Black Speech: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,<br />

The language of [[Mordor]], spoken only by [[The Scottish Trope|The One Whose Name Must Never Be Uttered]] and his [[Religion of Evil|evil]] [[Cult]]. An [[Speaking Simlish|indecipherable language]] that is [[Brown Note|cruel to the ears]], full of hard consonants, guttural sounds, and always spoken loudly and harshly. Every word sounds like a [[Religious Horror|blasphemy]] against All That Is Good, and the people speaking it often [[Always Chaotic Evil|are as evil as they sound.]] If there is magic in the setting, expect [[Be Careful What You Say|speaking this language]] to be necessary to use [[Black Magic]]. In some cases, it is so alien and [[Evil Sounds Deep|gravelly]] that it seems that a normal human throat should be [[Starfish Language|incapable of speaking it]]...and sometimes, they ''[[Eldritch Abomination|can't]]'' speak it, only those with the [[Voice of the Legion]] can.

== Anime & Manga ==

== Films ==

* ''Pathfinder'' has a similar set up with ''10,000 BC'', with the good guys speaking English and the invading Vikings speaking Icelandic, but in a very guttural fashion. The original had this, too, with the heroic Saami speaking Saami and the evil, invading Tshud speaking influenza.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in the Adam Sandler movie ''[[Little Nicky]]'', wherein the titular character is the youngest Spawn of Satan. Although he normally speaks in a nonthreatening nasally voice, he talks in his sleep, inevitably demonically. Listening to it induces manic paranoia in his roommate and drives animals crazy. Seemed to be pleasant to a pair of stoner death metal fans, however ...

** His guide, a talking dog, sings like an angel in his sleep.

* There's a Filipino movie where two devils speak in their native tongues. The subtitles apologize to the viewer for the lack of translation because they don't know anyone who's been in Hell before.

== Literature ==

** Both book and extended film versions of the story include a scene where Gandalf uttering the Black Speech verse from the Ring causes the sky to grow dark and the Earth to tremble; the film version even gives Gandalf a [[Voice of the Legion]] effect for good measure, with what seems to be Sauron's voice speaking along with his own. The Elves are not amused.

** Notoriously, Black Speech is the least developed of Tolkien's artificial languages (the fact that it might possibly be based on some Slavic or Hungarian dialects probably kept it from appearing too frequently). [[Word of God]] only provides two examples: the Ring verse in a formal register, and an offensive diatribe in 'vulgar' Orcish Black Speech. That didn't stop people from being fascinated by its potential as evil-defining: movie linguist David Salo extrapolated a richer language for the villains and the soundtrack, and (less professionally) Tolkien-influenced black metal bands like to compose songs in faux Black Speech. Tolkien would probably be appalled at those.

*** The Black Speech being based on Valarin is possibly justified by the fact that Sauron is a Maia, who are the same race as the Valar, just on a lower power level.

* In [[Ella Enchanted]], the Prince's reaction to Ella's simple farewell in troll language is, "It sounds evil." Ella replies that it is.

*** Slightly unrelated, but I think I've discovered what language Cthulhu would speak if he was real, dubstep. It's a sound that is inherently disturbing to the human ear and totally incomprehensible. Isn't that what Cthulhu's voice was described as?

** {{smallcaps|Death is said to have a voice like "the slamming crypt lids, in the worm-haunted fastnesses under the most ancient mountains." It is represented as Caps and Small Caps.}} When he gets an actual voice (in the computer games, for example), he tends not to be particularly sepulchral, but merely exaggeratedly deep and slightly echoey.

** War has a voice compared to clanging chunks of lead, and Pestilence to a drop sliding inside a coffin.

* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' series, the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Kzinti]] Hero's Tongue is reputed to sound like an epic catfight. Thoroughly appropriate for a race of felinoid slave-takers.

** Two speaking normally are described as a catfight in an echo chamber, four arguing among themselves as 'A major feline war, with atomics'.

** Although even that isn't inherently evil; Harry has a perfectly civil conversation with a very nice snake in a zoo in the first book. It simply gained a very unpleasant association from the fact that Salazar Slytherin and his descendants, including Voldemort, could speak it.

* In ''[[Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]]'', re-animated dead Italian soldiers initially speak one of the dialects of the Language of Hell (they were all ''Papists'', so of course they were all damned), which is described as "...having a much higher percentage of screams than any language known to the onlookers." (Wellington approves of their having mastered it after having been dead for only three days.)

* In the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novel ''[[Ravenor]] Returned'', there are words (or rather, "unwords") which, when read, can disorientate and, when spoken, tend to damage the lips and teeth of the speaker. The effect of a single word on the targeted listener is worse. A lesser word, or fragment of one:

{{quote| It wasn't a word. It wasn't even so much a proper sound. Just giving voice to it made her mouth hurt.<br />

** Considering how often O'Neill pointed out mistakes in their grammar, maybe they just felt safer that way. Also, [[Voice of the Legion|English as spoken by snakeheads is pretty damn Black, too]].

** That language has way too many expressions that translate as "Surrender or die!".

** Ironically, the magic words Owen repeats in that demonic voice are taken from Stephen Donaldson's ''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'', in which they are the "Seven Words", a blessing.

** Klingon's actually just got the phonics of Tlingit, a Native American language (chosen because most of its sounds are pretty unusual). The biggest thing making it sound inhuman is [[Fang Thpeak|speaking it with Klingon prosthetic teeth]]. The ''[[Black Magic|brujo]]'' in [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338188/ The Missing] has similar fake teeth, and sounds ''exactly'' like a Klingon when he speaks Apache (distantly related to Tlingit).

* The ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series has a few examples, such as the languages of the [[Kamen Rider Kuuga|Grongi]] and [[Kamen Rider Blade|Undead]]. Additionally, we see the [[Kamen Rider Den-O|Imagin]] language written but not voiced, and the [[Kamen Rider Kiva|Fangire]] tongue is long-forgotten and only spoken by Sagarc, Kamen Rider Saga's high-voiced, living [[Transformation Trinket]], which makes it sound less than imposing.

** Similarly, the Shadows' nemesis, the Vorlons' natural "voice" is heard as an odd combination of chimes, wind, and other electronic effects. The Shadows' servants, the Drakh, have an alien language as well, which is spoken in a whispered (and sinister) manner, much like Ralph Fiennes' rendition of Voldemort (and when they do speak English, they whisper it too).

* Norwegian [[Black Metal]] band Burzum's name comes from the actual Black Speech. It means "[[Darkness Equals Death|Darkness]]".

** Other metal bands with a name in a Tolkien language are Gorgoroth (the plateau around Mount Doom) and Amon Amarth (the Sindarin name for Mount Doom itself).

* Norwegian [[Folk Metal]] band Trollfest write their lyrics in a constructed language they call Trollspråk, a mix of German and Norwegian which, when combined with the band's growly [[Black Metal]] vocals, can sound very evil.

* Finnish experimental metal band Aarni doesn't make [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpkvY_Y4jno ancient Egyptian] sound nice.

** [[Played With]] in the case of the Nostraman language. It began as a gutter tongue spoken only by the inhabitants of a planet sized [[Wretched Hive]], and during the Great Crusade aproximately 30,000 members of the [[God-Emperor]]'s loyal [[Space Marine|Astartes]] spoke it as a birth language. However, the only surviving speakers following the [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destruction]] of the planet are the now Chaos legion of [[Night Lords]] and their slaves/servants.

* Parodied in ''[[Exalted]]''. The Abyssals, who, when enacting their darkest rituals, ritually atoning for misbehavior, or otherwise communing with their Neverborn masters, will often speak in a disturbing, nigh-unpronouncably ominous tongue that seems to have all the traits of the Black Speech...until the Abyssals [[Splat|splatbook]] reveals that it's complete gibberish that doesn't actually mean anything.

== Video Games ==

** Additionally, it seems that speaking demonic has a negative effect one one's ability to cast spells for non-demons. Evidenced by the fact that Warlocks can curse an opponent into being able to speak nothing else, which slows the speed at which they can cast spells.

** In the current expansion pack of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', demonology-spec warlocks have a spell called [[Metamorphosis]], which temporarily transforms them into a demon. While under the influence of this spell they are affected by demon-targeting spells (such as Banish) and speak only in Demonic.

** The Scourge has its own language, referred to in the game as the 'language of death'. It appears that only a current or former member of the Scourge can speak or translate it. Amusing if one's character is a death knight, but still has to take a Scourge tome to an NPC death knight to have it translated.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Storm of Zehir''. Volo wants a parrot, so you get him one. He gets it to speak something in an apparently demonic tongue. A high enough lore skill allows you to say, "Well, that wasn't very polite." Volo tries again, the parrot says something else, and you can say, "It's not getting any nicer..."

* ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' manages to turn Spanish into the Black Speech, much like some films and such do German. It seems possible to make any <s>non-English language</s> language the audience doesn't speak into the Black Speech if you make it guttural and threatening enough.

** Similarly, ''[[Resident Evil]] 5'' does this with the Swahili spoken by the enemies.

** It's almost certainly ancient Sith. The Exile's translator module doesn't have a setting for that.

* In ''[[Bayonetta]]'', the various angels all speak Enochian, the language of angels. Bayonetta and Jeanne speak it themselves when summoning demons and torture weapons. When the Cardinal Virtues speak it, it's creepy.

* Arguably, one could make the case for the Geth's light-speed digital communication in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' as being this, at least in Mass Effect 1 {{spoiler|and as far as the Heretic Geth are concerned in Mass Effect 2.}} They speak in a language impossible to understand or recreate by 99.99999% of humanity.

== Web Comics ==

** According to the author, it's not evil sounding, but it is painful to listen to, like trying to form vowels with the sounds of an angle grinder.

* Subverted by Luna in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', who has a couple outbursts in an ancient, guttural language (represented by black word bubbles filled with nothing but punctuation and non-letter symbols) during the too-long March Across Maltak saga. The Shintula and Bikta orcs view her using this language as horrible blasphemy, despite the fact that each outburst makes beautiful greenery appear all around her in an otherwise completely dead landscape.

* In ''[[Questionable Content]]'', [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1753 Hannelore slips into the Black Tongue to rebuff Sven's advances.]

** Then, [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1754 Dora follows suit], with [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]].

== Web Original ==

* The prayers to [[Cosmic Horror|The Kellith]], daughter of [[Eldritch Abomination|Gothmog]], in the ''[[Whateley Universe]]''.

* Zalgo, a [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] whose influence can cause v̉ͤ̈͆e͇͉͛ͮ͐͑͗̌ř̋̂̄̍͋҉ȳ͇̬̲̼̀ ̨̙͉̣̘̤͕̂̾̎͑d͔̤̳̟͆͠i͖̩ͯ̿̈̿s̭̟̠͂́͞t͖̱͚̜͖̠̯ͩ̓o͇̱ͬͤ̔r̎͌t̺̳̙̼̙ͨ͒͛ͥͮ̇ͅe̸̱̋d̞͙͕̘̫̣̔̊̊͋͘ ̶̰̗̫̆̾̓t̫̼͊̈́͡e͌ͬ̔̄̾̋x̼ͬ̐̃̀͡ṫ̯͇̬̮̳̈́̍̀ͦͤ͆ ̡̄̓ͦ̇ĭ͊҉̬̬̭̙͇͔n̼͍̯̲̝̂̍̉ ̼̖̤͉͒͂̑̆ͨͫw̝͛ͭ̋ͅe̸͗̆ḇ̯͙̜̆̈̓͒ͦ ̖͉̝̪͆ͪ͒b͖͉͖̫̻͌̑ͪ͒̽ͬ̿͟r̫̬͎̮̹ͮ̑ͦͩ͂̊o̠̫̞̺̓̾͡w̺̪̯̲͂̇͒͊̐̚s̲͔̮̪̗̮̠̓͑̂ͦ̂͒͡e̫̞͔̿͆͆r̖͗s̞̾̉ͥͧ͗̒.̥̰̰̗̟̓ͫ