September 12, 2002

Re: Mekenti's Eowyn Pronunciation
Swynwr

You're dead right, Mekenti. The key to understanding Tolkien's Sindarin is to remember that the author based it on the Welsh language. As a Welshman and a Welsh-speaker myself, I have to say (without meaning to sound pompous) that pronouncing Tolkien's place and character names comes naturally to me, but for anyone who is unfamiliar with the nature of the Brythonic Celtic languages and Tolkien's own "variation", the best way to get around this is to remember that they are phoenetic languages, in the sense that the letters in the words are meant to be pronounced according to the sounds they make rather than the somewhat artificial, "academic" sounds attributed to them. So for instance, take Gandalf's Sindarin name, Mithrandir. The temptation for most is to pronounce it as Myth-ran-deeah, with the ending syllable sounding like "dear", when it should in fact be pronounced Meeth-ran-deerr, with the "r" at the end ever so slightly but quite sharply rolled. (Am I boring anyone yet?!) Just to further the point on the relationship between Sindarin and Welsh, the name Arwen is similar to the Welsh name, Anwen, and the name Eomer is quite similar to the Welsh name, Emyr (pronounced Em-mirr, with the last syllable sounding like the first syllable of "mirror"). Anyway, to prevent any more cyber-snoring, I'll sign off. Great stuff, Mekenti.