A and Á An ‘ah’ sound as in ‘father’
E and É An ‘eh’ sound as in ‘hen’
Ë An ‘ay’ sound as in ‘prey’ (Note: an ‘ë’ with a diareses almost always
comes at the end of a word, eg. Namárië)
I An ‘ee’ sound as in ‘machine’ (Note: If it comes before another vowel it
generally takes on a ‘y’ sound as in ‘you’, eg. Ioreth would sound more
like ‘yoreth’ than ‘eeoreth’)
O and Ó An ‘oh’ sound as in ‘for’
U and Û An ‘oo’ sound as in ‘brute’ (Note: one never pronounces ‘u’ as ‘yoo’ in
Elvish – the vowels are always pure, like Latin vowels)
Y An ‘eu’ sound – the best way to describe this sound is as in the French
pronunciation of ‘lune’ or the German ‘ü’ with an umlaut (Note: the ‘y’ as
a vowel applies only to Sindarin, as in Quenya it is used solely as a
consonant)
AI An ‘I’ sound as in ‘dye’
AU An ‘ow’ sound as in ‘loud’
EI An ‘ay’ sound as in ‘grey’
OI and OE An ‘oy’ sound as in ‘boy’
UI A ‘ui’ sound as in ‘ruin’
Any other pairs of vowels are not diphthongs and each vowel should be
pronounced separately, eg. ‘ëa’ would sound like ‘ay-ah’
Consonants
C A ‘k’ sound as in ‘kick’, never ‘s’ as in ‘cent’
CH A ‘ch’ sound as in ‘bash’
DH A ‘th’ sound, but the softer sound as in ‘then’, never ‘th’ as in ‘thin’
F A ‘f’ sound as in ‘flag’ unless at the end of a word, in which case it is a soft
‘v’ sound as in ‘view’
G A ‘g’ sound as in ‘gift’, never a ‘j’ sound as in ‘gentleman’ (eg. gil sounds
like ‘gill’ not like ‘jill’)
GU - Gw
H A ‘h’ sound as in ‘house’ (Note: in Quenya only if it comes directly before
a ‘t’ it has the elvish ‘ch’ sound, eg. Ohtar would sound somewhat like
‘ochtar’)
K A ‘k’ sound as in ‘kick’ (Note: Eldarin languages rarely use ‘k’, preferring
‘c’ instead)
KH A ‘ch’ sound as in ‘bach’
L A ‘l’ sound as in ‘lilt’ (Note: ‘l’ was a favourite sound of the Elves, and is
generally emphasized or palatalized somewhat – essentially putting one’s
tongue further towards the front of the mouth while making the sound)
LH Same as ‘l’ except with a hint of an ‘h’ sound in front of it
NG A ‘ng’ sound as in ‘finger’ with a hard ‘g’, unless at the end of a word in
which case more like ‘sing’
PH A ‘f’ sound as in ‘phone’
QU A ‘cw’ sound as in ‘queen’
R A trilled ‘r’ sound, as in Spanish ‘sombrero’
RH Same as ‘r’ except with a hint of an ‘h’ sound in front of it
S A ‘s’ sound as in ‘so’, never a ‘z’ sound as in ‘his’
TH - A T sound as in 'Tip'
T A ch sound as in ‘chew'
V A ‘v’ sound as in ‘velvet’ (Note: never used at the end of a word)
W A ‘w’ sound as in ‘water’
HW Same as ‘w’ except with a hint of an ‘h’ sound in front of it
Y A ‘y’ sound as in ‘you’ (Note: only used as a vowel occasionally in
Sindarin, see pronunciation for vowels above)
HY Same as ‘y’ except with a hint of an ‘h’ sound in front of it as in ‘huge’
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