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Originally Posted by Mnemosyne
Because Tolkien gave specific rules on pronuncation, I think a better parallel would be to compare pronunciation to, say, the doors at Moria, where we're given a specific drawing as to how it looked. .
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Except... the doors may have looked right, but to me they seemed too small - I envisioned them to be about twice the size on reading the book. Still, that's not a problem for me, as I'm fairly fine with any concept of Middle-earth either visual or 'audial', as an individual take.
And if you go with the Translator Conceit, then even Tolkien the Translator could have been wrong about the correct pronunciation of languages which disappeared thousands of years ago. In fact, one could argue that individual pronunciations, avoiding the idea of 'correct/incorrect' fit that idea better than the kind of 'geekish' precision you're talking about. I note that we don't worry about the 'correct' pronunciation of the names in Homer or Malory ('You say 'Lance-e-lot', I say 'Launce-e-lot'').
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Ultimately I think the whole thing is a bunch of pedantry as we geeks try to one-up each other. As I said earlier, I personally try to get my own pronunciation as close to the recommended ones as possible, but that's because I am a pedant and a linguistics geek to boot. If you want to pronounce them differently that's fine... but woe to you if you want to market that pronunciation!
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I think the problem is that it can exclude the reader who doesn't have the time (or inclination) to study the subject of Tolkienian linguistics, & make then feel 'second class citizens' in Middle-earth, & I'm sure it must annoy those who really don't like the 'correct' pronunciations & feel happier & more at home with their own.
As to 'marketing my pronunciations' - that's exactly the opposite of what I'm advocating - I'm for going with what
feels right for the individual.