As the Sylvia to my Ted is actually an Emily, I am very much familiar with the difficulties in certain trans-Atlantic translations. Neither of us are entirely sure how we respectively used to pronounce the word 'garage'.
I am also a 'devotee' of the afore-mentioned French 'j' sound for instance as occasioned by the vocalisation of 'occasionally'; this sound in phonetics is traditionally denoted by 'zh'.
And yes, I am rather smug about my trans-atlantic-poet description of my lady's terrible American affliction.
On a more Tolkien related note, I agree with the above comment questioning why, as JRRT so clearly loved the soft 'ce' of the word 'cellar', he hardened the names of such luminaries as Celeborn. To give it a more 'authentic' Celtic feel, one imagines, but I cannot help but feel slight regret whenever I hear Celeborn said this way; I too am more in favour of the softer sound. Ah well. You can't hear me saying it!
