"How does one pronounce Tolkien?"

[Holbytlass]

I, too, originally pronounced Cirdain, Celeborn with the soft "c" and since learning the correct pronunciation I prefer the hard "k". As someone had ealier mentioned it gives a toughness to the character.

I have a hard time pronouncing Gandalf properly with the stress on the second syllable along with Sauron-(sow part) much as I find hard saying the girls' name Kayley. I apologize to those with the name and mean no disrespect it just feels like I'm saying Kelly in an exagerrated and uncomfortable way.

I do insist on saying it properly both as a "I'm part of the club" and as respect to someone's hard work especially when given tips.

Oh and the "Smak".......I Love it!! I'm still laughing about it.

[Mithalwen]

*Holby!!! Squeals with delight!*

I am unsuprisingly perhaps inconsistent. I read the books before absorbing the correct punctuation - which is rather a joyless way to start a novel (though I do look at instructions before attempting to assemble flat-packs!). However thanks to repeated listening of the BBC Radio series with its Christopher Tolkien assisted pronunciation. and his own recordings of the Silmarillion, I have relearnt and have no problems now with Celeborn, Feanor, Sauron. However it takes real mental effort to remember to say Kir (like the drink)-dan rather than Sir Dan.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Holbytlass

I have a hard time pronouncing Gandalf properly with the stress on the second syllable

You mean, GandALF? That sounds odd to me...

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Seeing Eru on a licence plate the other day made me think of this thread.

Ever since I first read about Eru, I've always pronounced it "Oo-Roo". I do not know whether that's how it's really pronounced, but it seemed to work for me and Laurinque. On second thought, when I looked at the spelling again, I read it as "Eh-roo". Does anyone know how it's supposed to be pronounced?

[Laurinquë]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

Ever since I first read about Eru, I've always pronounced it "Oo-Roo". I do not know whether that's how it's really pronounced, but it seemed to work for me and Laurinque. On second thought, when I looked at the spelling again, I read it as "Eh-roo". Does anyone know how it's supposed to be pronounced

TheGreatElvenWarrior taught me everything I know about Tolkien; therefore I pronounce it Oo-Roo as well. What ever she said, I said.

However, my mother has completely different ideas on the pronunciation matter. She read LotR back in the '60s (and cannot recall it all that well) and pronounces Saruman as Sir-ah-nam, like the country, and Sauron as Sar-Ron among other things. I don't know where she came up with these but personally I find this rather charming; it's just creative pronunciation and part of the fun of reading Tolkien. On the other hand, it would be most interesting to see if anyone has heard these pronounced this way before, my mother may not be as creative as I think!

But before I get too far I should mention that my open ideas about pronunciation most likely stem from my utter inability to understand the sound of a word without hearing it said. I have always had a hard time with that but it wasn't too apparent until I tried to start wrapping my tongue around The Fellowship of the Ring. I seem to remember that I was a great source of amusement to TGEW.

[Galin]

There I was quoting Letters when Appendix E also notes: 'The High-elven Quenya has been spelt as much like Latin as its sounds allowed. For this reason c has been preferred to k in both Eldarin languages.'

Tolkien hid that right in front of me

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Laurinquë

TheGreatElvenWarrior taught me everything I know about Tolkien; therefore I pronounce it Oo-Roo as well. What ever she said, I said.

I did not teach you everything you know about Tolkien. I believe that the Downer Newspaper did.

Originally Posted by Laurinquë

But before I get too far I should mention that my open ideas about pronunciation most likely stem from my utter inability to understand the sound of a word without hearing it said. I have always had a hard time with that but it wasn't too apparent until I tried to start wrapping my tongue around The Fellowship of the Ring. I seem to remember that I was a great source of amusement to TGEW.

You heard me saying names while you were reading the Fellowship, I believe I would ask you something like Have you read about the Balrog yet? and you hadn't, I probably spoiled it for you. And, what can I say, you're amusing!

Back on topic, I originally pronounced Feanor as FEE-nor, and not as Feah-nor. Still can't figure out how to pronounce Meaglin correctly...

[Galin]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

(...) Still can't figure out how to pronounce Meaglin correctly...

But it's Maeglin rather (-ae- not -ea-). So if you mean the diphthong, it is a combination of the individual vowels a-e (one syllable). Or even easier: 'but ae may be pronounced in the same way as ai' -- and ai has the sound of English eye.

Assuming that wasn't just a typo, that is

[Lalwendë]

I have to admit to taking wicked delight in wilfully pronouncing the names as I see fit. The world is full of pedants these days and I'd rather come down on the side of pleasure than that of being smugly correct.

Mispronouncing the names in a book is hardly crime of the century anyway, and I think we only force ourselves to do it to 'fit in', it's a completely different thing to making the effort in learning how to pronounce a real person's difficult name (says she, feeling proud at having learnt some Polish and Kenyan names today ). Davem is correct that forcing yourself to read a certain name in a book in a prescribed way, especially one as long as Lord of the Rings, can somewhat spoil your reading experience.

And yes, I pronounce it "tol-kin"