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Black Speech: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:The One Donut.jpg|400px|thumb|{{quote|Mmm, forbidden donut.|Homer Simpson|[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]}}]]
{{quote|''"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
''Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul"''
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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 [[Exclusively 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.
This is The '''Black Speech''', the default mode of communication for the [[Designated Villain]], and the sonic equivalent to black in [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]. Where the [[Our Elves Are Better|elves]] and humans will speak in a pleasing, song-like language, and dwarves may (read: [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|always]]) have a charming Scottish burr or Welsh brogue,<ref>in Tolkien's world, this is averted, as what is known of Dwarvish holds more [[Space Jews|similarity to Hebrew]], but in the film, it's in full force with Gimli</ref> the [[Evil Minions]] using Black Speech can shatter glass and eardrums with a simple "pass the salt".
On a more [[Meta Concepts|meta level]], this is a direct emotional appeal to the viewer, invoking the "otherness" felt when hearing a foreign language crossed with the [[Scare Chord]] to make the good guys seem like downright ''saints'' compared to the bad guys. The effect is sometimes doubled by having <s>[[Aliens Speaking English|Aliens]]</s> [[Aliens Speaking English|Natives Speaking English]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', King Piccolo would speak to his minions and mind slaves in some strange tongue. Retconned in ''DBZ'', where he's explicitly an alien and it was just his native tongue.
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'': if Meru's cellphone is moved out of reception range/broken [[The Voiceless|(she ONLY communicates by text messages)]], she'll snap and start speaking like this, taking <s>an exorcism</s> a huge crucifix to the head to stop her.
* The titular character of ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'', while benevolent, uses a language like this for some of her spells. (It's part of [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|a larger issue of understanding]] between her and the male lead.)
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The wicked rat creatures in ''[[Bone]]'' have a secret language called Nessen that [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|sounds mysteriously like broken German]].
** Mind you, Nessen is closer to a military cypher than actual black speech: Ratmen speak in human language normally and only switch to it when they're discussing sensitive subjects and are afraid to be overheard. Several humans listen in to it without any worse effects than "cannot understand any of it", and some of the characters like [[Retired Badass|Lucius]] can also understand it.
* ''[[The Invisibles]]'' has a section where Miss Dwyer, a servant of the Conspiracy who's pretty much out of options, is about to let loose a string of hyperdimensional language [[Brown Note|that can give those it's directed at cancer]]. As the narration describes it, "Miss Dwyer is saying her prayers."
==
* ''[[10,000 BC]]'' has the slavers speaking an incomprehensible, guttural language, and certain characters have their voices digitally distorted to make them sound inhumanly guttural.
* All but one of the vampires in ''[[30 Days of Night]]'' speak like they tore out their own windpipes. (In fact, the filmmakers took the sound of an Amazonian language and mixed in animal noises.) This is not true of the comic in which they spoke English, albeit in [[Painting the Medium|colored]] [[Speech Bubbles]].
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* 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.
==
* The Giak tongue in the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series and spin-offs. Spoken by the Darklords and all of their minions in the Darklands, as well as the evil humans, the Drakkarim. Certainly looks harsh-sounding when transcribed, and is described as such. Complete with a full [[Fictionary]].▼
** And then there's the Dark Tongue, which humans aren't even ''able'' to speak. The only ones who ever speak it in the series are the Darklords themselves. The Darklords use the Dark Tongue to summon nasties to fight Lone Wolf.▼
** Funnily, Giak seems to be the only tongue Joe Dever ever developed for his world. So if you want to immerse yourself linguistically into Magnamund, you're forced to do so with the ugly tongue (crude grammar, nasty vocabulary) of the Bad Ones' cannon fodder. Too bad.▼
* Named for the language of Mordor in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' (books and movies). "The Black Speech" is an unpleasant-sounding language full of guttural throat-growls and spits and snarls; unpleasant and alien to the more pleasant languages. Black Speech acquired some sort of a fandom because of the inscriptions on the ring, much to the dismay of its creator, [[Misaimed Fandom|who had put everything he hated into this language]]. In fact, a fan once gave Tolkien a goblet with the inscription from the ring in Black Speech as a gift, but Tolkien found the language so ugly (and the words so ominous) that he couldn't bring himself to drink out of it. He wound up using it as an ashtray.
** 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.
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* [[Charles Stross]]' ''[[The Laundry Series]]'', based partly on the Cthulhu mythos, has the old Enochian languages, mainly used for writing magical "computer code" in order to, say, command zombies. It is described as a "dead tongue, for which to command dead things", completely unsuitable for the human larynx. Don't even think about making an experienced magician ''swear'' in that language.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* The language of the [[Exclusively Evil|Goa'uld]] of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' isn't ''technically'' an evil language, considering townspeople and Jaffa speak it, and it's supposed to be based on Ancient Egyptian... but when spoken by a Goa'uld with their flanged voices and glowy eyes? Running seems a good option.
** 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]].
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* Enochian in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Partly subverted in that it's used in just about equal measure by both good guys and bad guys (chiefly for spells and exorcisms).
== [[Music]] ==
* [[Death Metal]] and [[Black Metal]] vocals often sound like Orcs' Black Speech. Although most bands sing in English and other natural languages, it is usually distorted to the point of being unintelligible.
** Many viking/folk metal bands from Scandinavia use their native languages, unintelligible to most of their audience (if they build up a fanbase abroad, that is), for authenticity. An exception is Finntroll, who sing in Swedish, instead of their native Finnish.
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* Finnish experimental metal band Aarni doesn't make [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpkvY_Y4jno ancient Egyptian] sound nice.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
=== Board Games ===
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' have daemonic speak, which is written with runic symbols and is nearly unpronounceable to humans. It tends to feature lots of Xs and Zs. In ''Warhammer'' there's also the dark speak, a language used by the chaos-worshipping human tribes.▼
** Given that the ''Warhammer'' Universe is, AT BEST, a [[Black and Grey Morality]] world, one could very easily argue that every language is Black Speech in some way. Daemons and Orks are the most obvious examples, but even the Gothic language (that's Earth-based English, to you and me) is described as "guttural" and "ugly" to the Eldar—who, in turn, are people whose basic written language (Runes) are considered witchcraft by humans, and merely possessing the ability to read them could quite easily result in being burned alive for heresy!▼
*** The kicker? ''It is.'' And, used by humans, it is just as likely to win you demonic possession or insanity as that cup of tea you asked for.▼
*** The Eldar consider Gothic to be "guttural" and "ugly," but they're also a race of [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]]s. They consider pretty much every race to be backwards and primitive, so it's essentially the same as the origin of the word 'barbarian'...in space.▼
** Incidentally, speaking Orkish for any length of time will most likely leave you and any other participants in the conversation heavily bruised and with a lowered self-esteem: as [[Ciaphas Cain|Inquisitor Vail]] at one point notes, the language consists almost completely of hitting people in the head and insulting them, usually at the same time. Given that this is the ''worst'' thing that the language will do to you, Orkish is actually a fairly benign language by ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' standards.▼
** [[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.▼
=== Card Games ===
* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ixdHQj3O4 language of the Phyrexians] appears to be this. In actuality, the spoken part is just gibberish that Wizards is passing off as phyrexian, because Wizards decided to not devote the resources to have employees learn the language. The written part however, is a [[Constructed Language]]. They hired a linguist.<ref>[[Word of God]]:http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3008221 (Brady_Dommermuth)</ref>▼
=== Game Books ===
▲* The Giak tongue in the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' series and spin-offs. Spoken by the Darklords and all of their minions in the Darklands, as well as the evil humans, the Drakkarim. Certainly looks harsh-sounding when transcribed, and is described as such. Complete with a full [[Fictionary]].
▲** And then there's the Dark Tongue, which humans aren't even ''able'' to speak. The only ones who ever speak it in the series are the Darklords themselves. The Darklords use the Dark Tongue to summon nasties to fight Lone Wolf.
▲** Funnily, Giak seems to be the only tongue Joe Dever ever developed for his world. So if you want to immerse yourself linguistically into Magnamund, you're forced to do so with the ugly tongue (crude grammar, nasty vocabulary) of the Bad Ones' cannon fodder. Too bad.
=== Tabletop RPG ===
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' has a few examples:
** ''The Book of Vile Darkness'' has the Dark Speech, which is the language of pure evil and destruction. Speaking it can cause [[Words Can Break My Bones|pain to the good and neutral creatures]], although even ''trying'' to speak it without the prerequisite Feat can cause a mortal to die ''horribly''. By contrast, the Words of Creation are the direct opposite, and can help create things as well as bind evil power.
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** In 4th Edition, Supernal is the language of the gods themselves and that of angels. Devils speak it as well (being originally [[Fallen Angel]]s) and Abyssal is considered a corrupted form of it. Usually when a mortal hears an angel speaking Supernal they hear the words in their own language - indeed, all mortal languages are said to have derived from branching dialects of Supernal - but it can be said in a way that makes it incomprehensible to any who cannot speak it. Mortals can learn Supernal, but it's very difficult to master.
* In ''Midnight'' setting "Black Tongue" is pidgin [[Common Tongue]] of the creatures serving Izrador.
▲* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' have daemonic speak, which is written with runic symbols and is nearly unpronounceable to humans. It tends to feature lots of Xs and Zs. In ''Warhammer'' there's also the dark speak, a language used by the chaos-worshipping human tribes.
▲** Given that the ''Warhammer'' Universe is, AT BEST, a [[Black and Grey Morality]] world, one could very easily argue that every language is Black Speech in some way. Daemons and Orks are the most obvious examples, but even the Gothic language (that's Earth-based English, to you and me) is described as "guttural" and "ugly" to the Eldar—who, in turn, are people whose basic written language (Runes) are considered witchcraft by humans, and merely possessing the ability to read them could quite easily result in being burned alive for heresy!
▲*** The kicker? ''It is.'' And, used by humans, it is just as likely to win you demonic possession or insanity as that cup of tea you asked for.
▲*** The Eldar consider Gothic to be "guttural" and "ugly," but they're also a race of [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]]s. They consider pretty much every race to be backwards and primitive, so it's essentially the same as the origin of the word 'barbarian'...in space.
▲** Incidentally, speaking Orkish for any length of time will most likely leave you and any other participants in the conversation heavily bruised and with a lowered self-esteem: as [[Ciaphas Cain|Inquisitor Vail]] at one point notes, the language consists almost completely of hitting people in the head and insulting them, usually at the same time. Given that this is the ''worst'' thing that the language will do to you, Orkish is actually a fairly benign language by ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' standards.
▲** [[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]]book reveals that it's complete gibberish that doesn't actually mean anything.
▲* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ixdHQj3O4 language of the Phyrexians] appears to be this. In actuality, the spoken part is just gibberish that Wizards is passing off as phyrexian, because Wizards decided to not devote the resources to have employees learn the language. The written part however, is a [[Constructed Language]]. They hired a linguist.<ref>[[Word of God]]:http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3008221 (Brady_Dommermuth)</ref>
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Eredun (often referred to as simply "Demonic"), and its written form, Eredic, in ''[[Warcraft]]'' games. Lots of Xs and Zs here too. As an added bonus, reading demonic scriptures places your sanity at risk. Presumably, the language of the Draenei, which is based on the uncorrupted version of Eredic and sound quite similar, doesn't have that effect.
** 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.
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* 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]] ==
* ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'': the [http://www.missmab.com/Demo/HG10.php Insectis] race. Apparently, they're bad enough when they're actually speaking English, and then you get to their actual language...
** 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.
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* Minnie and Grim Jr. of "[[Grim Tales from Down Below]]" can communicate this way.
== [[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.̥̰̰̗̟̓ͫ
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* ''[[The Veil of Madness]]'' had this [[Played for Laughs]]: the [[First Contact]] happened long after humans gave up hope of finding anyone, so the ship in question had no fancy communication gear at all. Jury-rigging existing hardware in an attempt to imitate compatible protocol and demonstrate at least willingness to talk with aliens ''did'' succeed... but the sound was garbled so horribly it only freaked out the other side (even more than they already were, that is). When humans decided to play the role on, voice synthesizers with similar distortions were installed in "scary" armor worn while among the aliens.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' favorite gags is the depiction of [[Acceptable Targets|Russian and German languages]] as guttural and hostile to English speakers. In every instance, the subtitles reveal that the speaker is actually saying something pleasant or benign.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
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