Discussion Main / BlackSpeech

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Do we really need Real Life examples?, started by SantosLHalper on Jun 30th 2011 at 2:45:32 AM

Would Klingon in the Star Trek films be considered "Black Speech"? It utilizes harsh consonants, and short, harsh vocalizations.

Is there any chance that a fanmade song could be added? Someone took a few tiny snippets of the almost Eldritch but not quite language from Homestuck and created a small but functional con lang in the original song Futma Kul Shemtor, the Hymn of the Horrorterrors. http://youtu.be/TC33rVY7IOc

• Regarding Tolkien's Dwarvish sounding like Hebrew - I don't think so, and I am a native Hebrew speaker. Unnecessary comment?

I'm editing the Terry Pratchett and Cthulhu Mythos entries to git rid of natter-ness. I'm posting the pre-edited entry here so it can be restored if I'm too picky. And maybe someone should look at the Tolkien?

• The Call of Cthulhu has several languages spoken by Eldritch Abominations which, if heard, read, or just glimpsed on paper will drive you insane. As you can imagine, the "Hastur & Cthulhu" book shop isn't doing too well.
  • This is a case of heavy Flanderization. While the languages associated with the Cosmic Horror indeed is nigh unpronounceable (not meant for human larynx, obviously), it doesn't have any harmful effects aside from sounding/looking disturbing. If you understand what you read, you may get a nervous condition for a lifetime, though, and if you hear the language from the orifices of the creatures who invented it, the chances are that you are simultaneously losing your mind to its psychic backlash, or just getting torn limb from limb by its more physical appendages.

• Terry Pratchett steered clear of this one: Dwarfish is very difficult "if you haven't eaten gravel all your life" but isn't evil as such. Likewise the Troll language, which seems to consist of tonal grunting. The words of certain spells, however, could make you feel distinctly ill. And a language called Black Oroogu mentioned in The Colo[u]r of Magic has "no nouns and only one adjective, which is obscene." (Given that by hoary definition an adjective is a word modifying a noun...)
  • An adjective doesn't have to modify a (common) noun. It could be predicative, as in the sentence "It could be predicative."
    • What if the nouns were just substantive participles? Similar to how substantive adjectives like "the fallen" (i.e., the fallen one(s)/thing(s)) in English, or just plain words themselves in Latin (like how occidens could mean "dying thing" if used as a substantive [from occidens, occidentis from occidere "to die"]). Theoretically the adjectives/nouns would merely be verb forms.

I'm removing the claim that Dumbledore understands (but is unable to speak) Parseltongue; this is not supported by the text of the book. All he says is "You understand him, I'm sure, Harry?" — implying that he either recognises the language as Parseltongue (entirely different from understanding it) or maybe just that he has deduced from Ogden's reaction that Parseltongue is being spoken. I can see no evidence that Dumbledore understands the actual words being spoken.