An Abridged Black Speech Grammar in English
By
Mikael Bynke
2000
© Mikael "Adragoor" Bynke
This is a summary of my Black Speech (BS) grammar in English. Note that this version of the BS has very little to do with the language invented by J.R.R. Tolkien. Instead, it is a rather free reconstruction and remake of his language, and it is mainly used by orcs on Swedish LARP-events. If you have any questions, feel free to mail me: adragoor@passagen.se
1 Sounds
These are the sounds I know of in the BS.
Consonants:
B - Pronounced as in English.
D - Pronounced as in English.
F - Pronounced as in English.
G - Pronounced as in English.
H - As in English, but a little harder.
J - Like English Y.
K - Pronounced as in English.
L - Pronounced as in English.
M - Pronounced as in English.
N - Pronounced as in English.
P - Pronounced as in English.
R - Like in German or French.
S - Pronounced as in English.
T - Pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth.
V - Pronounced as in English.
Z - Voiced S.
X - Unknown.
Q - Unknown.
Ch - As the German "ach-sound".
Th - Aspirated T.
Dh - Aspirated D.
Gh - Aspirated G. Maybe a bit tricky.
Kh - The unvoiced version of Gh.
LL - Förmodligen en variant av L, som är tjockare, med tungan ännu längre bak i munnen.
Sh - As in German "ich".
Zh - Voiced Sh.Vowels:
A - More or less like in German.
E - More or less like in German.
I - More or less like in German.
O - More or less like in German.
U - More or less like in German.All vowels can be long. This is written by putting a circumflex (^) or an accent (´)over the vowel. â, ê etc.
2. Nouns
There are 7 cases in the BS: Nominative, Dative, Genitive, Locative, Inessive, Instrumental and Similative, and three numbers: Singular, Plural and Collective Plural. There is a Definite Prefix, za-, that is however used more sparingly than "the" in English.
