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Vowel Sounds:
Unlike common, where there are several different ways to pronounce vowels, Elven vowels are more consistent. A good guideline is to use Spanish/Latin pronunciations. Notice there is no sound for "uh" as in just.
A (ah) like ball
E (eh) like excellent
I (ee) like radio
O (oh) like old
U (oo) like vacuum
Y (yih) like yippie
Diphthongs:
There are only a few diphthongs in Elven. Start with the first vowel sound, then slide into the next. All other vowel sounds are pronounced separately.
ai ("eye," the American i)
au (American "ow")
ei ("ay" eu imagine a Brit saying "oh")
iu ("eyew," like an American reacting to something disgusting)
oi ("oye," think Yiddish)
ui ("we," like French oui)
If there is an "e" at the end of the word, say it! There's no such thing as the English "silent e." Tolkien sometimes used a diaeresis on the final e (ë) but its not necessary, and very impractical online.
Consonants
Also use the Spanish/Latin pronunciations.
* C: This sound exists only as a "K," but is frequently translated to "C" when writing in common letters.The soft "C" sound is always written "S."
* CH: This sound has its own symbol in Espruar.
* HW: wh, as in where
* G: always hard, like growl. Save the "gin" sound for J. (The FR text shows this as reversed, but I believe that's a mistake.)
* NG: Pronounced at the back of your head, as one sound. This also has its own symbol in Espruar.
* S: Pronounce it quickly, like like English "see" or "sun."
* SS Any consonant that is doubled gets pronounced twice. So "esse" would be ehs-seh (like essay)
* QU Qu is written with a single letter in Espruar
* R Usually trill it a little. Don't get carried away.
* SH As in American English. Has its own symbol in Espruar
* TH There are two sounds for this: one hard (as in thank), one soft (as in then). Each has its own symbol in Espruar. Non-elves have a hard time telling the two apart, and writing it in common provides no helpful hint as to which is which.
* X Pronounce as a K and S together.
Stresses
Online Elven has few visual clues on which syllable to stress. Yet stress is very important for true elven speakers. Frankly, relatively few humans ever master the proper inflections.
* ` is generally the separation between compound words, of which elvish has several. Usually the first syllable after the ` is stressed.
* ' denotes a stress on the syllable right before it. It is also used to separate vowels which would otherwise create a combined sound.
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