Lessons
• Lesson I – Background information
• Lesson II – Black Speech Sounds and Pronunciation
• Lesson III – Nouns
• Lesson IV – Verbs: Infinitive and Present Tense
• Lesson V – Verbs: Future Tense
• Lesson VI – Adjectives and Word Order
• Lesson VII – Pre- and Postpositions, Noun Cases, Phrase Verbs
• Lesson VIII – Verbs: Past Tense
• Lesson IX – Numbers
• Lesson X – Pronouns and Commands (Imperatives)
• * Lesson XII – Comparisons
• * Lesson XIII – Suffix Order and Indirect Objects
• * Lesson XIV – Questions
• * Lesson XV – Participles and Passive Voice
• * Lesson XVI – Conditional and Subjunctive Moods
• Appendix A: Prefixes and Suffixes
• Appendix B: Grammar quick overview
• Appendix C: Measures, Directions, Army Ranks
• Appendix D: List Of Abbreviations
• Appendix E: Canonical Tolkien's Black Speech
* Lesson XIV – Questions
This lesson uses the information by Lugrekh:
Special Questions
“The way I see it would be that a question word should go at the start of a sentence.”
“The only wierd acting question word is what. I also feel like the what question word should go in the place of the noun that is the answer... The who question word can also function like what. It goes into the place in the sentence that the proper noun would go.”
| English | Black Speech |
| Q: What is Lugrekh? A: Lugrekh is an orc |
Lugrekh kulat mash? (lit. Lugrekh is what?) Lugrekh kulat urûk |
| Q: What hit you? A: A rock hit me |
Mash grushat lat? Shakamûb grushat-izish |
| Q: What do orcs kill? A: The orcs kill elves! |
Urûk azat* mash? Urûk azat* golog |
| Q: Who killed the elves? A: Lugrekh killed the elves! |
Mirz azat** golog? Lugrekh azat** golog! |
| Q: Who did the elves kill? A: The elves killed the slaves! |
Golog azat*** mirz? (lit. The elves killed who?) Golog azat*** snaga |
In these examples mash, what, goes in the place where the unknown noun goes. Obviously the answer can also be shorterned down to one word. The third answer would normally be said: “golog” (just “elves!”)
Vocabulary – list of question words
| what? | mash | |
| when? | mukh | |
| where? | mal | |
| which? | mut | |
| who? | mirz | |
| whose? | mirzob / mob | |
| why? | mat | |
| how? | mol |
General Questions
The other kind of questions don't use a particular word, they are normally the kind of question answered with a yes or a no.
Examples:
Will you sit down?
Do you have the sword?
Did you kill the eleves?
As far as I know there is not a way to do this in Black Speech. So I'm going to propose a way and see what people think.
According to my dictionary m- is the root of all the interrogative words (questions). So, I would suggest using creating a new word based on the way nar- is used.
I'm going to add a new word to the dictionary, the word is mar- (I don't have that as a word currently). mar- works like nar- does, attaching to the front of a word. On it's own it means something like “huh? what you say?”. Examples:
English-specific:As you see, the word order differs from english rules. In Black Speech general questions have the same word order as in declarative sentences but can be distinguished by mentioned special word mar
Alternative Questions
I think alternative questions should work the same way as general questions. If you have two verbs in alternative you have to add mar- to both of them. The Black Speech word for “or” is “ogh”. And I fully accept Lugrekh's opinion on general questions, so here is my examples:
* No auxilary verb in English – no mar in BS
Disjunctive Questions
It is doubtful to say if the orcs use these questions, but I will propose my point of view. The first part of question is the usual statement, and the second one is the verb with affix mar- or the word mar itself. Examples:
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Comments
Has anyone here ever tried the lessons? I think some of them may need some corrections and updates. Let me know your thoughts.
The Swedish LARP-orcish Svartiska was not really created by a single LARP-group but by the community of orc-larpers where different groups created different dialects.
On pronunciation
There is an orc name that begins with y - Yagul - in The War of the Ring (The History of Middle Earth, vol. 8 )
I think Tolkien pronounce Mordor in Elvish, it is after all an Elvish name meaning Black land in Sindarin (or "shadows" in Quenya). It has nothing to do with pronunciation of the Black Speech.
And what about the sounds in the excercise: -qu- in "throqu-" and sr- in "srinkh-"? Especially -qu- seems out of place. Why not spell it kv or kw?
Yes, there as some issues with qu, specially when next letter is also u. Could be also spelled like Q. It appears only in words borrowed from elvish languages. I will replace it with something else if I would create new dialect.
I think there is nothing special with sr, for me it's easier to say than thr (thrakatulat).
Does comparative and superlative adjectives, and adverbs mark plural?
The dark tower - lugbûrz; the darkest tower - lugbûrzaz; the darkest towers - lugbûrzazu
urukû ghâshuzat hîzarz lug "the old orc quickly burned the tower"; urukûz ghâshuzut hîzarzu lug "the old orcs quickly burned the tower"
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edit 1. I saw that the adverb is not agreeing in number so: urukfuz ghâshuzut hîzarz lug
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edit 2. I saw that I somehow confused the adjectives - this i now corrected.
I think adverbs do not have plural form. Adjectives do in any form
There are two collective plural, -hai and -ûk. In contrast to the ordinary plural these can be used with people and races. So we have uruk-hai (the orc people) as the most famous example. And then in the lessons (IV) there is an example of the -ûk ending used with sharkû (old man) > sharkûk "all old men". So both the collective plurals can be used with people and races but what is the difference between them. What does sharkû-hai mean "all the old people" or maybe "the society of old men" or is it equivalent to sharkûk? Or is it just gibberish.
In lesson XIII on suffix order, verbs collective #6 two endings are given, -ûk and -âzh. The -âzh ending is used with a verb 'ufubulâzh' (will frighten them slightly). I cannot find this -âzh in the lessons or in the wordlists (there is "azh (conj, HORN) "also").
It seems to mean "slightly" but then it is not a collective. Confusing
I think it's Scatha's mistake.
I don't like interpretation of -hai as collective plural suffix nor simply as "folk", "people of" etc. However I can't offer better one.
I've added this shortly before my HDD crashed. Online version of dictionary is not updated still.
Here -uuk and -aazh are something like verb's aspect (perfect and "partial" respectively). Interpretation of "-uuk" as "completely", "fully" is taken from A. Nemirovsky's analysis