Dwarvish Dwarvish or Dwarven was the name for a family of languages used by dwarves . The dwarves called their own language Dethek , but most other races used that term to refer to the runic alphabet in which the language was written . Although a verbally dying language by 1400 DR , Dwarvish was still found all over Faerûn inscribed into weapons , buildings and mystical items . The language followed dwarves all over Faerûn and beyond , making it an extremely widespread language . Communities and races that had been separated for some time evolved their own dialects . History . Originating from the ancient Elder language , Dwarvish saw many incarnations and variations . Although once a strong and exclusive language , actual Dwarvish words only make up a fraction of the words used by dwarves today . Many dwarves tend to speak common littered with Dwarvish words . Dwarven record - keepers and historians are among the few left that could speak whole verses in pure Dwarvish . Dialects . Being such an old language , Dwarvish has been subject to various changes over the generations and has spawned numerous dialects . All of these dialects employ Dethek as their written alphabet . Kurit . This dialect is used by arctic dwarves . The language is strongly influenced by Uluik , the language spoken by human colonies in the nearby Great Glacier . Riftspeak . The dialect of the gold dwarves , Riftspeak is one of the oldest dialects and has barely changed in over 10 , 000 years . This is probably due to the great care gold dwarves take in learning languages . Gold dwarves are one of the most literate races of dwarf in Faerûn . Duergan . Duergan originated from Shanatan , the dialect of the shield dwarves . Since the split Duergan has changed dramatically , leaving it as one of the most altered Dwarvish dialects . The drow and illithid influences in this dialect are hard to ignore , having altered its vocabulary and grammatical structure . Shanatan . Used by western shield dwarves , this dialect could be traced back as far as the founding of Shanatar around −10 , 800 DR Urdunnir dwarves used an older version of Shanatan , that more closely resembled the language in its early years . Galenan . Eastern shield dwarves use a different dialect to their western cousins . Galenan is a form of Dwarvish strongly influenced by the human dialect Damaran . Authalan . Wild dwarves use an ancient and simplified version of the Riftspeak dialect . Authalan also has noticeable Tashalan and Chultan influences . Literate wild dwarves are extremely rare . Phonology . Little is known about the phonetics of Dwarvish . The Dwarvish language does however resemble Germanic languages of Earth . From this analysis we can presume dwarfish shares the Germanic stress on the root of a word and similar pronunciation rules . Writing system . All Dwarvish languages use a runic script known as Dethek . Dethek runes are rarely written on paper or cloth due to the short life and fragile nature of such materials . Runes are usually carved or scraped into stone or metal , be it the walls of a building or the blade of a sword . This example shows Dethek letters , symbols and punctuation . Alphabet . The Dethek runic alphabet consists of 24 characters . This is because w , x and z are represented by the same character . This may be confusing for humans trying to translate into common . Grammar . Dwarvish had similar grammatical constructs to common . This was no doubt due to the fact that both languages evolved alongside one another . These shared rules meant that speakers of common would have found it relatively easy to learn and translate Dwarvish .