Chapter 1 - Chapter One -Sounds

Hello, I am Jailcrow_of_Mandos.All of the information used in these newsletters comes from the site “Ardalambion” at http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/index.htmlwhere more in depth lessons can be found. All Lord of the Rings relatedmaterial belongs, of course, to J.R.R. Tolkien.
 
 
Quenyawas the first real language used by the Elves of Middle-Earth, though‘Primitive Elvish’ did come before it. By the Third Age of Middle-Earth, it wasreally only used as a formality- like people singing opera in Latin. King Thingol of Doriath outlawed theuse of Quenya later on, but in the beginning, eventhe Valar, or ‘powers’ / gods used the languagerather than their own because they liked it better. Compare the name A3ulez (agh-oo-lez) to Aulë. To start, wehave to learn how to pronounce what Tolkien wrote.(But there are luckily no ‘3s in Quenya J)
 
An accent on top of a lettershows that it is a ‘long vowel’ the two dots above certain letters only meanthat they are pronounced. ‘Diphthongs’ are the only verb combos that have theirown sounds.
 
DIPHTHONG[/b]
PRONUNCIATION[/b]
PRACTICE[/b]
Ai
“I[/b]” as in “ai[/b]sle”
Vairë ( a Vala)
Oi
“Oy[/b]” as in “oi[/b]l”
Oira (eternal)
Ui*
“ooy[/b]” as in “too y[/b]oung”
Huinë (shadow)
Au
“ow[/b]” as German “Au[/b]gen”
Aulë (a Vala)
Eu
“oh[/b]” as in “so[/b]”
Peu (a pair of lips)
Iu
“yu[/b]” as in “Yu[/b]le”
Piuta (spit)
*letter ‘q’ is a more elegant wayof writing ‘kw’– but ‘qui’ sounds like ‘kwi’ not ‘kwooy’
 
 
If a verb group isn’t adiphthong, then each vowel is pronounced by itself. ‘Ea’ in “Eärendil” is pronounced (eh-ar-en-dil)not (eer-in-del)
 
VOWEL[/b]
PRONUNCIATION[/b]
PRACTICE[/b]
a
Not as in ‘father’ or ‘cat’– more like ‘[/b]ha[/b]nd’[/b]
aran (king), Anar (sun)
e
‘eh’[/b] – as in ‘e[/b]nd’
metta (end), morë (black)
i
‘ih[/b]’ – as in ‘pi[/b]t’
titta(tiny)imbë(between)
o
(unclear)[/i] most likely as in ‘o[/b]r’
olos (dream), tolto (8)
u
Not as in ‘fun’ or ‘fool’ more like ‘foo[/b]t’
ulya (pour), cu (dove)
á,
‘ah[/b]’ as in ‘father’
mà (hand), nàrë (flame)
é,
Short ‘e’ but more gruff like German ‘meh[/b]r’
Etècië (has written)
í,
‘ee[/b]’ as in ‘machi[/b]ne’
Irìcië (has twisted)
ó,
Longer and tighter than short ‘o’ – like ‘so[/b]re’
Onòtië (has counted)
ú
‘oo[/b]’ as in ‘Fu[/b]ssball’
Utùvië (has found)
 
 
Consonants different from theEnglish language
CONSONANT[/b]
PRONUNCIATION[/b]
PRACTICE[/b]
C
Like a ‘k[/b]’
Celeborn (Lord of Lòrien)
Hl, hr
Whispered ‘h’s- basically just ‘l’ with
a huff at the beginning
Hlòcë (snake)
Hrìvë (winter)
Hw
Like “witch”, sort of “hw[/b]itch”
Hwesta (breath)
Hy
As in “hu[/b]man” weaker than hard ‘h’
Hyalma (shell)
N
Makes ‘ng’ before certain consonants
Anca = angca (jaw)
R
Trilled as in Spanish and Italian
Parma (book), Mordor
S
NEVER like a ‘z’ – always an ‘s’
Olos (dream) Nausë (imagin.)
Good clusters
ld, mb, mp, nc, nd, ng, ngw, nqu, nt, ps, ts, x (for cs)
 
Ana (towards) vs. anna (gift): These, though it is easier to rely on contextto tell the two apart, there is a difference in sound! Just hold the ‘n’ in ‘anna’ longer like the ‘n’ in pen vs. the ‘nn’ in penny. This isn’t very important ;)
 
Stress is what makes Italiansound the most different from English. It is where you put the most ‘umph’ intoyour word. For Harry Potter fans, this is like “It’s LeviOsa, not LevioSAH”
 
These can be confusing rules. Ihave simplified them as much as possible. If anyone needs help figuring them out-just ask ^.^
 
If the word has onesyllable[/b], the stress is on the 1stsyllable[/b]
2 syllables[/b]: 1st syllable[/b]
3+ syllables[/b]: In polysyllabic words, the stress falls onthe second-to-last syllable[/b] whenthat is long (containing either a long vowel (à) ,[/b] a diphthong (au)[/b], or a vowel followed by a consonant cluster (mb)[/b] or a double consonant (nn[/b])). If thesecond-to-last syllable is short, the stress falls on the third syllable from the end[/b], regardless of how it looks.
 [/b]
 [/b]
Other Rules[/b]: - I keep cheat sheets of all the grammar rules and willsend them when we have more rules to deal with[/b]
 
To make nouns plural- (one birdvs. many birds)-
            Forall nouns ending in ‘a,’ ‘i,’ ‘o,’ ‘u,’ or ‘ië,’ add ‘r’ to the end (parma>parmar)
            Fornouns ending in ‘e’ – the ‘e’ becomes an ‘i’ instead.(aiwë > aiwi)
 
 [/b]
 [/b]
Stress and pronunciation Practice[/b]
 
All answers will be on the last page[/b]
Exercise: Practice saying these words with the properpronunciation and underline where the stress should lie in the word.
 
A. Alcar("glory")
B. Alcarë (longervariant of the above)
C. Alcarinqua("glorious")
D. Calima("bright")
E. Oronti("mountains")
F. Únótimë("uncountable, numberless")
G. Envinyatar("renewer")
H. Ulundë("flood")
I. Eäruilë("seaweed")
J. Ercassë ("holly”)
K. Nai yarvaxëa rasselya taltuva notto-carinnar!(Saruman’s: "may your bloodstained horn collapse upon enemyheads!" from the first movie. Don’t cheat- Christopher Lee isn’t an Elf, and he didn’t do it perfectly!)
 
 
 
Vocab:
i – “the” the article(‘a’ does not exist. i roccomeans ‘the horse.’ Rocco means ‘a horse.’)
minë -one
Anar- sun / the sun
Isil -  moon / the moon
ar – and
Elda– one of the many words for ‘Elf’
lië –people (as in a race of people)
vendë -maiden
rocco -horse
aran -king
tári -queen
tasar –willow (this is not the plural form of tasa)
nu –under
  
 
EXERCISES1. Translate into English
 
A. Roccor
B. Aran (two possible English translations!)
C. I rocco.
D. I roccor.
E. Arani.
F. Minë lië nu minëaran.
G. I aran ar i tári.
H. Vendi.
 
 
 
2. Translate into Quenya:
 
I. Willows.
J. Elves.
K. The kings.
L. Peoples.
M. The horse under (or,below) the willow.
N. A maiden and a queen.
O. The queen and themaidens.
P. The Sun and the Moon
 
 
Answers!![/b]
 
A. Alcar
B. Alcarë
C. Alcarinqua
D. Calima
E. Oronti
F. Únótimë
G. Envinyatar
H. Ulundë
I. Eäruilë
J. Ercassë
 
As for Christopher Lee's accentuation naiyarVAXëa RASSelya TALTuva notto-CARinnar, thewords yarvaxëa and taltuvaare correctly pronounced. However, rasselya shouldhave been accented rassELya rather than RASSelya, and notto-carinnarshould have been notto-carINNar rather than notto-CARinnar. Perhaps we are to assume that "Saruman" in this scene uses some special meteremployed in magical invocations, discarding the normal stress rules?
 
Nai[/b] yarvax[/b]ëa rassel[/b]ya talt[/b]uva nott[/b]o-carinn[/b]ar
 
1.
A. Horses
B.Either just "king", or "a king" with an indefinitearticle, depending on what English grammar demands in the context where the word occurs.
C. The horse
D. The horses
E. Kings
F. One people under one king.
G. The king and the queen.
H. Maidens
 
2.
I. Tasari
J. Eldar
K. I arani
L. Lier
M. I rocco nu itasar.
N. Vendëar tári.
O. I tári ar ivendi.
P. Anarar Isil (probablynot i Anar ar i Isil,since in Quenya the words denoting these celestialbodies seem to count as proper names, requiring no definite article)
 

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