Meanings
- A constructed language designed by J. R. R. Tolkien, intended to be associated with evil.
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.
2021, Yens Wahlgren, The Universal Translator: Everything You Need to Know About 139 Languages That Don’t Really Exist, →ISBN, page 2782 more examples
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.
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 109Many 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.
2009, Dimitra Fimi, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, →ISBN, page 75
Translations
Bulgarian черна реч
- черна реч (černa reč)constructed language
Polish Czarna Mowa
- Czarna Mowaconstructed language
Cite this entry
Black Speech. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Black%20Speech
“Black Speech.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Black%20Speech. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Black Speech,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Black%20Speech.
Source: Black Speech on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.