# Pronunciation



## Shadowfax (Apr 12, 2002)

I have a quick question, and I hope that there is not a thread on this already. How does one pronounce "Shire"? Is it like Enlish towns (Yorkshire, Hartfordshire, Devonshire) they all sound like "sure". Or does it have a long "i" sound? (my friend and I have been having a long, involved "disagreement" about this)


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## Nazgul (Apr 12, 2002)

As far as I know "Shire" is pronounced SH-AYE-R...
I guess you could say it has a long i


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## EverEve (Apr 12, 2002)

I've always pronounced it SH-EYE-R (you get what im trying to say?) *shrug* but I guess it's really up to you.


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## Turgon (Apr 12, 2002)

As an Englishman from the fair county of Lancashire, I can definitively say that Shire (on its own)is pronounced with a long 'I' (like eye) it's only pronounced 'sure' at the end of a name, or 'sheer', or 'shaw', depending on where you come from....


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## Dûndorer (Apr 12, 2002)

yea, i always said it with a long 'I' sound. but i have trouble saying alot of words in tlotr. not just normal words but places and peoples names. that gives me an idea does any know a web site that says how to pronounce all these words?


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## HLGStrider (Apr 12, 2002)

Isn't there a pronounciation key somewhere in either the appendix to the RotK or maybe it was in the Silmarilion... All I know was I found a place that taught me to say Sauron Sour-on and Celeborn Keleborn in one of those two places...


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## Dûndorer (Apr 12, 2002)

thats what someone told me but i dont know what one or where to look.


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## Sam_Gamgee (Apr 12, 2002)

i duno hwo you technically pronounce it but i like the long "i" (eye) and even if im wrong i will still probably pronounce it that way (it sounds better then "sure")


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## Shadowfax (Apr 12, 2002)

Thanks, guys. I always pronounced it "Sh-ur-e" so now i'll have to change it in my head. (Is "Celeborn" really "K-eleborn?)


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## HLGStrider (Apr 12, 2002)

Yep... The elves say all c's as k. I read that somewhere... I am pretty sure it was in the back of my copy of the Sil...


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## HLGStrider (Apr 12, 2002)

FOUND IT!!! Back of the Silmarillion, page 384 in my copy. 
It's only two pages however and lists the proper sayings of only certain letter combinations, not of all words. It does confirm that Cel is Kel, however. 
My copy is the Ballantine paper back... 1982, I believe.


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## Dhôn-Buri-Dhôn (Apr 13, 2002)

Also see Appendix E in RotK. Lots of examples given.


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## Lantarion (Apr 13, 2002)

Turgon, EverEve and Nazgul are absolutely correct. The 'i' is indeed long. It would sound silly to say The Shr!


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## HLGStrider (Apr 13, 2002)

I used to get into arguments with a friend over this sort of thing. He was pronouncing Gandalf Gand-aff and I was saying Aragorn Are-Agorn. 
We eventually straightened each other out... There were a lot of other things we could never decide on.


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## Hirila (Apr 13, 2002)

Another thing: the english pronunciation of "Sauron" is legally with the "au" being like <mother>.
And that`s the way they say it in the film.
But didn`t Tolkien say that it should be pronounced like the German "au" that is the u after an a. A bit like <lousy>.


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