Hallo conlangers!

On Tuesday 31 July 2012 00:24:50 And Rosta wrote:

> Jörg Rhiemeier, On 30/07/2012 15:44:
> > Yet, many names are often mispronounced by readers.  For example,
> > the _th_ in _Tharkûn_ (the Dwarvish name of Gandalf) does not
> > represent /θ/ (as it does in Sindarin) but /tʰ/.
> 
> I presume Khuzdul /th/ contrasts with /t/, else the <th> spelling would be
> redundant.
> 
> In that case, it is rational to anglicize Khuzdul /th/:/t/ as English
> /θ/:/t/, since it preserves the contrast.

Indeed, Kh. /tʰ/ contrasts with /t/, and the spelling _th_
is perfectly reasonable.  The reader just needs to be aware
that the transcription conventions are not the same for all
languages occuring in the legendarium.

> > I once knew a guy who pronounced _Dúnedain_ as [dʌn i'dein]!  The
> > "Celeborn" problem has already been mentioned in this thread.
> 
> _Celeborn_ starting with _cell_, _Sauron_ starting with _saw_, and
> _Dunedain_ pronounced  ['dʌnidein] (but not [dʌn i'dein], tho maybe the
> irregular final stress gives the form an evocative Celticity, cf e.g.
> _Donegal_) are perfectly reasonable anglicizations and pronunciations of
> those names.

That is your opinion.  I consider them defaced.

>       Tolkien had good reasons not to use forms whose
> anglicizations would be more faithful to the source (-- the importance of
> fidelity to the source languages; the importance of making Elven Latin
> remind of Latin), but a reader's use of regular anglicizations is not to
> be considered a mistake or deplored.

Such "mistakes" (whether they are mistakes or not) are of course
common in the English-language mass media, such as pronouncing
_Saudi Arabia_ as "sawdy" - in fact, that's *three* syllables
(sa-u-di).  That way, these "regular anglicizations" can be
excused.  Still, I feel that mispronouncing the names in
Tolkien's works does injustice to his linguistic creation.
He did not take these matters lightly at all!
--
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