How to pronounce....?

[Goldberry833]

I am a student of Quenya on Ardalambion....

I am still confused about the pronunciation of short i. The lessons say the i is between the sounds in machIne and pIt(I think! Well, same sounds anyway)

If someone could just tell me how to pronounce it in context, say, in mine(one) (how do you do the two dots on here?) that would be great.

Thanx!

-Stacy

[Goldberry833]

Oh and also "i" (the)
thanx!

[Lantarion]

Hmm.. The Finnish language is almost completely phonetic (all words are pronounced exactly as they are written; completely unlike English!), so personally I would assume that the short 'i's in Quenya are pronounced like that. But it's a little difficult to define its pronunciation in terms of the English language..
Try saying the word "it", but say the 'i' like you would pronounce "ee"; then leave it short. So don't actually say "ee" completely, just use that diphthong (I think it's a diphthong..) as a 'guide': but leave it very short.
That's the best I can do; hope it helps! :)

[BelDain]

In everything I've read the Elvish languages do not have the same concept of long/short vowels like English does.
In English long and short are like the difference between the 'i' pronunciation in 'bite' and 'bit' or the 'a' pronunciation in 'bake' and 'back'.
In Elvish long and short means the actual length of the pronunciation of that vowel sound. For a short vowel you say it short or briefly. For a long vowel you hold the sound slightly longer.

Go here to actually hear it:
Quenya vowel pronunciation (http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/misc/local/TolkLang/pronlo/pronguide.html)
How officially accurate this would be in Tolkien's mind? Who knows.

Or look up "quenya pronunciation" on google.

[Goldberry833]

Thanx for your replies....:D

[Raithnait]

"Try saying the word "it", but say the 'i' like you would pronounce "ee"; then leave it short"

like the chinese word "si" (meaning two), it has this same very short, wierd sounding(to my ears and toungue) "i", but that proabably doesn't help you any, unless you speak some chinese.

[Lantarion]

Depends which Chinese you are referring to.
In Mandarin Chinese, the 'i' does not correspond to the western 'i' in any way. For example the word shi, which (among many other things!) means 'to be', is pronounced "shr", with a slightly "American" r-sound.
I like Cantonese a lot more, because the pronunciation isn't as cluttered and difficult as in Mandarin.

[Goldberry833]

hmm, so the short vowels are just shortened versions of the long ones?

*Realizes the words coming out of her lips--wait, fingers, are stupid sounding*

Well ok, that wood make alot more sense.

:D :D :D
lol now I feel stupid
thanx I think I get it now!
--Stacy

[jallan]

In the 14th century in English the long vowels all changed their sounds, but mostly not their spelling, which is partly why English spelling is so peculiar.

Other European languages have spellings that more closely follow the original sounds of the vowels in Latin.

Tolkien bases his spellings for Elvish mostly on these standard vowel sounds, not the changed English vowel sounds.