Khuzdul, the language of the Dwarves, is actually composed of two parts: the aglab, or spoken language, and the iglishmek, or gesture language. So this page is divided into different parts:
Note: The Dwarves never speak Khuzdul around non-Dwarves, other than certain proper names of people, places, and things, or war cries, etc. Use it sparingly, and never ICly reveal any Khuzdul to Elves or any non-Dwarves. Their gesture languages, on the other hand, are virtually undetectable by uninitiated onlookers, and their very purpose is secrecy and the exclusion of strangers. See Iglishmek Info for details. Local coding for this is in the works; for now just use whisper/list posing to confer iglishmek messages to those who would notice and understand it.
Further Note: The members of the different Dwarf Homes would be able to understand each other's aglab, since it never changes, but the iglishmek varies from community to community.
Basic aglab grammar, that we know of, includes the use of the "u" ending. U is used to form a genitive case ending. Example: "Uzbad Khazad-dumu" means Lord of Khazad-dum. "Felak Gundu" means Hewer of Caves (or Cave-hewer, gund is singular). In "Bundushathur" we I either guess that the u in the wrong place, or else that the usage is very flexible (Bundushathur=Cloudyhead, Head of/in Clouds). The "ul" ending forms a patronym. Example: "Balin Fundinul" means "Balin son of Fundin" and "Gimli Gloinul" would be "Gimli son of Gloin". From the expression "Khazad ai-menu" ("the Dwarves (are) upon you") we get the word Menu, meaning "you" (plural, as with preposition), and aya/ai = upon.
Here is a brief catalogue of known Khuzdul words and their English translations.
| Khuzdul word | Translation | Khuzdul word | Translation |
| abad | untranslated | khuzdul | dwarvish |
| aglab | spoken language | kibil | silver |
| azaghal | warrior | mahal | maker (Aule) |
| azan | dim, dark | mazarbul | records |
| baraz | red | nala | path, stream-bed |
| baruk | axes | narag | black |
| bizar | valley | nul | streams |
| bund | head | nuluk | river-dwelling |
| carn | untranslated | rakhas | orcs |
| dum | mansion | rukhs | orc |
| felak | hewer | sharb | bald |
| form | ancient (Iarwain) | shathur | clouds |
| gabil | mighty | sigin | long |
| gathol | fortress | tarag | beards |
| gund | cave | tharkun | staff-man (Olorin) |
| hund | hill | tumun | hollow |
| iglishmek | gesture language | uzbad | lord |
| inbar | horn (mtn. peak) | zahar | dwelling |
| khazad | dwarf/dwarves | zaram | pool |
| kheled | glass | zirak | silver |
| khizdin | of-the-dwarves |
Iglishmek Information
from The War of the Jewels
The Dwarves indeed, as later became known, had a far more elaborate and organized system. They possessed in fact a secondary tengwesta* of gestures, concurrent with their spoken language, which they began to learn almost as soon as they began learning to speak. It should be said rather that they possessed a number of such gesture-codes; for unlike their spoken language, which remained astonishingly uniform and unchanged both in time and in locality, their gesture-codes varied greatly from community to community. And they were differently employed. Not for communication at a distance, for the Dwarves were short-sighted, but for secrecy and the exclusion of strangers.
The component sign-elements of any such code were often so slight and so swift that they could hardly be detected, still less interpreted by uninitiated onlookers. As the Eldar eventually discovered in their dealings with the Naugrim, they could speak with their voices but at the same time by 'gesture' convey to their own folk modifications of what was being said. Or they could stand silent considering some proposition, and yet confer among themselves meanwhile.
This 'gesture-language', or as they called it iglishmek, the Dwarves were no more eager to teach than their own tongue. But they understood and respected the disinterested desire for knowledge, and some of the later Noldorin loremasters were allowed to learn enough of both their lambe* (aglab) and their iglishmek to understand their systems.
* tengwesta: a system or code of signs, gestured language (Quenya).
* lambe: a way of talking, spoken language (Quenya).