Learning Quenya - Discussion Thread

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

I've thought of an all-important question: what is the nationality of the guy who wrote this tutorial? Because I'm having trouble with pronunciation and when I read the words he gives (examples being "for" and box" to help with [size=2]ó) it occurs to me that I pronounce the "o"s in those words differently. But then it occured to me that to try and explain the differences would make zilch sense to an English English speaker.[/size]

I mean... for me, "box" rhymes with "rocks". But since I'm sure it does also for all of you, it's a bad example. The best way of stating the difference is that "box" sounds like "bah-ks" whereas "for" sounds like "foe-er". And these are two very different sounds. Ah versus oh. So... is [size=2]ó ah or oh? And then there's those darned follow up sentences. I say the words he gives aloud several times, finally think I've got it right, and the next sentence proceeds to tell me that under no circumstances should I be saying it like that.
[/size]