#neo-khuzdul

[an-unexpected-sideblog]

Decided to keep track of my TDS Neo-Khuzdul translations I've worked on this year (for people other than myself).

The Proper Way to Call You Mine: Thurkhu hugur du jalâkhrum astû amê. Lit: (the) way / right / to call / you / mine Title of a fic I've read; requested for a fan project! Fun to make as I had to figure out the infinitive form of "to call" from "to name" as it's not in the translator (might be in the dict.; honestly I didn't think to check and just reverse engineered it).

You mean (all) the world to me: "Samlanabîn kâmin sullu dê." Literally: (you) signify / (the) world / all / to-me. Fun fact, you can optionally leave off "sullu" for just "the world" (rather than all of it), or alternatively leave out "kâmin" to get "You mean everything to me." Had to go back and edit this one bc I realized tacking on the acc. "me" to the verb just didn't make as much sense? But idk, maybe "samlanabînê" is the way to go instead

I will not lead you into dragon fire: "Lu zazabadmizu ni uslukh'urs." Literally: not / I-will-lead-you / in(to) / dragon-fire. Finally found a post confirming that an acc. pronoun can be added to the verb as its genitive suffix when looking into this! I did combine "dragonfire" into a singular word like "campfire," but it can separated as "uslukh 'urs" (the apostrophe is still needed). Got real deep in finding future tense and perfect/imperfect again (bane of my fucking existence), but I feel good about "lu" here instead of any other options (half-lying) (resisting the urge to re-open the negation doc).

That's all for now, but I'll be posting more if (okay, when) I do more

[setaripendragon]

To preface this, I am not trying to start drama or belittle anyone's personal tastes just trying to get others opinions. I personally do not like when people have Bilbo be called little one from a romantic partner and I was wondering if it's just me or maybe if it's authors whose first language is not English. To me it reads as a term of endearment for a child, first and only language is American English. How do you feel about that term? Is English your first language? What's your favorite term of endearment for Bilbo or do you not like any?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer.

Heh. I'm with you on this one. I think I could be... interested in it if someone did something interesting with it linguistically. Like how 'cabbage' is an endearment in... I can't actually remember which language, but not english XD So if someone was playing with how Khuzdul translates (or doesn't) into Westron, making 'little one' an endearment that works in Khuzdul, but less well in Westron would be fun, I think.

However, they'd have to do it really well, because otherwise... I have a pet peeve about Hobbits being called 'little' or 'halfling' or anything like that, which mainly comes from, ironically, D&D.

Because I am so mad - so mad - that hobbits are called 'halflings' because oh, hobbit is Tolkien's IP (if I'm wrong about this, someone please tell me, but this is all I was able to find about it), but the orcs are called orcs when orc is the Sindarin word for goblin, you know, that language Tolkien made up wholesale?! Whereas Hobs are, in fact, a real life folklorish creature?!

-deep breath- So I vent this outrage into all the hobbits I write being very 'Excuse me, we're not half of anything, thank you very much' and that definitely extends to them being called 'little' anything.

But yeah, my first language is English, and I'm not fluent in anything, though I've tried to learn a couple of languages (I don't have any real opportunities for immersion, though, so it's a bit hard ^^"), because I'm a linguistics nerd.

Favourite endearments for Bilbo? Khuzdul ones ^^" Ghivashê, or Amrâlimê, or Marlel, or Sanze'uh, or Mudtê. I don't have a specific favourite, though I think Thorin would probably stick to one favourite endearment as a nickname, and only pull out the others if he was apologising for something. Probably Sanze or Sanze'uh, because it's the most overdramatic of the lot XD

[thedwarrowscholar]

Analysis of "Stone Tongue" in The Rings of Power

In Episode 7 of The Rings of Power we get our first real taste of the Neo-Khuzdul created for this series. Here Durin III calls it "Stone-tongue".

The two lines of Stone-tongue given by these two Dwarf Lords are:

Tildi dahâkh? [Five centuries?] Kama shêth, kumnya putha imâghum [Quite a promise, if they can keep it…]

I have no idea who wrote this Neo-Khuzdul, but it clearly does not use any of the currently established forms or words. Regardless of them opting for a new form (which is fine), sadly, the pronunciation of these words should have been somewhat different though. That is, if we are to follow the language specifics J.R.R. Tolkien detailed in the appendices (which this series prides itself on for respecting).

A detailed analysis of these two lines.

1) Leith McPherson and Jean Goodwin (the dialect coaches on this series) seem to have gone with the voiceless velar fricative [x] for the Khuzdul "kh" and the voiceless dental fricative [θ] for the Khuzdul "th". Though common in many other Semitic languages (which Khuzdul was designed to be) it should NOT be present in Tolkien's Khuzdul. Tolkien clearly states in the appendices that the Dwarvish "kh" and "th" are aspirates and that Dwarvish did not possess the fricative sounds of other Middle Earth languages. In fact he specifies that these should be pronounced "more or less as in backhand and outhouse" (so not like "loch" or "things", as they have done here). 2) Complete lack of the schwa or open-mid back unrounded vowel sound in these lines (vowels like those heard in the English "butter") "which were frequent in Dwarvish". 3) Use of the sound "p" - though not impossible, but slightly odd if this needs to represent actual Khuzdul, as it's not present in any canon Khuzdul word. 4) Word order. Without further details on these words it would appear that the order used here is a mirror of English. An example of this is "tildi dahâkh" - as "centuries" is a plural noun and dahâkh appears to copy the typical plural noun pattern seen in other Khuzdul words, it would appear the word "tildi" here is the number. While in common Neo-Khuzdul that would be noun followed by number, unlike English. 5) Some vowel sounds are wrong/mispronounced. For instance the "ê" in "shêth", should be pronounced as the [e:], not as the near open front vowel [æ]. This may have been a mispronunciation from the actor though. 6) Verbs and Pronouns are (apparently) not as synthetic as I would expect. The line "kumnya putha imâghum" likely means "if they can keep it", which would have been "nî katamrazînhu" in the previously established Neo-Khuzdul. Here we see "katamrazînhu", as a good example of the synthetic nature of this Semitic language, where several elements are combined into one word (Ka = can, tamrazîn = they keep, hu = it). Here it would appear, if we can conclude that "kumnya" means "if", that "putha" is the pronoun and "imâghum" the verb.

Overall, though the general flavor of the language sounds Semitic (which I'm thankful for), it's a shame the pronunciation makes some rather big mistakes. What the words themselves are concerned, here as well, at first glance, there is a clear Semitic feel to it, sadly word order and several other oddities make for a poor linguistic end result. As such, I'll not be updating my Neo-Khuzdul dictionaries any time soon to include some of these words or verb forms, as most of these would go against Tolkien's established lore for the language. With the exception perhaps of the word "dahâkh" (the only word that seems to be using the correct patterns and is correctly pronounced), which is (it must be said) a better word for "centuries" than the compound I was using (the rather cumbersome "mihokherasanrât" - lit. "hundred-year-cycle"), in addition to the fact that the radical combination [DHKh] was not in use anyway. Let's see if we get more "Stone Tongue" in future episodes. If so, expect an analysis like this one. Ever at your service, The Dwarrow Scholar

[theskeletoninthegarden]

@thedwarrowscholar recently, or at some point that I may have missed, added something wonderful to the dictionary

I was more then happy enough to be using hû but now ;A;

[espenlearnskhuzdul]

To-Do List of "Khuzdul" Resources

Here are all the resources i want to work through (i'll cross them out whenever i've finished them):

The Hobbit

LotR 1, The Fellowship of the Ring

LotR 2, The Two Towers

LotR 3, The Return of the King

David Salo's blog archive: Feb. 2013, March 2013, April 2013, June 2013, Jan. 2014, June 2014, April 2015, May 2015

HoME 1, The Book of Lost Tales 1

HoME 2, The Book of Lost Tales 2

HoME 3, The Lays of Beleriand

HoME4, The Shaping of Middle Earth

HoME 5, The Lost Road and Other Writings

HoME 6, HoLotR 1, The Return of the Shadow

HoME 7, HoLotR 2, The Treason of Isengard

HoME 8, HoLotR 3, The War of the Ring

HoME 9, HoLotR 4, Sauron Defeated

HoME 10, Morgoth's Ring

HoME 11, The War of the Jewels

HoME 12, The Peoples of Middle-Earth

*HoME = History of Middle-Earth; HoLotR = History of Lord of the Rings

[thorin]

i wrote a little something that i have no idea if i'll continue, but i just really wanted to write a bagginshield fic through kíli's point of view, i thought it'd be fun. so enjoy!

tw: a bit of angst, mention of blood, but nothing too graphic, or excessive.

Contrary to popular belief, Kíli was not stupid.

He knew there'd been something going on between his uncle and Mr. Baggins the second he saw him break a smile —which was already suspicious— at Bilbo at the Carrock before hugging him —even more suspicious— after he'd defended his uncle from what was certain death.

Now don't get him wrong, he was more grateful to Bilbo than he could ever say. He saved Thorin's, and Fíli's, and his life too many times to count. He'd stayed after the battle had died down, and helped the healers, elven and dwarven alike, tend to the wounded and bury the fallen. He'd spent his entire days helping Bombur cook food at the makeshift camp they'd set at the base of the mountain, and when he wasn't cooking, he was stealing peaches and apples from the elves' food carts just for him and Fíli when they were bedridden. And he'd sit beside Thorin and wait for him to wake up when his nephews couldn't be there for him.

Kíli really liked Bilbo. He'd grown on him, all of them, truly. He just couldn't believe someone so small could be so brave, and feisty!

Which is why he was extremely confused when he'd heard Bilbo would be going home after Thorin had woken up.

His first reaction was that he felt abandoned. How could a member of their company simply choose to leave after all they'd been through together? He almost shouted his disagreement, before Fíli took his arm, shaking his head, and looked right at Bilbo: tear tracks on his dirty face. Maybe he wasn't leaving by choice.

He looked to his uncle, sat up against the wooden bedpost. His jaw was set and his adam's apple bobbed, as if it were physically hurting him to not speak up. His eyes were transfixed by Bilbo's back, like if he tried hard enough, his eyes could tell Bilbo all he wouldn't say.

Understanding flashed through Kíli's mind in a second. But it was too late. He tried speaking up again, aware of this new piece of information that he'd uncovered, but Thorin wouldn't have it. And it was frustrating Kíli greatly, because he'd never heard his uncle, his brave, tenacious uncle, speak with such a small, hoarse voice before, and say that if Bilbo wishes to leave, then he is free to go, with his blessing.

None of it rang true. How did no one notice? Why wasn't anyone saying anything?

By the time he'd looked at Bilbo again, he was already out of the tent, backpack on his shoulders.

Kíli was not proud of how he acted. He'd shouted at Thorin, painfully aware of his uncle's feeble health, but unable to contain his grief: he'd killed hundreds and seen another hundred killed, he'd almost lost his brother and uncle, and almost left his mother all alone in this world, and now his friend was leaving him, leaving them all. He'd fought relentlessly for months, why couldn't his uncle fight just a little longer, a little more? Why wouldn't he fight for his family like he said he always would?

Oin kicked Kíli out of the tent the second he saw Thorin's bandages become red. He was horrified. He'd never dream of hurting Thorin, but everything felt wrong. He'd never once cried on this journey. Not when his uncle was knocked unconscious by that foul orc, nor when he'd lost the rune stone given to him by his mother. But now he couldn't hold it in. It all came pouring out as someone —his brother, surely— held him, kneeled down on the ground. He wept until the stars came out.

────────

Months had passed ever since Azsâlul'abad was reclaimed. The harsh Eastern winter had finally given way to spring's sunshine rays, and although the mountain's citizens couldn't say they lived an easy life, they had food and a roof over their heads, which was more than they'd had for years. More and more dwarves were coming home from all over Middle-Earth, as word of Smaug's death was starting to spread. Reconstruction was slow, but steady, and life had shaped itself into a vibrant routine under the Lonely Mountain.

Kíli and Fíli had been crowned princes, and Thorin had been crowned king. His mother had finally come to join them on a caravan she lead from Shahrulbizad, and each member of the company was appointed to some sort of important position in the king's court. It was difficult for Kíli and his brother to get used to their new lives as royalty and the responsibilities that came along with it, and Kíli was grateful for any moment of respite he could have away from the eccentric Iron Hills nobles and Balin's royal classes. His days all looked the same, and yet he found he just couldn't get used to this new life.

Thorin, Kíli had noticed, clearly felt the same, though there was no running away for him. For any person that didn't know his uncle, they'd think he looked perfectly normal, if only a little stern. But Kíli knew that look. It was the same one he'd wear on his face when he attended feasts, sat at his throne, silent, while everybody around him drank and laughed. Or when he attended meetings with the court. Or when he watched Bilbo leave, a winter ago.

Kíli was not stupid. He saw how much his uncle suffered, and how much every single member of the company missed their friend. He missed Bilbo, too.

Which is why he sent a letter adressed to Bilbo Baggins of Bag End in the Shire, pretending to be Thorin II, King Under the Mountain, begging him to come back.

Surely that would solve everybody's problem. Right?

[emyn-arnens]

Hi i was just wondering if there are any resources you recommend for writing fics? For names, maps, info about characters and places, anything like that.

I love your blog by the way and your fics are awesome!

Thanks, anon!

I've put together a list of some of my favorite resources that cover the topics you're asking about, with a few extra favorites thrown in. I’ve included both resources that stick purely to canon and worldbuilding resources that expand on canon but are not strictly canon (these are marked with an asterisk). There’s some overlap between some of these resources, but I’ve often found that if I can’t find what I need from one website, another one probably has what I’m looking for.

I’ve broken the resources down into general resources, Silm resources, and LOTR resources for ease of reading. It's a lengthy list, so I've put it below a read more.

And of course, although all of these are good, canon-based resources, it’s always best to verify the information against the source text and double check quotes and citations.

GENERAL RESOURCES

Sources not specific to Silm or LOTR.

Arms and Armour of the Eldar: This webpage lists relevant quotes from Tolkien’s writing about the weapons and armor of the Elves. It predominantly focuses on the First Age but does go into the Third Age.

@askmiddlearth: This blog is a great general reference for all things Tolkien. Although no longer active, the blog has many great guides about the people groups and cultures of Middle-earth, as well as a slew of information accessible from the blog’s tag list about events and time periods, places, races/people/cultures, characters, languages, and objects. 

The Atlas of Middle-earth: The Atlas of Middle-earth contains maps of Arda during the First, Second, and Third Ages. There are also maps focusing on the events of The Hobbit and LOTR, as well as thematic maps illustrating the landforms, climate, vegetation and population, and languages of Middle-earth. I have the physical copy of this because I use it all the time and love looking through it just for the sake of looking through it. If you don’t have a copy of this, you can find a lot of Karen Wynn Fonstad’s maps online. @askmiddlearth has shared a number of them on their blog.

Do note, though, the inconsistencies and errors in some of the maps, identified and listed at the Tolkien Gateway link above.

The Dwarrow Scholar*: The Dwarrow Scholar has many resources about Khuzdul and neo-Khuzdul (a fan-created expansion of the language heavily inspired by Semitic languages). The site also has worldbuilding resources covering Dwarven holidays, feasts, seasons, folklore, traditions, marriage customs, succession customs, food, naming conventions, and much more. 

Encyclopedia of Arda: The Encyclopedia of Arda has thousands of articles covering topics from Tolkien’s world. It also has a searchable chronicle to discover what happened on a particular date, a calendar to translate dates and events, a glossary of archaic and unusual words in Tolkien’s works, a lexicon of names (mainly in the Elvish languages), and more. 

Flora of Middle-earth: I don’t yet own this book, so I can’t personally speak to its usefulness, but it covers all of the plants mentioned or described in Tolkien’s work. It addresses climate zones and plant communities, plant morphology, plant identification, the Two Trees, and the plants of Middle-earth.

Henneth-Annûn Research Center: Henneth-Annûn is a goldmine for quickly finding all of the information given in canon about a character, place, thing, etc. You can search for timeline events, character bios, places, and things, and the site will display all relevant passages from the book that address your search term. There is also an A-Z index of characters, places, things, and events. (There is a full-text Boolean search as well, but at the time of posting this, it doesn’t work.)

LOTR Project: LOTR Project has created timelines and interactive maps for the events of the Silm, The Hobbit, and LOTR. The site has also compiled statistics on the demographics of Arda’s various people groups.

Parf Edhellen*: Parf Edhellen is a dictionary of all of Tolkien’s invented languages, with an emphasis on Elvish languages. Parf Edhellen imports other trusted Tolkien sites’ dictionaries into its own, so it has a vast number of words listed. You can filter your searches by language and time period (when Tolkien created/reworked the language), parts of speech, and the website they were taken from. There are reconstructions (fan-created words formed using Tolkien’s language rules) in the dictionary, but they can be filtered out if you would prefer not to use them.

RealElvish.net*: RealElvish.net provides a slew of resources about Tolkien’s languages (and for more languages than just Sindarin and Quenya), including name lists, phrasebooks, pronunciation guides, and word lists. The site’s Trustworthy Websites page is also worth perusing for links to more sites focusing on Tolkien’s languages.

Tolkien Gateway: Tolkien Gateway is well-known in the fandom as a Tolkien wiki with articles on almost anything you can imagine, but I want to highlight its Silm timeline (covering the days before days, the Years of the Trees, the First Age, and the Second Age), Third Age timeline, and Fourth Age timeline. All of the years listed in the timelines can be clicked on to get a more detailed breakdown of the events that happened that year, which is especially helpful when writing about Third Age events. 

SILM RESOURCES

Sources specifically focusing on the First and Second Ages, including Tolkien’s writings beyond the Silm.

@melestasflight's food and cuisine worldbuilding posts*: Melesta’s posts cover both Valinor and Beleriand.

@outofangband's societal and environmental worldbuilding posts*: Outofangband’s societal posts cover people groups in general, fashion, food, education, architecture, festivals, traditions, and more. Their environmental worldbuilding posts cover Beleriand’s flora and fauna, rivers and streams, lakes and springs, forests, marshes, geography, and more.

Silmarillion Writers’ Guild's character biographies: The SWG has an index of character biographies covering many of the characters in the Silm and Tolkien’s other First and Second Age writings. Very useful for a quick refresh about a character or for learning about more obscure characters. (Alternate link to the old site, which lists the characters in alphabetical order.)

LOTR RESOURCES

Sources specifically focused on LOTR and the Third and Fourth Ages.

The Logistics of Minas Tirith*: This short essay by Anders Blixt addresses the logistics of food supply to and distribution within Minas Tirith and poses possible solutions.

Shire of the Hobbits: Shire of the Hobbits has many resources about the Shire, including hobbit customs, typical food and drink, hobbit history, hobbit names and meanings, and a list of hobbit sayings. The site also has information about hobbit calendars and chronology, the various writings produced in the Shire, and the Shire’s geography.

The Religious Rituals of the Dúnedain of Gondor*: This essay by Michael R. Hickman explores canon information about the Dúnedain’s religious customs and ceremonies and uses that information to expand on how those religious customs and ceremonies might look in Fourth Age Gondor under Aragorn’s rule. I haven’t yet read all of the way through the essay, but it is well-cited, using an array of Tolkien’s texts on the subject.

Travel Times in Middle-earth*: This site has generic info about how long it would take to travel in Middle-earth (focusing on major Third Age locations), based on the mode of travel. There is also a table that lists the time it would take to travel from one location to another. The table is incomplete but still very helpful.

[seeyouatthesecondmusic]

OKAY SO. new dwarf culture headcanon- i was thinking of how the dwarves would actually honour mahal, right? like, if they would actually pray to him or something. and then i thought, they have this whole thing about crafting, right? so what if they, like, pray to mahal everytime they finish a (crafting) project or every time they achieve something in their respective craft? i was thinking along the lines of, 'praise be to Mahal for guiding me through my crafting. in speaking this vow, i thank Him for helping me to practise my craft and to succeed in it, and i dedicate my finished work to Him. praise be to Mahal.' or somehing like that, and in neo khuzdul, obviously!! i'm still working on this, but i really think something like this could be pretty cool!

[wolfsbane-and-nettles]

Bilbo Sessile Baggins, son of Bungo, son of Mungo....

...or, Blessed Child of Yavanna, Babble Baggins, Petraea, Prince of the Shire, and Lorembaron...

Promo art, if you will, for my latest fic that will be published soon on AO3.

{Chosen Horizons }

Summary:

In the rolling hills of the Shire, where the simple life is cherished and magic is a rarity, one hobbit was blessed by the Valar themselves, Bilbo Baggins. Unfortunately for Bilbo, his abilities brought him nothing but trouble and strife, and so he strived to live a quiet and unremarkable life and fit in with the rest of polite hobbit society. Alas, fate had other plans for him, and when the call to adventure came in the form of a band of dwarves seeking his aid on a quest to reclaim their homeland, Bilbo could no longer ignore the Valar's will. His journey would be perilous and his path uncertain, but with steadfast companions by his side and a love that burned brighter than any forge, Bilbo would rise to his destiny and become a hero of legend.

Chosen Horizons is a Bilbo/Thorin fanfic about a certain reluctant hobbit and determined dwarf who are both too stubborn for their own good.

***

This fic has a fully completed rough draft of 480+ pages, and the first few chapters are currently being beta'd before publishing. I am incredibly proud of this fic and I cannot wait to share it with everyone! It is incredibly lore heavy and I have done SO much research and am excited to geek out about it with ya'll.

Nerdy bits in the pic:

Fortinbras I Took's wife is never named...so I decided to give her one. She is named Lunabia Underhill. Lunabia has multiple meanings/symbolisms...my favorite being "am I forgotten?" (and Underhill because it is a rather common family name in The Shire and Bree, and I felt that Bilbo would probably use a family name when he's using a fake name).

Lorembaron: Lore (dreams/visions) + Umbar (fate/doom)+ On , more or less meaning "Dreamer of Fate" or "He Who Dreams of Fate" in Quenya.

This fic will have a good bit of Elvish (Sindarin and Quenya) and Neo-Khuzdul in it...but I am no Middle-Earth Linguist, so please take my translations loosely.

I'm super excited to get this published and share it and I hope, when I do, you all enjoy it!

((And yes, I just really wanted to have a hobbitish photoshoot for my picture of Bilbo...))

[sinisterbug]

Bagginshieldtober Prompt #9: Song

I started writing a song themed ficlet and it turned into a Khuzdul themed ficlet. It still counts technically as song-themed lol. I think maybe Ill do a part 2 of this for the Khuzdul prompt.

Warnings: Bagginshield, gen

Credits: @thedwarrowscholar for the Neo-Khuzdul translation of Durin's Song

Dwalin normally wasn’t one to hide his annoyance. Living amongst princes and being responsible in whole for their well-being, and in part for their rearing, the guard captain had long ago understood that he and his brother were among the unlucky few whom had the displeasure of saying “no” to Thorin Oakenshield, and many years later, too, to his terror nephews and heirs. Even Dis, who was usually the picture of restraint and amiability in her role as the Queen Mother, occasionally needed to be reminded why it wouldn’t do to have this or that courtier poisoned, just because they slighted her or her sons. Just last week, Balin had to talk her down from ordering the execution of Lady Norfi, who Dis thought had crossed the lines of propriety by batting her eyelashes at their king in front of his rightful hobbit consort.

This was to say, he wasn’t one of those people who had to worry about holding his breath and curtseying to the right person. He was free to show his annoyance, anger, or even pleasure at his discretion. Still, in times like these, he did his best not to sigh outwardly. His king looked so besotted, after all, watching his consort putter about the study, watering plants, and fussing over Mahal-knew-what. Thorin, mostly. It was as if the king of Erebor simply couldn’t hear what was coming out of his beloved consort’s mouth.

The day Bilbo Baggins had started to learn Khuzdul was the day Dwalin’s permanent headache had taken residence in his skull and never left. Of all things, Balin had thought it would be a good idea to teach him to sing their language first. Would that his brother had thought to set the wee sprite to poetry, or some quieter means of study.

The lad’s voice wasn’t bad, quite the opposite, different as it was from what his people usually preferred. It was just… amazing, really, how every single word he said was wrong.

“Kamon adda kim, uhbadaton danawk

Laksmabe kaya Kamon adda masakewl-”

It was painful to hear the sacred words of their history butchered so. For Mahal’s sake, no one should be allowed to disrespect Durin’s Song this way. It was Kâmin ‘atta khim, ‘abbad ‘atôn danakh, NOT kaMON adda kim—

He ground his teeth and counted the minutes before Thorin was supposed to leave for council. 

***

Bilbo chirped, “Aaglibee du sullu ‘aimugaleek umralul hagaas!” as Dwalin hurried down the corridor, suddenly quite eager to leave his king’s side. The hobbit sniggered, he couldn’t help it, but quickly looked around to see that no guards were observing him too closely. Thorin hadn’t missed it though, and he held out his elbow for Bilbo to take even as he gave him a reproachful look.

“It isn’t so much pestering Dwalin that I object to, mesmel,” Thorin said as they slowly made their way to their chambers after a very long day of ruling the mountain. He patted Bilbo’s hand, now heavier with bejeweled rings than ever before.

“Oh? You have objections, Your Majesty?” Bilbo responded airily. “Pray, count your grievances. You’ll find your subject a willing audience.”

Thorin’s countenance remained serene, but the noise he made in the back of his throat betrayed his good humored incredulity. 

“I do not want my people to spread rumors that my consort is an imbecile, when the truth is quite the opposite.”

It was Bilbo’s turn to scoff and he returned Thorin’s gesture, patting his hand placatingly. “We’ll simply spread the rumor of the truth. That your consort enjoys toying with your guard-captain, who is the real imbecile for believing I can’t comprehend Khuzdul conjugations or pronunciation after having mastered Sindarin, three tongues of Mannish, and becoming passable at Quenya.”

Thorin just shook his head and snorted softly, and together they harmonized sweetly, and with impeccable pronunciation, as they retreated to their chambers for the night.

Kâmin ‘atta khim, ‘abbad ‘atôn danakh

Laks mabekh aya Kâmin ‘ata masakhul

Galabî mabekh masharghiful aya’ ul fa’aban

Tân Durin Bekena ra besena zislal

Kharama hanâd ra zarsbizâr binakhrâm

Sheleka udu ’amâd binmasamkul na

Kurusifa  ra sakhaba ni kheled-zâram

[dedicatedfollower467]

recently finished re-reading "Oh, Son of A---" by StrivingArtist, aka the best isekai fanfic ever written but it got me to thinking

what would happen if i was dropped into the shire at the beginning of the hobbit knowing only what i currently know of tolkien's languages and nothing else?

and honestly the answer is, i would know a smattering of endearments and obscenities in a bewildering mix of neo-khuzdul and sindarin, with a side helping of random words like "monster" and "leech" in quenya.

and names, theoretically, but this is assuming that it works like in OSoA where the names stick and thorin is actually called "thorin" and it's not a translation of his "real" name in westron. like how tolkien says in the appendices that frodo is actually "maura" and merry is really "kali" and sam is actually "ban". or maybe it was his father who was "ban" and sam was "ran" i don't actually remember, see i'd be fucked!

i can also theoretically say "friend" or even "my friend" in sindarin but somehow i feel like the dwarves would not be pleased with that.

and again: probably not pleased with me spouting off random khuzdul phrases that might not even be accurate because neo-khuzdul is a reconstruction based on what little material we do have from tolkien and wild theory and conjecture. also again; like 90% endearments and probably incorrect conjunctions of a few random words and phrases.

i'm also like. trying to think through if there are any other fandoms i've been a part of with constructed languages where i could get by and like.

star trek canonically has both english AND universal translators, so i wouldn't actually need klingon, probably, which is good because i can't even pronounce Qapla' correctly, let alone say anything else in klingon.

i never did game of thrones so that's useless to me, the na'vi have a robust conlang but i couldn't give less of a shit about avatar or be bothered to learn any of it.....

holy fuck. i think apart from LOTR the only conlang where i know phrases off the top of my head is Lapine from watership down, and the main phrase i remember from that is "eat shit and die stinklord". and i don't even remember most of the names, just thlayli and hyzenthlay and hrairoo and hlaoroo and i don't even remember if "hrairoo" or "hlaoroo" are actually correct.

[thedwarrowscholar]

Hi,

I saw that you helped someone in the past with the Dwarvish translation for their tattoo. I'd like to ask for your help. My husband is wanting "My wings are a hurricane" translated but I can find any source at all on the word for wings, and the only thing I can come up for, for hurricane, is 'mighty wind'. Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

Rae

Hi there, Thank you for your patience. A wonderful piece of a quote from the Hobbit indeed (The Hobbit, Ch. 12 "'Inside Information").

“My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”

Smaug is his signature boastful over-confidence (eventually getting him killed) is what makes him such a perfect villain in my view. Not only is he not your typical 2D fantasy monster, he is a carefully crafted complex character that talks with the aggressive civility of British aristocracy (which bewilders all that hear it by overwhelming greed) and at the same time cannot get enough of far-too-obvious flattery. Almost a shame he dies so quickly in the book and we don't get to hear more of him.... almost. Your requested translation/transcription:

If we have a closer look at the Neo-Khuzdul translation we see: ◉ "agâhê": "my-wings" (agâh = wings / -ê = my) ◉ "tâtîn": (they)-are ◉ "mulumikhbênbagd": hurricane, whirlwind, tornado, gyre (consisting of "mulum" = quick, fast, speedy / "ikhbên" = twirling/whirling (the act of) / "bagd" = wind. So literally "mulumikhbênbagd" means "fast whirling wind"). The majority of these words you can find in the Dictionary on the site, though I believe "hurricane" is currently not listed yet (as it is still in the current draft, to be published later). Ever at your service, The Dwarrow Scholar

[amethystviolist]

To preface this, I am not trying to start drama or belittle anyone's personal tastes just trying to get others opinions. I personally do not like when people have Bilbo be called little one from a romantic partner and I was wondering if it's just me or maybe if it's authors whose first language is not English. To me it reads as a term of endearment for a child, first and only language is American English. How do you feel about that term? Is English your first language? What's your favorite term of endearment for Bilbo or do you not like any?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer.

I am a native English speaker, and I personally really don't care for that term applied to Bilbo. To my ears, it comes off as insulting/infantilizing when applied to a middle-aged man, especially considering hobbits are canonically mistaken or treated as children by other, taller peoples.

But that's my personal opinion and I do also believe everyone should write what they want! I'm a big believer in Don't Like, Don't Read rather than placing any sort of responsibility on the author to cater to others' tastes.

As far as other terms of endearment - I love most any Khuzdul used for Bilbo, with most common ones I like being amralimê, kurduwê, ibinê. I tend to avoid ghivashel and azyungel just in my own writing to keep a more consistent Neo-Khuzdul, but I don't mind encountering them in other fics. I like when authors pick something a little unusual but central to their fic's themes, e.g. "my sun" with a focus on the light Bilbo brings to Thorin.

Less common Khuzdul ones I'm considering introducing are of my own invention, using the fandom lore of a One being the other half of the same soul. This gives us options like "melkel" (half of all halves) or "amrâbûnê" (my soul-man). Not settled on these yet but playing with some options anyway.

[espenlearnskhuzdul]

Learning Khuzdul: David Salo's posts #5

Here's my 5th post about learning Khuzdul / neo-Khuzdul (the language of the dwarves in Middle Earth).

Again, I will post screenshots of his texts in my posts (cause his blog is not active anymore), but all credit goes to him of course! I will also add my own thoughts and explanations below the respective screenshots.

I'm gonna collect every new word and phrase i learned in a short vocab list at the end of every post (and in a big list where i'll collect all words from this and future posts).

Let's go!

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I really like this approach to creating neo-Khuzdul, it makes exploring the specialties of this language all the more fun!

[loveacrossuniverses]

Thorin for the ask game!

-@all4theluvoflizzy

T(each)- He would teach me metal working, how to fight, but most importantly how to speak Khuzdul, I wish Tolkien had written more about it. Neo khuzdul is cool but I just wish there was a way for me to learn it in its true form. I have also heard of the dwarves having secret True names so learning Thorin's would be amazing. Oh he could teach me to play the harp as well! I'm not sure there's anything much i could teach him tbh, he has over 100 years more life experience than me!

H(eight)- There's definitely a height difference between us! Obviously Thorin is a short king (approx. 5’2”) and I’m pretty average (like 5’6”). Honestly neither of us really think about our height difference, he’s very used to being shorter than people and it’s really nice being with someone who isn’t weird about their height (vague-posting about my irl ex lol)

O(nline)- This one kind of stumped me tbh, I can’t really imagine Thorin having much to do with social media in general, he’d probably be one of those people who barely posts and mostly uses it to message people. (obviously the company has a group chat and he has a lot of family to keep up with haha) When he did occasionally post it would probably be pictures of things he made and nice landscapes rather than selfies (he’s way too serious for that). Although alternatively I’m now imagining a world where I’m the fictional one and he has an f/o blog about me that he’s self-conscious about and terrified of people finding!

R(ainbow)- Gold is the obvious colour to associate with him i think. But more specifically i associate him with the colours he normally wears, brown and dark blue together, and black and silver like his hair. I have a scarf I bought when I was 14 because it’s the same colours as his coat!

I(mage)- This was so hard for me to choose! He's beautiful and i have so many pictures of him! But here's one of them! (it was my phone wallpaper for a long time!)

N(ostalgia)- I think his favourite memory is probably something from before the dragon came. Nothing big, just watching his siblings play together in Erebor. Or the first time he held his nephews (would be post-dragon). A rare conversation with his father and grandfather where they were just family, not royalty. A hug from his father... This was a few memories I guess, but I can’t decide which one to choose. I’m kind of sad now but it’s nice when I get to explore Thorin’s past with him.

This was really fun, I always love talking about Thorin but it's kind of hard for me to articulate how much he means to me! Thank you so much for asking <3

[i-am-no-dam]

An .abc arrangement for The Lord of the Rings Online of “Khazad-dûm” from The Rings of Power, composed by Bear McCreary. You can download my McCreary-KhazadDum-SoloHarp-v1.abc from Google Drive!

Optimized for Basic Harp, but Lute of Ages and Misty Mountains Harp work OK. It relies heavily on tremolo effects to help the melody line sing, so it will especially suffer in lag.

Some “Westron” lyrics I wrote under the cut, plus my rambling “translation notes”.

So there are some oddities with the original lyrics of the Khazad-dûm theme. They... don’t exactly make sense. Like, RoP probably has its own variant of Neo-Khuzdul, but “Khazad-dûm” mostly seems like a mishmash of the very small number of attested Khuzdul words. It does include “Gabilgathol” (great fortress), “baruk Khazâd” (axes of the Dwarves), “kibil” (silver), “uzbadu baraz” (king of the red).

But what’s even stranger is that “Gabilgathol” features so prominently. Gabilgathol is the Khuzdul name of Belegost! Why are we singing about Belegost in Khazad-dûm’s theme?? (Yes, it translates to “great fortress”, and Khazad-dûm is technically a great fortress; but Khazad-dûm translates to “Dwarf-home”, and every single Dwarf mansion is technically a Dwarf-home. Should Nogrod’s theme be all about praising “Khazad-dûm”?)

So I thought about why Khazad-dûm’s theme would open with a reference to Belegost. And... there is a reason that makes sense. Not only that, but that reason is the real reason why Khazad-dûm grows explosively and becomes a truly great mansion in the Second Age, even before the partnership with Eregion -- i.e. when we first see it in The Rings of Power.

So I attempted to make new Dwarrowscholar Neo-Khuzdul lyrics, trying to keep the attested Khuzdul in the same places, and then translated that, with a lot of poetic license, to this song that a Dwarvish bard might have sung in the Second Age to weary refugees on the East Road:

Gabilgathol's shadow on your back, Bearing still Dwarvish chisels, Tumunzahar's shadow on your back, Bearing still Dwarvish axes,

Hark ahead to the Mountains, Dwarves of the West, Where the red sun shines on his crown! Durin's kingdom where silver shining flows, Let your hammers rest in his Dwarf-home!

Kheled-zâram, where he saw the stars, Not as Blue as your homeland, Still will bear all the volume of your tears, Salting cold Kibil-nâla.

Then quench your thirst and look upon the Gates, Standing open, and light within! Durin's kingdom where silver shining flows, Swing your picks and make it your Dwarf-home!

We are all one kin in his Dwarf-home!