Khuzdul is the fictional language of the Dwarves in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, written with Cirth script. It appears to be based, like the Semitic languages, on triconsonantal roots: kh-z-d, b-n-d, z-g-l. Little is known of the language, as the Dwarves kept it to themselves, except for their battle-cry: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! meaning Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you! J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ... Dust jacket of the 1968 UK edition The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story by J. R. R. Tolkien, a sequel to his earlier work, The Hobbit. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture the way natural languages do. ... An artistic language (artlang) is a constructed language (conlang) designed for aesthetic pleasure. ... Some authors use fictional languages as a device to underline differences in culture, by having their characters communicate in a fashion which is both alien and dislocated. ... Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel, the West Bank, the United States, and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Phonology (Greek phonÄ“ = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Dwarves of J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth are beings of short stature who all possess beards, and are often friendly with Hobbits although long suspicious of Elves. ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1972, in his study at Merton Street (from by H. Carpenter) John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) is best known as the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings. ... A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ... This chart showing the runes shared by the Angerthas Daeron and Angerthas Moria is presented in Appendix E of The Return of the King. ... 14th century BC diplomatic letter in Akkadian, found in Tell Amarna. ... In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages, a triliteral is a root containing a sequence of three consonants. ...

According to the Lhammas, Khuzdul is unique in belonging to a separate language family, Aulëan, not related to the languages of Elves, which are in the Oromëan language family. Aulëan was named from the Dwarvish tradition that it had been devised by Aulë the Smith, the Vala who created the Dwarves. The Lhammas is the name of a work of fiction of etymological subject by J. R. R. Tolkien. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In an older version of J.R.R. Tolkiens conception of the languages of Middle-earth as expounded in the Lhammas, Oromëan is the language phylum to which all Elvish languages, such as Quenya and Sindarin, belong. ... Aulë is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fantasy universe, Middle-earth, the Valar are the Powers of Arda who live on the Western continent of Aman. ...

There are many similarities between Khuzdul and the native tongues of men, such as Taliska, the language of the first and third houses of the Edain. This is because in the early days of Middle-earth, before men crossed the mountains into Beleriand, they had contact to the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains and further East. Taliska was the ancestor of Adûnaic, the tongue of Númenor and the direct ancestor of the Common Speech, and both languages still had Khuzdul influences. In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Taliska was the language spoken by the Bëorian (First) and Hadorian (Third) Houses of the Atanatári, who spoke different dialects. ... In the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Edain were those Men (humans) who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves. ... In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Adûnaic (language of the west) was the language of the men of Númenor during the Second Age. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Westron or Common Speech is the closest thing to a universal language, at least at the time during which The Lord of the Rings is set. ...

The Dwarvish language sounds much like Hebrew, and indeed Tolkien noted some similarities between Dwarves and Jews: both were "at once natives and aliens in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue…" (Letters, 176). Another reason Hebrew was chosen as a basis for Khuzdul is that it is unlike any of the European languages, and thus sufficiently alien to western ears to show just how different the Dwarven speech was from the Elvish languages. In addition, the name of the language may have been intended by Tolkien to evoke the Khazars, a Turkish people said to have converted to Judaism in the 7th century CE. (However, it should be noted that Tolkien was not anti-Semitic; he had at least one Jewish friend, stated that it would be an honor if his name was Jewish in origin - it wasn't - and bitterly disagreed with Nazi beliefs.) Hebrew (עִבְרִית ‘Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel, the West Bank, the United States, and by Jewish communities around the world. ... The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (ISBN 0-618-05699-8) is a selection of J. R. R. Tolkiens letters published in 1981, edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and the biographer Humphrey Carpenter. ... The site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel. ...

It is said in The Silmarillion that Aulë, the creator of the first Dwarves, taught them "the language he had devised for them," which implies that Khuzdul is technically, in reality and fictionally, a constructed language. The Silmarillion is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkiens works, edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher R. Tolkien, with assistance from fantasy fiction writer Guy Gavriel Kay. ... Aulë is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium. ... 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. ...

For The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the linguist David Salo used what little is known of the Khuzdul to create enough of a language for use in the movies. This is usually referred to as neo-Khuzdul by Tolkienists. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie poster (2001) The Lord of the Rings (film) redirects here. ... Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... David Salo giving a talk in Bloomington, Illinois, April 30th, 2005 David Salo (born 1969) is a linguist who worked on languages for The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, expanding the Elvish language and defining some languages that previously had no words. ... 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. ...

External link

• Ardalambion site discussion of Khuzdul