What's in a (Sindarin) Name (pt 2)
Question of the day, because I'm stressing outtttt!:
Thranduil - How many syllables are in the name? And how is it pronounced?
1, it's just a very long syllable
2, "Ada", "Daddy", etc
2, "THRAN-dOOil"
2, "THAN-drill" (like Sir Ian says it)
3, "THRAN-doo-ILL"
what is a syllable? (results)
A couple of Sindarin facts for your consideration:
Diphtongs:
Sindarin has six common diphtongs---ai, ei, ui, au, ae, oe. In addition, there is eu, but that one is so uncommon it's as good as non existent.
All diphtongs fall, i.e., the inner diphtong "stress" is on the first sound, not the second.
That means they're pronounced AH-ee, EH-ee, OO-ee, AH-oo, AH-eh, OH-eh, and EH-oo respectively.
Heaviness:
In Sindarin, a syllable is heavy, if
It has a long or overlong vowel, e.g., mîl (love), lútha- (to enchant)
It has a diphtong, e.g., taur (forest), haeron (distant),
It has a short vowel followed by more than one consonant, e.g., linnas (music), athrabeth (discussion)
(th/þ and dh/ð and ch are single consonants)
Stress:
Sindarin stress patterns are a bit involved but basically simple:
Unless the word is monosyllabic, the (main) stress is never on the last syllable
The main stress is on the heavy syllable closest to the last
If of the last three syllables none are heavy, the main stress is on the third to last syllable.
Secondary stresses occur in alternating patterns. This one is stressing me out 😅