Isengard no!

[Galin]

As I'd agree that Appendix E is top-tier-Tolkien-published-canon, I'd also have to agree (with me) that so is The Road Goes Ever On (1967), in which the example given for Sindarin short i is "sick" . . . long i as in "see".

The intended pronunciation is given in Appendix E to volume III, but not perhaps with great clarity, so I offer a few notes (. . .) The short vowels may be rendered as in E. sick, bed, hot . . ."

Also, immediately following Tolkien's "irrespective of quantity" in the Appendix description, we have:

"In Sindarin long e, a, o had the same quality as the short vowels, being derived . . ."

So I wonder(ed), why does Tolkien note these vowels as having the same quality as the short vowels, but not long i for instance? Well, someone far more versed in the Tolkienian tongues than I am once answered my question thusly [I've "corrected" a couple words that I take to be mistaken in the following quote]:

Because he contrasts this with Quenya, where long é, ó are more closed than short e, o. But yes, it [if?] any vowels are different, I expect í/i and ú/u to be the first. In the Tenguesta Quenderinwa Tolkien wrote that in Common Eldarin the long vowels “tended to be tenser and narrower that the short vowels” (PE18/83) and it wouldn’t be of [off?] the table that at least sometimes Tolkien imagined Sindarin/Noldorin to continue this for i and u."

Posted (elsewhere) by Gilruin Oct 3, 2022

Gilruin also warns against taking even Tolkien's own pronunciation over what he writes, but that's a fairly general statement, and as far as Mithlond, Minas Tirith and Mithril are concerned, and even Tolkien's own pronunciation of linnathon and galadhremmin (to my ear at least), so far, for short i, I'm using i as in sick, rather than machine.

Konserning Quenya: i approximately as in English machine, regardless of quantity (thus short and long i only differ in duration) -- once again, according to Appendix E -- but in an early source, Tolkien himself quoted the word pit as an example of short "Qenya" i. Of course, in this case we have Tolkien-published text versus Tolkien-written text.

[side note: Appendix E also relates that ir -- "finally or before a consonant" (Boromir, for example) -- is intended to be pronounced as English "eer"]



The long and short of it (pun intended): I'm confused.