<p>In short: no.</p>

<p>In a bit long: <a href="http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/orkish.htm" rel="noreferrer">not really, and some people have gone to the effort of analysing the Black Speech</a>. In essence, the list of words we know thus far is rather scant:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>agh "and"<br>
   ash "one"<br>
            -at infinitive suffix, or possibly a specialized "intentive" suffix indicating purpose: Ash nazg durbatulûk "one Ring to rule them all"<br>
            bagronk (DBS) "cesspool", possibly bag+ronk "cess+pool"<br>
            búbhosh (DBS) "great"<br>
            búrz "dark", (isolated from Lugbúrz, q.v.), burzum "darkness"<br>
            dug "filth", tentatively isolated from pushdug, q.v.<br>
            durb- "rule", infinitive durbat, only attested with suffixes: 
     durbatulûk "to rule them all". The verb durb- is remarkably similar to Quenya tur- of similar sense. 
            ghâsh "fire" (stated to be derived from the Black Speech, may or may not represent Sauron's original form of the word)<br>
            gimb- "find", infinitive gimbat, only attested with a pronominal suffix: gimbatul, "to find them"<br>
            glob (DBS) "fool"<br>
            gûl "any one of the major invisible servants of Sauron dominated entirely by his will" (A Tolkien Compass p. 172). Translated "wraith(s)" in the compound Nazgûl, "Ringwraith(s)".<br>
            hai "folk", in Uruk-hai "Uruk-folk" and Olog-hai "Troll-folk"; cf. also Oghor-hai.<br>
            ishi "in", a suffixed postposition: burzum-ishi, "in the darkness".<br>
            krimp- "bind", infinitive krimpat, only attested with a pronominal suffix: krimpatul, "to bind them"<br>
            lug "tower". Isolated from Lugbúrz, q.v.<br>
            Lugbúrz the Dark Tower, Sindarin Barad-dûr (Lug-búrz "Tower-dark")<br>
            nazg "ring": ash nazg "one ring", Nazgûl "Ring-wraith(s)"<br>
            Nazgûl "Ring-wraith(s)", nazg + gûl (q.v.)<br>
            Oghor-hai "Drúedain" (UT:379; this may or may not be pure Black Speech)<br>
            olog a variety of Troll apparently developed by Sauron. Olog-hai "Olog-people".<br>
            pushdug (DBS) "dungfilth", possibly push+dug "dung+filth"<br>
            ronk (DBS) "pool", tentatively isolated from bagronk, q.v.<br>
            skai (DBS) interjection of contempt<br>
            sha (DBS) interjection of contempt<br>
            sharkû (DBS?) "old man"<br>
            snaga "slave" (May be DBS.) Used of lesser breeds of Orcs (WJ:390).<br>
            thrak- "bring", infinitive thrakat, only attested with suffixes: thrakatulûk "to bring them all"<br>
            u (DBS) "to"<br>
            -ûk "all", suffixed to pronominal suffixes: -ulûk, "them all"<br>
            -ul pronominal suffix "them".<br>
            -um "-ness" in burzum "darkness". 
            uruk a great variety of Orc. According to WJ:390, Sauron probably borrowed this word "from the Elvish tongues of earlier times".   </p>
</blockquote>

<p>The abbreviation <em>DBS</em> stands for <em>Debased Black Speech</em>, a colloquial idiom variety of the Black Speech as used by the orcs and goblins.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T20:36:40.453Z
2018-02-06T21:42:46.487Z
2018-02-06T21:42:46.487Z
Darkgamma
<p>As @Darkgamma says, we don't know.  The closest we have would probably be <strong>ghâsh</strong>, which means fire, and one could probably guess that the characteristic of being fire-like would be something like <strong>ghâshum</strong>, but there is no empirical evidence for that, except that the suffix -um seems to mean -ness, as in <strong>burz-</strong> (meaning dark) + <strong>-um</strong> (meaning -ness), put together to form <strong>burzum</strong>.</p>

<p>That said, <strong>ghâshum</strong> would literally mean "the characteristic of being like fire," not literally "lightness."</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T21:31:59.553Z
2018-02-07T12:03:28.837Z
2018-02-07T12:03:28.837Z
anonymous2
<p>I'm aware that <em>burzum</em> means <em>darkness</em> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Speech#The_One_Ring_inscription" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Black Speech</a>.</p>

<p>Do we know what the opposite is? How is <em>lightness</em> written?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-06T23:10:30.873Z
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is a translation request, which I would like to consider off-scope
Sascha Baer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-07T01:01:10.003Z
[Relevant meta discussion.](https://conlang.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/30/thoughts-on-this-question-translation-request)
auden
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-07T14:03:53.480Z
I don't understand why is this question considered offtopic, since it is searching for a word that is *unknown*. Tolkien didn't provide much information about black speech, and this answering this question would require searching a lot for the data. And about the tags, [a relevant meta discussion](https://conlang.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/18/how-to-tag-different-worlds-languages-with-the-same-race-name)
RedClover
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-07T16:38:12.673Z
@Adarain There's a [currently ongoing meta discussion](https://conlang.meta.stackexchange.com/q/23/12) about questions of this type. At the moment, the highest-voted answer says to allow them.
Rand al'Thor
<tolkien-black-speech><phrase-request>
What is opposite of "burzum", "darkness", in Tolkien's Black Speech?
# What is opposite of "burzum", "darkness", in Tolkien's Black Speech?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-02-06)

I'm aware that *burzum* means *darkness* in [The Black Speech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Speech#The_One_Ring_inscription).

Do we know what the opposite is? How is *lightness* written?

**Tags:** tolkien-black-speech, phrase-request
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is a translation request, which I would like to consider off-scope  
> **username_2**: [Relevant meta discussion.](https://conlang.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/30/thoughts-on-this-question-translation-request)  
> **username_3**: I don't understand why is this question considered offtopic, since it is searching for a word that is *unknown*. Tolkien didn't provide much information about black speech, and this answering this question would require searching a lot for the data. And about the tags, [a relevant meta discussion](https://conlang.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/18/how-to-tag-different-worlds-languages-with-the-same-race-name)  
> **username_4**: @Adarain There's a [currently ongoing meta discussion](https://conlang.meta.stackexchange.com/q/23/12) about questions of this type. At the moment, the highest-voted answer says to allow them.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2018-02-06. Score: 11 | Accepted answer

As @Darkgamma says, we don't know. The closest we have would probably be **ghâsh**, which means fire, and one could probably guess that the characteristic of being fire-like would be something like **ghâshum**, but there is no empirical evidence for that, except that the suffix -um seems to mean -ness, as in **burz-** (meaning dark) + **-um** (meaning -ness), put together to form **burzum**.

That said, **ghâshum** would literally mean "the characteristic of being like fire," not literally "lightness."


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2018-02-06. Score: 10

In short: no.

In a bit long: [not really, and some people have gone to the effort of analysing the Black Speech](http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/orkish.htm). In essence, the list of words we know thus far is rather scant:

> agh "and"  
> ash "one"  
> -at infinitive suffix, or possibly a specialized "intentive" suffix indicating purpose: Ash nazg durbatulûk "one Ring to rule them all"  
> bagronk (DBS) "cesspool", possibly bag+ronk "cess+pool"  
> búbhosh (DBS) "great"  
> búrz "dark", (isolated from Lugbúrz, q.v.), burzum "darkness"  
> dug "filth", tentatively isolated from pushdug, q.v.  
> durb- "rule", infinitive durbat, only attested with suffixes:
> durbatulûk "to rule them all". The verb durb- is remarkably similar to Quenya tur- of similar sense.
> ghâsh "fire" (stated to be derived from the Black Speech, may or may not represent Sauron's original form of the word)  
> gimb- "find", infinitive gimbat, only attested with a pronominal suffix: gimbatul, "to find them"  
> glob (DBS) "fool"  
> gûl "any one of the major invisible servants of Sauron dominated entirely by his will" (A Tolkien Compass p. 172). Translated "wraith(s)" in the compound Nazgûl, "Ringwraith(s)".  
> hai "folk", in Uruk-hai "Uruk-folk" and Olog-hai "Troll-folk"; cf. also Oghor-hai.  
> ishi "in", a suffixed postposition: burzum-ishi, "in the darkness".  
> krimp- "bind", infinitive krimpat, only attested with a pronominal suffix: krimpatul, "to bind them"  
> lug "tower". Isolated from Lugbúrz, q.v.  
> Lugbúrz the Dark Tower, Sindarin Barad-dûr (Lug-búrz "Tower-dark")  
> nazg "ring": ash nazg "one ring", Nazgûl "Ring-wraith(s)"  
> Nazgûl "Ring-wraith(s)", nazg + gûl (q.v.)  
> Oghor-hai "Drúedain" (UT:379; this may or may not be pure Black Speech)  
> olog a variety of Troll apparently developed by Sauron. Olog-hai "Olog-people".  
> pushdug (DBS) "dungfilth", possibly push+dug "dung+filth"  
> ronk (DBS) "pool", tentatively isolated from bagronk, q.v.  
> skai (DBS) interjection of contempt  
> sha (DBS) interjection of contempt  
> sharkû (DBS?) "old man"  
> snaga "slave" (May be DBS.) Used of lesser breeds of Orcs (WJ:390).  
> thrak- "bring", infinitive thrakat, only attested with suffixes: thrakatulûk "to bring them all"  
> u (DBS) "to"  
> -ûk "all", suffixed to pronominal suffixes: -ulûk, "them all"  
> -ul pronominal suffix "them".  
> -um "-ness" in burzum "darkness".
> uruk a great variety of Orc. According to WJ:390, Sauron probably borrowed this word "from the Elvish tongues of earlier times".

The abbreviation *DBS* stands for *Debased Black Speech*, a colloquial idiom variety of the Black Speech as used by the orcs and goblins.


---

