How do you pronounce it?
 

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.

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

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! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I had another question. my and some of my friends like to have friendly arguments about this! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] 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!

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

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

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

YEAH SINCE GANDALF ENDS IN D

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

"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 and The Historical Grammar of the Old English Language , from both of which I have quoted.