Tolkien Speaking Elvish

[Roccotari Eldandil]

Yippee! I love this. As a student of Quenya, it's wonderful to hear this pronounced! Some of the first few words are different though...instead of yéni there's "inyar" and some wording changes. I think this was mentioned in the 1st lesson of Ardalambion.com's Quenya course. Check there if you want more.
I LOVE TOLKIEN!!! (well, duh, otherwise I wouldn't be on here.) He's so cool.

[Joy]

Here I am reading Namarie - http://kingdomwarrior.jlym.com/Namarie.zip It is a large file - about a meg in space.

EDIT: I zipped the file now and it is a bit smaller and faster to download.


I think that part of the "Voice" changes could be because of British accent and also he is speaking fast.

[PaleStar]

Joy, I love your voice! You sound like you've been speaking Quenya for a long while.
*smiles*

[Thulorongil]

I had heard that recording of Tolkien before. It really is interesting to hear him speak it. I wish I could have heard that Finnish choir. He does speak rather fast, but it make it more "authentic" as someone speaking their native language would go quicker. (Just ask my friends!)

Yeah, the recording has some different words than those in LotR. The recorded version has inyar únóti nar instead of yéni únótimë and inyar ve lintë yulmar vánier ra rather than yéni ve lintë yuldar (a)vánier as in LotR. Does anyone know why?

The sound of it kind of feels weird, though. More of a repetitive, bouncing almost in the middle of each phrase as he must get through the long syllables of each word before dropping off at the end. Quenya always seems like it should be more flowing, and it is that way when Joy reads it. And everyone will have their own voice and dialect. I guess we're also all used to hearing poetry in our own languages, though, so anything seems strange. I do love the feel of each word, with such pure vowels and expressive sounds.

[Lalaith]

I really enjoyed your reading, Joy!
For those of you who find the Tolkien reading a bit strange, try listening a few times, I found it grows on you with repeated listening.

A few things about the different languages mentioned: Lapp (Sami) and Finnish on the one hand and the Germanic/Nordic/Scandinavian languages on the other are entirely unrelated.

Finnish (which is fiendishly difficult to learn) is not an Indo-European language, and is not related to any other language in Europe except Hungarian. The language of the Lapps (or more politely, the Sami) is really many dialects and belongs to the same family as Finnish.

Tolkien found Finnish a beautiful language (it is an indication of his linguistic brilliance that he mastered it!) and did indeed use it as an inspiration for Quenya.

[Osse]

I for one, found Tolkien's voice far more 'mystical' than all of the actors in the films. It sounded like he could actually use the language in day to day life (seeing he was fluent in both the elven languages and finnish, he could!) unlike most of the actors who seemed to almost sing the words, which quite frankly is im-bloody-practical... and as for "english accents making the words sound icky" i shall (like squatter [i am so proud of your restraint!]) stop myself from speaking openly, for one could say exactly the same about american accents!

May I say, however, how much I admire Joy for the time and effort she has obviously poured into her endeavour of learning such a difficult language. My hat and heart goes off and out to you.


Keep up the work, and i am sure you'll have it flowing as you say you'd like!!

[One Axe to Rule them All]

I always imagined him as an Anthony Hopkins character, but we can't have everything we want...

It would be great to hear Anthony Hopkins speak Sindarin or Quenya some time though!