Black Speech

2025-10-27T03:13:25Z

97.188.117.191:

{{Short description|Fictional language by J. R. R. Tolkien}}
{{about|the fictional language|the variety of American English|Black English}}
{{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox language
|name = Black Speech
|creator = [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]
|created = {{circa|1945–1973}}
|speakers = None
|date = NA
|ref =  
|setting = [[Mordor]] in [[Middle-earth]]
|fam2 = [[Artistic language]]
|fam3 =
|iso3 = none
|isoexception = protolanguage
|glotto = none
}}

The '''Black Speech''' is one of the [[languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien]] for [[Tolkien's legendarium|his legendarium]], where it was spoken in the evil realm of [[Mordor]]. In the fiction, Tolkien describes the language as created by [[Sauron]] as a [[constructed language]] to be the sole language of all the servants of Mordor.

Little is known of the Black Speech except the inscription on the [[One Ring]]. Scholars note that Tolkien constructed this to be plausible linguistically, and to sound rough and harsh. The scholar Alexandre Nemirovski, on linguistic evidence, has proposed that Tolkien based it on the ancient [[Hurrian language]], which like the Black Speech was [[Agglutinative language|agglutinative]].

== Tolkien ==

=== Objective ===

The Black Speech is one of the more fragmentary languages in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. Unlike his extensive work on the [[Elvish languages (Middle-earth)|Elvish languages]], Tolkien did not write songs or poems in the Black Speech, apart from the One Ring inscription. He stated that:<ref name="Parma Eldalamberon">{{cite journal |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=Words, Phrases and Passages in Various Tongues in The Lord of the Rings |journal=[[Parma Eldalamberon]] |issue=17 |pages=11–12}}</ref>

{{Quote box
| title = Agglutination
| quote = In [[agglutinative language]]s like [[Turkish language|Turkish]], the meaning of a word can be understood by breaking it down into the base word and its word endings. For example, in the word ''evlerimizde'' ''[[wikt:ev#Turkish|ev]]'' means "house", ''[[wikt:-ler#Turkish|-ler]]'' indicates plurality, ''[[wikt:-imiz#Turkish|-imiz]]'' means "our", and ''[[wikt:-de#Turkish|-de]]'' means "in". Therefore, ''evlerimizde'' means "in our houses".
| source = ''Turkish Textbook''<ref name="TT">{{cite web |title=What is aggulutination? |url=https://www.turkishtextbook.com/adding-word-endings-agglutination/ |website=Turkish Textbook |date=29 November 2021 |access-date=8 April 2023}}</ref>
| width = 40%
| align = right
}}

{{blockquote|The Black Speech was not intentionally modelled on any style, but was meant to be self consistent, very different from Elvish, yet organized and expressive, as would be expected of a device of Sauron before his complete corruption. It was evidently an [[agglutinative language]]. ... I have tried to play fair linguistically, and it is meant to have a meaning not be a mere casual group of nasty noises, though an accurate transcription would even nowadays only be printable in the higher and artistically more advanced form of literature. According to my taste such things are best left to Orcs, ancient and modern.}}

Tolkien's attitude to the Black Speech is revealed in one of his letters. From a fan, Tolkien received a goblet with the Ring inscription on it in Black Speech. Because the Black Speech in general is an accursed language, and the Ring inscription in particular is a vile spell, Tolkien never drank out of the goblet, and used it only as an ashtray.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#343 to Sterling Lanier, 21 November 1972 }}</ref>

=== Fictional history ===

The linguist and Tolkien scholar [[Carl F. Hostetter]] wrote that the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] created the Black Speech "in a perverse antiparallel of Aulë's creation of Khuzdul for the Dwarves".<ref name="Hostetter 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hostetter |first=Carl F. |author-link=Carl F. Hostetter |chapter=Languages Invented by Tolkien: The Black Speech |editor=Michael D. C. Drout |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2006 |location=Abingdon |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-1358-8033-0 |page=343 }}</ref> Sauron attempted to impose Black Speech as the official language of the lands he dominated and all his servants, but in this he was only partially successful.<ref name="Hostetter 2013"/>{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|2005|p=239}} Black Speech influenced the [[Orc]]s' vocabulary, but soon developed into many Orkish dialects, which were not mutually intelligible. By the end of the Third Age, Orcs mostly communicated using a debased [[Westron]]. Tolkien described one Orc's utterances as being in "the Common Speech, which he made almost as hideous as his own tongue".{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|2005|p=376}}

The language was used "only in [[Mordor]]", Tolkien stated, and it was "never used willingly by any other people"; for this reason, "even the names of places in Mordor are in English", representing Westron.{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|2005|p=739}}

===The One Ring inscription===
The only [[Text (literary theory)|text]] of "pure" Black Speech is the [[Ring-inscription|inscription]] upon the [[One Ring]]. It is written in the Elvish [[Tengwar]] script, with flourishes:{{sfn|Hammond|Scull|2005|p=83}}

<div style="background-color: white !important; color: black !important;">[[File:One Ring inscription.svg|500px|center|alt=Black Speech inscription written in Elvish script]]</div>

<div class="center">
{{Poem quote|text={{lang|art|
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.}}
({{Audio|The one ring.ogg|help=no|Pronunciation}})}}

{{Poem quote|text=One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.<ref name="Shadow of the Past">A drawing of the inscription and a translation provided by Gandalf appears in {{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a|loc=book 1, ch. 2 "[[The Shadow of the Past]]"}}</ref>}}
</div>

The couplet is from the [[Rhyme of the Rings]], a verse describing the [[Rings of Power]]. This corresponds to the following table as explained by Tolkien.<ref name="Parma Eldalamberon"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|-
! style="width: 100px;" | Black Speech
! style="width: 330px;" | Tolkien's English glosses<ref name="Parma Eldalamberon"/>
|-
|'''ash'''||one
|-
|'''nazg'''||(finger-)ring
|-
|'''durb-'''||constrain, force, dominate
|-
|'''-at'''||verb ending, like a [[participle]]
|-
|'''-ulûk'''|| verbal ending expressing [[object (grammar)|object]] 3rd [[grammatical person|person]] [[grammatical number|plural]] "them" (''ul'') in completive or total form "them-all".
|-
|'''gimb-'''||seek out, discover
|-
|'''-ul'''||them
|-
|'''thrak-'''||bring by force, hale, drag
|-
|'''agh'''
|and
|-
|'''burzum'''||darkness
|-
|'''ishi'''||in, inside (placed after noun usually in Black Speech).
|-
|'''krimp-'''||bind, tie
|-
|}

=== Sound and meaning ===

{{further|Sound symbolism|Sound and language in Middle-earth}}

The Black Speech was by Tolkien's real intention, and Sauron's fictional one also, a harshly guttural language "with such sounds as sh, gh, zg; indeed," wrote Hostetter, "establishing this effect, as well as the bits of grammar needed to lend the Ring-inscription linguistic verisimilitude, seems to have been about the extent of Tolkien's work on this language."<ref name="Hostetter 2013"/> David Ashford, in the ''[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]]'', observes that uniquely among Tolkien's languages, the Black Speech is explicitly a [[constructed language]] devised as unpleasant by Sauron for his Orcs, and described by Tolkien as<ref name="Ashford 2018">{{cite journal |last=Ashford |first=David |title='Orc Talk': Soviet Linguistics in Middle-Earth |journal=[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]] |volume=29 |issue=1 (101) |date=2018 |pages=26–40 |jstor=26627600 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|so full of harsh and hideous sounds and vile words that other mouths found it difficult to compass, and few indeed were willing to make the attempt{{sfn|Tolkien|1996|p=35}} }}

Linguists including Ashford and [[Helge Fauskanger]] comment that this is Tolkien's subjective view, as it is difficult to identify which sounds might have been experienced as hideous.<ref name="Ashford 2018"/><ref name=Fauskanger/> Fauskanger suggests that the Elves did not like the [[Uvular consonant|uvular]] ''r'' employed by the Orcs.<ref name=Fauskanger/> The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] writes that the word ''durbatulûk'', "to rule them all", embodied Tolkien's view that [[Sound and language in Middle-earth|sound and meaning went together]], commenting that<ref name="Shippey 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |chapter=Poems by Tolkien: ''The Lord of the Rings'' |editor=Michael D. C. Drout |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2006 |location=Abingdon |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-1358-8033-0 |pages=245–246}}</ref>

{{blockquote|certainly, the harsh vowels and jagged consonants and consonant clusters lend themselves to rough and rasping pronunciation, a fitting evocation of the voices of Orcs.<ref name="Shippey 2013"/>}}

===Other examples===

A few Black Speech words are given in Appendix F of ''[[The Return of the King]]''. These include ''Lugbúrz'', meaning "Dark Tower" ([[Barad-dûr]]), ''uruk'', "orc", ''snaga'', "slave", and ''ghâsh'', "fire". The name [[Nazgûl]] is a combination of ''nazg'' meaning "ring" and ''gûl'' meaning "wraith(s)", hence "ringwraith".<ref name=Fauskanger>{{cite web |first=Helge K. |last=Fauskanger |author-link=Helge Fauskanger |url=http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/orkish.htm |title=Orkish and the Black Speech |work=Ardalambion |publisher=[[University of Bergen]] |access-date=2 September 2013}}</ref> Another Orkish word, ''sharkû'', "old man", is given in "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]".<ref name="Scouring">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955|loc=book 6 ch. 8 "The Scouring of the Shire"}}</ref>

The only known sample of debased Black Speech/Orkish is in ''[[The Two Towers]]'', where a "yellow-fanged" Mordor Orc curses the [[Isengard]] [[Uruk-hai|Uruk]] Uglúk:<ref name="VT 1992"/>

:''Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai!''

In ''[[The Peoples of Middle-earth]]'', Christopher Tolkien gives the translation: "Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great [[Saruman]]-fool, skai!". However, in a note published in the journal ''[[Vinyar Tengwar]]'', it is translated: "Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth, pig-guts, gah!"<ref name="VT 1992">{{cite journal |title=Appendix E typescript |journal=[[Vinyar Tengwar]] |issue=26 |page=16 |year=1992}}</ref>

== In film and music ==

For Peter Jackson's [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]], the [[linguistics|linguist]] [[David Salo]] used what little is known of the Black Speech to invent two phrases:<ref name="Salo 2013">{{cite web |last=Salo |first=David |author-link=David Salo |title=David Salo on Black Speech, orc dialects and the mind of Sauron |url=http://midgardsmal.com/the-mind-of-the-dark-lord/  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130707054848/http://midgardsmal.com/the-mind-of-the-dark-lord/ |archive-date=7 July 2013 |url-status=dead |publisher=[[David Salo]], on Midgardsmal |access-date=25 August 2020 |date=24 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Susan Lampert |date=19 January 2003 |title=Linguist Is A Specialist In Elvish, The Uw Grad Student Provides Translations For Lord Of The Rings Movies. |pages=C1 |work=[[Wisconsin State Journal]] |publisher=William K. Johnston |url=http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/madison.com/html/archive_files/wsj/2003/01/19/0301180299.php |access-date=14 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041205101246/http://www.madison.com/wisconsinstatejournal/local/40925.php |archive-date=5 December 2004 |issn=0749-405X}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Soundtrack Analysis |url=https://www.elvish.org/gwaith/movie_soundtrack_fotr.htm |website=Elvish.org |access-date=18 November 2022 |quote=Featured in 'The Treason of Isengard'}}</ref>

: ''Gû kîbum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha gûm-ishi ashi gurum.''
: ("No life in coldness, in darkness. Here in void, only death.")

The word ''burzum-ishi'' ('in darkness') is taken from the Ring Verse, and three other abstract nouns are invented with the same ending ''–um''. The word ''ashi'', meaning 'only', is taken from ''ash'' ('one') in the Ring Verse. The other words were made up by Salo.<ref name="Salo 2013"/>

== Analysis ==

=== Comparison with Elvish languages ===

The Swedish linguist Nils-Lennart Johannesson compared the phonology and syllable structure of the Black Speech with those of [[Elvish languages of Middle-earth|Tolkien's two major Elvish languages]], [[Quenya]] and [[Sindarin]]. He found that there were more [[sonorant]] sounds and more [[open syllable]]s in Elvish than in either English or Black Speech. He stated that these consistent differences were "sufficiently prominent" to make Elvish sound "pleasant and harmonious", whereas Black Speech sounded "harsh and strident".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Johannesson |first=Nils-Lennart |title=Quenya, the Black Speech and the Sonority Scale |journal=Proceedings of the First International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien's Invented Languages Omentielva Minya |date=2007 |pages=14–21 |url=https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A184607&dswid=9454}}</ref>

M. G. Meile, labelling the Black Speech as "Sauron's [[Newspeak]]" by analogy with [[George Orwell]]'s dystopian language, noted that it was "doubly artificial": where the Elvish languages were Tolkien's invention, the Black Speech was also a constructed language in his invented Middle-earth, since it had been created by the Dark Lord Sauron as an "evil [[Esperanto]]" for his slaves. He stated that as the only language of this type in Middle-earth, this made the Black Speech more important than it would appear from the few words Tolkien defined for it. Further, Tolkien wrote that it was made in mockery of Quenya, in other words that it was an evil language shadowing "the linguistic embodiment of good", and indeed, Meile wrote, it had many correspondences with Quenya. For instance, the word for [[Orc]]s, the monsters made in mockery of the Elves, is Quenya "urco, orco", which becomes Black Speech "Uruk".<ref>{{cite book |last=Meile |first=M. G. |chapter=Sauron's Newspeak: Black Speech, Quenya, and the nature of mind |title=Semiotics around the World: Synthesis in Diversity |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2020 |orig-year=1996 |pages=219–222 |doi=10.1515/9783110820065-030|isbn=9783110820065 }}</ref>

The linguist Joanna Podhorodecka examines the ''lámatyáve'', a [[Quenya]] term for "phonetic fitness", of Tolkien's constructed languages. She analyses them in light of {{ill|Iván Fónagy|hu|Fónagy Iván}}'s theory of symbolic vocal gestures that convey emotions. She notes that Tolkien's inspiration was "primarily linguistic"; and that he had invented the stories "to provide a world for the languages", which in turn were "agreeable to [his] personal aesthetic". She compares two samples of Elvish (one Sindarin, one Quenya) and one of Black Speech, tabulating the proportions of [[vowel]]s and [[consonant]]s. The Black Speech is 63% consonants, compared to the Elvish samples' 52% and 55%. Among other features, [[front vowel]] sounds like {{IPA|/i/}} (like the ''i'' in ''machine'') are much rarer in Black Speech than in Elvish, while [[back vowel]] sounds like {{IPA|/u/}} (like the ''u'' in ''brute'') are much more common. Podhorodecka therefore comments that the [[phonology]] of Black Speech is similar to speech affected by aggressive emotions, which has a higher proportion of consonants (especially [[plosive]]s) to vowels. She concludes that Tolkien's constructed languages were certainly individual to him, but that their "linguistic patterns resulted from his keen sense of phonetic metaphor", so that the languages subtly contribute to the "[[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] and [[Axiology|axiological]] aspects of his mythology".<ref>{{cite book |last=Podhorodecka |first=Joanna |year=2007 |chapter=Is ''lámatyáve'' a linguistic heresy. Iconicity in J. R. R. Tolkien's invented languages |editor1-last=Tabakowska |editor1-first=Elżbieta |editor2=Ljungberg, Christina |editor3=Fischer, Olga |title=Insistent Images. Iconicity in language and literature. Proceedings of the Fifth Symposium in Language and Literature |pages=103–110 |location=Amsterdam/Philadelphia |publisher=[[John Benjamins Publishing Company|John Benjamins]] |isbn=978-9027243416 |url=https://www.academia.edu/19105666}}</ref>

=== Parallels to natural languages ===

[[File:Foundation tablet, dedication to God Nergal by Hurrian king Atalshen, king of Urkish and Nawar, Habur Bassin, circa 2000 BC Louvre Museum AO 5678.jpg|thumb|Black Speech has been compared to the [[Hurrian language]], seen here on the Foundation Tablet, {{circa|2000 BC}}|alt=Photo of an ancient tablet with writing in the Hurrian language]]

The Russian historian Alexandre Nemirovski claimed a strong similarity to the extinct [[Hurrian language]] of northern [[Mesopotamia]],<ref name=Fauskanger/> which had recently been partially deciphered at the time of the writing of ''The Lord of the Rings'', [[E. A. Speiser]]'s ''Introduction to Hurrian'' appearing in 1941.<ref>The annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, v. 20, N.H. 1941.</ref><ref name="Speiser 2016">{{cite book | last=Speiser | first=Ephraim A. |author-link=Ephraim Avigdor Speiser | title=Introduction to Hurrian | publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers | publication-place=Eugene | year=2016 |orig-year=1941 | isbn=978-1-4982-8811-8 | oclc=957436981 }}</ref> Fauskanger corresponded with Nemirovski, and notes that Nemirovski argued that Tolkien designed Black Speech "after some acquaintance with Hurrian-Urartian language(s)."<ref name=Fauskanger/> The evidence that Nemirovski presented for this is entirely linguistic, based on similarities of the elements of the agglutinative forms of Black Speech; Hurrian was similarly agglutinative.<ref name=Fauskanger/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"
|+ Parallels perceived by Nemirovski between Black Speech and Hurrian<ref name=Fauskanger/>
|-
! Black Speech !! English !! Hurrian !! Meaning in Hurrian''<br/>(possible Black Speech interpretation)''
|-
| ''durb''- || to rule || {{Transliteration|xhu|turob-}} || something predestined to occur<br/>''(perhaps: an evil destiny)''
|-
| -''ûk'' || completely || {{Transliteration|xhu|-ok-}} || "fully, really"
|-
| ''gimb''- || to find || {{Transliteration|xhu|-ki(b)}} || to take, to gather
|-
| ''burz''- || dark || {{Transliteration|xhu|wur-, wurikk-}} || to see, to be blind ''<br/>(perhaps: in the dark)''
|-
| ''krimp''- || to tie || {{Transliteration|xhu|ker-imbu-}} || to make longer fully ''<br/>(perhaps: if of a rope, to tie tightly)''
|}

Ashford writes that the Black Speech is at once agglutinative and [[Ergative–absolutive alignment|ergative]], "something of a rarity even now".<ref name="Ashford 2018"/> Further, in the 1940s ergativity was a recent linguistic discovery, so that Tolkien was making use of the newest research in his favourite field. In Ashford's view, given the "striking parallels" in both syntax and morphology, the "mysterious history", and the "topical interest" of Hurrian at that time, the case for a Hurrian connection is persuasive.<ref name="Ashford 2018"/>

Tolkien stated that when coining the Black Speech word ''nazg'', he might have been influenced by the [[Irish language|Irish]] word ''[[wikt:nasc#Irish|nasc]]'' ("ring, fastening, tie").<ref name="Parma Eldalamberon"/> He denied that ''nazg'' had any connection to [[Old English]].<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#297 draft to Mr Rang, August 1967 }}</ref>

Mark Mandel, writing in the ''[[Tolkien Journal]]'' in 1965, wrote that ''-ishi'' is "a [[Preposition and postposition|postposition]] of location, or (to borrow a term from [[Finnish grammar]]) an [[Inessive case|inessive]] suffix."<ref name="Mandel 1965">{{cite journal |last1=Mandel |first1=Mark |title=The Ring-Inscription |editor1-last=Plotz |editor1-first=Dick |editor1-link=Richard Plotz |journal=[[Tolkien Journal]] |date=1965 |volume=1 |issue=2 ([[Winterfilth]] 1965) |page=2 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=tolkien_journal}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Fictional language]]s
* [[Constructed language]]s

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{ME-ref|Letters}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |author1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author2-link=Christina Scull |title=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |title-link=The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] | year=2005 |isbn=978-0-00-720907-1 }}
* {{ME-ref|FOTR}}
* {{ME-ref|ROTK}}
* {{ME-ref|PoME}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/orkish.htm Orkish and the Black Speech - base language for base purposes] by [[Helge Fauskanger|Helge Kåre Fauskanger]]
* [http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/blackspeech.htm Black Speech analysis] by Craig Daniel

{{Languages of Middle-earth}}
{{Lord of the Rings}}
{{Middle-earth}}

[[Category:Middle-earth languages]]
[[Category:Constructed languages]]
[[Category:Constructed languages introduced in the 1940s]]

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Black Speech