Elvish
lesson three : sindarin pronunciation
Man cennig nanethen?! (What did you call my mother?!)
As anyone who has ever taken a foreign language knows, the same letters can be pronounced different ways from one is "traditionally" used to. Sindarin is no exception. Like many European languages, each letter has only one sound. This is different from English where a letter can have several different sounds, depending on the word it is found in (i.e., 'c' can sound like an 's' or like a 'k'). This is both a good thing and a bad thing.
It's a good thing because it means if you can spell the word, you can say it. It's a bad thing, at least to English speakers, because we have to unlearn some habits based on our language. For instance, take the word 'external'. In English, the two 'e's have different sounds. The first is an 'eh' sound and the second is an 'uh' sound. In Sindarin, however, the two 'e's would have the same sound.
This lesson will be broken up into three sections: consonant pronunciation, vowel pronunciation, and stress. This will also be the first lesson with an exercise. Do it, don't do it, makes no big difference to me. ^^
consonants
A concept introduced in the chart below is that of a voiceless sound. In English, a voiceless sound can be illustrated when comparing the 'fff' sound of the letter 'f' with the 'vvv' sound of 'v'. The former is a voiceless equivalent to the latter. "Voicing" a consonant simply means the vocal cords vibrate. If you put your hand to your throat when you make the sound, and feel vibration, that sound is voiced. Most consonants are voiced in Sindarin. It is the voiceless ones that can be difficult to grasp.
This chart lists only those consonant sounds that differ from American English. All others sound as they would in English. (Remember, this whole lesson is geared toward slash -- I warned you.)
Single Consonants
C- Always sounds like 'k' as in 'come' or 'carnal'
F- Usually sounds like 'fill' or ' fellatio', unless it is the last letter in a word, in which case it
has the sound of 'v'
G- Always hard as in 'gay' and 'gangbang'
H- All by itself, sounds like 'h' as in 'hard' or 'handjob'; when next to another consonant, it represents
a 'cluster' (see below)
R- Sounds like an 'r' in English, except that it is always trilled or 'rolled'
S- Voiceless 's' as in 'suck' or 'slash'
V- Sounds like the English 'v' but you will never see a word end in the consonant 'v'
Consonant Clusters
Note: CH, DH, PH and TH all count as one letter
HW- Voiceless 'w' as in 'whip' or 'whack'
CH- Similar to the 'ch' in 'loch'
DH- The voiced 'th', as in 'this'
LH- Voiceless 'l' (there is no true equivalent in the English language -- sorry)
NG- The 'ng' in "finger" unless it is at the end of a word and it sounds like 'fling'
PH- Same sound as 'f' and stays 'f' at the end of words as in 'get off'
RH- Voiceless 'r' (there is no true equivalent in the English language -- sorry)
TH- Voiceless "th" of English as in 'third base' or 'threesome'
vowels
Single Vowels
Unlike English, 'y' is always a vowel in Sindarin. Problem is, there is no English word that has
the right sound to offer an example from. In addition, there are two symbols that can sometime appear
above vowels: the acute accent ( ´ ) and the circumflex (this is not refer to the chopping off the tip
of an Elflings... bit, people, this the '^'). These do not change the sound of the vowel, they only change
how long the vowel is held. The circumflex is held longer than the acute accent which is longer than the
"normal" vowel sound.
E- The short 'e' sound as in 'bed'
I- The short 'i' sound as in 'dick'
A- The 'ah' sound as in 'call'
O- The long 'o' sound as in 'boner', but with lips more rounded (as if preparing for a blowjob)
U- The short 'oo' sound as in 'nookie'
Y- There is no English equivalent. The best I can do is offer examples in other languages. It's the sound of
the 'u' in the French 'lune' or the 'ü' in the German 'grün' (that means 'green', people)
diphthongs
Yeah, I know, you though that meant reaching into low-riding, tight underwear, didn't you? Sorry. The dictionary defines a diphthong as: "a gliding monosyllabic speech sound that starts at or near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another." For those of you, like me, for whom this might as well be ancient Greek for all my understanding of it, what it really means is it is two vowels that make one sound. I should work for Merriam-Webster -- "Dictionary for Dummies".
In Sindarin, the diphthongs are: AE, AI, EI, OE, UI and AU. That's it. No others. These diphthongs are called 'falling diphthongs' because they are stressed on the first part.
AE: No English equivalent, but a blend of the A and E sounds, as above (similar to AI, below)
AI: as in the English 'rye'
EI: as in the English 'grey'
OE: No English equivalent, but a blend of the O and E sounds, as above (similar to OI as in 'boy')
UI: No English equivalent, but a blend of the U and I sounds, as above (similar to 'oo-ee')
AU/AW: as in the English 'loud'
stress
Stress is when you have as many unfinished fics as I do, all clamoring for attention at once. ^^
Actually, it refers to where the emphasis is in a word. Yeah, I know, you knew that. I just wanted to whine.
This can lots of fun. It can also be a pain in the ass. Where the stress falls in a Sindarin word depends on two things: how many syllables are in the word and if it meets any of the "special rules" for stress. The number of syllables is determined by the number of separate vowel sounds -- kinda like Latin. ^^
One-syllable words: Pretty obvious where the stress falls.
Examples:
PEN
HÎR
GWAEDH (remember, AE and DH count as one sound each)
Two-syllable words: Stress is almost always on the first vowel.
Examples:
HAL-dir
MEL-eth
MEL-ui (again, the UI is one sound)
Three-syllable words and longer: This is where is gets more complicated. Normally, the stress falls
on the third syllable from the end.
Examples:
LEG-o-las
CEL-eb-orn
be-RI-a-dir (guardian)
However! The second-to-last syllable will take the stress instead if it contains a long vowel (a vowel
with an acute accent or circumflex), a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two or more consonants (CH, DH,
PH and TH count as one consonant for this count).
Examples:
pe-ri-ANN-ath (vowel with two consonants)
gwach-AE-dir (diphthong)
ann-ÚN-aid (long vowel)
conclusion
- Consonants almost always have one sound regardless of usage
- CH, DH, PH, and TH represent one letter/sound
- Vowel length is determined by accents and circumflexes, but they do not change the sound
- AE, AI, EI, OE, UI and AU represent one vowel sound
- Stress in two syllable words is almost always on the first syllable
- Stress in longer words usually falls on the third-to-last syllable
- If the second-to-last syllable contains a long vowel, diphthong, or more than one consonant, it is stress instead
