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Canonical
There is little known about Classical Black Speech. And it's the reason why many Tolkien's fans are against expanding it. I tried to collect all canonical information in this page.
Black Speech and Orcish
Black Speech is divided into Classical Black Speech, the language of Sauron and Nazgûl, and Debased Black Speech, the language of orcs and trolls of Mordor and more specifically of Barad-dûr. The further from Mordor orcs and trolls live, the further their language differs from Black Speech. Therefore, to understand each other different tribes of orcs had to use Westron, however also debased.
The Black Speech was only used in Mordor; it only occurs in the Ring inscription, and a sentence uttered by the Orcs of Barad-dûr (Vol. II p. 48) and in the word Nazgûl (cf. nazg in the Ring inscription). It was never used willingly by any other people, and consequently even the names of places in Mordor are in English
(The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 144 to Naomi Mitchison)
So it was that in the Third Age Orcs used for communication between breed and breed the Westron tongue; and many indeed of the older tribes, such as those that still lingered in the North and in the Misty Mountains, had long used the Westron as their native language, though in such a fashion as to make it hardly less unlovely than Orkish.
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
One of the Orcs sitting near laughed and said something to a companion in their abominable tongue. ‘Rest while you can, little fool!’ he said then to Pippin, in the Common Speech, which he made almost as hideous as his own language.
(LOTR II, Book Three, Chapter III: The Uruk-hai)
To Pippin’s surprise he found that much of the talk was intelligible; many of the Orcs were using ordinary language. Apparently the members of two or three quite different tribes were present, and they could not understand one another’s orc-speech.
(LOTR II, Book Three, Chapter III: The Uruk-hai)
Beside speaking Westron some orcs could even write with Cirth:
The Cirth in their older and simpler form spread eastward in the Second Age, and became known to many peoples, to Men and Dwarves, and even to Orcs, all of whom altered them to suit their purposes and according to their skill or lack of it.
(LOTR III, Appendix E, II: Writing)
Classical Black Speech
The only example of Classical Black Speech is the inscription on the Ring:
Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
For many years only the literal English translation was used in analyses of Black Speech:
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,
one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In 2007 journal “Parma Eldalamberon” (issue 17) published J.R.R. Tolkien's paper “Words, Phrases and Passages (in various tongues in the Lord of the Rings)”, which contained his analysis of Ring Inscription. I cite it here with additional markup:
ash, one.
nazg, (finger-)ring, cf. Nazgûl “Ringwraith”.
durb-at=ulûk:
durb-, constrain, force, dominate.
-at, verb ending (like a participle) (durbat = constraining, of a sort to constrain);
=ulûk, verbal ending expressing object (particles indicating “subject” were usually prefixed) 3rd person pl. “them” (ul) in completive or total form “them-all”.
gimb-, seek out, discover.
thrak-, bring by force, hale, drag.
burzum, darkness (cf. búrz, dark, adjective) .
ishi, in, inside (placed after noun usually in Black Speech).
krimp-, tie, bind.
It's notable that suffix -at was translated here not just with infinitive, but also with gerund and future participle. Combination of such grammatical characteristics resembles Latin's gerundive, however not a fully equivalent to it.
The same article of “Parma Eldalamberon” also has a quotation from the copy of a letter to Mr. W.R. Matthews (dated 13–15 June 1964) which Tolkien placed in the same file with manuscript “Words, Phrases and Passages”. It contains further explanations to Black Speech. I cite it with minor cuts:
The Black Speech was not intentionally modeled on any style, but was meant to be self-consistent, very different from Elvish, yet organized and expressive, as would be expected of a device of Sauron before his complete corruption. It was evidently an agglutinative language, and the verbal system must have included pronominal suffixes expressing the object, as well as those indicating the subject: -ul is pl. objective, translated “them”, and -ûk an element meaning “the whole, all”... The stem búrz “dark” is also found in the later Lugbûrz = Barad-dûr; in the archaic ring-inscription burzumishi is evidently made up of this stem + a particularizing suffix or “article” um, and an enclitic “preposition” ishi “in, inside”. The debased form of the B.S. which survived in the Third Age only in the Dark Tower is seen in few names (as Uruk-hai “Orc-folk”) and the fragment of vituperation uttered by one of Grishnakh's companions, emissaries from Sauron...
See also Ring Inscription linguistic analysis by Tolkien on forums.
Tolkien's explanation of ring-verse mentions also words Lugbûrz and Uruk-hai:
Lugbúrz: búrz = dark, lûg = fortress, lock-up, prison.
Special meaning of “uruk” as “the fighting-orcs” appeared in drafts to LOTR (see “Sauron Defeated” and “War of Jewels”), later dismissed.
uruk: Black Speech form of orc.
Opposition of Uruk-hai to regular orcs still occurs several times in final text of LOTR. Appendix F says:
though this was applied as a rule only to the great soldier-orcs that at this time issued from Mordor and Isengard. The lesser kinds were called, especially by the Uruk-hai, snaga “slave”.
snaga, Orc-word for a servant or slave, or like.
(“Parma Eldalamberon” 17)
As “snaga” is wide-spread, the word was possibly taken from Black Speech.
Also we know a Black Speech name of sun-tolerable trolls:
But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of Mordor. Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech.
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
Christopher Tolkien says that name of trolls was changed several times during writing of Appendix F:
<...>new race of Trolls that appeared at the end of the Third Age. Here the name was first Horg-hai, but changed as my father typed the text to Olg-hai (Olog-hai in RK, p. 410)
(The History of Middle-Earth, vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-Earth, Part One: The Prologue and Appendicies to The Lord of the Rings, chapter II: The Appendix on Languages)
It's said that only Nazgûl remember this Classical Black Speech:
but after the first overthrow of Sauron this language in its ancient form was forgotten by all but the Nazgûl
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
“Parma Eldalamberon” 17 also has translation of word Nazgûl:
nazgûl, cf. nazg = ring, gûl (phantom, shadow of dark magic, necromancer), slave, servant? nazggûl.
It is notable that word “Nazgûl” is used both as singular and plural form, which lead to theory that nouns in Black Speech lack grammatical category of number. However Tolkien never commented this feature, so this is just a speculation.
Gûl in Black Speech for a “wraith” is probably derived from Sindarin. However sometimes it was stated that it was vice versa, derived from Black Speech into Sindarin.
It is said that word ghâsh (fire) was used both in Black Speech and various orkish dialects.
From the Black Speech, however, were derived many of the words that were in the Third Age wide-spread among the Orcs, such as ghâsh ‘fire’
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
ghâsh, asserted to be a word for “fire” in most Orkish dialects.
(“Parma Eldalamberon” 17)
ghâsh genuine Orkish = fire
(draft to same document cited in PE 17)
It appears in various names of Orcs with some alterations: Ghash, Muzgash.
Debased Black Speech
There should be a distinction between Debased Black Speech – language of Mordor orcs and unspecified Orkish of other tribes. First one is still closely related to Sauron's Classical Black Speech, the second one may borrow from other languages.
The famous orc-curse “Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búb-hosh skai” was shouted by orc of Mordor, while Uruk-hai of Isendgard probably spoke Common Speech. This sentence was not translated in “The Lord of the Rings” but there are at least 3 translations published:
- In 1992 “Vinyar Tengwar” journal (issue 26) published a draft to Appendix F with analysis by it's editor Carl F. Hostetter. The translation there was “Uglúk to the dung-pit with stinking Saruman-filth – pig-guts, gah!”
- 1996's Cristopher Tolkien's book “The Peoples of Middle-earth” (“The History Of Middle-Earth”, volume 12) contains older draft with a translation “Uglúk to the cesspool, sha! the dungfilth; the great Saruman-fool, skai!”; this translation has the least meaningful words but is remarkable with word order where modifiers are placed after noun (“búb-hosh” and “glob”).
- In 2007 the journal “Parma Eldalamberon” (issue 17) published all phrases from “The Lord Of The Rings” in languages of Middle-Earth with translation and analysis. It translates the curse as “Uglúk to torture (chamber) with stinking Saruman-filth. Dung-heap. Skai!”. It was taken from the draft to the 2nd edition of LOTR (1965) written in the late 1950s (after initial release of the Trilogy in 1955). Therefore this translation could be considered the final version. The same article gave us some other translations made between 1st and 2nd editions of LOTR: bagronk = dungeon; pushdug = squalid, filthy; glob = foul, filth; búbhosh = dung-heap, muck heap.
In “The War of the Ring” (History of Middle-Earth, vol. 8) Christopher Tolkien have published drafts to LOTR where Minas Morgul was called “Dushgoi” by Mordor orcs:
Dushgoi: Orc name for Minas Morghul.
So “Dushgoi” should be considered a Debased Black Speech.
In the final chapters of LOTR Saruman is called “Sharkey” by his orcs and men.
Sharkû in that tongue means old man
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
Sharkey. This is supposed to be a nickname modified to fit the Common Speech (in the English text anglicized), based on orkish sharkû “old man”.
(“Guide to the Names in the Lord of the Rings”, published posthumously in 1975 in “A Tolkien Compass”)
It's not known how sharkû should be split properly. Neo Black Speech dialects use variant “shara” + “kû” by Elerrina, but it's more likely be “shark” + “kû” (compare with transformation of Gandalf's name among dwarves from “Sharkûn” in WR to “Tharkûn” in LOTR, with meanings Grey-man, Staff-man; compare also with orkish word “tark” cited below). It may be that words tark and sharkû are variations of one word in different Orkish dialects.
“Tark” is considered a word of Westron-speaking orcs of Misty Mountains.
In this jargon tark, ‘man of Gondor’, was a debased form of tarkil, a Quenya word used in Westron for one of Númenórean descent
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
“Parma Eldalamberon” (issue 17) also give us:
tark is an Orkish word for Númenorean. Etymology in any Elvish sense unknown; but possibly a mere abbreviation of tarkil, an ancient name for the Atani or Edain. The Eldar sometimes called all Men hildi, √KHIL “to follow behind”, the followers or after-comers. tarkhildi “high-Men” would phonetically produce Q tarkildi...
(“Parma Eldalamberon”, issue 17)
First Age Orcish
Orcs of the First Age also had languages of their own but Black Speech didn't existed back then, so they spoke various debased dialects of Sindarin mostly, sometimes more archaic ones up to Common Eldarin and Primitive Elvish. J.R.R. Tolkien called their language Orquin or Orquian. A. Appleyard invented term Angband Orkish.
It is said that they had no language of their own, but took what they could of other tongues and perverted it to their own liking; yet they made only brutal jargons, scarcely sufficient even for their own needs, unless it were for curses and abuse. And these creatures, being filled with malice, hating even their own kind, quickly developed as many barbarous dialects as there were groups or settlements of their race, so that their Orkish speech was of little use to them in intercourse between different tribes.
(LOTR III, Appendix F, Of other races)
While Black Speech is later Tolkien's invention made in later drafts for The Lord of The Rings, Oricsh of the First Age appeared quite early, almost in the same time with Qenya and Gnomish. And because of that it was a subject of numerous changes.
Initially Orquin was intended to be derivative of Valarin, and even some languages of Men borrowed words from their language, but this part was rejected for Silmarillion publication.
Orquin, or Orquian, the language of the Orcs, the soldiers and creatures of Morgoth, was partly itself of Valian origin, for it was derived from the Vala Morgoth. But the speech which he taught he perverted wilfully to evil, as he did all things, and the language of the Orcs was hideous and foul and utterly unlike the languages of the Qendi. But Morgoth himself spoke all tongues with power and beauty, when so he wished.
(The History of Middle-Earth, vol. 5, The Lost Road and Other Writings, Part Two: Valinor and Middle-Earth before The Lord of the Rings, Chapter V: The Lhammas)
Many names of Orcs and other evil beings of 1st Age in Silmarillion and History Of Middle-Earth are considered as Elvish translations. However some of them (for example Gothmog) plus suffix “-hai” reappear in 3rd Age too. The names Balrog, Morgoth and Gothmog initially were considered Orcish but quickly changed to be Gnomish and later Noldorin origin:
Balrog is said to be an Orc-word with no pure Qenya equivalent: ‘borrowed Malaroko-'; contrast the Etymologies, stems ÑGWAL, RUK.
(HOME 5: “The Lost Road and Other Writings”, Appendix II: “List of Names”)
It seems that orcs sometimes took Elvish words but modified their meaning. E.g. the epithetic name Morgoth has meaning “Black Enemy” in Sindarin, but in dismissed draft it's stated that orcs translated it as “Dark Lord” and even used just “Goth” (“Master”) to refer Melkor:
Gothmog ‘= Voice of Goth (Morgoth), an Orc-name.’ Morgoth is explained at its place in the list as ‘formed from his Orc-name Goth “Lord or Master”, with mor “dark or black” prefixed.’ <...> In the Etymologies the element goth is differently explained in Gothmog (GOS, GOTH) and in Morgoth (KOT, but with a suggestion that the name ‘may also contain GOTH’).
(HOME 5: “The Lost Road and Other Writings”, Appendix II: “List of Names”)
At least we sure know 1st Age Orcish names for races of Noldor elves and Drúedain:
Thus it was that Túrin and Orleg were discovered, for three scouts stumbled upon them as they lay hid; and though they slew two the third escaped, crying as he ran Golug! Golug! Now that was a name which they had for the Noldor.
(Unfinished Tales, Part One: The First Age, II: The Tale of the Children of Húrin, Túrin among the Outlaws)
Orcs feared them and believed them to be filled with the malice of the Oghor-hai (for so they named the Drúedain).
(Unfinished Tales, Part Four, I: The Drúedain)
