12-20-2003, 01:32 AM
I know the names of the Rohan people derive from OE (Old English, the language spoken in England a bit over a thousand years ago.) "Théoden" is the OE word for PDE (Present-day English) "leader". (The word was actually in my first glossary when I started studying OE.)
We all know how "Théoden" is pronounced, we've heard it so many times. It's either
* /theoden/
or
* /theioden/
(Due to the forum's lack of phonetic fonts, I have to illustrate this in laymen's symbols, meaning regular letters.)
The former is the one truest to OE.
the digraph "eo" is pronounced with the diphthong /eo/.
However in the word "Sméagol" the digraph "ea" is pronounced "i:" as in /smi:gl/
"Théoden" - /theoden/
"Sméagol" - /smi:gl/ /
(the colon means the i-sound is long as opposed to /I/ which is a short i-sound as in "hit")
Did J.R.R. Tolkien ever write a phonetic transcription of how the names of Middle Earth were to be sounded? If so, does anyone know why he; an expert in OE, changed the way the digraph "ea" were to be pronounced?
Could it be that the name "Sméagol" is not derived from Old English as "Théoden" is, but some variant; some fabrication of Tolkien himself? After all, Sméagol and Théoden are from two different parts of Middle Earth. Would that be a reasonable explanation?
This theory is substantiated by the fact that it's not /smi:gol/ but rather /smi:gl/. Another rule of OE is that there are no weak vowels. A weak vowel is a vowel that doesn't have a stress on it. Such as the last syllable in the word "father". There's stress on /fa/ but not "ther".
The last syllable in "Théoden" is pronounced clearly as /den/. It's not /theodn/. Each syllable is pronounced. There is no weak vowel.
In the word "Sméagol" however, there is, namely "ol". There is no stress on the last syllable, confirming the idea that this word does not come from OE.
I'd sure like to see what Tolkien had to say about this.
We all know how "Théoden" is pronounced, we've heard it so many times. It's either
* /theoden/
or
* /theioden/
(Due to the forum's lack of phonetic fonts, I have to illustrate this in laymen's symbols, meaning regular letters.)
The former is the one truest to OE.
the digraph "eo" is pronounced with the diphthong /eo/.
However in the word "Sméagol" the digraph "ea" is pronounced "i:" as in /smi:gl/
"Théoden" - /theoden/
"Sméagol" - /smi:gl/ /
(the colon means the i-sound is long as opposed to /I/ which is a short i-sound as in "hit")
Did J.R.R. Tolkien ever write a phonetic transcription of how the names of Middle Earth were to be sounded? If so, does anyone know why he; an expert in OE, changed the way the digraph "ea" were to be pronounced?
Could it be that the name "Sméagol" is not derived from Old English as "Théoden" is, but some variant; some fabrication of Tolkien himself? After all, Sméagol and Théoden are from two different parts of Middle Earth. Would that be a reasonable explanation?
This theory is substantiated by the fact that it's not /smi:gol/ but rather /smi:gl/. Another rule of OE is that there are no weak vowels. A weak vowel is a vowel that doesn't have a stress on it. Such as the last syllable in the word "father". There's stress on /fa/ but not "ther".
The last syllable in "Théoden" is pronounced clearly as /den/. It's not /theodn/. Each syllable is pronounced. There is no weak vowel.
In the word "Sméagol" however, there is, namely "ol". There is no stress on the last syllable, confirming the idea that this word does not come from OE.
I'd sure like to see what Tolkien had to say about this.
