I have a headcanon that Narvi and Galadriel were friends, and that Galadriel and Celebrimbor practiced their Khuzdul pronounciation together. (I don’t have a question, I just wanted to share that with somebody.)

OH I LOVE THAT HEADCANON.

(Celeborn in the middle distance, all ‘wut’)

my wife is hella? hella what?

Thror thinks Hrera is hella abnâmul (shapely, fine, beautiful, fair to see)

😉

If I wanted to translate ‘Misty Mountains’ into Khuzdul, what’s a good site that would help me do that?

Well, there’s this that I only just came across on my dash (bwaaahahaha I just logged on, how’s that for timing) – it appears that strifingartist has begun the task!

Other than that, though, the place to go is always the Dwarrow Scholar. 🙂

Hi Dets! Just a thought on the use of khuzdul in Sansukh: Thorin et al, and the dead dwarves in particular, speak the pre-dragon version of Khuzdul. But with the recolonisation of Erebor, mixing Ered Luin and Iron Hill dwarves, who probably spoke their own regional variants, the language changed. Perhaps Wee Thorin et al speak a post-dragon Khuzdul, where bunnel isn’t a funny word but an endearment. Voila, problem of suddenly changing languages solved. Tolkien might even approve. :-)

Aha! Good idea, Nonnie!

treasure of all treasures is now Bunnel..wow Bilbo can not catch a break from the bunny names huh. (I’m legit crying idk why it’s so funny to me)

And when Beorn said ‘little Bunny’, every Dwarven head whipped around to stare at him bc a) is he speaking khuzdul wtf, and b) Thorin is gonna kick. His. Arse.

Wait what happened/changed on dwarrowscholar?

There was an update in January. Many words were changed or reallocated.

The Khuzdul in Sansukh is no longer compliant with the Dwarrow Scholar’s most recent changes. E.G. ‘Boy’ used to be ‘nidoy’ – and now it is ‘nudn.’

‘Treasure of all Treasures’ used to be ‘Ghivashel’ – and now it is ‘Bunnel’ (Ereborean-specific usage only)

With the Dwarrow-scholar update, do you think you will eventually update the Khuzdul in Sansûkh, or leave it as-is? Because I have to admit, I’ve grown very fond of many of the words your dwarves use so often, and it’d be strange to see them changed (oh, and I just realized that the Gimli – star thing, for example, would not work anymore either…)

Heya Nonnie!

Nope, I intend to leave the existing words as they are.

Any new words and phrases will be in the new Khuzdul (which makes it a bit disjointed, I know I know I know SIGH) but the words that have already been established (such as inudoy, Kurdu, nadad, namad, etc) will remain as they are.

(god, editing the whole thing would make me cry hot tears anyway, urgh – it’s so loooong)

/drags hands down face/ that site with all the khuzdul translations is great, thanks for sharing it, but i’ve been beating my head against a wall trying to get a translation for “forged in a star.” it would be something like: (she who is) forged in(side?) [a] star, right? languages, have never been my strong suit /sigh/

Oh god, I will try? I am muddling through myself, seriously. If anybody else would like to give this a shot to help a Nonnie out, feel free to join in! I’d welcome the help. Khuzdul is hard and I am a language doofus.

OKAY. Here we go.

was/were being forged (3rd person singular feminine) = makhebebai (thanks for the heads-up, distant-glory!)

into/at/to/in (conjuction) = ni

[a] star (noun) = thatr

(awwwww, that makes me sad – before the Khuzdul Scholar’s update, ‘star’ used to be ‘gimli’, and that’s one of the few Khuzdul words that Tolkien gave us too. Awwww. *pout*)

SO. That gives us

makhebebai ni thatr = (she who was) forged in a star.

hey! Huge fan of your work, tbh the whole concept of dark-names and dwarven culture you developed is fascinating (im so pumped about that stuff it’s so cool). The amount of effort and detail you put into this story is awe inspiring! I was wondering where you were getting your khuzdul language references. I’m trying to learn a bit more about the language :)

Awwwww Nonnie I am blushing, staaaaaahp 😀 So glad you like all the worldbuilding!

Oh, sure thing! I tag everything with #khuzdul, so it’s easy to find.

THE authority on Khuzdul is the Dwarrow Scholar. It’s a fan-made, evolving language created by Roy AKA Kandral. Check the link that says ‘Free Khuzdul Lessons’ to find grammar guides, dictionaries, popular idioms and more!

There was actually an update recently, the dictionaries were greatly expanded and many words were changed and/or reallocated. For example, ‘boy’ USED to be ‘nidoy’ and now it is ‘nudn’. So this means that the Khuzdul that is used in the majority of Sansukh is now out-of-date, sigh. Oh well!

Grooves into ask box Hi, anons. Not all Dwarves would speak Westron as a primary language! There are 4 awesome Dwarf Clans to the East who would speak the Mannish languages of their area! So they’d use that plus Khuzdul and maybe Westron as well. Have a great day, and don’t forget us brown Dwarves! #flawless. dances out

AH YES – I should totally have mentioned that I was speaking only of the three Western clans. WHOOPS, SORRY, BOO TO DETS, NO BISCUIT.

The Eastern Dwarves would absolutely have their own language awesomeness happening!