Quote:
Originally Posted by Aiwendil
For what it's worth, I don't think the pronunciations given in the online Bosworth and Toller are all that reliable. Note the little asterisk that, when hovered over, says that the pronunciation is an experimental feature. I expect it is generated automatically by a computer program for each word.
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Thanks for pointing that out. Then the electronic version of the dictionary gives no evidence for the correctness of J. R. R. Tolkien’s pronunciation of
Thengel.
I note that both the online and printed Peter S. Baker
Introduction to Old English gives the word
þengel with a soft
g (
þenġel). See
http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resour...E/postyle.html . I have come to the conclusion that Christopher Tolkien’s pronunciation
The[
ndʒ]
el is the commonly accepted pronunciation of the word.
Why J. R. R. Tolkien’s pronunciation differs I do not know. Possibly it was the standard pronunciation in an earlier era. Possibly J. R. R. Tolkien had a different theory. Possibly even today the pronunciation
the[
ndʒ]
el over
the[
ŋɡ]
el is still not really proved. Perhaps some day I will stumble across the article which explains the deduction.