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Middle-Earth Role Playing (abbreviated as MERP) was a table RPG game published by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) since 1982 until 1997. Supplement books provided many pieces of lore, both invented specially for the game and taken from J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien books. The majority of modules were set in Third Age after the Great Plague (TA 1640–1650) but means to adopt to other timelines were usually provided.
The article here discusses Neo-Orkish dialect used in the game.
Write the overview
The information under this is based on supplement book “Gorgoroth” (ICE3112).
Letter | IPA sounds |
---|---|
a | [a], [æ] |
á | [a:], [æ:], [eɪ] |
â | [ɒ:] |
e | [ə] |
ê | [e] |
i | [i] |
í | [i:] |
y | |
î | [ɪ:], [jɪ] |
o | [o] , [ɔ] |
ô | [o:] , [ɔ:], [ɔu] |
u | [ʊ], [ʌ] |
ú | [ju:] |
û | [ʌ], [ʢ]1) |
Letter | Pronunciation |
---|---|
c | always [k] |
g | [g], aspirated [gʰ] at the end of words |
h | [h], marks aspiration after consonants except “kh”, “th”, “zh” |
j | [dʒ] |
k | [k] at the beginning of words, [k:], [kk] in “kh”, [x] in other cases |
p | a little bit harder than in English |
r | supposed to shift from trill [r] or [ʀ] to [ʢ], but majority of speakers pronounce it as [ɹ] |
t | [t] in the beginning of words, glottal stop [ʔ] in other positions in majority of subdialects |
th | [θ] |
z | [ʒ] |
zh | |
zg | [z], [zʔ] |
other letters are pronounced as in English
Write the overview
Information under this header is based on Orcish Nations site
I didn't found any information about orkish grammar in MERP books, but Orcish Nations site provided some rules.
1st Edition of MERP sometimes applied Sindarin rules on pluralizing nouns (at least borrowed from Elvish languages), but in whole they were irregular. “Orcish Nations” site provides interesting rules of pluralizing nouns which differentiates between subject and object. It used terms “soft” and “hard” consonants, which is usually applied to palatalization, but neither Black Speech nor MERP inventions have them, so I suppose they refer to unvoiced and voiced consonants.
Word ending | Subject | Object |
---|---|---|
unvoiced consonant | -im | -i |
voiced consonant | -rim | -ri |
vowel | -z |
Suffix | Meaning |
---|---|
-an | forms verbs from nouns |
-at | infinitive |
-hai | great, high, superior |
-ishi | “within” |
-ob | preposition “of”, genitive case |
-ub | future tense |
-ug | present participle, “-ing” |
-uk | “all” |
-ul | “them” |
-um | “-ness” |
-urz, -ûrz | forms adjectives |