Sindarin Pronunciation
A sample of Tolkien speaking Sindarin.
Vowels
(A/Á/Â) Pronounce them "a", in the back of your throat, like the A is in the word "father" Your lips should be in the shape of an oval standing on its end.
(E/É/Ê) Pronounce them "ɛ", in the middle of your mouth. It sounds like the E of "better".
(I/Í/Î) Pronounce them "i", in the front of your mouth, as in the word "machine". Make your lips the rough shape of a square; don't grin to make the sound. The Sindarin I also acts like the consonant Y before vowels.
(O/Ó/Ô) Pronounce them "o" as in the word "oat", in the middle of your mouth. Make an O with your lips.
(U/Ú/Û) Pronounce them "u" as in "brute", in the front of your mouth. Make your lips in the shape of a kiss.
(Y/Ý/Ŷ) Pronounce them "y" like the French U, as in "lune". To make this sound, make your mouth in the shape of the Sindarin (I). Then, shape your lips the same way you shape "U" in Sindarin. Or, take the easy road out and use the Gondorian pronunciation, and say it "i" like the Sindarin "I" above.
*Accents on vowels denote extra length on the vowels. Hold the vowels longer. In music this is shown with a tennudo (-) over the note. The circumflex accent (^) is held longer than an acute accent ('). In IPA, the Sindarin circumflex accent would be shown with (:) and the Sindarin accute accent would be shown with (`). The second one there is not an apostrophe ('). Apostrophes are used to mark where the stress falls in a word.
Diphthongs
(AE) Pronounce this "aɛ", as in the word "eye".
(AI) Pronounce this "aj", as in the word "twine".
(AU) Pronounce this "au", as in the word "loud".
(AW) Pronounce this "aw", as in the word "owl".
(EI) Pronounce this "ej", as in "ray".
(OE) Pronounce this "oɛ", as in the word "boy".
(UI) Pronounce this "uj" as in the word "ruin".
Consonants
(All of these only account for one letter each in Tengwar)
(I) Before a vowel at the beginning of a word, (I) is pronounced "j" and used as a consonant, as the Y in the word "yellow". If there is an accent on the (I) you always pronounce it "i", as you do for the vowel. Inside a word, (I) before another vowel doesn't make it a Y consonant, it behaves like the vowel (I).
(C) Pronounce it always as a "k", as in the word "kill".
(G) Pronounce it always as a "g", as in the word "give".
(F) When it's at the end of a word, say it as a "v" as in the word "slave".
(L) pronounce it as a "l", as in the word "clear". When it comes between E or I and a consonant, or at the end of a word after E or I, it is pronounced like "ʎ" in "belt" or "little".
(LH) Pronounce it "l̊", a voiceless L. That means, you shape your mouth the same way that you would when making the L sound, but only air will come out, and it will sound a little like an H. This sound never appears within a word. If you see LH inside a word rather than as the first two letters in a word, then it is two seperate sounds, L and H.
(R) Pronounce it as an "r"; roll it as we sometimes do in the word "growl" If you can't roll an R, like me, make an H sound with your throat closed a little. It should make a rolled A sound. It'll be a little like gargling water.
(RH) Pronounce it "r̊", a voiceless R. That means, you shape your mouth the same way that you would when making the rolled R sound, but only air will come out, like a trilled H. This sound never appears within a word. If you see RH inside a word rather than as the first two letters in a word, then it is two seperate sounds, R and H.
(PH) Pronounce it "f", as in the word "phone".
(CH) Pronounce it "x", as in the name "Bach". Say it in the back of your mouth, it should feel a little as though you are hocking a loogy, or gargling without anything in your mouth. The Gondorians had dificulty making this sound, as aparently, it isn't found in Westron. Therefore, they simply turned (CH) into an (H), thus the word "Rohan" instead of "Rochan".
(TH) Pronounce it "θ", like the TH in the word "nothing".
(DH) Pronounce it "ð". If you don't know what this symbol means, make the TH sound. Your tongue should be sticking out a little, and there should be a gap between your teeth and your tongue. Close the gap to make the sound. It may tickle your tongue a little. We make this sound in the word "the" and "blithe".
(HW) Pronounce it "ẘ", as in the word "white". It's a really airy W. This sound never appears within a word. If you see HW inside a word rather than as the first two letters in a word, then it is two seperate sounds, H and W.
(NG) Pronounce it "ŋ", as in the word "sing". When it is in the beginning or inside a word, pronounce it with both the N and the G, like in the word "finger".
The rest of the letters are pronounced as we pronounce them in English.
Vowel-Consonant Combinations
The only reason these are listed are because Tolkien wanted to make sure we didn't English-ize the vowel+R. Remember that the R is still rolled.
(ER) Pronounce it "ɛr", as in the word "fair".
(IR) Pronounce it "ir", as in the word "ear".
(UR) Pronounce it "ur", as in the word "tour".
Where the stress falls
Syllables are determined by vowel-sounds. There is one vowel or diphthong per a syllable. When looking for where to place stress, look only at the last three syllables.
- If the word is 1, 2, or 3 syllables long then the first syllable gets the stress.
- If it is longer than 3 syllables, the 3rd syllable from the end gets the stress.
- If the 2nd to last syllable in a word has one of these special markers, it gets the stress instead of the 3rd syllable from the end.
- Accents (Acute and Circumflex)
- Diphthongs (AE, AI, AU, AW, EI, OE, and UI)
- Multiple Consonants (This only counts if they come at the end of the syllable. They can be two of the same letter side by side. They could also be several different consonants next to each other. Remember that CH, DH, PH, and TH only count as one consonant.)
Note: I am using Northwestern American English, which anyone can tell you, is a little different from the rest of the world's English. I tried to compromise by using IPA, but if some of the English examples still don't make sense, let me know, and I'll try to find a better word.
Source: Appendix E, The Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King)
Last Edited: November 25th, 2009