Sindarin word-nerdery

ramz711

ramz711

Member
I'm listening to the recording of the latest class, and I'm afraid I can't let a mistranslation slip by unacknowledged (since nerding out over Elvish seems to be what I do here).

Minas Eriol isn't "Tower of Dreams;" it's "Lonely Tower." Cf. Erebor (Lonely Mountain), Tol Eressëa (Lonely Isle), Eru (the One). Eriol meaning lonely is attested in the Etymologies, entry ERE; Eriol meaning "one who dreams alone" (er "solitary" + ol "dream" cf Olorin, Olorë Mallë, etc) is most likely Qenya or Gnomish.

Just wanted to correct that. If anyone is interested, I could take a crack at translating the names of places in the zones we've been to and are currently in. Might be interesting.
 
Any chance you're a pronunciation expert too? I could use a hand with pronunciation while recording the setting I'm doing of the Hymn to Elbereth that's coming during the hobbits' visit to Rivendell.
 
Sure thing. I can record myself reciting it, or I can try and write it out (you don't happen to read the IPA, do you?). Which would you prefer?
 
I know bits of the IPA but probably not enough to make my way through it clearly or efficiently. Probably recording it would be best, but I think the biggest question for me is whether there are dipthongs. I have been reading and singing it without them. For example: "nef aear si nef aearon" is (in rough American English phonetics) "nehf ah-eh-ahr see nehf ah-eh-ahr-ohn".

Also I'm not sure if "dh" in "galadremin" is read as a hard d or as if it is an Old English thorn, so that it becomes "gal-la-threh-min".

If you up for recording yourself reciting it, e-mail it to me at prsteve27 --at-- gmail.com. Thanks!
 
Minas eriol is odd because it's a mixed sindarin-quenya form.i think 7t's best to take it as a composition of minas + eriol as a personal name i think, so it would be " castle of a man named eriol". Whoever that eriol might be, it's not the same eriol as in l8st tales, we could imagine it was an arnorian knight or baron named eriol... the dunedain of the north used sindarin as language of etiquette... but the royal line sometimes bore quenya names, so the owner of eriol castle may have been of royal high numenorean blood and possibly related to the royal line... if we like to create or find a story behind that placename...
 
Is it
A Elbereth Gilthoniel
Silivren penna míriel
O menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
O galadhremmin ennorath
Fanuilos, le linnathon
Nef aer, sí nef aearon!


?
 
Sounds largely okay to me, the r sometimes sounds a bit odd, r in sindarin usually isn't a rolling r like in american english

The ae doesn't sound right to me it should be pronounced ɑɛ, almost exactly like ai.

The stress on the syllables is more complicated, if the syllables do not have markers it's wirh short words, no more than 3 vowels usually on the first vowel, longer words usually have the stress on the third last.

This page does explain it very good i think

https://realelvish.net/pronunciation/sindarin
 
Cool - thanks! I will take a look at that and see if I can adjust my pronunciation.

The syllabic stress will be hard to do because it ends up falling in a particular way based on the melody I'm using, but I'll give it a shot.
 
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