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Welcome to Ardhon Ellammath, the Realm of the Elf-languages


Sooner or later everybody studying the artificial languages of Professor Tolkien will ask him- or herself one question:
"How do they actually sound?"
The Professor himself gave us precise introductions in Appendix E of the Lord of the Rings, but even this sometimes does not help all too much, because no written description of sounds, no matter how very precise it be, can ever help you understand the sounds as good as a person can that actually speaks them for you. Let me be this person as far as it is within my possibilities.
But I am neither a studied linguist nor a specialist concerning phonetics, and so I can of course not assure that every aspect is entirely correct. So I do not only explecitely ask for constructive corrections, but I would also greet more sound files recorded by you, because I find it important to demonstrate different opinions and points of view.
This website originates from Mellyn·in·Edhil, a former website of mine that I cannot maintain anymore, a fact that many pittied for the Sindarin pronunciation guide and the corpus soundfiles. Almost all these files are offered here again, but all of them are completely new recordings because I did not like my older versions for the biggest part.

Florian "Lothenon" Dombach,
lothenon@sindarin.de

• • •

Note: Unfortunately many of my S's sound like TH's; this is neither on purpose (e.g. by misinterpretation) nor a speech defect but is due to my recording hardware.

1) Sindarin Pronunciation Guide
A list of all occuring sounds and transcriptions of Sindarin with textual descriptions and soundfiles in RealAudio-format for listening while reading along.

• • •

2) Corpus texts:
Here we would like to present recordings of many important texts of our limited corpus.
This section aims for a fluid, realistic pronounciation, not neccessarily for one that is entirely precise in every aspect
Mentioning "German" or "Norwegian" etc. in brackets means that this is the native language of the reading person.

Sindarin:
A Elbereth (including Sam's lines in Kirith Ungol) (LotR)
Glorfindel's greeting (LotR)
Voronwë's cry (UT)
Moria West-gate (LotR)
Lúthien's Song (LB)
King's Letter (first version) (SD)
Battlecry of the Edain (Sil)
Gilraen's Linnod (LotR)
Ringbearer's Praise (also in Quenya) (LotR)
Pater Noster (completed by Lothenon) (VT44)
Gandalf's door spell (LotR)

Quenya:
Namárië (LotR)
traditional greeting (also in Telerin and Sindarin) (LotR)
Ringbearer's praise (also in Sindarin) (LotR)
Elendil's words (LotR)
Cirion's oath (UT)
Fingon's cry (and answer) (Sil)

Telerin:
traditional greeting (also in Quenya and Sindarin) (WJ)

Khuzdûl:
Battlecry of the Khazâd (LotR)

Black Speech; Orcish:
Ring inscription (LotR)
Orc curse (LotR)

Noldorin:
Thror's Map (AI)
Nebrachar (A Secret Vice)
Moria West-gate (AI)
Elbereth (RS)
Gandalf's door spell (RS)


• 3) Own texts:
Narn Fingolfin Aran Golodhrim (North Sindarin) by Lothenon
Aerlinn in Edhil o Falas (Sindarin) by Lothenon
Calen Lothrond (archaic Sindarin) by Lothenon