The Black Speech

Annals of the Sorcerous Black Speech 

Or: Nak Malburz-Hagdum

The following annals provide the lexicon, usage notes, and process of derivation for the reconstructed version of the Black Speech, a language whose first known glimpses come from the literature of J.R.R. Tolkein. The name of this reconstructed dialect in particular, in its own tongue, is Malburz-Hagdum, meaning “sorcerous Black Speech”. This is in reference to the explicitly magical properties intended in the structure and nature of the language.

            The method of the language’s construction bases itself in the theory that the original Black Speech was derived either of Hittite (The Tongues of Arda - Orkish), Old Norse (A Burzum Story: Part I), or a combination of the two, visualizing further that the Black Speech is a derivation of Proto-Indo-European. The relationship between the words in Tolkein’s canon and certain Proto-Indo-European words provide rules for the methodology of the lexicon’s construction, which is extrapolated in the section titled PROCESS.

            The purpose of this construction is to provide a theoretical vision of the Black Speech had its psycho-spiritual basis been in fact rooted in the Proto-Indo-European language. It would therefore resonate more strongly than the poorly supplied canon with the psyche of the “real” world (rather than the pure confines of the Tolkein legendarium), paving the way for its usage as a magical language in such a context.

Table of Contents:

LEXICON

Nouns, Verbs, Grammatical Endings, Selected Vocabulary

PROCESS

Analysis of the Canon, Supplementation of the Lexicon

NOTES AND USAGE

Sounds, Adjectives, Compounds, Possessives, Verbs, Texts, Notes

LEXICON 

Nouns

agh         and (conjunction) (from Scandinavian og, och) 

arg          virgin; derivations: argum (virginity, purity, unspoiltness, worth), arag (adjective, “last”)

ash         one (counter number)

agd         sacrifice; derivations: agdum (the act of sacrifice), agdrarum (sacrifice through action)

azg         ash tree; man, human; derivations: azgdrar (warrior) (from Old Norse aske)

arzg        flyer, holder, frame

bal          flame (from Old Norse bal)

bazg       cover, fortifications 

bil           wicked, wretched (adjective) (from OldNorse byl) 

bizg        fish (from Proto-Indo-European pisk)

bulg        hide, skin

burz       dark (adjective)
dalg        bed, drawer

damad depths; also see: infinity, the abyss, the void
darz     dumb (adjective)

dash     tooth, teeth

dazg    plain, also see: field

dirg      flood

dizg     plain

drag     apparition; also see: specter (from Old Norse draugr)
drar      undertaking, duty, action

drum    experience, also seen as dram (road, way of life, experience)

duzg      sunset (from Proto-Indo-European dhuus, akin to English dusk) 

gak         writing

gar          grass; derivations: gardizgir (“over the grassy plains”)
ghal        skull
ghash     fire
ghurz     earth, ground, soil; derivations: ghurzum (the ground) (from Scandinavian jord) 

gul          spirit, wraith; derivations: nazgul (ring wraith) (from English ghoul, from Arabic gol)

hagd      witch, also see: seeress; derivations: hagdum (witchcraft, sorcery) (from Old Norse hag)

hagh      folk, race, breed, class, group

hastrum               star; derivations: hastrum sul (the sun) (from Proto-Indo-European hastra)
hazdrum              something that burns, a burning thing
hugh      thought, idea; derivations: husurz (intelligence) (from Old Norse hugin)
hur         army (from Old Norse her)

lath        roots, also see: dirt, group, crowd, that which grows up or surfaces; 

lath        derivations: lathum (the public, the crowd) (from Proto-Indo-European leod)

lug          tower; derivations: lugburz (the black tower)
mal         speech, language, word; derivations: malburz (the black speech) (from Old Norse maol)
man       divine loyalty beyond all things, admiration, love
mar        mara, a creature that rides on dreams; derivations: marum (nightmares)
mash    mind, brain

math    mood, feeling, sentiment

mazgd   history, past, world, age, state of things, situation
mirz       water
mun       memory; derivations: munmirz (well of memory) (from Old Norse munin)

nak         record; derivations: narnak (obituary)

nar         corpse
nazg       ring, circle, cycle

ragh       vassal, petty deity
rum        room, space, layer, place; 

rum        derivations: surzrum (armory), thazgrum (headquarters) (from Old Norse raumr)

sabn      rest, repose; derivations: sabnum (sleep)  

sadur     beginning; seee also aragur (end)

sash     sense, senses

sind        elves (from Tolkein’s term “sindarin”)
sul          sun

surz        sharp; see also: fresh (adjective)

sut          hundred (counter number)
thazg      objective, mission, order
thrazg     trash, fodder

ugh         I, me (first person pronoun) (from Proto-Indo-European egh)
uk           all (counter number); see also “Grammatical Endings: -uk”
ul            him/them (in the accusitive case)

ur         first, primal; derivations: uruk (the first), urum (the highest)

urd         the wyrd, emperean, fate

Verbs

badat               to see, also see: to read, to watch, to intake

balgat              to know

bimbat             to wait, see also: to wait within
brakat              to break, see also figuratively: to end something
bukat               to awaken

drahat              to carry, bear
dralat               to babble, chant, murmur
druhat              to give birth to, to bear, to conceive

dumbat            to house, contain, host; derivations: dumbum (house)

durbat              to rule
gadat               to say, order, publish, approve

gimbat             to find

gimmat            to entice or captivate
grakat              to crack, split open

hasrat              to go through, sift, filter
hazdrat            to burn, give off light and heat
kimpat             to lurk, see also: to lurk within

kragat              to arrive

krimpat            to bind
saghat              to tell, narrate

sakat                to cut

simbat              to sleep, sleep within

sughat              to say or speak

surzat               to sharpen, develop or improve

thrakat             to bring (from Latin tracto)

thrazgat           to struggle, endure or persist

uzgat               to use, employ; derivations: uzgum (the use, usefullness)

Grammatical Endings

 
-ab       away from
-am      at, by (indicating location)
-amb    in the presence of, before, flanking
-ant      before
-ar        around
-at        towards, at, to
-im       belonging to
-ir         over
-is        in
-isi/ishi      within
-uk       adjectival marker, “-ic”

-unt      under
-ur        gerund marker, “-ing”; locative existential marker, “to be”; 

-ur        derivations: kur (where, which, what)
-us       from

-um      -ness or –ment, act of

Selected Vocabulary

Planets and Spiritual Beings

Nabash            Neptune

Urash               Uranus

Sadurash         Saturn

Mard/Murd       Mars

Inon/Bash        Venus

Sadoth             Mercury

Histron             Hister

Hold                 Holdra, skogsrå, skogsfru

Mimon              Mimir

An explanation for the difference between many similarly translated words relating to spirits:

We have three words which mean similar things: drag, gul, and mar.

            Drag generally refers to any spectral being of a non-divine nature, usually a ghost or apparition, though sometimes a demonic force or the envoy of such. A Drag is more likely to be seen than interacted with.

            Gul specifically refers to a being that was once a mortal, akin to the English terms ghoul and wraith. They usually have some kind of objective or are sent for something.

            Mar specifically referrs to the classical English “mare”.

PROCESS

Some of the more obvious etymologies have been omitted from the lexicon above, such as sul (sun). The following is a general overview of how the lexicon’s words were constructed from Proto-Indo-European words and their derivations.

            Through an analysis of the “canon” words of the Black Speech found in Tolkein’s literature, the famous “Ring Inscription”, in the vein of relating them to a theoretical Proto-Indo-European origin, it will be explained how the rest of the lexicon was developed. This primary analysis of the canon words gives a picture of the certain style and patterns that the Black Speech adheres to, and which becomes a subset mutation of Proto-Indo-European with rules. These rules most readily display the verity of cognates between the Black Speech and Proto-Indo-European, and supply a method from which further Proto-Indo-European words can be “mutated” into words of the Black Speech.

Analysis of the Canon

ash – this counter number is translated in the canon as the equivalent of the English term “one”. Using the theoretical existence of a Proto-Indo-European suffix “-on” to which the English term “one” also belongs, ash becomes akin to this term. Therefore we have the construction of “urash” (Uranus), meaning literally “first one”. Since it may also come from a root appearing like “ans”, the Proto-Indo-European words possessing the “ans” form such as “dash” (tooth) and “sash” (sense).

agh - this conjunction linguistically resembles Scandinavian og, which supports the idea of Norse influence. Therefore, a rule to derive words in the Black Speech from Scandinavian ones follows the same sound change between Scandinavian og and the Black Speech’s agh:

            Scandinavian “o” becomes the Black Speech’s “a”

            Scandinavian “g” or “ch” becomes the Black Speech’s “gh”

at – this suffix also appeared in the Ring Inscription and is given the gloss of “towards” or “at”, readily demonstrating its analogy with the Proto-Indo-European suffix of the same nature (later becoming th Latin word ad and the English word at).

-uk – this suffix is found in the canon word “Uruk-hai” and resembles the Proto-Indo-European suffix “ikos”, and means the same thing. If “Ur” may mean the Proto-Indo-European term “ur”, meaning “first” or “primordial”, then “Uruk-hai” would mean the race of the first ones. This resembalance also provides a rule for the mutation of sounds:

            Latin “i” becomes the Black Speech’s “u”

            Latin “c” remains unchanged as the Black Speech’s “k”

thrakat – this verb appears in the Ring Inscription and means “to bring”, and resembles the Proto-Indo-European word dhregh, which also means “to bring” or “to drag” (later becoming the Latin word tracto and English word drag), a fact which further establishes mutation laws:

            Latin “t” and “tr” become the Black Speech’s “th” and “thr”

            Latin “ct” becomes the Black Speech’s “k”

            English “g” becomes the Black Speech’s “k”

durbat – this verb also resembles a word from a Proto-Indo-European language, the German word dürfen, which means “to be allowed” or “to be able to”, which is similar to the meaning of “durbat” which is “to rule”.  This supports an Indo-European influence, but doesn’t allow for conclusive mutation rules. We know only that sounds like “f” and “p” all become “b” in the Black Speech anyways.

burzum – this adjective meaning “dark” resembles words that relate to being black or obscured, such as the Proto-Indo-European word bhleg (later becoming the English words black, bleach). Latin’s rule of turning Proto-Indo-European L’s into R’s and vice-versa may be responsible for turning bhleg easily into brg, which is not a long step away from brz and burz.

Supplementation of the Lexicon through Rules and Borrowings

Taking the rules derived in the analysis of the word “agh”, we can conclude that the counterpart of the Scandinavian first person pronoun “eg” would be “ugh”. Therewith other personal pronouns can be developed:

            mugh (me)

            tugh (you)

            (on and on and on…)

Certain aspects of Norse culture that are invariably tied with the language were used as well, such as the term “hagd” which comes from the Scandinavian word “hag”, surviving also in modern day English as “hag”. The image of man as a tree has not faded from human psychology – the term askr in Norse, denoting the ash tree, became “azg” meaning both “ash” and “man”.

            Through the same rules words like “dath” and “lath” are taken from the Proto-Germanic words theudo and leudo, in turn coming from Proto-Indo-European. Another portion of the lexicon comprises borrowings for which no sound changes were readily applied, such as “rum” and “bal”.

Lastly words like duzg and bizg came directly from Proto-Indo-European, taking the assumption that the “sk” sound would mutate into “zg”.

NOTES AND USAGE

Sounds

Although the rest of the following sub-sections will be listed alphabetically, the sounds of the sorcerous Black Speech will be explained first.

Several letters that are present in the Latin alphabet are wholly missing in that of the Black Speech. In the canon there was never any “e”, supposedly because the sound made one smile when it was spoken, wrote Tolkein. The only “o” that is seen in the canon is in Sauron’s name, and therefore a rule has been adopted that the letter “o” may only appear in proper names of great beings, such as divinities or sovereigns, and has since shown itself in a regular “on” suffix denoting such a being. Alternatively, if “o” is undesireable to use, the letter “a” may be used instead. Like “e”, the following letters are also entirely absent: c, f, j, p, q, v, w, x, and y.

            Sounds that have a varying range of pronunciation throughout the Indo-European languages, such as the pronunciation of “Parcifal” across Italy, Germany and England, have no regular pronunciation and are quite free to follow the ideosyncratic or ethnocentric tendancies of the speaker. For example, “z” may be pronounced as a hard “s”, a soft “s”, or even “ts” like in German. Like Latin, it has no uniform pronunciation in concern to these particular sounds. This also includes the pronunciation of “r”.

            The phoneme “gh” is a different matter. It is a convention to write it this way; originally it was a simple “i” such as in “Uruk-hai”, but I changed it due to lack of grace. It is pronounced silently when between two vowels, but when it is the final sound in a word, it is pronounced the same as the original “i”, rendering the spelling “Uruk-hagh” the same as “Uruk-hai” in sound.

Adjectives

True adjectives in the sorcerous Black Speech, such as surz and burz, are a special class unto their own and do not function as simple compounds do. For normal usage, the adjective takes the ending –uk and is applied to the front of a noun:

            burzuk Lug (black tower)

For definite nouns or proper names however, the adjective is attached to the back of the noun:

            Lugburz (the Black Tower)

Compounds

The order of words in a compound word express definiteness. For definite nouns, the descriptor is attached to the front of the noun:

            Nazggul (Nazgul) (the ring wraith)

            Arag-hagh (the race of the last ones)

For indefinite nouns the opposite is true, as the descriptor is attached to the end of the noun:

            Azgdrar (warrior)

            Hastrum-sul (a star, in particular the sun, indefinite in light of the existence of other suns)

Words that denote things of which there are usually a lot, such as stars, drops, records, books, etc. usually appear as the head (such as in the term hastrum sul), while their descriptor follows. This is true without regard for definiteness.

Possessives 

The ending -im is fixed to the end of the possessed noun, after which follows the possessor which is undeclined, e.g. munim gurz - the earth's memory, ghalim azg - the man's skull.

Some possessive relationships are implied through wordage: the addition of “hagh” before a noun means “the children of”, e.g. hai-sadurash (Saturn’s children)

Verbs

Temporal tenses are never hinted at in the canon, therefore a simple rule concerning suffixes has been applied to mark tense:

            -i past tense

            -ut future tense

Each part of a declension is not necessary simultaneously. This means that the parts can be added or omitted based on the speaker’s discretion, as is typical of an agglutinative language. They follow this order:

verb – tense – miscellaneous endings – person

e.g. Gimb-ut-ul-uk-ugh

(Find – will – them – all – I)

I will find them all

Personal pronouns may be added to the end of a verb to denote person, but they may also be featured as a separate word, e.g. Balgulugh and Ugh balgul.

Reflexive verbs like Simpat and Kimpat may use –ul to denote the identical subject and object.

Texts

Example Sentences

Kimpul agh simpul hughrum-ishi, kur ghurzum-ishi nazg gimbutuk.

(They lurk and sleep within the realm of thought, where the rings shall be found interred.)

Narnakis gimbiugh, lug dumbul ghalim sauron.

(I found it in the obituary, the tower housing Sauron’s skull.)

Sut duzgburzunt ugh brakuluk durbumburzat.

(Under a hundred black sunsets, I break them all for the Dark Kingdom)

Invocation of the Knowledge of the Blood

Azgdrarim Histrona, drag damadus krimpughu agh gimmulughu bukat urdis munhastrum gimbatul.

Uruk-hagh arag-hagh azgdrarim histron,

Mirzim mun thrakatul agh krimpul ghashim hugh.

Munmirzus ghalim mimon dral lurzurz damadburzus sagh:

Azgdrarim uruk-hagh azgdrarim arag-hagh

Translation:

Warriors of Hister, the spectre from the deep I bind and bring I to awake and to find the star-mind in Urd,

First ones, last ones, warriors of Histron,

The waters of the mind to bring and the fires of thought to bind.

Mimir’s skull drawls from memory’s wells and from the void old knowledge tells,

Warriors of the first ones, warriors of the last ones.

Notes

Many would argue that the way to go about this is wrong here. I will not argue with them except on the grounds that this reconstruction was not made for the purpose of appeasing Tolkein fans, role-playing fans or anyone seeking a reconstruction of how the Black Speech may have been in the exact legendarium of Tolkein.

            Quite on the contrary, the purpose of the reconstruction as previously stated is the experimental extrapolation of a likened language using Tolkein’s scant-supplied Black Speech as a basis, that embodies the essence of a primordial and elemental nature whose analogy might be found in Sauron or Morgoth in the legendarium.

            Secondarily it was hoped that the result could be used as a code or script for records, who none but those well versed in the sorcerous Black Speech could read. I suppose this is partially the ideal of every constructive linguist. It is recommended that the language be written in a relatively Gothic hand, with letters more tall and orderly than they are wide or round.

            In closing, the ultimate ideal of this work is to provide a language outside of the confines of the “angelic tongues” of the Abrahamic religions that can be used for magic or ritual purposes. These aforementioned tongues have persisted for millennia now as the main evocative chants of the aspiring practitioner, thereby leading the said practitioner to eliciting the attention of only the angelic and demonic hierarchies of Jehova, such as the ones listed in the Goetia. This pattern must not keep up if the wider world of nature spirits, celestial spirits and other non-Abrahamic gods are to still have a relation with humanity. This work therefore aims to provide an entirely free method of magical and ritual communication that is rooted in the psychological nature of the Proto-Indo-European religion, and its subsequent forms in the latter mythologies and pagan religions in pre-Christian Europe. This is by no means the only method of achieving such a goal, but it aims to be an example of one.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the webmistress Scatha and the website Land of Shadow for providing analyses of the canon of the Black Speech and providing research material.

Likewise I would like to thank the website The Tongues of Arda for providing analyses of the canon of the Black Speech, specifically in the area of the theory that the Black Speech was in part derived from Hittite.

Lastly I would like to thank Varg Vikernes for inspiring this effort in the first place, and the idea that the Black Speech had roots in Old Norse and by extension the Proto-Indo-European language.

The following links go to articles that record the previous marks of progress in my analysis of the Black Speech and its reconstruction:

Old Notes

First Article

Lexicon Addition

The following links go to other miscellaneous articles about the Black Speech in general: 

TheLandofShadow.com - Ring Inscription, Shadowlandian Black Speech, Resources

Of the Tongues of Arda - Orkish and the Black Speech  

Mandatory Disclaimer: The Black Speech featured in the “Lord of the Rings” and all related works by the Tolkien estate belong to their respectful owners and I do not claim ownership of it, nor do I claim that the Black Speech is my original idea. The work presented here is based on the original idea by J.R.R. Tolkien and which is expanded on here for non-commercial purposes.