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Old 03-30-2007, 01:05 PM   #7
davem
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Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
If I were to say something for myself, I never thought about it that way. Most probably because the Z in "Nazgul" is certainly pronounced Z (as in "Zoom"), while in "Nazi" it is generally pronounced as C (as in... erm... oh, you English barbarians, why don't you ever pronounce "C" correctly! As in "Caesar" if it is pronounced with correct Latin spelling).
Well, if one's first encounter with Tolkien was via the movies or an audio book/radio dramatisation, one wouldn't make that mistake, but when one first experiences the names as words on the page its different. Tolkien, as a calligrapher, understood that the 'shape' of a word on the page was as important as its sound - hence his replacement of K by C - as in Keleborn>Celeborn - done even at the risk of readers mispronouncing the name as Seleborn, because 'Celeborn' looks more attractive & less 'harsh' than Keleborn.

Hence, on the page, the 'identity' of 'Naz-' in both Nazgul & Nazi is bound to strike many readers.
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