If you are like me, you do not enjoy reading a written description of a sound. It can be very confusing unless you are familiar with the technical phonological terms. Fortunately, Lothenon made an excellent Sindarin Phonology guide online with sound files of all the vowels and consonants, in different places within words. I cannot improve upon what his site offers, and he has kindly agreed to have me link directly to the sound files.

You can download a free version of the program RealOne Player (look on the lower right for the download link for the free version) to listen to these files.

Here I give a general guide to the sounds, which will suffice for a new student. The examples are given, when possible, in English; if this is not your native tongue, then I recommend that you rely more on the sound files than on these descriptions. Even within the English language, pronunciations can vary widely, so please, listen to the sound files. (Y was a real eye-opener for me, and no mistake about it!)

Third-Age Sindarin has six vowels, and six diphthongs (a combination of two vowels together that combine to make a new sound), and 22 consonants.

Vowels:
A: sounds like English “father”, never like “hat”: sad, adan, bâr, pân
E: sounds like English “pet”, never silent like “fire”; when found in –er it never sounds like “fern”: le, Elbereth, pêd, brêg
I: sounds like English “sit”, never like “line”; when at the beginning of a word and followed by a vowel, it sounds like “year”, and when accented (í or î) sounds like “bee”; when found in –ir it never sounds like “fir”: lim, ithil, mîr, aníra
O: sounds like English “for”, never like “cold”: ionn, noro, tôl, ódhil
U: sounds like English “brute”, never like “cute”; when accented (ú or û) sounds like “too”; when found at the end of a word it is written -w; when found in –ur it never sounds like “fur”: guruthos, gûl, dúnadan, tîw
Y: a "fronted u"; sounds like French “lune” or German “Küche”, never like English “year”: ylf, yngyl, pýd

Diphthongs:
AE: sounds like English “aisle” or "my": aer, gilraen, aearon
AI: sounds like English “aisle” or "my": bair, edain
AU: sounds like English “now”: caun, raw
EI: sounds like English “rain”: meigol, eilph
OE: sounds like English “boy”, best explained as the individual vowels run together: foeg, oear
UI: sounds similar to English “ruin” said in one syllable: muil, suilad

Consonants:
B: sounds like English “bard”: bâr, leben, ab
C: sounds like English “corn”, never like “cent”: calar, ceven, tarlanc
CH: sounds like German “Bach” or Scottish “Loch Ness”, never like English “church”: cherdir, achas, rych, cenich
D: sounds like English “down”: dagor, adan, nad
DH: sounds like th in English “this”: dhôl, edhil, ardh
F: sounds like English “fist” except at the end of a word or before a consonant, when it sounds like “of”: forn, anfang, falas and godref, talaf, tafnen
G: sounds like English “good”, never like “gentle”: garn, agor, nawag
H: sounds like English “hat”: herdir, Perhael, Panthael
L: sounds like English “line”: lagor, alae, gûl
LH: sounds like a breathy version of “line”, has no precise equivalent sound in English but is like Welsh ll: lhûn, lhain
M: sounds like English “mat”: magol, amon, lam
N: sounds like English “not”: naur, anor, mîn
NG: sounds like English “finger” when found inside a word angol, angband but like “sing” at the end of a word; and can sound like either at the beginning, depending on the mutation: ang, ngîl
P: sounds like English “pat”: peth, nimp
PH: normally sounds like English “photo” alph, arphen, but when found between vowels sounds doubled: aphadon, ephel
R: sounds like English “run” but always trilled, as in Spanish or Russian: rond, aran, Círdan, naur
RH: sounds like a breathy “run”: rhûn, rhavan
S: sounds like English “sip”, never like “is”: sad, asgar, tharas
T: sounds like English “tap”: tîw, ant
TH: sounds like English “think”, never like “this”: thoron, ithil, gwath
V: sounds like English “van”: vellon, avad
W: sounds like English “wild”, but when it is at the end of a word and after a vowel it sounds like “u”: 'wath, edwen, tawar

When a consonant is doubled it is to be pronounced longer: ammen, annon, edhellen, añ ñaladh, Rohirrim, glassen, ephel

A word of only one syllable has the stress on that syllable.

A word of two syllables has the stress on the first syllable, as in Elrond or Gildor. (Tolkien mentions that this is not always the case, but does provide examples where it is not the case): achas, adan, aerlinn

A word of three syllables or more has the stress on the second-to-last (penultimate) syllable if that syllable is long:
* If it has an accented (elongated) vowel (as in anírad): anírad
* If that vowel is followed by two or more consonants before the next vowel (as in Isildur or govannen): estannen
* If it has a diphthong (such as ilaurui or nelchaenen): ethuia

If the penultimate syllable is not long, stress is on the third-to-last syllable (as in Legolas, Echoriath, Nogotheg):
lathrada; elenath; adanadar; Galadriel.

Important: Remember that the letters ch, dh, hw, lh, ph, rh, and th in Sindarin are considered single letters.

This can be complicated, but with practice and experience, hopefully the feel of the language will make it easier. Ultimately it is not vitally important to master, since Sindarin will probably remain a language for written communication between far-flung students via the internet, but it is easier to learn it at the start.

Tolkien did not specify how to break Sindarin words into syllables, but the important thing is to isolate which vowel is in the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable. This requires recognizing diphthongs, which will come more and more easily to you with familiarity.

Here are some more examples to help you get a better sense of how it's done. I have underlined the stressed vowel:

Thangorodrim ~ because of the consonant cluster -dr-
Forlindon ~ because of the consonant cluster -nd-
Forodwaith ~ because of the consonant cluster -dw-
Pelargir ~ because of the consonant cluster -rg-
Anfauglith ~ because of the consonant cluster -gl- and the diphthong -au-
Lebennin ~ because of the consonant cluster -nn-
Brithombar ~ because of the consonant cluster -mb-
Nargothrond ~ because of the consonant cluster -thr-
Nenuial ~ because of the diphthong -ui-
Gondolin
Gorgoroth
Doriath
Eriador
Minhiriath
Lothlórien

One cannot write in Sindarin without using accents. There is a difference in meaning between nin "me" and nín "mine" as well as a difference in pronunciation. For those whose native tongue is not English, this may not be anything new, but for others this may be a whole new venture. To learn how to write in accents go here. As the owner of a PC, I use the alt-codes. I found it extremely helpful to print out the ones most frequently occuring in Sindarin and pin them near my monitor for easy reference.

In some languages accents are used to denote stress. Sindarin is not one of those languages. Sindarin uses two accents, the acute (á, é, í, ó, ú, and ý), and the circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, and û). The accent is used to denote the length a vowel is carried for. á is elongated – held for longer than a regular a. â is held even longer. In the case of í and ú, it actually changes the sound somewhat, as is noted in the pronunciation of vowels, above.

When Sindarin is written with the tengwar, no difference is made between the acute accent and the circumflex. Presumably the Elves know when to hold the vowel extra long instead of just long. The difference between them is therefore probably not great, and probably not vital.

You can listen to Tolkien reading one of his Sindarin verses, Aerlinn in-Edhil Imladris (Hymn of the Elves of Imladris) (also called A Elbereth Gilthoniel) here. Here is the text of the verse as published in Lord of the Rings:

A Elbereth Gilthoniel
Silivren penna míriel
O menel aglar Elenath!
Na-chared palan-díriel
O galadhremmin ennorath
Fanuilos le linnathon
Nef aear, sí nef aearon

Tolkien did not always pronounce his languages perfectly, and there are three things in this sound file that do not follow the rules he wrote in the appendices of LOTR, which are described in this lesson. See if you can find them, now that you have read the rules about stress and pronunciation.

1. There are 6 vowels, 6 diphthongs, and 22 consonants, some of which are written with two of our letters together (ch, dh, lh, ng, ph, rh, th)
2. The second-to-last syllable's vowel determines where the stress goes
3. Accents show how long a vowel is held; they do not show stress

Underline the stressed part of the following words:
1. Dúnadan (Westman)
2. Edhellen (elvish)
3. Aearon (ocean)
4. Galadhremmin (tree-woven)
5. Ennorath (lands of Middle-earth)
6. Aragorn
7. Imladris (Rivendell)
8. Curunír (man of skill)
9. Hithaeglir (Misty Mountains)
10. Elbereth (Varda)
11. Celebrimbor
12. Elessar
13. Aredhel
14. Glorfindel
15. Fanuilos (Ever-white)
16. Tinúviel (Nightingale)
17. Gilthoniel (Star-kindler)
18. Eregion
19. Nogothrim (all the Dwarves)
20. Ódhellim (Deep-elves)

The answers to the exercise can be found in the Answer Key. If you do not understand something in the lesson, please post questions in the Plaza's Language Forum or in the Plaza house Tham Lammath Edhellin. Please read the Introduction to these lessons for disclaimers and sources. You can contact the author of these lessons at taramiluiel@cox.net

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