Posted: October 27, 1999 at 08:06:23: by Martin Read
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: : As Tolkien states that the Black Speech was a deliberate corruption by Sauron of the Elvish languages, then it would logically follow that if derived from Quenya the nearest real languages would be Latin and Finnish, or if derived from Sindarin - Welsh. Irish doesn't seem to enter the equation at all (except for a fairly removed relationship with Welsh).: If I remember correctly, Irish is derived from a different family of Celtic/Gaelic languages than Welsh, so any relation should be pretty remote and more a matter for scholars to discuss. Yes, Irish is Q Celtic, Welsh P Celtic ("head" is ceann in Irish pen in Welsh). : Tolkien states the Black Speech was artificially created by Sauron for his subjects, as you say, using Elvish elements. However, as the incantation on the One Ring was in this speech, and had considerable power, the artificiality and banality of the Black Speech is questionable. Furthermore, listening to the Orks speaking in Common Tongue, it is obvious that they have no honour and any agreement made with them is but of little value. Any magic texts in such a language would be ridiculous. How much more would it be so in the Black Tongue? Any Language which Sauron could imagine (unless specifically made to deceive) must be laden with abuse and vulgarity. The text recited by Gandalf, however, has a certain power and beauty and certainly does not smell of mockery and vulgarity. Tolkien, as a philologist who was very receptive to the beauty of words (hence his affinity to Welsh) must have noticed this. I know I'm on very thin ice now, but may I suggest there is more to the Black Speech than Tolkien admits? I don't think Tolkien would have considered the words used in The Ring Inscription as being beautiful. Though he would have wanted them to have certain qualities of grandeur and menace. The Black Speech was created by a "Demi-god" in the stories, so one would not really look for the language to be particularly vulgar as such. No doubt Sauron's linguistic experiment would have been directed towards giving the Elvish words a hard and powerful edge to the ear, and to enter into Tolkien's cosmology, no doubt Sauron would want his speech to resonate with the discordant elements introduced into the Song of The Ainur by Melkor. In this way his use of the language would possibly give him access to that portion of Melkor's power which was dissipated into physical creation. The end result would give the language a harsh sound to the ears of the reader. I think Tolkien certainly achieved this in the few scraps of the language he has given us.
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