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Interjections
Interjection is a word or expression that expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction and occurs on its own and may break the flow of proper sentence. This group of words is diverse and ranges from words that may have meaning in proper sentence to absolutely meaningless accidental sounds (e.g. cough). Most common functions of interjections include:
- exclamations (like English “oops”, “wow”);
- curses and profanities (like “damn!”);
- greetings (e.g. “hi!”, “bye!”);
- responses (like “okay”, “hmm”, “huh?”)
- filler words (words that have meaning but being used to break the flow of speech absolutely unnecessary)
Most of these applications are called parenthesis is syntax.
In sum, this lexical category includes words belonging only to it, as well as other parts of speech (verbs, adverbs, nouns) when used as interjections.
Interjections in Tolkien's Black Speech
The following unique interjections occur in The Lord of the Rings book throughout conversations of orcs:
| Interjection | Source | Meaning1) |
|---|---|---|
| ai | LOTR, TT, Book 3, Chapter III | LOS, HG: hey! |
| ar | LOTR, ROTK, Book 6, Chapter II | |
| garn | LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X and ROTK, Book 6, Chapter II | LOS: “go on!”, “come on!” |
| hai | LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X | |
| harri | TH, Chapter VI and LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X | |
| hoi | TH, Chapter VI and LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X | |
| hola | LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X | |
| nar | LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X | AN: transformed into negative particle “no”, “not”, which was later used in Neo Black Speech (including Nûrlâm) both as stand-alone word and prefix/clitic |
| sha | Orcish curse | the meaning was changed into preposition “with” in later translations of Orcish curse by Tolkien |
| skai | Orcish curse | TK: “gah!” fans (SV, RE): “damn!”, “curse!”, “shit!” |
| ya | TH, Chapter VI and LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X | |
| yoi | LOTR, TT, Book 4, Chapter X |
Please note that meanings of these words were extrapolated by fans, not by Tolkien himself, who left them untranslated.
There are also some universal interjections attested, like “ah”, “shh”, “grr”.
Interjections in Neo Black Speech
The following interjections were added in various Neo Black Speech dialects:
| Interjection | Dialect | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| akh | LOS | “agree”, “yes”, “yep”, “aye”; in LOS “akh-” is proper verb with meaning “agree”, which is used instead of English affirmative interjection/particle “yes” |
| bhog | HG > LOS | “all right!”, “okay”, “well”; in LOS “bhogad” is used as interjection, while “bhog” is proper adjective/adverb (“good”, “well”); proper word in Nûrlâm, still may be used as exclamation, but not as pure interjection |
| brosh | SV, all major dialects | hi!, hey!, hello! |
| ferk | SV | SV: “damn!” ZA: “son of the bitch!”; not used in Nûrlâm |
| gâkh | AN, all major dialects | “let it be”, “may it be so”, “well!”; became used as modal verb in Nûrlâm |
| hûz | SV > HG, ZA | “look out!”, “watch out!” |
| mar | LOS (LUG) | “huh?”, “what's up?”; normally verb's prefix of interrogative mood, becomes an interjection when used stand-alone |
| ne | SV | “nope”, “no”; not in Nûrlâm, see “nar” |
| urk | LOS | damn! |
| zâgîra | SV > LOS | “okay”, “O.K.”; not in Nûrlâm |
