Vowels:
A/Á/Â -> Pronounce them /a/ like in “father”.
E/É/Ê -> Pronounce them /e/ like in “better”.
I/Í/Î -> Pronounce them /i/ like in “machine”. (Sindarin “I” acts like the consonant “Y” before vowels -> Pronounce them /y/ like in “yellow”.)
O/Ó/Ô -> Pronounce them /o/ like in “oats”.
U/Ú/Û -> Pronounce them /u/ like in “brute”.
Y/Ý/Ŷ -> Pronounce them like in the name “Lynn”. (Or you can take the easy way out and use Gondorian pronounciation -> Pronounce them /i/ like in “machine”.)
-->The accents on the vowels denote extra length (A < Á < Â).
Dipthongs:
AI -> Pronounce them /aj/ like in “twine”.
AE -> Pronounce them /æ/. Similar to /AI/ but glide into “E” not “I”.
AU -> Pronounce them /au/ like in “loud”.
AW -> Pronounce them /aw/ like in “owl”.
EI -> Pronounce them /ej/ like in “ray”.
OE -> Pronounce them /œ/ like in “boy”.
UI -> Pronounce them /uj/ like in “we”, but with more emphasis on the “w”.
Consonants:
I -> Before a vowel or at the beginning of a word pronounce them /y/ as in “yellow”. If there is an accent on the “I” or a consonant before it, it is pronounced like the vowel.
C -> Always has the value of “K”, never of “S”. Therefore, Celeborn is pronounced “Keleborn”, not “Seleborn”.
G -> Always pronounce them /g/ as in “give”.
F -> Pronounce them /f/ as in “fix”. When it’s at the end of a word, pronounce /v/ as in “slave”.
L -> Pronounce them /l/ as in “clear”. When it comes between “E” or “I” and a consonant, or at the end of a word after “E” or “I”, pronounce them /l/ as in “belt”.
LH -> Pronounce them /ł/ as a voiceless “L”. (Never found inside a word. If it is found inside a word, it is as two separate sounds.)
R -> Pronounce them /r/, roll it like in “growl”. RH -> Pronounce them as a voiceless “R” (like “LH”).
PH -> Pronounce them /f/ as in “phone”. When it comes between two vowels it acts as a double /ff/. It ends one syllable and starts the next with an “F”. Also applies at the beginning of a word if the last word ends with a vowel. “PH” is used when “P” has become /f/ or when “F” is normally pronounced as /v/.
CH -> Pronounce them /ch/ as in the Scots “loch” (like the name “Achmed”), not the English “church”. Gondorians had difficulty making the sound so they turned “CH” to simply “H”.
TH -> Pronounce them as /th/ like in “nothing”.
DH -> Pronounce them /th/ like in “the” or “they”.
HW -> Pronounce them /wh/ as in “white”. Never in a word (like “LH” and “RH”).
NG -> Pronounce them /ng/ as in “sing”. When it comes between two vowels, pronounce them as two separate sounds. If a word ends with “N” and the next begins with “G”, the “N” becomes “NG”. If a word before “NG” at the beginning of a word ends with a vowel, it is pronounced /ng-g/ like in a word between two vowels.
-->The rest of the consonants are pronounced as they are in English.
Vowel-Consonant Combinations:
ER -> Pronounce them “air”.
IR -> Pronounce them “ear”.
UR -> Pronounce them /ur/ as in “tour”.
Where the Stress Falls
:
Syllables are determined by vowel-sounds. There is one vowel or dipthong per syllable. When looking for where to place the stress, only look at the last three syllables.
-> If the word only has three syllables (or less) the first syllable gets the stress.
-> If the word is longer than three syllables, the 3rd to last syllable gets the stress.
-> If the 2nd to last syllable has one of these special markers, it gets the stress instead of the 3rd to last.
1. Accents (Aigue or Circumflex).
2. Dipthongs (AE, AI, AU, AW, EI, OE and UI – only these).
3. Multiple Consonants (This only counts if they come at the end of the syllable. They can be two of the same latter side by side, but they could also be different. Remember that CH, DH and TH only count as one consonant.).
