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Tolkien-inspired Orcish
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Tolkien-inspired Orcish
#1I was sitting around today, reading the Two Towers, when I started to doodle out my own versions of the Orcs' names in the book. Then, I doodled out fake etymologies. Then, I doodled out a language, or part of one. So here it is:
The lowest units of the language are basic elements; Basic elements combine into complex elements; complex elements form words.
Basic Elements
The Regular Basic Elements-
Du, pronounced "doo".
Bu, pronounced "boo".
Lu, pronounced "luh".
Ga, pronounced "gah".
Ka, pronounced "kah".
Mu, pronounced "moo".
Sa, pronounced "sah".
Ru, pronounced "ruh".
Ta, pronounced "tah".
The Irregular Basic Elements-
Ag, pronounced "ahg".
Ig, pronounced "ihg".
Ng, pronounced "ng".
Ug, pronounced "uhg".
Og, pronounced "ohg".
Zi, pronounced "zee".
The Basic Elements are combined to form Complex Elements. When combined, some of the sounds or pronunciations of Basic Elements are changed.
Complex Elements (examples)
Glu/Gla, (Ga+Lu), pronounced "gloo"/"glah".
Durg/Darg, (Du+Ru), pronounced "duhrg/dahrg".
Sha/Shu*/Shu, (Sa+Ag), pronounced "shah/shoo/shuh".
Lur*/Lur/Lar, (Lu+Ru), pronounced "Loor/luhr/lahr".
Taz/Tuz, (Ta+Zi), pronounced "tahz/tooz".
Ugl/Ugl*, (Ug+Lu), pronounced "uh-guhl/ooh-guhl".
Kul/Kul*, (Ka+Lu), pronounced "kuhl/kool".
The asterisks (*) are used to denote elements of the same spelling but different pronunciation, since my keyboard can't do accent marks.
These are just examples of Complex Elements. There could be many more. Complex Elements, when put together, form Complete Elements, that is, Words. Like Basic Elements, Complex Elements often change pronunciation when combined into words. Some words are composed only of a single Complex Element, and these are called Complex-Element Words.
Words
Yes- Dulk (doolk), (Dur+Kul), {[Du+Ru]+[Ka+Lu]}
No- Snirz (sneerz), (Sna+Raz), {[Sa+Ng]+[Ru+Zi]}
I/me/you/it (literally "one")- Ash (ahsh), (Complex-Element Word), {Ag+Sa}
He/she- Lugksh (lookhsh), (Complex-Element Word), {Lu+Ka}
They/them/them-Ul (ool), Complex-Element Word, (Ug+Lu) (Them all/all of them- Uluk)
We- Durluk (door-look), (Durg+Luk), {[Du+Ag]+[Lu+Ka]}
To move/walk/run- Urluku (Oor-loo-koo), {I'm not going into the elements}
To speak/shout/talk- Gurtzu (Goort-zoo)
To rule/be stronger than/defeat- Durbatu (Door-bah-too)
To hurt/damage/break- Aglushu (Ah-gluh-shoo)
To kill- Burlakhu (Boor-lah-koo)
A phrase- "Ash nazg durbatuluk"- [Ash nazg durbatu uluk]- One ring to rule them all. -
Tolkien-inspired Orcish
#2And: Agh (ahg), Complex-Element Word
In/in it/in the/of: -ishi (ee-shee). Added to the end of another word. For example-
"Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul", that is, "and in the darkness bind them" (literally, "and darkness-in bind them") -
Tolkien-inspired Orcish
#3http://www.orcs.ca/orcsmain/resourcelang1.html
http://brinja.bei.t-online.de/BS-Lesson1-.html
http://myth-drannor.net/DlabraddathNet/z-semberholm/Language/Orcish.htm
http://www.langmaker.com/db/mdl_orcish.htm
Just a few sites that I think might be helpful for you. I am not good at language creation, but without EPI! being here, this is the best I can do. There are also some language links in the Interesting Game Website area and in the various language articles around the site. -
Tolkien-inspired Orcish
#4I like it! The next step should be to deduce his verb conjugations. This may be difficult, as he seems to mainly employ sentences without verbs (like Uglúk u bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai) or sentences with only verbs in the infinitive. It is interesting to note how he suffixes verbs with things like -u, or -uluk to signify the object. If you can find some more examples of the Black Speech, post them up here so we can analyse them!
ephe! -
Tolkien-inspired Orcish
#5The problem is, the Black Speech is not widely used in the Lord of the Rings. As far as I know, the only language Tolkien really fleshed out that well was Elvish. Maybe in the Silmarillion... -
Tolkien-inspired Orcish
#6