Pieces
How words are built. Three languages, three strategies. Start by building — we'll explain after.
Pick a stem. Add pieces. Watch the word assemble. Every morpheme is visible — you can always see the seams.
What you just did
Stem + number + case + possessive. Each piece has one job. The stem stays the same no matter what you attach. This is agglutination — "gluing together." Finnish works the same way.
The locative triad — -sse (at), -nna (toward), -llo (from) — mirrors Finnish's -ssa, -seen, -sta.
Pick a word. Then change the context. Watch what happens to the first consonant.
A different strategy
Sindarin doesn't add pieces — it changes what's already there. The article i triggers soft mutation: perian → i berian. The grammar is in the shift. Welsh does the same thing. pen (head) → fy mhen (my head).
Plurals shift too
No endings — the internal vowels change. Like English goose → geese, but systematic.
The Ring inscription. The only complete sentence in the "pure" Black Speech. Tap a word to see its pieces.
Same machinery, opposite intent
durbatulûk stacks morphemes just like Quenya: root + purpose + object + quantifier. But every root is coercion — durb (rule), thrak (drag), krimp (bind). Back vowels where Quenya uses bright ones. Heavy closed syllables where Quenya flows open.
Sauron designed it as a universal language for his servants. The orcs couldn't maintain it.