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

Hi there,

English is a language where the average word length is just over eight letters, a considerably smaller amount than what we see in most languages. For instance, in Mongolian it is over eleven letters.

Though Neo-Khuzdul is closer to English when we look at the average word length, it is a language of many compound words, meaning a great many words are comprised of many separate nouns. At times both languages use a compound word for the same concept, for instance the word “Longbeard” (Sigin-tarâg in Dwarvish). Yet often we see that English does not use a compound, where Dwarvish does.

Barazamrâl'aban (lit.: “red-love-stone”) is a good example of this, as in English it is simply “ruby”. Shortening the word “barazamrâl'aban” would change its meaning and as such there isn’t a shorter version.

Some words have alternative (and often shorter) versions of them in the Dictionary, sadly ruby does not.

If we were to make up a short alternative for it, I would suggest we look at the meaning of “ruby”. In this case, it comes from Medieval Latin rubīnus (lapis), meaning “red (stone).” Ultimately deriving from the Latin “ruber” or “rubeus”, meaning “red.” You can see where the Dwarvish name gets its meaning from. So, as a diminutive I guess we could go with “barzûn” (lit. “red one”).

Though perhaps there is something to be said about keeping the original form instead of trying to shorten it to conform with a more “English” mindset of word-length.

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

Hi there!

Thank you for that question.
To be honest, I was surprised I had never covered this before, nor published any article on this. I could have sworn it was one of the seventy+ documents on the site, sadly seems not.

Not to worry though, happy to explain in detail.
I must start by saying that the current English translation of these two forms “he/she who is… ” or “…-er” isn’t ideal, but seeing English makes no distinction between these two types it is what I thought was most clear at the time.

Answering your questions, in simple terms, the professional form, for instance “Zaharâl”, is used when the subject in question is indeed a builder professionally. Meaning a Zaharâl is one who is hired and paid to build. While the normal agent noun “uzhar” is one who builds (regardless of the fact of any payment or hiring is involved).

In most cases, with the concept of professions in mind, the distinction will be clear directly. For instance “singer” could be “ukmath” or “kamathâl” (the first sings a leisurely song while on his way to work in the mine, while the latter sings in the Dwarvish Opera expecting payment after).

Speaking of Dwarvish singers, a shameless plug for my own Dwarvish tavern song (link to the song here)

In other cases, one might think that, one should always use the professional form, seeing that people don’t build for a hobby, for instance. Well, not really, sadly it’s a bit more complicated.

So, some more information on the usage of the agent-noun vs professional form:

Khazâd tâtîn uzhur ‘Urd'êk
(The Dwarves were the builders of Halls of Erebor)

Uzhur (“(the) builders of”) - as you can see, we use a form of the agent noun here, not the professional form. Seeing that the noun this refers to is “(the) Dwarves”, the entire race. Doubtless more than one professional builder dwarf was involved in the building of the Halls of Erebor, but in this case we refer to the race of the Dwarves and seeing that not all of these are professional builders, we can’t use the professional form here.

The Halls of Erebor by Inias Schoutteet

As such, depending on what type of form you use, you can convey more information in Dwarvish than one could in English, using fewer words, an example of this:

U'zâgh zakafôn 'uzghu!
(The warriors have won the battle!)

Here we use “u'zâgh” (the agent-noun) and not “'azughâl” (the professional-form). By using “u'zâgh” were are in fact conveying that those warriors were comprised of at least some non-professional warriors. In case we had used “'azughâl” we would have indicated that the troops that won the battle were all professional warriors.

As such, Neo-Khuzdul is a very definite language in which words are often less vague than their English counter parts. Another example of this definiteness is the English “your”, which has no less than twelve counter parts in Neo-Khuzdul (depending on gender, plurality and politeness).

Hoping that answers your question.
Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

Well met!

Firstly, my apologies for the late reply. The queue is rather long at present, sadly. Regardless, I got to your reply eventually, so hope that scores me a pat on the back.

If you are looking for a list of weapons and tools I suggest you check out the new document I just posted today (one of 8 new documents in fact - numbers 67 to 74 in the image below). Document 74 contains over a hundred words for weapons, armour and tools that are in the current draft dictionary. Enjoy!

https://www.dwarrowscholar.com/library.html

Note, the library section is currently a work in progress, as I’m redesigning several things and moving stuff around, so this may not look the same in a few weeks. Thanks for the patience on that.

While on the topic of the website, a warm shoutout to my Patrons over at https://www.patreon.com/dwarrowscholar for supporting my endeavors and keeping this site (and most of my other content) free of ads. If you are reading this and have enjoyed the content I make available over the years, please consider stopping by my Patreon page, so I can keep making content in the future. Cheers!

As for your requested translation, here you go:

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

Well met!

For those that don’t know what “Khama Lu Mêmari!” is, it’s a Dwarvish drinking song (meaning “‘Cause we aren’t leaving!”) I wrote and posted on my Youtube channel.

So, that Chord Progression you asked for, by all means, here you go.

Khama Lu Mêmari Chord Progression

Intro

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G C Em Am G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G C Em Am G C G

123 123 123 123
Am

Verse

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am Em

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am Em

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am

Chorus

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am Em G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am G Em Am

123 123

Verse

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am Em

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am Em

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G Am C G Am

Chorus

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am Em G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am G Em Am

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am Em G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am G Em Am

Interlude (Same As Intro)

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G C Em Am G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am G C Em Am G C G

123 123 123 123
Am

Chorus

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am Em G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am G Em Am

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am Em G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am G Em Am

Outro (Same As Chorus)

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123
Am Dm Am Em G C G

123 123 123 123 123 123 123 END
Am Dm Am G Em Am

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

Hello there,

Strangely enough, I was convinced I had made a detailed post about this some time ago, explaining the differences. Perhaps I have, but for the life of me can’t find it anymore - I guess that’s what you get for replying to hundreds of these asks after a few years.

So, in TDS Neo-Khuzdul there are two agent-nouns.
With an “agent-noun” a word is meant that is derived from a verb which identifies an entity (person, animal, thing, etc..) that does an action. For example, “digger” is an agent-noun formed from the verb “to dig”.

In this example, in Neo-Khuzdul these two forms are:
“ugnad” - “digger” (person-form)
and
“agnad” - “digger” (non-person-form)

As you’ve noticed, the two agent-nouns in Neo-Khuzdul are “person-form” and “non-person-form". Though at first you may think that person-form is used for people, while non-person-form is used for things and animals. Though it’s not far from the truth, it isn’t entirely accurate.

The Definitions:
⚪ Agent-Noun Person-form: Agent-Noun form used for entities that are a member of a species capable of advanced cognitive understanding of speech.
⚪ Agent-Noun Non-Person-form: Agent-Noun form used for inanimate objects or entities that are a member of a species unable of advanced cognitive understanding of speech.

— Dwarves singing along cheerfully - that would definitely count as advanced cognitive understanding of speech.—

The above two definitions might sound like a rather longwinded way to say “people” and “animals and things”, but there is a reason for that. By using this definition we specifically identify who belongs to the person-form group and who doesn’t - and while doing so ensuring we don’t have any (or not as many) grey zones.

Breaking this definition down further:
Capable of advanced cognitive understanding of speech: Here we identify that the entity needs to be able to have an advanced cognitive understanding of speech. This would include dwarves, men, hobbits, elves, orcs, etc… but also Dragons, Ents and other talking beings of Middle Earth. Talking birds that are only able to mimic human speech would not be included here, as they have no cognitive understanding of it.

advanced cognitive understanding: If I were to simply use “cognitive understanding” -instead of “advanced cognitive understanding”, that would mean that any being able to perform an action that results in acquiring knowledge through thought could qualify for the person-form. Seeing that a dog can have simple cognitive understanding of speech (it listens to commands and can learn them) this would incorrectly include it in the person-form. Hence “advanced” cognitive understanding, meaning able to comprehend complex language, not just basic communication through vocalizations, hand signals, body postures or touch. 

Member of a Species: Here we indicate that even if the entity itself is unable to understand speech, if its race is capable, it takes the person form. A new-born baby dwarf might be a good example of this. Seeing that the dwarf baby itself cannot understand speech yet, but Dwarves as a species can, hence it takes the person-form.

Inanimate Objects: Objects or tools that perform a task may take an agent-noun form, but seeing that these are inanimate they automatically take the non-person-form.

—Smaug, very much a person-form in Neo-Khuzdul—

In conclusion, coming back to our example of “digger” (ugnad/agnad).We would use the agent-noun “ugnad” if the entity was a dwarf archeologist, a dragon digging through treasure, an orc digging tunnels, etc… While we would use the agent-noun “agnad” if the entity was mole digging through the earth, a dog digging up a bone, an excavating machine, etc… .

Note that apart from agent-nouns person/non-person-forms are also applicable to adjectives. Following our example, this would be “digging” (ugnadul/agnadul).

For instance: 

“Khuzd ugnadul”  (”a digging dwarf”),
“kunb agnadul”  (”a digging dog”).

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

Hello there,

As I get this question rather regularly I decided to post this one publicly instead of the usual private answers to tumblr requests.

Some folks ask the full movie quote: “Loyalty, honor, a willing heart…I can ask no more than that.” So, if you don’t mind, I’ll translate/transcribe that, this way I’m as complete as I can be (and you can always cut the bit off that you don’t need).

Note that there are a few ways of translating “willing heart”, but I believe the most fitting translation of this full quote would be:

“Amnâs, akrâg, kurdu mandur, kâziri lakmi tada.”

Literally meaning:
Loyalty, honour, heart containing-will, can-(I)-ask no-more-than that.

Rendered in runes this would be:

The above part in yellow is the section of the quote you requested.

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

Well met!

To properly translate this line it is important to make clear first of all that the verb “to suffer” does not refer to being subjected to pain or physical or mental suffering. But in fact is the archaic meaning of “to suffer”, being “to allow someone to do something”.

By the way, this line in the movie is plucked from a slightly different setting in the books. As Lord Aragorn and Lady Éowyn are seated for supper in Dunharrow when Aragorn discusses the road before him taking him to the Paths of the Dead (From The Return of the King Book V, Chapter 2 The Passing of the Grey Company)

‘Nay, lady,’ said he, 'I am not astray; for I walked in this land ere you were born to grace it. There is a road out of this valley, and that road I shall take. Tomorrow I shall ride by the Paths of the Dead.’ Then she stared at him as one that is stricken, and her face blanched, and for long she spoke no more, while all sat silent. 'But, Aragorn,’ she said at last, 'is it then your errand to seek death? For that is all that you will find on that road. They do not suffer the living to pass.’ ’They may suffer me to pass,’ said Aragorn; 'but at the least I will adventure it. No other road will serve.’

So, an Aragorn that is a bit more sure of himself in the movies when it comes to this passage under the mountain.

Now, to the translation mobile! *hears batman tune*

The above is a fine example of the synthetic fusional nature of Neo-Khuzdul. In more simple terms, it takes four words to speak this phrase in English, but only one in Dwarvish.

If we break down this word we get:

Za- future marker (“will”, “shall”)
yafalsu - “You allow” in Perfect Form (Note this is the singular male form. Though Aragorn in this scene is opposite an entire army, he speaks to the King of the Dead, hence “Yafalsu” instead of the plural “Yafalsun”. Also this is the Perfect Form, meaning that Aragorn intends this to be understood as a dependable statement).
-w- - interfix (added to connect the -“u” ending of “yafalsu” with the “ê” pronoun that follows. This is a “w” because the ending is a “u”, if it were an “a”, “e”, or “i”, we would use a “y” as interfix)
-ê 1st person singular pronoun “me”

Additional note: I could have used the more archaic “mulah” (instead of za- ; which given Aragorn’s audience might be more proper), or to disconnect the pronoun (making it “Mulah Yafalsu e!”) for a more formal archaic phrasing, but decided against it - considering the determination in Aragorn’s voice in this scene and the fact that it is a translation after all, so some of these concerns aren’t relevant (it’s not as if I’m rewriting the script in Neo-Khuzdul after all) .

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar