| Khuzdul | |
|---|---|
| Created by | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Date created | c. 1935 |
| Setting and usage | Middle-earth, the setting of the novel The Lord of the Rings |
| Category (purpose) | |
| Category (sources) | influenced by Hebrew in phonology and morphology |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Khuzdul is a constructed language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is one of the many fictional languages set in his Secondary world, often called Middle-earth. It was the secret language of the dwarves.
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Tolkien noted some similarities between Dwarves and Jews: both were "at once natives and aliens in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue…".[1] Tolkien also commented of the Dwarves that "their words are Semitic obviously, constructed to be Semitic."[2] Tolkien based Dwarvish language on the Semitic languages. Khuzdul has triconsonantal roots: kh-z-d, b-n-d, z-g-l. Although only a very limited set of vocabularies is known, Tolkien mentioned that he had developed the language to a certain extension. It is unknown whether such writings still exist.[3]
In the fictional setting of Middle-earth, little is known of Khuzdul (once written Khuzdûl), for the Dwarves kept it secret, except for their battle-cry: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! meaning Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!. This secrecy extended to Dwarven real names: with the exception of the Petty-dwarves. All Dwarven names are "outer-names" either from another language (Dalish) or nicknames/titles. Dwarves do not even record their true names on their tombstones. The runes written on Balin's tomb in Moria can be transliterated to read BALIN FUNDINUL UZBAD KHAZAD-DŪMU, meaning "Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria". Placenames, like Khazad-dûm, were not subject to the secrecy. Only few non-Dwarves are recorded as having learnt Khuzdul, most notably the Elf Eöl.
According to the Lhammas, Khuzdul is a language isolate, the sole member of the Aulëan language family, not related to the Oromëan languages spoken by Elves. Aulëan was named from the Dwarvish tradition that it had been devised by Aulë the Smith, the Vala who created the Dwarves.
It is said in The Silmarillion that Aulë, the creator of the first Dwarves, taught them "the language he had devised for them," which implies that Khuzdul is technically, in reality and fictionally, a constructed language. It is also said that because of the Dwarves' great reverence for Aulë their language remained unchanged, and all clans could still speak with each other without difficulty despite the great distances that separated them.
There were many similarities between Khuzdul and the native tongues of Men of the Far-East of Middle-earth. This is because in the early days of Middle-earth, Men of these regions had friendly contact with the Dwarves. Adûnaic, the tongue of Númenor, retained some Khuzdul influences. The Common Speech (Westron) later evolved out of Adûnaic, thus explaining why some words etymologically have Khuzdul roots.
Khuzdul is usually written with the Cirth script.
Besides their aglâb, spoken tongue, the Dwarves used a sign language, or iglishmêk. According to The War of the Jewels, it was learned simultaneously with the aglâb from childhood. The Dwarvish sign language was much more varied between communities than Khuzdul, which remained "astonishingly uniform and unchanged both in time and in locality".
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