Lessons

Verbs: past tense. More adverbs

It's hard to express thoughts using only present tense of the verbs. You need past tense to talk about things that already happened. To put the verb into the past tense, the suffix -uz- should be inserted between word's root and 3rd person ending. For example:

Verb form English Nûrlâm
Imperative Come! Skât!
Present An orc is coming Ash uruk skatâ
Past An orc came Ash uruk skatuzâ

New words

  • ak (to stab)
  • farb (to chase, hunt)
  • ghur (to die)
  • grush (to hit, strike, punch)
  • kramp (to do, make)
  • lal (to laugh)
  • lûmp (to fall)
  • rong (to dig)
  • ronk (pit, pool)

Some adverbs may be helpful in describing the past:

  • dok (already, before, previously)
  • nokhar (again)
  • ûn (new) ⇒ ûnarz (just, recently)

Past tense in Nûrlâm also substitutes English Present Perfect tense (actions that already happened but in the still lasting time interval). Example: “The dwarf has just fallen” should be translated as “Gazatum lûmpuzâ ûnarz” (you don't translate “have/has”).


Exercise 1

Translate into Nûrlâm:

  1. demons made some sorcery again
  2. filthy dwarves heard this
  3. four dragons escaped
  4. orcs hunted the elves
  5. shit stank
  6. the bee made a new pile
  7. the pain stopped
  8. the slayer stabbed the slave
  9. the strong warrior stroke the fat troll
  10. this human already died

show answers

show answers

  1. rog krampuzû mûd dush nokhar
  2. dug gazat khlâruzû za / gazat dug khlâruzû za
  3. hant lûg irzuzû
  4. uruk farbuzû za golug
  5. push pushduzâ
  6. noim krampuzâ ash ûn tub / noim krampuzâ ash tubûn
  7. hrizgum puzguzâ
  8. dogum akuzâ snagam
  9. bolg mauhum grushuzâ tûrz ologum / maubolgum grushuzâ ologtûrzum
  10. za tark ghuruzâ dok

Exercise 2

Translate from Nûrlâm:

  1. agh burzum lûmpuzâ
  2. golug shoguzû saubumûk
  3. golugûrz mau skâtuzû lad
  4. graz nîn ugluzâ krig nazgûl
  5. lagum grishuzâ za hrau
  6. ologum laluzâ
  7. rogum ronguzâ ash ronk
  8. tug ghor thrakuzâ mik zrî
  9. uruk ghâshuzû nîr goim
  10. ûzûl uruk throkhuzâ karn âps ûnarz

show answers

show answers

  1. and the darkness fell
  2. elves drank all the juice
  3. elvish warriors came late
  4. cold water frightened three Nazgûl
  5. the sword cut the flesh
  6. the troll laughed
  7. the demon dug a pit
  8. only blood brought a little joy
  9. orcs burned the beautiful city
  10. green orc has just eaten red meat / green orc was eating red meat recently

See also

Contents

Lessons

Here is the list of lessons for studying the conlang called Nûrlâm, yet another fan dialect of Tolkien's Black Speech.

  • Overview of Nûrlâm dialect
  1. The very basics:
  2. Deeper knowledge:
  3. Advanced:
  4. Mastering the language:
    • Making new words: derivational suffixes
    • Verbs: phrasal verbs, prefixes
    • Affix order: nouns
    • Affix order: verbs