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zedturtle wrote:

Glorelendil wrote:There should be a vowel in between the r and f in that case.

Actually, no. From Appendix E:

R represents a trilled r in all positions; the sound was not lost before consonants (as in English part)...

So glor-FIN-del might be right (stress on the last syllable but one), and GLOR-fin-del might be passable, depending on how you interpret the 'nd' element. We imagine his name is from Quenya, and the 'nd' has not been converted to 'nn' as it might be in a common word in Sindarin.

That means the most accurate pronunciation might be glor-FIND-el, with the FIND element rhyming with 'rend' and not 'mind'. But that's a bit hard to pronounce.

Oh I didn't mean literally there is a missing vowel, but that it's very difficult to pronounce an r followed by a f without intoning a faint vowel. If I don't combine the r and f into one sound, GLORF, then I can't help but insert a little vowel in there: Glorafindel.

Seconding (or thirding, or fourthing, haha) that it's glor-FIN-del. If you know IPA, it's /ɡlɔrˈfin.dɛl/.

The r is trilled or at least flapped, the i is as in "machine" or "lean" but slightly shorter. The second-last syllable receives the stress because it is a closed syllable (i.e., followed by a consonant cluster).

Sindarin syllable stress is pretty easy to get a feel for:

1. Each syllable starts with a consonant if possible, but it doesn't need to end in a consonant.
2. In a one- or two- syllable word, stress is always on the first syllable.
3. In a three- or four-syllable word, stress is always on the third-last syllable UNLESS the second-last syllable is closed (followed by a consonant cluster) or heavy (has a diphthong or a long vowel). In those cases the second-last syllable receives the stress.

This is pretty elliptically described in Appendix E (Tolkien wasn't the greatest at clearly explaining this kind of stuff it seems). There are some other wrinkles, like keeping an eye out for things which look like consonant clusters but which aren't (like <th> and <dh>), but that's the gist of it.

Glorelendil wrote:GLORF-in / dell
or
glor / FIN-dell

I've always tried to separate the R and F, but it just occurred to me that the word is easier to say if you blend the consonants. That said, "Glorf" is not a pretty syllable. It sounds more Dwarven than Elven.

Wow, so dwarfist. Typical elf!

(I pronounce it 'Glor-fin-dell')