"How does one pronounce Tolkien?"

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by davem

2) Should you strive for authenticity, in order to experience the story as the Author intended?

or

3) Should you tailor your chosen pronunciation of the name to what is evocative of the thing named

Well, in my case, I always try to fix the pronounciation and often find that it the the given one fits much better then the one I had formed. So, to me, Keleborn sounds just as good as Seleborn (and Celeborn looks nicer when written down), and Kirith Ungol sounds much harsher than Sirith Ungol (thouh maybe less piercing). However, I find it harder to change the pronounciation of some characters, especially those that I like more (maybe there is some sort of subconscious attachment), such as Cirdan (which I still automatically pronounce Sirdan) and Eönwë (Which I find hard not to pronounce "ee-ON-way").

But I suppose what people find more aesthetically pleasing to the ear varies. As for whether we should go for the author's offical pronounciation or the one that we like more, do you really want to start a whole canonicity thread again?

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

Eönwë (Which I find hard not to pronounce "ee-ON-way").

You have the perfect right to pronounce your own name anyway you like, of course! As long as you don't pronounce it as 'Hay-on-Wye'...

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

As long as you don't pronounce it as 'Hay-on-Wye'...

Funnily enough, I just passed through there when I went on holiday. I also past a place called Crickhowell. Don't tell me you read that right the first time .

[Eönwë]

I just had a thought about the whole "C" vs. "K" in terms of letters used for names. "C", though pronounced exactly the same as "K", has the connotation of being softer, at least to me, maybe because it can be changed into an "s" sound in English. "C" seems softer, smoother, and more elegant. "K" on the other hand seems more raw and powerful, and slightly harsher than "C". So it seems to me that Elvish, for example, should use "C" and Dwarvish, for example, should use "K".

I think that Tolkien thought, the same, because looking through wordlists on Ardalambion, you can see that except in primitive Elvish, which seems a much more to me a much more "raw" language, Elvish languages favour the letter "C" over "K". On the other hand, Khuzdul, Adûnaic, and the Orkish all use "K" instead of "C". As well as this, so does Valarin, which sounds like a very raw and powerful language.

The same goes with the "ch/kh" usage. Again, "ch" looks much more soft than "kh", which definately looks harsher, and we see a similar pattern. Tolkien gives "kh" and "ch" the same value, but I always imagine the "ch" to be a bit softer (going towards "gh", but still much more like "kh"), whereas the "kh" is pronounced harder. The sound "gh" is also related, as the other extreme (to "kh"), which is used in Orkish. "Kh" is used in Adûnaic and Khuzdul, and "ch" is used in Elvish. Valarin uses all three.

Just an idea.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I second Eönwë. And there is also the thing to it - at least with me I think it was that way - that "c" is used in Latin even in words which could be easily transcribed with "k" (like in "curriculum"), and thus, for an European, I guess (and maybe for others too), it preserves the image of "ancient forgotten culture with its beautiful statues and stuff like that". It has the feeling of the "high and noble" language.

[Galin]

Tolkien specifically wrote of Quenya (Letter 144, 1954):

'The archaic language of lore is meant to be a kind of 'Elven-latin', and by transcribing it into a spelling closely resembling that of Latin (except that y is only used as a consonant, as y in E. Yes) the similarity to Latin is increased ocularly.'

However Cirith Ungol, for instance, is not Quenya or the 'Elven-latin', and in draft letter 187 (1956) JRRT explained:

'It was only in the last stages that (in spite of my son's protests: he still holds that no one will ever pronounce Cirith right, it appears as Kirith in his map, as formerly also in the text) I decided to be 'consistent' and spell Elvish names and words throughout without k. There are no doubt other variations...'

[Pitchwife]

Apart from internal consistency of spelling between the Elven languages, Tolkien's decision to use c for k in Sindarin names as well may also have been influenced by the (modern) orthography of Welsh, the language on which Sindarin was modelled.