Black Speech

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Black Speech
Created by:	J. R. R. Tolkien	1917–1973
Setting and usage:	The fictional world of the novel The Lord of the Rings
Total speakers:	None, but several hundreds of fans and students around the world.
Category (purpose):	constructed language artistic language Black Speech
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`art`
ISO 639-3:	—
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

The Black Speech is the fictional language of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings. Sauron created the Black Speech, as an artificial language, to be the sole language of all the servants of Mordor, replacing the many different varieties of Orkish and other languages used by his servants. Tolkien describes the language as existing in two forms, the ancient "pure" forms used by Sauron himself, the Nazgûl, and the Olog-hai, and the more "debased" form used by the soldiery of the Barad-dûr at the end of the Third Age. The only example given of "pure" Black Speech is the inscription upon the One Ring:

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

When translated into English, these words form the lines:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

These are the first two lines from the end of a verse about the Rings of Power. This corresponds to the following table.

Black Speech	English
ash	one
nazg	ring
durb	rule
at	verb infinitive
ul	them
ûk	all
gimb	find
thrak	bring
agh	and
burz	dark
um	-ness, -yness (noun)
-ishi	in (case suffix)
krimp-	bind

Some other (possibly debased) Black Speech words are known, including Lugbúrz, meaning "Dark Tower" (Barad-dûr), and ghâsh "fire". Many Orkish dialects had adopted words from it. A substantial sample of debased Black Speech/Orkish can be found in The Two Towers, where the Mordor Uruk Grishnákh curses the Isengard Uruk Uglúk:

Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai!

In The Peoples of Middle-earth, Tolkien gives the translation: "Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!". However, in a note published in the Tolkien scholarly linguistic journal Vinyar Tengwar this alternative translation is given: "Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!"

The Black Speech was likely based entirely on Valarin, as Morgoth and his Maiar (all of whom would have spoken Valarin) minions did not possess the Secret Fire, but were only able to corrupt things to their service. It may have also been based on Quenya.

Having designed the Black Speech to be unpleasant, J. R. R. Tolkien did not enjoy writing in it (according to Tolkien, he once received a goblet from a fan with the Ring inscription on it in Black Speech, and, finding it distasteful, used it only as an ashtray).^[1] As a result, the Black Speech is one of the more fragmentary languages in the novels. The forces of good refuse to utter it, as it attracts the attention of the Eye of Sauron. Unlike Elvish, there are no poems or songs written in it (apart from the Ring's inscription). The result is a random collection of words that are hard to actually use in day-to-day conversation.

The ring inscription and its translation show that the Black Speech is a strongly agglutinating language. For The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the linguist David Salo used what little is known of the Black Speech to create enough of a language for use in the movies. This is usually referred to by Tolkienists as neo-Black Speech. Some speculate that Tolkien may have drawn upon the language of the ancient Hittites and Hurrians for his Black Speech. [1] Black metal musician Varg Vikernes also used the word Burzum as the name of his one-man music project. The Swedish band Za Frûmi have used the language on their albums since 2000.