DWARVES
As Tolkien said himself, the Dwarves were a race apart, in everything. Though the Elves are traditionally considered to be the firstborn human beings, yet the Dwarves appeared even earlier. Unlike the other children of Iluvatar the Naugrim (the name given by the Dwarves to their kindred) were created by Aulë - a spirit of Arda, one of the Lords of the Valar, who made first the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves. But they could not have come into the world before the Elves and the Men, so Aule took them and laid to rest in far sundered places under high mountains.
The Naugrim were made "stone-hard, stubborn, fast in friendship and enemity, and they suffered toil and hunger and hurt of body more hardily than other speaking peoples." [1] They are a tough race for the most part, secretive, laborous, retentive of the memory of injures (and of benefits), lovers of stone, of gems, of things that take shape under the hands of their craftsmen rather than things that live by their own life. The Dwarvish dwellings lie under mountains where they provide artificial light. The Rings did not subdue them to the dominion of the Dark Lord but made this folk greedy and hard-hearted, thirsting for gold and jewels. They were good warriors, quick for struggle with anyone who claimed to misappropriate their treasures.
The language of the Naugrim is as mysterious and obscure as their origin and fate. It sounds too harsh and odd and has changed a little by ages. Thus travelling all over Middle-earth, trading with other races and laboring for their lords they had to learn the languages of peoples among whom they lived. But still they used their own tongue which had become a language of lore and ceremony and was guarded as a treasure of the past. Few of other folks succeeded in mastering the Dwarvish, and besides there was also a special language used only in emergency, the secret of which no Dwarf would betray under any circumstances. The tongue was believed to be devised for them by Aulë himself. The names of Gimli, Dain, Durin and others are of Northern origin for their own "inner" names the Dwarves would never reveal to any other folk, not even they would inscribe them on their tombs. According to ancient Dwarvish legends, in their true names the soul was contained.
In The Lord of the Rings we find several names of places in Dwarvish, such as Zirak-zigil (the mount of Celebdil the White), Barazinbar ( the mount of Caradhras, the Redhorn), Bundushathûr (the mount of Fanduidhol the Grey), Azanulbizar (the valley of Nanduhirion or the Dimril Dale), Kheled-zâram (the fair and wonderful lake of Mirrormere), Kibil-nâla (the cold-watered river Silverlode), Khazâd-dûm (the Black Pit or Moria - the Manshions of Dwarves) and even a whole phrase " Baruk Khâzad! Khâzad aimenu!" which means: "Axes of Dwarves are upon you!" We can judge by it about the phonation of the tongue and guess of its grammar for there must be some certain rules that bind the words into a phrase. Speaking about the etymology of Dwarvish we can scarcely claim that constructing it Tolkien has used any elements of European languages for neither its phonation nor the spelling bears any resemblance to the tongues mentioned above.
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