How do you pronounce Elessar?

[Bêthberry]

Sharkû,

Forgive me if this is an ignorant point, since I have never studied Tolkien's languages, but my difficulty with that passage from Appendix E is that it does not define how syllables are determined. I have not been able to find this at the Ardalambrion site, either.

Syllabification differs not only between languages, (the Larousse French dictionary, for example, does not give syllables, whereas many English dictionaries do) but between dialects. My Random House College Dictionary, for example, states that it follows American practices for syllables. My OED doesn't show syllables.

So, where do the syllables fall in Elessar? We have three syllables (unless that second e is swallowed)[El-ssar] but depending on where we determine them, that guideline from Appendix E gives us different pronunciations, even assuming the second 'e' is short. How many consonants are in that second syllable?

E--le--ssar
E--les--sar
E--less-ar

El--ess--ar
El--es--sar*
El--e--ssar

If that last syllable but one has a short vowel and one or no consonants, then stress falls on that first syllable. We could still have:

E' lessar or El' essar, could we not? We could still make that second 'e' long, too.

I know what the patterns are in English, but do they pertain to this name?

I don't think Appendix E answers the question, but of course I could be missing something that should be staring me in the face but isn't on a Friday morning.

Bethberry