Dwarfish phrases
Some of the explanations below are necessarily incomplete, as they relate to things which Dwarfs are not allowed to speak of in front of D'harak.
- aargk
- say (Thud!)
- aork!
- say (preemptive form of aargk) (Thud!)
- ah Grag nun
- My Lord
- bad'dhakz
- yeast bowl
- B'Daan? Kraa! D'Kraga ha'ak!
- An expression used by a Dwarf officer in The Fifth Elephant on first seeing Cheery Littlebottom in unambiguously female clothing. Given one meaning of "ha'ak" below, it appears that he is expressing conservative disapproval of her dress sense.
- bura'zak-ka
- town hall
- b'zugda-hiara
- Lawn ornament. (A killing insult in Dwarfish; however, it is used in Wyrd Sisters as a term of endearment for Hwel. In Raising Steam it is used as an insult for the Deep-Downers, and as a picture for what certain narrow-minded parochial people would reduce the Dwarf race to, if they were to be allowed. Dwarves can do metaphor and simile, then...)
- Dezka-k'nik
- king. Literally, "Senior Mine Engineer". (Raising Steam, p. 22, and others)
- d'harak
- (all peoples who are) not-dwarfs.
- D'kraha?
- an expression of astonished disbelief (in context in The Fifth Elephant)
- draht
- a distinguishing tattoo used by Deep-Downers and inadvertently by Samuel Vimes
- dhwe
- "open" as in "open a book" (Thud!)
- D'rkza
- not a proper dwarf (Thud!)
- drhg'hgin
- an adjectival clause used for emphasis - as in, "it is also important to know when not be too drhg'hgin clever by half."
- Gd Tak 'Gar
- "The Things Tak Wrote" (Thud!)
- G'daraka
- after buying each other from their parents before their marriage, the couple is in the state of g'daraka: Free, unencumbered, new dwarfs.
- G'hruk, t'uk
- evening, all. (Lit. "Felicitations to all at the closing of the day")
- Ginnungagap
- a previously unrecorded phrase first used in Raising Steam. In the context, it may be cognate with Tra'ka! (below).
- grag
- A loremaster, teacher, a judge, an elder in the community. The nearest thing Dwarfs have to a priest, whose social position is much that of a rabbi in a Jewish community.
- G'rakha
- an essential rite which must be done with the correct degree of ha'lk
- Ga strak ja'ada!
- roughly, "your attitude or way of life is wrong!" (Thud!)
- Gr'duzk! aaK'zt ezem ke bur'k tze tzim?
- Good day! What is all of this that is going on here?
- Grr'dukk d'buz-h'drak
- Stated by Angua in "Feet of Clay," lit "small delightful mining tool of a feminine nature."
- Grz dava'j? K'zakra'j? D'j h'ragna ra'd'j!
- "With emphatic certainty you know me. I observe the rites of the dwarf. What/who am I? I am the Brothers united." (Thud!)
- Ha'ak!
- A most coarse expletive. In context in The Fifth Elephant, a most disapproving and pejorative term used to denote a Dwarf female who has
fallenrisen from grace (ie, uses makeup, wears a skirt, and brazenly lets her ankles show): a word with the power to incite near-genocidal anger in certain hearers. (Thud!) - Ha'lk
- what a Dwarf does to correctly fulfil the obligation of the g'rakha
- had'ra
- stop (Thud!)
- H'ragna
- secrets known only to Dwarfs
- Hr'grag
- the ordinal number Thirty
- Jar'akh'haga
- the Ideas Taster, or personal advisor to the Low King.
- J'ds hasfak 'ds'
- I bargain with no axe in my hand.
- K'ez'rek d'b'duz
- "Go Round The Other side of the Mountain" - the Dwarf name for Granny Weatherwax.
- Kra'k?
- an interrogative. "What is that?" seems to be a good translation, in context. The Fifth Elephant
- Kruk
- Dwarf mining law.
- K'zakra
- a rite of passage all Dwarfs must undergo. There is a massive Records Chamber underneath the Schmaltzberg in which the records of every Dwarf on the Disc's progress through k'zakra are filed and kept up to date. This suggests k'zakra is a lifelong journey for the Dwarf.
- P'akga 'a'p'akaga-ad...
- It is the thing, and the whole of the thing.
- Shatta
- An unexpected treasure.
- Sh'rt'azs
- Cheery's true name, expressed in Dwarfish. It is, apparently, a literal translation.
- Ta'grdzk!?
- an emphatic interrogative used by a Dwarf officer with a battalion of axes behind him to back up his point. Untranslated in The Fifth Elephant, in context it appears to convey impatience and an inability to accept idiots gladly.
- T'dr'duzk b'hazg t't!
- "Today is a good day for someone else to die!" A battle cry, and apparently the worst or one of the worst it is possible to utter in Dwarfish, as (according to Carrot, at least) once it is said someone has to die.
- tra'ka
- a minimal, unworthy, beneath-notice, thing (Thud!)
- zadkrdga
- "one who smelts". One who finds the pure ore of truth in the dross of confusion. A kind of special investigator. (Thud!)