I'm confused... I mean you can look it up in the back but those confuse me. HELP!

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Hi eowynarwen and welcome to the forum. I hope you're having a good time here.

I usually pronounce Minas Tirith with a slight stress on the first syllable in both words. Mee-nahs Tee-rith... or actually, I think I pronounce the first i in Tirith like a shorter vowel.
Although, the LotR Wiki claims that both the first syllables are long: MEE-nas TEE-reeth
And another reliable source Encyclopedia of Arda says that the i's are short:

Actually, Minas Tirith is one of my favorite words.. it's so soft and rolls off the tongue beautifully!!

I'm moving this to the language forum and hopefully you'll get more replies there.

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The vowels in Minas Tirith are all short, as long vowels in Sindarin are marked with an acute accent or a circumflex.


But the matter of Sindarin short i seems a bit confused according to two accounts published by JRRT himself. In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien first explained that the sound should be like that in English machine: 'irrespective of quantity' -- in other words, as I read it anyway, the same quality as the i in machine, whether short or long. But a bit later Tolkien also noted that Sindarin long a, e and o had the same quality as the corresponding short vowels -- noting that he did not say the same about i and u here. Shouldn't Sindarin long i have the same quality as the corresponding short vowels too, if the earlier 'irrespective of quantity' is true?

Later in The Road Goes Ever On Tolkien wrote: 'The intended pronunciation is given in Appendix E to Vol. III but not perhaps with great clarity, so I offer a few notes.' and with respect to short i, here he said that it 'may be rendered as in English sick.' I'm no expert but this seems to be a difference of quality, and perhaps this explains why i was not noted as having the same quality, in at least one part of the Appendix (which might also be what Tolkien referred to, at least in part, with his comment about being unclear in Appendix E).


In my opinion then (so far): Sindarin short i should be rendered as in English sick -- except with ir if it occurs finally or before a consonant -- as this is also noted in Appendix E, where the example 'eer' appears instead. This differs from the film (I think) where it seems to have been decided to follow the example of 'machine' irrespective of quantity.


A bit confusing in any case


Tolkien did record his version of A Elbereth Gilthoniel: I can't remember at the moment, but if the information from The Road Goes Ever On is in play (and if I undestand things correctly), the short i in words like Gilthoniel, silivren, linnathon should have the sound as in sick, but míriel and palan-díriel should have the quality of the i in machine, and be long.

I pronounce it Mee-nass Tear-ith

Hmm, but if you are going to choose short i as in machine why not -eeth for the end of Tirith too (noting you wrote -ith)?

ah now that i see -eeth that seems more suitable spelling for the pronounciation. ith was eeth for me but i suppose writing simply ith would sound more like ih-th rather than eeth.

i pronounce it like
MEE-nas TEE-reeth

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I say the same thing actually but every people have a different accent and another preference to say it.

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I pronounce it Min- as Tear-ith

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Christopher Tolkien pronounces Minas Tirith in the following link (along with many other names).

This confirms my belief that Sindarin short i should be as the vowel in English 'sick' (as Tolkien notes in The Road Goes Ever On), not as in 'machine' however. Tolkien does note the distinction (Appendix E): 'The groups er, ir, ur (finally or before a consonant) are not intended to be pronounced as in English, fern, fir, fur, but rather as English air, eer, oor.'

So we have 'Boromeer' for Boromir even though we have short i (as here -ir is final), but not 'Minas Teerith' for Minas Tirith (and not 'Meenas Teereeth'), as in Minas Tirith all the vowels are short, again with i as in 'sick'.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5spIPrF_ ... e=youtu.be

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In IPA, i usually say: (mi-'nɑs ti-'riθ), where θ is the 'th' as in 'thin', the ɑ is an 'ah' sound as in British English 'Lard', i is an 'ee' sound, and a single quote mark before a syllable denotes stress.

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