Dwarven
Dwarven is the name in Common of the language of the Dwarves.
In Dwarven the language is Khuzdul.
In the legends and history of the dwarves, Khuzdul was created for them by Krunor, Lord of the Forge, and Elamic, Mother of All, with each rune shaped and pulled glowing from the forge of worlds by Father Krunor, and quenched in the life giving breath of Mother Elamic.
Khuzdul changes extremely slowly, like the gradual weathering of hard rock, where human languages are the melting of snow in Spring and even Elven changes like the growing of trees.
As the dwarven clans have become far flung there have been minor dialectal changes, though more as a matter of word choice and some pronunciation; dwarves are proud that their language is as steadfast and unchanging as the mountains.
Even among the most distant clans the written form of Khuzdul remains as it ever was, and should accents interfere with communication a written missive will be understood by all parties.
Created for the dwarves by their gods, Khuzdul was unrelated to the languages of any of the other races, but over the millennia since many words from Khuzdul have been borrowed by other languages, though they may be changed and unrecognizable except to linguistic philosophers.
In Western Alusia the languages most influenced by Dwarven are Reichspiel and Folksprach, with such a large number of Dwarven loan-words gained over the centuries that there is a widespread though incorrect belief that these languages are derived directly from Dwarven.
- Dwarven Phrases
One of the major phrases well known to outsiders is the traditional dwarven battle-cry: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! (Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!)
A dwarven phrase for 'We delved too deep' is 'Ut berrag carkna barzûl' but this is often shortened to 'Berrag barzûl'
GM Note
In DQ the Dwarven language has been based heavily on Tolkien's Khuzdul and later extensions to it plus elements of Kad'k, Pratchett's dwarf language, and Khazalid, the dwarf language created for Warhammer.
