-Lesson I.

Background Information-
I know you'll be tempted to skip this stuff, but humor me and just read through it once.
You probably already know that J. R. R. Tolkien’s original Black Speech consists of only two
phrases and several orc names. First, the famous Ring inscription:

“Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi
krimpatul.”

“One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in
the darkness bind them.”

There is also an orc curse by Tolkien, which appears in Book 3 of The Two Towers:

“Uglûk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob bûb-hosh skai!” which is translated as:

"Uglûk to the dung pit with stinking Saruman-filth - pig-guts gah!"

Apparently Tolkien later forgot that he had already translated the orc curse and so made up
a new translation:

"Uglûk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!"

~*~

This dictionary, which was created for the Mordor, Land of Shadows Message Board
(abbreviated ―LOS‖), uses both translations. I decided to do this for several reasons: first,
we have so little original JRRT Black Speech, that I thought it would be best to follow both
translations, even if the results can be a little confusing. Second, I noticed that folks on
that Message Board were already mixing up the two translations, so I decided just to go
with the flow. Third, using both translations gives us a little more flexibility with the
vocabulary. Finally, the orcs in Mordor were constantly fighting over stupid, trivial causes,
so I didn’t think it would be a problem to mix things up a bit more by creating confusion
with word meanings.

Other than the phrases above (and about half a dozen orc names invented by Tolkien), all
phrases and words are new and were invented by people other than JRRT. The dictionary
that comes with these lessons was partly based on A. Appleyard’s work, which appears in
this site: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/misc/local/TolkLang/articles/Appleyard.BlackSpeech

My dictionary also uses ideas from the Ardalambion site. I don’t know the name of the
author: http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/orkish.htm --and on this one by Craig Daniel:
http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/blackspeech.htm But my impression is that Daniel’s work
is controversial, and I don’t agree with everything he says. Still, his ideas on pronunciation
and on Black Speech sounds and letters are correct. The English-Orcish dictionary was
based on the work of Rob Eaglestone, also a contributor to Tolklang. A word of caution:
several online RPG groups have created new words and phrases. Because many of these
people are making up the words to suit their activity, not to conform with Tolkien’s language
or grammar, these sites are not completely reliable as guides to Tolkien's ideas. Some are
better than others, so be careful. For other URL's, please see the dictionary.

~*~

I will try to avoid technical terms (because I don’t know many) but I do think it would be
helpful to have a basic understanding of English grammar before you begin.

One other point: Sauron invented the original Black Speech. This language, which he
mostly drew from the ancient languages of Arda, is considered ―Classical Black Speech‖
(abbreviated CBS). The Ring inscription is the only example we have of CBS. The orc curse
is an example of Debased Black Speech (DBS), which is a mixture of CBS, orcish dialects,
and so on. As stated in the appendix to LOTR, the orcs spoke a debased version of CBS. I
am assuming that the Black Speech in this dictionary and in these lessons is basically
Debased Black Speech, and will therefore allow for small variations and errors.

~*~

Here is a very quick overview of Black Speech grammar, to get you started:

Black Speech has no articles, either definite (the) or indefinite (a, an). All verbs are quite
regular. Sentences appear to be constructed similarly to English: subject-verb-object (Lat
bugd Uruk = you call the Uruk). BS differs from English in that adjectives and adverbs
follow the words they modify. (Lat bugd Uruk gothûrz = you call the powerful Uruk.) By
the way, misplacing adjectives seems to be the most common mistake beginners make—be
careful always to put the adjective after the word it modifies.

In Black Speech prepositions like to, of, in, by are suffixed to the word they modify (for
example, Mordor-ishi = in Mordor; Gondor-ob = of Gondor, Saruman-irzi = by Saruman.)
You might already have noticed that the orc was using poor grammar in his curse, when he
said ―Uglûk u bagronk.‖ He should have said, ―Uglûk bagronk-u.‖ This is a good example of
orc grammatical sloppiness, but such mistakes occur frequently in orc speech.

~*~

Feel free to use this information any way you like, but please be careful to give the
appropriate credit to all the various web sites / inventors who have contributed to the
development of Black Speech. I would appreciate any feedback or criticism of these lessons
or the dictionary. Please email me at Scatha661701@yahoo.com. Thanks!

~*~

How to use these lessons:

The lessons are more or less in order of difficulty. The second set, 6-10, includes some
tricky exercises and grammatical rules. I have not yet worked out the third set, but
obviously that will be even more difficult. It might be very helpful to have on hand a basic
book on English grammar. Good luck!

A note about names in other languages: I have not tried to translate Sindarin, Quenya, or
Common Speech names into Black Speech. Therefore you will find names like Gondor,
Shelob, Saruman, etc., in the lessons.

-Lesson II. Black Speech Sounds and Pronunciation-

Consonants and clusters

We know that the following consonants appear in J. R. R. Tolkien’s original examples of

Black Speech: sh, d, r, b, th, k, m, p, t, l, k, gh, z, g, n, h, s. Orc names include f and kh.

Black Speech does not seem to contain c, j, v, w, or x.

Pronouncing Consonants:

The following consonants are pronounced more or less as they appear in English.

b, d, f, g, h, k, m, n, p, qu, s, t, z.

For American students: the letters P, T, and D should be pronounced a little harder,
more like the Italian, not the softened American versions. For example, pronounce these
letters the way you would at the beginning of a word or name: P as in Peter, not as in
―open,‖ T as in Tom, not as in ―litter,‖ D as in ―door,‖ not as in ―adore.‖ This should be less
of a problem for British students.

Pronouncing the letters R and L in Black Speech:

The two sounds R and L give Black Speech its distinctive sound, so please be careful to
pronounce them correctly. Both should be pronounced at the back of the throat, as though
you were ―gargling.‖ Tolkien made a special point of this; apparently the elves hated both
pronunciations and found them ugly.

R is pronounced like the French R, not the Italian R. The L should be a ―dark‖ L, the way it
is pronounced in American English, except that it remains ―dark‖ even at the beginning of
words and syllables (unlike American English).

**The only exception to this rule is MORDOR. J.R.R. Tolkien himself pronounced this word
with the rolling (Italian or Spanish) R.

Pronouncing Consonant Clusters:

GH should be pronounced in the back of the throat, similar to the Italian GH. SH is
pronounced like the American ―sh.‖ KH is pronounced like the German ―ch‖ in ―ach‖ or
―buch.‖

The clusters thr, kr, gl, sk usually occur at the beginnings of words, and zg, mb, mp, rz, nk
at the ends of words, at least according to the examples by JRRT. They are pronounced as
written; just be careful to use the ―dark‖ L and the ―French‖ R.

The Ardalambion author has also assumed that the following sounds occur in BS, although
they do not appear in Tolkien’s examples. These include: dh (like the English the) and zh
(as in pleasure), kh, (as in the German ach). Some other sounds he has suggested are dhl,
zg ls, rs, lz, ng, and sk. (ng would be like that of the English word ―ring.‖) I assume BS also
contains the sound ―mp‖ (as in ―dûmp, = doom.) Just remember that unlike in English, the
L and R are always pronounced at the back of the throat.

Pronouncing Vowels and Diphthongs

The Black Speech vowels are a, i, o, u, although according to Tolkien the vowel o is rare in
CBS. The Black Speech does not seem to use e. I am assuming that vowels are
pronounced as in Italian or Spanish, although the short ―u‖ should probably be pronounced
like the u in ―put.‖ The long û (also spelled uu) should be pronounced ―oo.‖ There is also a
difference between the short a and the long aa and the short a, although it’s only one of
length, not pronunciation. Please note that very few computers/printers seem to support
the a+^ symbol, so I have decided not to use it in the dictionary or the lessons.

There is at least one diphthong, ai, (pronounced ―eye‖) and au occurs in the name Mauhûr
(pronounced ―ow‖ as in ―flower‖). LOS has added oi, (pronounced as in ―toy.‖)

Stress

Because this is an invented language, rules for stress are simple and regular; in fact, most
Black Speech words consist of only one syllable. In words of more than one syllable, the
syllables should be stressed rather evenly. You do stress the first syllable, but the stress
should not be exaggerated. When you add a suffix (like –hai or –ishi), then stress the
suffix. The stressed syllable in the examples below is in BOLD CAPS. Again, remember:
the accent marks over the long u and long a are only indicative of the length of the vowel,
not of stress. (So Nazgûl would be pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, but with
a long ―u‖ sound.)

U’-ruk (orc)

uruk-HAI (orc-people)

MOR’dor
Mordor-ISH’i (in Mordor)
NAZ’gûl (Ring Wraith)
Nazgûl-OB (of the Ring Wraith)

Exercise

Pronounce the following words. Check your pronunciation against the rules above.

throquat (to devour) Nazgûl (Ring-wraith) bûb-hosh (pig-

guts)

bagronk (cess-pool) krimpatul (to bind them) Lugburz (Barad-

dûr)

matûrz (mortal, adj.) Uglûk (Proper Name) Sauron-ob (of

Sauron)

prakhatulûk (to lure them all) srinkhat (to gather) Lugbûrz-ishi (in
Lugbûrz)

Mordor-ob (of Mordor) throquub (will devour) glob (fool)

Exercise

Now work your way through the dictionary and try pronouncing words at random, checking
your pronunciation against the rules given above. Try to sound as scary as possible.

-Lesson III. Verbs: Infinitives and Present Tense-

Because this is an invented language, we will assume that all verbs are regular. Therefore,
all infinitives end in –at: for example, durbat = to rule, gimbat = to find, krimpat = to bind,
and thrakat = to bring. The BS dictionary gives only the verb stem (for example, durb-,
gimb-, krimp- etc.) to which you will add the various endings, like –at, -ut, -ub, -uz, etc.
Find several other verbs in the dictionary and give the infinitive form for each.

Please note: According to some of the contributors to Tolklang, third person plural takes
the ending ―ut.‖ I have added the ending ―at‖ to the third person singular, even though I
realize this may be a little confusing. I have done this for two reasons: first, because some
of the posters on the LOS board were already using the infinitive form as the third person
singular, and second, it made sense to be able to indicate the difference between a
command (gimb! = you find, and gimbat = he finds.) Using the -at ending for the third
person singular and for the infinitive should not be too problematic. After all, the English
language uses the same ending for almost all verb endings.

In Black Speech, we assume that all verbs are regular and are conjugated in the
following way:

Gimbat, to find:

gimb I find gimb we find

gimb you (sing) find gimb you (plural) find

gimbat he, she, it finds gimbut they find

Thrakat, to bring:

thrak I bring thrak we bring

thrak you (sing) bring thrak you (plural) bring

thrakat he, she, it brings thrakut they bring

Vocabulary
Some new verbs:

azat to kill

bugdat to call

durbat to rule

dûmpat to doom

fauthat to hide, to lie hidden

srinkhat to gather

prakhat to lure
Exercise

Translate the following:

he rules we find she devours

they bind it brings you (plural) bind

I devour you (sing.) lure they gather

I find you (plural) gather I lure

They hide she devours* we bring

I hide it kills they rule

you (singular) doom he calls it hides

I call they devour* we kill

*note that the verb stem "throqu-" ends in a "u," so you will have to add another "u" to
form the future tense: throqu, I devour, throquub, I will devour (pronounced "throw-
kwoob.") In many European languages, it is customary to add a "u" after the "q" to indicate
the "kw" sound. In Middle Earth, of course, Black Speech would be written in tengwar or
runes, not in English letters, so the extra "u" would not be an issue. In other words, the
fact that you happen to have two "u's" together here doesn't mean you should pronounce
them as a long "uu."

-Lesson IV. Noun plurals-

There are only three simple rules for pluralizing nouns.

Names for races or people are never pluralized. For example, the word Nazgûl is both
singular and plural. The word Uruk is both singular and plural. If you wanted to say ―bring
the three uruk,‖ you would simply say, ―Thrak Uruk gakh.‖ If you are talking about an
entire race of people, use the suffix –hai, which means peoples or folk. So uruk-hai means
―the uruk-people,‖ olog-hai means ―the troll-people,‖ and so on.

**Please note: Because words like snaga (slave), durub (ruler), and sharlob (human
female) refer to people, you would not pluralize them. So snaga is singular and plural.

Nouns ending in consonants become plural by adding ―u‖ (note that this is the short u, not
û). Nazg, (ring) = singular, nazgu = plural.

Nouns ending in vowels become plural by adding ―z‖. (goi = city, goiz = cities). There are
very few Black Speech nouns that end in a vowel.
Exercise
Pluralize the following nouns:

goi (city) lug (tower) golug people (elf)

mau (warrior)** hont (hand) goth (lord)**

mokum (hatred) ronk (pit) horn (beast)

sharkû (old man) shara (human man) olog (troll)

duf (knife) krimp (rope) ufum (fear)

** note that words for people, like warrior or goth, do not take a plural.

-Lesson V. Verbs: Future tense-

Future tenses are formed by adding the suffix “ub” to the verb stem. In third
person singular and plural, add the verb ending after “ub.” For example:

gimbub, I will find gimbub, we will find

gimbub, you will find gimbub, you (plural) will find

gimbubat, he-she-it will find gimbubut, they will find

Vocabulary

dulgat, to point

fulgat, to dwell

gashnat, to speak, to command

globat, to fool (someone)

gund, to stand

Translation Exercise
Translate the following sentences into Black Speech:

The men will gather The beasts will find The troll will rule

The warriors will stand The Urûk-people will lure The Nazgûl (sing.) will bring
I will call You (sing.) will bind The elves will rule

You (sing.) will devour They will stand I will dwell

You (pl.) will speak They will fool she will point

The trolls will speak the elves will kill the Nazgûl (pl.) will point

I will speak the elf will stand the beasts will dwell

Saruman will bring the trolls will find the Urûk (plural) will devour

-Lesson VI. Adjectives and Word Order-

Note: these lessons are a little more challenging than the previous ones.
I have tried to include hints for some of the trickier translations. Try not to be too
intimidated. Orcs pay no attention to grammar, as you know.

Adjectives are fairly simple: they do not take the gender of the noun they modify; they are
the same for male, female, or neutral nouns. They do agree with the noun in number,
however. Plural nouns take plural adjectives.

If the noun is plural, add the correct ending to the adjective (u for nouns ending in a
consonant, z for nouns ending in a vowel). Caution: Here's a rule that might confuse you,
so be careful-- even though you know that words for people or races don't take a plural, the
adjectives modifying them do take a plural. For example, urûk mokûrz = the hateful urûk.
Urûk mokûrzu, the hateful urûk (plural). This is done for clarity -- it is easier to understand
that someone is talking about more than one orc or more than one elf if he/she uses a
plural adjective to describe that individual.

In Black Speech, many adjectives take the ending –ûrz, especially if they are
formed from nouns or verbs:

Adjective (singular) Plural

bûrz, dark, from burzum, darkness bûrzu

dushûrz, magical dushûrzu

globûrz, foolish or filthy globûrzu

gorûrz, tough gorûrzu

gothûrz, powerful gothûrzu

hurûrz, brave, from hûr, courage hurûrzu

matûrz, mortal, from mat = to die matûrzu

mokûrz, hateful, from mokum, hatred mokûrzu

skrithûrz, mean, cruel skrithûrzu

ulkûrz, evil (adj.), from ulkum, evil (n.) ulkûrzu

And many adjectives do not follow this rule:

Adjective (singular) Plural

kû = old kûz

kraat = away kraatu

kûf = ugly kûfu

lorz = stupid lorzu

snork = worthless snorku

uf = scary ufu

-ûk = all ûk ("all" is already plural)

An adjective always follows the word it modifies: shara matûrz, mortal man; Olog globûrz,
foolish (or filthy) troll; Uruk skrithurz, cruel orc. (This is a good general rule to remember
in Black Speech: words that modify or describe other words always follow.)

If the adjective is only one syllable long, it is suffixed to the word it modifies: sharkû, old
man (shara + kû). Notice that the ―a‖ is dropped, probably for ease in pronunciation.
Globufu, the scary fools. (Again, both men and fools are people, so you don't pluralize
them, but you do pluralize the adjectives.)

Please notice that in cases such as sharkûk (sharkû + uk, ―all the old men‖) or nazgûk
(nazgû + ûk) ―all the rings,‖ you would drop one of the û’s. Similarly, if you wanted to say,
"the scary old urûk, you would say "urûkûf." (urûk + kû + uf). This sounds very similar to
urûkuf, "the scary urûk" (urûk + uf, an scary urûk who isn't old), except that you don't have
the long û. This may seem a little confusing at first, but it is just a matter of practice. The
difference between urûkûf (scary old orc) and urûkuf is just a slight difference in
pronunciation.
A good rule of thumb to remember is that in Black Speech, whenever two similar
consonants or vowels meet in this way, they are usually slurred together. This is especially
true of Debased Black Speech. Later on you'll encounter a lesson in dropping sounds, so if
this frightens you now, don't worry about it.

(*Remember that this is not true of words that end in the "qu" sound.)

Subject and Object Word Order

In Black Speech, most sentences follow a subject – verb – object order, with adjectives
following the nouns they modify:

Golug thrakut sharkû mokûrzu.

The elves bring the hateful old men

Urûk bugdat nazgûl skrithûrz.

The Urûk calls the cruel Nazgûl (singular).

Caution: Please note that this rule seems to be difficult for English-speakers, who
generally want to place the adjective before the noun. I have noticed that this is one of the
most common errors beginners make. Offenders will be severely punished.

Translation Exercise
Translate the following sentences into Black Speech:

The cruel trolls will devour the tough beasts.

The Nazgûl will kill the ugly orcs.*

All the elves will find dark rings.

I will bring the brave man.

She will lure all the old orcs.*

They will gather the evil mortal men.**

You (sing.) call the all the brave Nazgûl away.

I bring the worthless slaves.*

They will find the magical rings.

Sauron dooms the tough orc.

The Nazgûl will gather the foolish trolls.

He will call the stupid elves.

I will hide the dark ring.

You (pl.) bind the old stupid Nazgûl (sing.)

*Remember that words for people or races are not pluralized, but the adjectives modifying
them are!

**When you have two adjectives, use the more important one first. In this case, it's more
important to identify the men as mortal than to describe them as evil.
 -Lesson VII. Prepositions-
In Black Speech, prepositions (from, in, of, to, by, etc.) are suffixed to the noun they
modify. However, this rule is often ignored in hasty speech, especially when orcs curse one
another. The following examples are grammatically correct, although orcs sometimes
incorrectly place the prepositions before the word when they are speaking to one another
(another example of Debased Black Speech.)

Preposition Examples Plural

-dhog, near Orodruin-dhog, near / next to Orodruin -dhogu

-ghaara, from Lugbûrz-ghaara, from Lugbûrz -ghaaraz

-irzi, by grish-irzi, by blood -irziz

-ishi, in Mordor-ishi, in Mordor -ishiz

-la, after zabûrz-la, after tonight -zaz

-lata, under nût-lata, under the sky -lataz

-lût, out Orthanc-lût, out of Orthanc -lûtu

-ob, of Nazgûl-ob, of the Nazgûl -obu

-ri __ agh __ between __ and __ -riz __ agh __

-sha, with Saruman-sha, with Saruman** -shaz

-shi, at (time) bûrz-shi (at night, at dark) -shiz

-shi, at (place) Mordor-shi, at Mordor -shiz

-tala over uzg-tala, over the land -talaz

-ûr, for durub-ûr, for the lord -ûru

-u, to Mordor-u, to Mordor** -uz

-zi, until aarsh-zi, until today -ziz

** note that the Tolkien orc curse, "sha Saruman" and ―u Mordor‖ are both grammatically
incorrect. Technically, the orc should have said, "Saruman-sha" and "Mordor-u."
Also note that in the Ring Verse, we have ―lata nût‖ instead of nût-lata. It has been
suggested that this was done to make the verse scan as poetry. By now you will have
noticed that there are many examples in Black Speech where the speaker has placed the
preposition before the noun. Therefore, this is probably a fairly flexible rule, especially in
Debased Black Speech. However, for the purpose of learning Black Speech, try to observe
the rule as much as possible when translating the lessons (at least for now).

Strictly speaking, the prepositions should also become plural when they modify a plural
noun, but I have only seen one example of that. It occurs in the Ring Verse, which is in
Classical Black Speech, not Debased Black Speech. (Please remember that the full Ring
Verse was translated by a Tolkien fan on the Tolklang board, not by Tolkien himself.) The
ring verse uses the plural "ûru" (for), as well as "ishiz" (in).

Excerpts from the Ring Verse:

Gakh Nazgu Golug-durub-ûru lata-nût.

Three Rings for the Elven kings under the sky

[The word 'lords' is plural]

...

Udu Gazat-shakh-ûru ulub ruz-ishiz gund-ob.

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone.

[The words 'lords' and 'halls' are both plural]

Exercise
Translate the following into grammatically correct Classical Black Speech.

You (sing.) will call the evil elves to Mordor.

The Nazgûl bring all the cruel beasts from Gondor.*

(*note that the preposition modifies Gondor, not beasts!)

The trolls find the warrior under the sky.

Sauron rules by evil.

Uglûk will gather the old men in Udun.

He stands in Mordor.

She will fool the trolls under the sky.

Saruman calls from Orthanc.

I stand by the Nazgûl (plural).

The stupid troll kills near Ashlûk.

You will devour the beast with Uglûk.

She brings the orc of Mordor to Moria.

Saruman rules over all the orcs.

The warrior kills for Sauron.

He brings the ring for the elves.

He brings the troll between Mordor and Orthanc.

Joining two prepositions together: Whenever you have to use two prepositions together,
you should join them with hyphens, although most orcs would never do this in Debased
Black Speech. For example, if you want to say, ―into Mordor‖ (Mordor + in + to) you would
connect the prepositions this way: ―Mordor-u-ishi.‖ But because this combination would be
somewhat difficult to prounounce, most Orcs would simply say, ―u Mordor-ishi.‖

-Lesson VIII. Verbs: Past Tense-

In Black Speech, the past tense is formed by adding -uz to the verb stem. As in the future
tense verb formation, you add the third person singular or plural ending to -ub. For
example, ―he found‖ would translate as ―gimbuzat.‖ ―They called‖ = bugduzut.‖

Thrakat, to bring

thrakuz I brought thrakuz we brought

thrakuz you brought thrakuz you (pl) brought

thrakuzat he-she-it brought thrakuzut they brought

Vocabulary
Here are a few more verbs to learn:

ghaashat to burn

gashnat to speak

ikhat to force

lagat to break

kulat to be

shagat to demand

urkat to condemn, to damn

Exercise
Translate the following:

They forced the tough orcs in Orthanc.

The Nazgûl (sing.) called the old warriors of Saruman to Isengard.

She ruled over the powerful beasts in Rhovanion.

Saruman spoke to the old ugly trolls.

(this one is very tricky, so here is the answer: Saruman gashnuzat olog-kû-kûfu.)

I killed Shelob near Cirith Ungol.

He found the evil orc in Mordor.

I brought the cruel beast to Gondor.

Ashlûk called Uglûk away to Moria.

The troll-people demanded the ring from the Nazgûl (plural) in Orthanc.

I was in Gondor to condemn the troll.

You (plural) bound the evil ring in Orodruin.

They broke the rings in Barad-Dûr.

-Lesson IX: Numbers-

Generally, numbers are treated like adjectives. They usually go after the word they
modify. (Again, most orcs would probably ignore this rule.) You will also notice that the
Ring Verse places them before the word they modify (ash nazg . . . ). This may have been
done for poetic reasons.

Ash, one

Krul, two

Gakh, three

Zag, four

Kraak, five

Rut, six

Udu, seven

Ski, eight

Krith, nine
Gal, ten

Numbers

1 Ash 11 Galash 30 Gakhgal

2 Krul 12 Galkrul 40 Zagal

3 Gakh 13 Galgakh 50 Kraakgal

4 Zag 14 Galzag 60 Rutgal

5 Kraak 15 Galkraak 70 Utgal

6 Rut 16 Galrut 80 Skragh

7 Udu 17 Galudu 90 Krithgal

8 Skri 18 Galskri 100 Bûr

9 Krith 19 Galkrith 1000 Tor

10 Gal 20 Krulgal 0 Nar

*Note that 21 would be krulgalash, 24 = krulgalzag, and so on.

Exercise:

Translate the following numbers into Black Speech:

34 __________________________ 58 ____________________________

62 __________________________ 71 ____________________________

22 __________________________ 87 ____________________________

103 _________________________ 245 ____________________________

9068 ________________________ 4862 ____________________________

-Lesson X. Pronouns and commands-

Pronouns are rarely used in Black Speech. The most common uses for pronouns are for
giving an order, boasting about oneself, or administering an insult. Generally, apart from
those three purposes, you would only use a pronoun when absolutely necessary to avoid
confusion. Sauron would not have wanted to encourage the use of the first person singular
or plural among his servants or slaves, so "I" or "we" are only used as modifiers. (This
probably also explains the placement of adjectives, adverbs, etc., after the words they
modify since descriptive words can e said to indicate a kind of creative thought process.)

In most cases, then, pronouns are attached to the verb:

Shelob calls them = Shelob bugdat-taz. (An orc might slur all this together and say ―Shelob
bugdataz.‖)

The elves kill him = Golug azut-ta (in spoken orcish, ―Golug azuta.‖) To put this into the
past tense, ―the elves killed him,‖ you would say ―Golug azuzuta.‖ In future tense, you
would say, ―Golug azubuta.‖ (The elves will kill him.)

**The first person singular (-izg) and plural (-izgu) are always suffixed to the verb. For
example, kul-izg = I am; ―kul-izgu.‖ = we are; ―thrak-izg,‖ I bring; ―prakh-izgu,‖ we
lure.

Normally, you can skip pronouns unless they are required to make sense of the sentence.
For example:

Saruman rules us = Saruman durbat-izishu. But if you wanted to say, ―He rules us‖:
Durbat-izishu. (You don’t need the ―he.‖)

He brings the orc to us = Thrakat urûk-izishû. Note the long ―û‖ at the end. This is a little
tricky, because you would have to add the preposition ―u‖ to ―izishu‖ in order to say, ―to
us.‖ That means that the final ―u‖ has to become a long ―u.‖ This would be correct Black
Speech, but naturally orcs would probably not bother with this kind of fine distinction.

Personal and Possessive Pronouns

-izg I -izgu we

-izish me -izishu us

-izub mine -izubu ours

lat you (sing.) latu you (plural)

lab your (sing.) latub yours (plural)

ta he, she, it ulu they

ta him, it ul them
tab his, its ulub theirs

to her

tob hers

Exercise
Translate the following into Black Speech:

I brought hers.

Grishnaakh will find us.

Morgoth will kill me.

Saruman called his ugly orc.

I brought mine to Morannon.

They devoured theirs.

(*note: if you do this correctly, you should end up with one long word.)

Uglûk will rule ours by blood (blood = "grish").

I am from Lugbûrz.
(*remember to attach the first person suffix to the verb 'to be'!)

Ashlûk bound me.

Lagduf called them all from Lugbûrz.

(*attach the word for "all" to the pronoun "them"!)

Commands

Commands are quite simple: they consist of the verb stem. So, to tell someone to bring
something, you simply say: Thrak! To say, ―Find him theirs‖: Gimb ta ulub. Bring them!
= Thrakul!

Exercise
Translate the following into Black Speech:

Bring me the ring.

Find the three stupid trolls.

Give her the worthless orc.

Find my twenty-eight orcs.

Call me.

Kill them.

Devour the forty-two elves.

Lure him to Mordor.

Gather my old orcs in Isengard.

Lure them to us.

(*Note* this one is tricky, so here’s the answer: Prakh ishuzu-u, or Prakh ishuzû).