Aglab Khazad: The Secret Language of Tolkien's Dwarves
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
Type
Thesis (B.A.)
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
en_US
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
J. R. R. Tolkien, best known for his epic works of high fantasy fiction, is also famous for
his experimentation in constructed languages. By far his most complex and best-represented
languages are those he assigned to his Elves. However, there are snippets from many other
constructed languages in his works, all with varying levels of detail and analysis. One such
language is Khuzdul, the language of Tolkien's Dwarves. It is poorly represented in Tolkien's
works and writings, as the Dwarves kept it secret, barely using it around non-Dwarvish
characters and even less frequently providing translations. What data exists, however, provides
the basis for a larger language, known as Neo-Khuzdul, used in Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth
film trilogies. This paper will provide a linguistic analysis of Neo-Khuzdul and, by extension,
Khuzdul itself.
I will first provide an overview of what data exists in both sources, text and film, with a
brief analysis of each. Then I will provide more in-depth analysis of Neo-Khuzdul in several
linguistic areas: I will start with a morphological analysis, looking at both NONCONCATENATIVE
MORPHOLOGY, or the way words are formed and given meaning through internal structure, and
CONCATENATIVE MORPHOLOGY, or prefixes and suffixes; next, I will look at the syntactic
structure of the language; and finally, I will analyze the phonological system of the language and
propose several phonetic changes drawn from the data. I will end with a sociolinguistic
discussion of what we can glean of Dwarvish culture from its use of language. Overall, I hope
this paper will be of interest to linguists, those interested in constructed languages, and those
interested in learning more about Tolkien's literary world.