How do you pronounce it?

[Turin Turambar]

How do you pronounce words like "Maedhros" and "Caradhras". In the appendix I think it says the consonant cluster "dh" should be prounounced as "rn", but I also read somewhere else that it should be pronounce as "th". I'm not sure if either of them is correct.

[Aiwendil]

Tolkien's 'dh' should be pronounced as a voiced 'th', as in 'there' or 'the'.

[MallornLeaf]

Yes, "dh" is pronounced "th". If you go to the appendices, you'll get ALL the pronounciations. Also, in the back of the Sil, lots of pronounciations can be found! smilies/smile.gif

[MallornLeaf]

I had another question. my and some of my friends like to have friendly arguments about this! smilies/smile.gif Is Saruman pronounced
sar-U-men,
or
SAR-u-man? (with a slight and lesser accent on the u)
lemme know what you all think!

[Veritas]

I say SA-ru-mon, but i don't know how you must say it.

[Gimli Son Of Gloin]

I read in the appendix that a word ending in D sounds like a V. Would that mean that Gandalf sounds like Gan-Dalv?

[The Silver-shod Muse]

That's the way Frodo pronouced it in the movie, and the movie did stick very close to correct pronounciations, so maybe so.

[obloquy]

YEAH SINCE GANDALF ENDS IN D

[Eloin]

Saruman is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable and with each "a" pronounced like the "a" in "father" and the "r" rolled or trilled....SA-ru-man

[Sharkû]

"Saruman, his name among Northern Men, contains the Anglo-Saxon word searu, saru 'skill, cunning, cunning device.'" (UT)

"4. Back Mutation [in Old English:]
Appears before liquids and labial consonants (i.e. r, l; p, b, f, m):
i > io (hira > heora)
e > eo (herot > heorot)
a > ea (saru > searu)"
[therefore we have to use the latter form in a modern text using OE unless stated otherwise]

"ea begins with the sound of e and glides towards the back of the mouth, giving a sound not unlike that in 'bared, Baird'; "

As for the -man, it is really a matter hardly to be grasped in modern ENglish at all: "root-stems which according to Germanic laws of Ablaut, change the root vowel during the declension. In Modern English such words still exist, and we all know them: goose - geese, tooth - teeth, foot - feet, mouse - mice etc. " The form is 'mann' in some, 'menn' in other places. Since Tolkien anglicized as far as possible (see app. F), we can probably say [mæn] throughout.

I suggest the sites
Pronunciation of Old English (http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/OEsteps/pronounc.html) and The Historical Grammar of the Old English Language (http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/grammar/grammar41.html), from both of which I have quoted.