Black Speech
English
Proper noun
Black Speech
- A constructed language designed by J. R. R. Tolkien, intended to be associated with evil.
- 2007, Joanna Podhorodecka, “Is lámatyáve a linguistic heresy? Iconicity in J.R.R. Tolkien’s invented languages”, in Elżbieta Tabakowska et al., editors, Insistent Images, →ISBN, page 109:
- Generally speaking, the articulation in Black Speech is quite violent. Diphthongs are practically absent and due to the relatively small number of sonorants, the transitions between particular sounds are sharp and abrupt.
- 2009, Dimitra Fimi, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, →ISBN, page 75:
- Many later scholars have agreed with Tolkien on his general declarations about his languages (for example, that the Elvish languages are ‘beautiful’, while the Black Speech is cacophonous or that the languages originated Tolkien’s mythology) and skipped the whole issue of the role of the langauges in his fiction by treating them as a fanciful accessory unworthy of independent study.
- 2021, Yens Wahlgren, The Universal Translator: Everything You Need to Know About 139 Languages That Don’t Really Exist, →ISBN, page 278:
- Accepting Alexander Nemirovski’s theory that Tolkien’s Black Speech was based on the long-extinct Hurrian language, the group felt this was an appropriate starting point.
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