, if you want to
say “Careful with that
axe, Uglûk!” you can do it
as “gakhumû pilik-zasha,
Postposition Examples
I si II si II p Meaning Black Translati Remarks on usage
I pl.
ng. ng. l. Speech on
Uglûk!”.
* Do not use it, because it
could be confused with
“shara” (man) and
amongst “sharat” (to be quiet), and
-shar -sharu among glob-shar
the filth it seems to appear in LOS
dictionary by mistake.
There is an alternative “-
nâdar”.
at night,
-shi -shiz at (time) bûrz-shi
at dark
-shi -shiz at (place) Mordor-shi at Mordor
* Can indicate not only
over, over the position but also
-tala -talaz uzg-tala
above land exceeding time or
quantity limit.
beyond
-thu -thuz beyond gothum-thu *
power
through
-tuk -tuku through tau-tuk *
the forest
* Denotes motion
towards something,
changing ownership of an
to (place), object. In BS it's often
- towards ( used with indirect
-u -zu uz** -zuz Dative Mordor-u** to Mordor objects, when transitive
* case verb requires two objects,
suffix) specially with names and
pronouns. Example:
“thrak nazg urukuz” =
bring the ring to orcs.
before
-ugil -ugilu before ânash-ugil * “-ik” is more preferrable
dawn
along the
-ulmakh -ulmakhu along mûl-ulmakh *
road
- Also used to specify
for the
-ûr -zûr -ûru zûr for durub-ûr duration of action, the
lord
u same as in English.
like,
-zash -zashu glob-zash like fool
same as
until * Refers to time of ending
-zi -ziz until ârsh-zi
today continuous action.
* these words are often used as real prepositions placed before nouns, not
postpositions as usual.
** note that the Tolkien orc curse, “sha Saruman” and “u Mordor” are both
grammatically incorrect. Technically, the orc should have said, “Saruman-
sha” and “Mordor-u”.
*** it could be confused with Past Tense suffix -uz (next lesson), see my
comments about it at the end of the lesson.
Also note that in the Ring Verse, we have “lata nut” instead of “nut-lata”. It
has been suggested that this was done to make the verse scan as poetry. By
now you will have noticed that there are many examples in Black Speech
where the speaker has placed the preposition before the noun. Therefore,
this is probably a fairly flexible rule, especially in Debased Black Speech.
However, for the purpose of learning Black Speech, try to observe the rule
as much as possible when translating the lessons (at least for now). When
you write preposition before the noun, preposition is always used in form
of Declension I singular, and noun takes Objective/Accusative case (if not
stated other; in most cases omitted in favor of Nominative) and required
number suffix.
Strictly speaking, the prepositions should also become plural when they
modify a plural noun, but I have only seen one example of that. It occurs in
the Ring Verse, which is in Classical Black Speech, not Debased Black
Speech. (Please remember that the full Ring Verse was translated by a
Tolkien fan on the Tolklang board, not by Tolkien himself). The ring verse
uses the plural “ûru” (for), as well as “ishiz” (in).
It will be more correct to call these words postpositions, but I'll stick with
more familiar term.
Exercise
Translate the following into grammatically correct Classical Black Speech.
Noun cases
Because some prepositions take the role of cases and all of them are
suffixed to the nouns and pronouns, becoming postpositions, I suppose
that Classical Black Speech have 30+ cases similar to Finno-Ugric
languages. But because every of such suffixes took the meaning of both
case and preposition, it's easier to learn them than if it were 4 – 8 cases
used differently with several verbs and prepositions (like in
Russian). Debased Black Speech and Orkish dialects however have a
tendency to abandon cases and spell them separately before nouns like
English prepositions.
Phrase verbs
Adding some prepositions after a verb modifies it's meaning in English.
Such expressions are called “phrase verbs”. Black Speech doesn't have such
constructions. Phrase verbs should have separate translation in one word.
Unfortunately, majority of phrase verbs do not have such in dictionary, so
try to find synonyms.
Lesson VIII – Verbs: Past Tense
In Black Speech, the past tense is formed by adding -uz to the verb stem. As
in the future tense verb formation, you add the third person singular or
plural ending to -uz. For example, “he found” would translate as
“gimbuzat”. “They called” = “bugduzut”.
Thrakat, to bring
Please note, that Present Perfect and sometimes Present Perfect Continious
tenses are translated to Black Speech as Past Tense.
Vocabulary
Here are a few more verbs to learn:
ghâsha
to burn
t
gashna
to speak
t
ikhat to force
lagat to break
kulat to be
shagat to demand
to condemn, to
urkat
damn
Exercise
Translate the following:
Numbers
gakhg
1 ash 11 galash 30
al
galkru
2 krul 12 40 zagal
l
gak galgak krâkga
3 13 50
h h l
4 zag 14 galzag 60 rutgal
krâ galkrâ
5 15 70 utgal
k k
6 rut 16 galrut 80 skragh
galud krithg
7 udu 17 90
u al
galskr
8 skri 18 100 bûr
i
krit galkrit 100
9 19 tor
h h 0
2 krulga
10 gal 0 nar
0 l
Exercise
Translate the following numbers into Black Speech: 34, 58, 62, 71, 22,
87, 103, 245, 9068, 4862.
Ordinal Numerals
Ordinal numerals are formed the same way as adjectives. You should
suffix -ûrz to a number to get ordinal. So first = âshûrz (the only
exception), second = krulûrz, 5th = krâkûrz, 27th = krulgaludûrz and so
on.
I am 40 years old.
Kul-izg kû ânrothu zagal
Kul-izg zagal ânrothu kû
My devil is six feet tall.
Pauzûl-izub kulat târ fraz rut
Pauzûl-izub kulat rutfraztâr – i really like this!
The way here was two weeks long.
Mûl tul kuluzat sigûrz udârsh krul
Mûl tul kuluzat krul udârsh sigûrz
Gondor is five leagues away from here
Gondor kulat krât fraumu krâk krul-ghâra
Gondor kulat krâk fraumu krât krul-ghâra
Lesson X – Pronouns and Commands
(Imperatives)
Pronouns are rarely used in Black Speech. The most common uses for
pronouns are for giving an order, boasting about oneself, or administering
an insult. Generally, apart from those three purposes, you would only use a
pronoun when absolutely necessary to avoid confusion. Sauron would not
have wanted to encourage the use of the first person singular or plural
among his servants or slaves, so "I" or "we" are only used as modifiers.
(This probably also explains the placement of adjectives, adverbs, etc., after
the words they modify since descriptive words can be said to indicate a
kind of creative thought process).
**The first person singular (-izg) and plural (-izgu) are always suffixed to
the verb. For example, kul-izg = I am; “kul-izgu” = we are; “thrak-izg”, I
bring; “prakh-izgu”, we lure.
Normally, you can skip pronouns unless they are required to make sense of
the sentence. For example:
* I've added these pronouns for clearance, but please notice that a lot of
examples already use old equivocal variants
Exercise
Translate the following into Black Speech:
I brought hers.
Grishnâkh will find us.
Morgoth will kill me.
Saruman called his ugly orc.
I brought mine to Morannon.
They devoured theirs.
Uglûk will rule ours by blood.
I am from Lugbûrz.
Ashlûk bound me.
Lagduf called them all from Lugbûrz.
Commands
Commands are quite simple: they consist of the verb stem. So, to tell
someone to bring something, you simply say: Thrak! To say, “Find him
theirs”: Gimb ta ulub. Bring them! = Thrakul!
Exercise
Translate the following into Black Speech:
Confusion
What to do if both subject and object are pronouns? I advise you to spell
pronouns separately in this case (at least object). I will kill you = Izg azub
lat. But you can add subject to the verb as a suffix (azub-izg lat). If subject
is 3rd person pronoun, you can skip it (like in some examples above) but
shall write object still separately (azubat ta = he will kill him). If the verb is
complex (consist of two words) add subject suffix to main predicate and
object suffix to dependent word (He can kill me = pâshat-ta azat-izish). But
the question how to translate “she calls him?” remains open.
Reflexive Pronouns
Black Speech has only one reflexive pronoun îm for all persons and
genders, much like Icelandic, Latin or Quenya (from which it was
borrowed). But it could be plural (“îmu”). Reflexive pronoun has several
cases and usually written as separate word.
Nominative
Nominative case is used when we're going to lay emphasis on doing an
action without someone's else help. Use îm in this case. You may attach it
as suffix only if subject is a personal pronoun also attached to the verb.
Other cases
For all other cases use îmish or its plural form.
Adverbs
LOS dictionary has a lack of adverbs. But you can create them easily by
adding suffix -arz to any word stem. If the source word is an adjective
with -ûrz suffix, then this suffix shall be changed to -arz. For example,
adverb made from skrithûrz (cruel) is “skritharz” = cruelly.
I haven't seen any rules about word order in sentences with adverbs. But,
as general rule says, they shall be placed after the words they modify, i.e.
after the verbs, or in the end of sentence as in English. Here is an example:
Gerund
Gerund in Black Speech is like a noun meaning process. It's formed by
adding suffix -ugum. Despite similarity to nouns Gerund doesn't have
plural form. I'll give you a lot of examples but my advice is to use
infinitive instead. Gerund in Black Speech doesn't have perfect or
passive forms, so they must be replaced with dependent clauses.
Examples
Glûgum narkulat lâthuga tul*
Pissing is not allowed here!
Îst-izg galgakh oghumu râz zaûgum-ob golug-hai**
I know 13 different ways of cooking elves
Gor-tab kulat azugum
His job is killing
Za shapat bolkat dûthugum
This sword needs cleaning
Uruk gashnuzut hoitugum-gus akashuga-hai
Orcs spoke about hunting hobbits
Gathrok duluglab ukhugum-ik u tauz golugûrz
Prepare your weapon before going to Elven forests
Brogbat-ta kulat thupuga pulum-kusn***
He likes being whipped during sex
* Word glu- plus -ugum suffix made one long û. See Lesson XV for more
information on Passive Voice.
** I have to invent new words. The word “way” was already in dictionary
but it was the same as conjuction “or”, so I've decided to add suffix -
um to ogh for clearance. The word râz (“different”) is from Svartiska and
Horngoth.
Adjectives
Sometimes, as in the first statement of this lesson, we need to compare
some properties. Using LOS equivalent to english word 'more' makes
statements too complex. There is more laconical way to compare
something by using suffix -ar. The superative degree is formed by suffix -
az.
Examples
hîs (quick) hîsar snû (quickier than) hîsaz (the quickiest)
bûrz* (dark) bûrzar snû (darker than) bûrzaz (the darkest)
gothûrz** (powerful) gothûrzar snû (more powerful than) gothûrzaz (the most powerful)
* Note that -ûrz here isn't an adjective's suffix but a part of word's stem.
** It is a suffix here but -ar and -az are accumulated to -ûrz. Note that
despite the syllabe count degrees of comparsions always form the same
way.
Adverbs
Adverbs are compared identically to adjectives, but they don't have a
superative degree of comparsion. Here is an example:
Exercise
Try to translate the first sentence of this lesson using the dictionary.
Other degrees of comparison
There are some adverbs used with adjectives for better description: very,
greatly, slightly etc. Also English has negative degree of comparison
expressed with words “less” and “least”. When translating such
construction always write adjective (even if it's short) separately from the
noun, and these descriptive words should follow them. Vocabulary
contains some special forms for degree of comparison (like mentioned
little–less–least, good–better–best, bad–worse–worst, etc.), which are the
copy of English grammar. I insist on avoiding them in Black Speech and
using regular forms with suffixes -ar and -az.
Examples
Red machines are the best
Glatu karnu kulut bhogazu
The road was quite long
Mûl kuluz sigûrz gûkh
I'm going slightly mad
Grat-izg trîn âzh
* Lesson XIII – Suffix Order and Indirect
Objects
This lesson was completely rewritten in August 2017 (with correction in
March 2018) because old version was inconsistent.
Suffix order
Below lies a table of suffix chains for most common and complex parts of
speech. Given examples were chosen to contain as many suffixes as
possible.
Part of
Suffix chain order Example Translation
speech
Adjectives 1. Forming (-ûrz)
2. Degree of comparison
(– / -ar / -az) the most
golug gothûrzazu
powerful elves
3. Number
(– / -u / -z)
Nouns 1. Forming
(– / -um / -al etc.)
2. Gender modifier
(– / -lob / -niz)
3. Short adjective
(one syllable long)
4. Article = Demonstrative
pronoun
(– / -za) about that ugly
dûshatârnizkûfzag
sorceress
5. Possessive pronoun us
from beneath his
ronktablataghâraz
6. Case postposition pits
(– / -ob / -u / -ish / -irzi
or their equivalents for
2nd declension)
7. Other postpositions in
reverse order
8. Number
(– / -u / -z / -ûk / -hai)
Indirect objects
Many people were confused with referring to two separate people in third
person specially with many word modifiers (adjectives, pronouns,
prepositions, etc.) in one sentence even without attaching them all into one
word.
“I know what you mean about referring to two different people in third
person. I also found that frustrating at first, but thing is, it's often clear
from context which person you are talking about – here black speech
differs from English, as you can leave the subject understood with no
pronoun – or you can simply repeat the noun, which is the simplest and
easiest solution. Though the latter does get repetitive after a while, it's not
such bad form.” – says The Second Nazgul. She proposed using suffix -
u with indirect objects but actually it is supposed by most verbs requiring
two objects. I also recommend to add objective (~ accusative) case suffix -
ish to direct object which was absent for nouns in Shadowlandian, but such
novelty conflicts with old examples and the most of already translated
texts. Let's see 4 possible variants of objects' combination:
1.If neither the direct nor the indirect object are pronouns, the
indirect object comes after the direct object. Both are separate from
the verb. Adding objective case suffix to direct object is optional,
because everything is clear from word order. However, if subject is a
pronoun attached to the verb, then adding objective case suffix to
direct object is recommended.
Thrak nazg(ish)u Scathazu = bring Scatha rings (lit.:
bring rings to Scatha)
Thrak golugish urûku flîzûr = give an elf to orc(s) for
sacrifice = give orc(s) an elf for sacrifice*
(*) Without additional suffixes it was almost impossible to
understand, what and for whom should we give. But better solution is
to modify this phrase into “give an elf for sacrificing by the orc(s)” =
“thrak golug flîugumûr urûkirzi”
2.If the direct object is a pronoun, and the indirect object is not a
pronoun, the direct object is attached to the verb and the indirect
object is separate and follows. Adding suffix -u (or other case suffix)
to indirect object is strongly recommended in this case.
Special Questions
“The way I see it would be that a question word should go at the start of a
sentence.”
Where is Lugrekh?
Mal Lugrekh?
“The only wierd acting question word is what. I also feel like
the what question word should go in the place of the noun that is the
answer... The who question word can also function like what. It goes into
the place in the sentence that the proper noun would go.”
Q: Who did the elves kill? Golog azat*** mirz? (lit. The elves killed
A: The elves killed the who?)
slaves! Golog azat*** snaga
In declarative sentenses these words have the affix a- so you will never
confuse them with questions. Examples:
As far as I know there is not a way to do this in Black Speech. So I'm going
to propose a way and see what people think.
I'm going to add a new word to the dictionary, the word is mar- (I don't
have that as a word currently). mar- works like nar- does, attaching to the
front of a word. On it's own it means something like “huh? what you say?”.
Examples:
To be or not to be?
Kulat ogh narkulat?*
Disjunctive Questions
It is doubtful to say if the orcs use these questions, but I will propose my
point of view. The first part of question is the usual statement, and the
second one is the verb with affix mar- or the word mar itself. Examples:
Participles
Initially there were only two forms of participles. The first one is the active
indefinite participle I (the -ug suffix), and the second is the participle II (-
uga suffix). Example:
to
gashnat
speak
speakin
gashnug
g
gashnug
spoken
a
Suffi Plura
Type Examples Translation
x l
Participle I -ug -ugu uruk akrugu shum orcs drinking too much
Participle I -aga -agaz a) pau akraga gilrolarz a) potion usually being drunk
Passive maukum-ugil before battle
b) pau amut akragat* b) potion which is usually
maukum-ugil gilrolarz drunk before battle
Perfect Participle I-ugz -ugzu a) uruk lûmpuzat akrugz a) orc fell having drunk a
pau potion
b) uruk lûmpuzat dhurz b) orc fell because he had
akruzat pau drunk a potion
Perfect Participle I -ufa -ufaz a) pau thrakuzat hûr akrufa a) potion brought courage
Passive having been drunk
b) pau akraguzat* agh b) potion was drunk and
thrakuzat hûr urzkû brought courage after (this)
Participle II -uga -ugaz honuz-izg uruk azuga I saw an orc killed by elves
golug-irzi
*** Once again, the dictionary doesn't have the word “these”, but it has
“this” and “those”. I just added plural suffix to ther first one, but it's better
to skip it. “Word” and “speak” have the same stem “ghashn” in Black
Speech, so the translation doesn't look good enough.
Passive Voice
Examples
Black Speech Black Speech
English
(my proposal) (old manner)
Present
The ring is stolen every Nazg kulat orskuga kûm
Nazg orskagat kûm rûgh
Age rûgh
The ring is being stolen
Nazg orskagat rad Nazg kulat orskuga rad
now
The ring have been just 1)
Nazg orskaguzat 1) dhûzud Nazg kuluzat orskuga
stolen dhûzud
Past
The ring was stolen Nazg kuluzat orskuga
Nazg orskaguzat ârshlut
yesterday ârshlut
The ring was being Nazg kuluzat orskuga bûrz
Nazg orskaguzat bûrz tîl
stolen last night tîl
The ring had been
Nazg orskaguzat ugil Nazg kuluzat orskuga ugil
stolen before I knew
îstuz-izg gothumtab-gus îstuz-izg gothumtab-gus
about it's power
Future
The ring will be stolen Nazg kulubat orskuga
Nazg orskagubat ârshu
tomorrow ârshu
The ring will have been Nazg orskagubat nau-irzi
Nazg kulubat orskuga nau-
stolen by the end of this 2)
ânrothzaob irzi ânrothzaob
year
When both subject and object of sentence with passive voice are pronouns,
then word order is:
when passive is expressed by verb with -ag suffix, then verb takes
person suffix according to subject (patient of action), pronouns are
added to the verb as usual;
when passive is expressed by verb kulat with participle, then subject
pronoun is added to the verb, which also takes person suffix
according to subject, and object is written separately after the
participle.
On Ergative Alignment
Ergative alignment is roughly speaking a way of forming the majority of
sentences similar to passive voice of usual languages (called Nominative-
Accusative). A. Nemirovsky's proposes that Black Speech is based on
ancient Hurrian language, which was agglutinative ergative language with
sentence structure Subject–Object–Verb. His hypothesis is quite strong. In
that case Passive voice is not needed. Here's example:
Accusative Ergative
Uruk throquat Uruk-irzi âps
âps throquat
lit.: By orc meat is
Orc eats meat
eaten
She didn't give any example, and I think one tense for all types of
conditions isn't enough. It will be hard to translate back from Black Speech
because just verb stem already means Present Tense and Imperative. Both
in English and Russian the most of Subjunctive Mood forms are closer to
Past Tenses (as opposing to Present like The Second Nazgul supposed).
Therefore I've made my own rules.
I think Subjunctive can be in Present and Past (Perfect) forms, but they
have no person suffix (-at or -ut).
Even though
Condition may be also expressed in phrases started with words like “even
though” (= yal, from Horngoth), “even if” (= yal ghung), “although” (=
nân), “however” (= molkû), “whenever” (= muhkû), “whoever” (= mirzkû),
“whatever” (= mashkû) etc., then we use modal verbs “may” (= gâkh),
“might” (= gâkhuz), “would” (= shulg), “should” (= zauguz) with Present
Subjunctive or just Past Subjunctive without modal verb. Some examples:
Simple sentences
Both Sunbjuntive tenses (present and past/perfect) are used in simple
sentences with modal verbs could (pâshuz), might (gâkhuz), should
(zauguz), would (shulg), would/should like (shulg brogb), would rather
(shulg ashbazg), had rather/better (zauguz mâz) without condition. Last
three expressions also met in complex sentences. Compound sentences
consist of two simple sentences are made the same way. Subjunctive tenses
also used in questions expressing polite ask or demand after words
mentioned just now.
I would rather go
Shulg-izg ashbazg ukh
Shagrath might kill an elf tonight, but (he) didn't saw any
Shagrath gâkhuz az golug zabûrz nân (ta) narhonuzat hin2)
Be it so he would be glad
Kultazash ta shulg kul kraibhog
1) “tau-zau” would sound like island somewhere in Polynesia, also there is
noun “zau” (soup, stew) in dictionary
2) Compare with similar example for conditional sentences.
As if / Like
Translation of sentences with “as if” or “like” conjugation depends on tense
used in clause of manner. Past and all Perfect tenses are translated as Past
Subjunctive, Present tense as Present Subjunctive appropriately. Tense in
main clause isn't changed. The whole phrase “as if” could be translated as
one word “zash”.
So that
Subjunctive tenses are used in dependent clauses of purpose started with
“so that” (= zash zamal, or just zash) or just simply “that” (= zamal).
Usually an action of such clauses is expressed with modal verbs may,
might, should with Present Subjunctive. Instead of expression “in order
that” with subjunctive you may use just infinitive (with -at ending), which
is better, laconical way.
I'll take some beer, that I may not be tired of long road
Norkub-izg rau mupsh zamal nargâkh-izg kul frâtûrz mûl-ob
sigûrz
After impersonal constructions
After expressions like it's important that, it was possible that etc. infinitive
without “to” (sometimes preceeded by “should”) is used in English.
Translation of such constructions into Black Speech would be long and
ugly, and most of these words were absent in dictionary, therefore I've
made my own shorter translations presented in following table:
Please note “is” might be in past or future tense (was, will be) in English,
but translation to Black Speech would be the same.
Prefixes
1. prefixed to an interrogative makes it into a relative (EL) [mal = where?, amal =
where (as in, where the shadows lie)]
a-
2. third person pronoun prefix (RE) [azagh = he of the mountain pass; agondor = he
of Gondor]
im- self- (UNF) [imskûtum = self-defense]
mar
prefixed to verbs in questions (LUG)
-
nar- negation, non-, un-
nâr- anti-, un- (ULK)
Suffixes
-ag passive verb suffix UNF < HORN “âk” [uruk azaguzat = orc was killed]
-aga indefinite passive participle UNF < AA [akraga = being drunk]
occupation(like English -er) [hoitat = to hunt, hoital = hunter; zâgîrat = to joke,
-al
zâgîral = joker, jester] SV
-ar
more (comparative ending) [gothûrzar snû = more powerful than]
snû
-arz common Black Speech adverb ending LOS
-as across (prep) LOS
1. verb infinitive TK [gimbat = to find]
-at
2. third person singular verb ending
able, knowing; similar to -al suffix [dûshatâr = wizard, mage; from dush –
-atâr
magic] SV
-az most (comparative ending) [gothûrzaz = most powerful] LOS
-âzh partially, incompletely UNF
-bo off (preposition) [kulat-bo = to be off]
-dhog near, next to [Orodruin-dhog, = near Orodruin.]
-dur arch- (lit. “big/head of”) [dûshatârdur = archimage] ULK
-ghâra from (case suffix) LOS [Mordor-ghâra = from Mordor]
-hai people of TK (BS and AO) [urûk-hai = the urûk-people]
-irzi by (case suffix) LOS
-ishi in (preposition) TK [Mordor-ishi = in Mordor]
-izg I or me (used as a suffix, not as a 1st person singular pronoun) [kul-izg = I am]
-lob feminine word ending [Shelob] – deprecated
-ob of (preposition/case suffix) EL [Mordor-ob = of Mordor]
-og profession or occupation as -al but with superative meaning ULK (< TK Azog =
Killer) [gashnog = linguist, compare with gashnal = talker]
-or at (preposition) LOS [Orthanc-or = at Orthanc]
between (preposition) LOS [Rohan-ri agh Gondor-ri = between Rohan and
-ri agh
Gondor]
-shi at (time) case suffix LOS [bûrz-shi = at night]
-thu beyond (preposition) LOS [Minas Morgul-thu = beyond Minas Morgul]
-tuk through (preposition) LOS [Ru-tuk, through the hall]
1. Noun plural after consonant LL [Nazgu = rings] **note that the words for
peoples, like uruk, ilid, Nazgul, gazat, etc., do not have plurals.
-u 2. to (preposition) [Mordor-u = “to Mordor”; but note that “u bagronk”, meaning
“to the cesspool” is poor orkish grammar in DBS.
3. Dative case suffix (The Second Nazgul)
-ub verb future tense suffix AN [gimbub = will find, gimbubut = they will find]
-ufa perfect passive participle UNF < HORN [akrufa = having been drunk]
-ug present active participle EL [azug = killing]
-uga past participle (participle II) EL [azuga = killed]
gerund, forming noun from verbs, process UNF [Brogb-izg akugum = I like
-ugum
cutting]
-ugz perfect active participle UNF [uruk azugz golug = orc having killed an elf]
-ûk all, completely, collective plural TK [thrakatulûk = to bring them all]
-ul them TK [gimbatul = to find them]
common noun forming suffix (mostly abstract) TK, LL [burzum = darkness,
-um
nâkhum = greediness]
-ûr for (case suffix) EL [durub-ûr = for the ruler.]
-ûrz a common BS adjective-forming suffix EL [matûrz = mortal]
- forming abstract noun meaning characteristic, attribute or
ûrzum property UNF [ufûrzum = fearfulness]
-ut third person plural verb ending [gimbut = they find, gimbubut = they will find] EL
-uz verb past tense suffix LOS [gimbuz = found, gimbuzat = he found]
-z noun plural after vowel. EL [goi = city, goiz = cities]
-zan in the name of [Morgoth-zan = in the name of Morgoth]
Appendix B: Grammar quick overview
There are tables with basic grammar rules for Shadowlandian dialect.
Svartiska and Horngoth use a little different ones, which can be found
in English-Orkish dictionary.
Nouns
Pluralizing
Singular Plural suffix Collective Plural
–
person shara turu (many -ûk, -hai
shara (a human), humans), mau krâk (five shara-hai (humans),
mau (warrior) warriors) maûk (all warriors)
consonant
ending -u
duf (knife), hont dufu (knives), hontu (eyes) -ûk
(eye) dufûk (all knives)
goiûk (all cities)
vowel ending -z
goi (city) goiz (cities)
Suffix order
1 2 3 4 5
postpositio numbe
gender article case
n r
Adjectives
Pluralizing
Plural
Singular Examples
suffix
consonant ûsumu bûrzu (dark
-u
ending thoughts)
vowel ending -z urûk kûz (old orcs)
Comparison
Degree Suff Examples
ix
Regular gothûrz (powerful), kû (old)
Comparati gothûrzar snû (more powerful than),
-ar
ve kûar (elder)
gothûrzaz (the most powerful), kûaz (the
Superative -az
eldest)
Verbs
1st, 2nd 3rd person 3rd
Tense
person sing. person pl.
Infiniti
-at -at -at
ve
Present – -at -ut
Future -ub -ubat -ubut
Past -uz -uzat -uzut
Participles
Suffix
Tense acti passi
ve ve
Participle I -ug -aga
Perfect
-ugz -ufa
Participle I
Participle II -uga
Word Order
2. 3. 4. Direct 5. Indirect 6.
1. Subject
Attribute Predicate object object Adjunct
n n (+ prep) adv
n adj v
pron pron (+ prep) n + prep
Directions
By Rob Eaglestone
Nort
talân
h
Sout
latân
h
ghâns
East
h
West ânud
This site is dedicated to Black Speech, the language of Orcs, Nazgûl and all
other inhabitants of Mordor. I am not a graduated linguist, nor most of
used works' authors are, but just a fan of Tolkien's works and languages.
Therefore you can encounter some inaccurate wordings and terms on these
pages, nevertheless my approach was as deep as possible. I haven't tried to
invent a 'bicycle' (read as 'my own dialect'), only to revise and translate
existing dictionaries. Consider the dialect here a derivative of
Shadowlandian (LOS).
This site wouldn't exist without Scatha, Lugrekh, The Second Nazgul,
TwoAxesDwarf. I had never spoken to you, but I appreciate your work. Hail
to thee!
Un4givenOrc