Khazalid
The Khazalid is a deeply conservative language that has not changed noticeably in many thousands of years either in its spoken or written runic form. The Dwarfs are extremely proud of their tongue which they rarely speak in the company of other races and never teach to other creatures. To humans it is known as the 'secret tongue of the Dwarfs', sometimes overheard but never understood.
The Dwarf language includes very few words of obvious Elven or Human origin. By contrast there are many loan words from Khazalid in the tongues of Men, which suggests that Dwarfs must have taught some fundamental words to their taller allies. This is most obviously the case of words to do with traditional Dwarvish craft skills of smithying and masonry, skills which Dwarfs taught Men many centuries ago.
The sound of Khazalid is entirely separate from human speech and even further from the melodious sounds of Elvish. It is guttural tongue; comparisons have been drawn to the rumbling of thunder. All Dwarves have deep, resonant voices and a tendency to speak more loudly than is strictly necessary. Khazalid vowel sounds in particular are uncompromisingly precise and heavily accented. Consonants are often spat aggressively or gargled at the back of the throat. Contrary to Men, whose dialect differs widely depending on geographic location, the Dwarfs remain fairly consistent in dialect across the Dwarven Empire, although there are notable exceptions (notably Malakai Malakisson from the novel Daemonslayer whose "northern" dialect is represented as a Scottish burr).
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