Editing Black Speech (section)

=== Sound and meaning ===

{{further|Sound symbolism|Sound and language in Middle-earth}}

The Black Speech was by Tolkien's real intention, and Sauron's fictional one also, a harshly guttural language "with such sounds as sh, gh, zg; indeed," wrote Hostetter, "establishing this effect, as well as the bits of grammar needed to lend the Ring-inscription linguistic verisimilitude, seems to have been about the extent of Tolkien's work on this language."<ref name="Hostetter 2013"/> David Ashford, in the ''[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]]'', observes that uniquely among Tolkien's languages, the Black Speech is explicitly a [[constructed language]] devised as unpleasant by Sauron for his Orcs, and described by Tolkien as<ref name="Ashford 2018">{{cite journal |last=Ashford |first=David |title='Orc Talk': Soviet Linguistics in Middle-Earth |journal=[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]] |volume=29 |issue=1 (101) |date=2018 |pages=26–40 |jstor=26627600 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|so full of harsh and hideous sounds and vile words that other mouths found it difficult to compass, and few indeed were willing to make the attempt{{sfn|Tolkien|1996|p=35}} }}

Linguists including Ashford and [[Helge Fauskanger]] comment that this is Tolkien's subjective view, as it is difficult to identify which sounds might have been experienced as hideous.<ref name="Ashford 2018"/><ref name=Fauskanger/> Fauskanger suggests that the Elves did not like the [[Uvular consonant|uvular]] ''r'' employed by the Orcs.<ref name=Fauskanger/> The Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]] writes that the word ''durbatulûk'', "to rule them all", embodied Tolkien's view that [[Sound and language in Middle-earth|sound and meaning went together]], commenting that<ref name="Shippey 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |chapter=Poems by Tolkien: ''The Lord of the Rings'' |editor=Michael D. C. Drout |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2006 |location=Abingdon |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-1358-8033-0 |pages=245–246}}</ref>

{{blockquote|certainly, the harsh vowels and jagged consonants and consonant clusters lend themselves to rough and rasping pronunciation, a fitting evocation of the voices of Orcs.<ref name="Shippey 2013"/>}}