Orkish redirects here. For other uses, see Urkish. Tolkien redirects here. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... For the song by James Blunt, see 1973 (song). ... A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ... A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... An artistic language (artlang) is a constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Urkesh was a city situated in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains in what is now northern Syria It was founded during the third millennium BC by the Hurrians on a site which appears to have been inhabited on a small scale for centuries (at least since 5000 BC, the...

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. Quenya, written in Tengwar and Latin-based alphabets Fictional languages are by far the largest group of artistic languages. ... Mount Doom and Barad-dûr in Mordor, as depicted in the Peter Jackson film. ... This article is about the novel. ... This article is about a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth fantasy writings. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose vocabulary and grammar were specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium, the Nazgûl (from Black Speech Nazg (ring) and Gûl (wraith, spirit); Ringwraiths, sometimes written Ring-wraiths), also known as the Nine Riders or Black or Dark Riders (or simply the Nine), are evil servants of Sauron. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional realm of Middle-earth, the Olog-hai [[1]] were a fierce breed of Trolls that appeared during the last days of the War of the Ring in Saurons service. ... Barad-dûr and Mount Doom in Peter Jacksons film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. ... For other uses, see The Third Age. ...

History

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. In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, Valarin is the tongue of the Ainur. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional mythology, the Secret Fire and Flame Imperishable as well as possibly the Flame of Anor are references to a mysterious power. ... Quenya is one of the fictional languages spoken by the Elves (the Quendi) the ones who speak. The first-found children of Ilúvatar, in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien. ...

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. Tolkien redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Sauron. ... Elvish languages are constructed languages used typically by elves in a fantasy setting. ...

Examples from Tolkien

The Ring Inscription

The only example given of "pure" Black Speech is the inscription upon the One Ring: In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional world of Middle-earth, the Ring-inscription is a Black Speech inscription in Tengwar upon the One Ring, symbolising the Rings power to control the other Rings of Power. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

When translated into English, these words form the lines: The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

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.^{[verification needed]} The bearers of the Rings of Power in Peter Jacksons The Fellowship of the Ring The Rings of Power are fictional artifacts from J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium. ...

This small sample seems to indicate the ease with which a command referring to an entire category of things or people can be uttered in the Black Speech - simply adding "-ulûk" at the end.

Other examples

Some other Black Speech words are known, given as examples by Tolkien in Appendix F of The Return of the King. These include Lugbúrz, meaning "Dark Tower" (Barad-dûr), snaga, meaning "slave", 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 Ork Grishnákh curses the Isengard Uruk Uglúk: This article is about the book. ... Barad-dûr and Mount Doom in Peter Jacksons film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. ...

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 Peoples of Middle-earth is the 12th and final volume of The History of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien from the unpublished manuscripts of his father J. R. R. Tolkien. ... Vinyar Tengwar is a linguistic journal published by the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, dedicated to the scholarly study of the invented languages of J. R. R. Tolkien. ...

Film use

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. One word created for the film is ashi - derived from ash ("one") and meaning "only." Two phrases in Black Speech appear in the film: Gu kibum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha-gum-ishi ashi gurum. ("No life in coldness, in darkness. Here in void, only death." Gurum means "death" and Gurut means "to die.") An agglutinative language is a language in which the words are formed by joining morphemes together. ... This article is about the Peter Jackson film trilogy. ... For the journal, see Linguistics (journal). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Tolkien fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially of the Middle-earth legendarium which includes The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. ...

A possible source for Black Speech

Some speculate that Tolkien may have drawn upon the language of the ancient Hittites and Hurrians for his Black Speech. Russian historician Alexander Nemirovski did a research on the One Ring's writing and at least have proven that the language is ergative (-uk in "durbatuluk" is the verb suffix meaning "them all" and is related to object and not to subject, verb forms related to object are specific to ergative languages), with strong lexical simularity to Hurrian (also ergative) [1] Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire The Hittites were an ancient people from KaneÅ¡ who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URU) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite... For the history of the kingdom of Mitanni (1500–1300 BC), see Mitanni. ... The term ergative is used in grammar in two different meanings: ergative case, ergative language ergative verb This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Black Metal

As its more common subject matter includes fantasy and dark, demonic or diabolical themes, some black metal bands have taken their names and occasionally song and album titles from Black Speech, including: For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... This article is about the musical genre. ...

• Burzum (Black Speech for 'darkness', as seen on the One Ring)
• Gorgoroth (from the plateau in Mordor, location of Mount Doom)
• Summoning, particularly the song "Mirdautas Vras" from Oath Bound, the first song not part of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack written entirely in Black Speech.
• Za Frûmi Numerous concept albums centred around the exploits of a tribe of Uruk Hai. All lyrics are spoken in Black Speech and the translations are included in each album.

Burzum began in 1991 as a prominent and influential Norwegian black metal act by Varg Vikernes (born Kristian Vikernes). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the black metal band. ... Mount Doom and Barad-dûr in Mordor, as depicted in the Peter Jackson film. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mount Doom, or Orodruin, is a volcano in Mordor where the One Ring was forged in the Crack of Doom, a fiery chasm within the mountain. ... Summoning is an Austrian epic/atmospheric black metal band. ... Oath Bound is the sixth full length album by Summoning. ... Za Frûmi is a Swedish music group that was formed 2000. ...

See also

• Fictional languages
• Constructed languages
• Languages of Middle-earth

Quenya, written in Tengwar and Latin-based alphabets Fictional languages are by far the largest group of artistic languages. ... A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... The languages of Middle-earth are artificial languages invented by J. R. R. Tolkien and used in his books about Middle-earth, including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. ...

External links

• Orkish and the Black Speech - base language for base purposes
• Black Speech analysis by Craig Daniel
• neo-Black Speech vocabulary
• The Land of Shadow - A great resource for debased and unattested Black Speech.

Notes

1. ^ The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 343