The Speech of Dwarves, Men, and Orcs

Tolkien's lesser languages, although less thoroughly worked-out, had much of the same symmetry and internal consistency as Elvish, and were each designed to reflect something of the character of its speakers. Dwarvish -- Khuzdul, to be precise -- had a great deal of guttural sounds, though also a rough dignity befitting a proud race; it seems most closely to resemble Hebrew. One curious aspect of Khuzdul was the the Dwarves were very reluctant to let outsiders learn it (though a few persistent Elves were permitted the essentials), and some aspects -- their own "true" Dwarvish names among them -- they kept secret; they were not even carved upon their own tombs.

The earliest languages of Men were rather less well worked-out, though eventually the speech of the Edain, those who most closely followed in Elvish footsteps, eventually evolved into Adûnaic, the language of the Númenorians. Although after the fall of that kingdom it was no longer used in its pure form, it became the basis for most later languages of Men, and of "Westron" (a Englishing of the original Adûni), the "common tongue" employed by Men, Hobbits, and (as a sort of lingua franca) Elves and Dwarves as well. The idea that the "better" human languages were those that learned or borrowed most from Elvish was also a persistent feature of Tolkien's worldview.

Last and (deliberately) least came the unnamed "Black Speech," devised by Sauron at some point in the Second Age, and intended by him to be used by all his servants. Many orcs, alas, lacked the ability to master it thoroughly (though it appeared in their names, and the names of their regiments and fortifications); it became primarily an incantatory speech for Sauron, the Nazgûl, and his chief lieutenants. More recently, Black Speech -- or an invented extension/form of it -- has become popular in the band names of so-called "Black Metal" groups such as Burzum, Za Frûmi, and Nazgûl. The exact origins of this speech are uncertain, though it appears it was made in a kind of abasement or mockery of Elvish, and like Elvish is a higly inflected language, to judge from the very few bits we have of it. Interestingly, this makes Sauron the only figure in Tolkien's subcreation to create his own language -- Fëanor and others only created alphabetic systems -- and suggests a strange new moral about the nature of invention and imitation.