Sindarin stress and actual pronunciation

[Elfje]

Mae govannen 🤗! May I kindly ask you for your help regarding Sindarin pronunciation? How do you stress the adjective edhellen knowing that the noun is stressed on the first syllable E-dhel? The general rule is to stress the second to last syllable unless it is a short syllable or it is foôowed by only one consonant so it would be e-DHEL-len. This sounds so weird to me as edhel is such a central word referinh to the Elves and pronouncing it this way kind of looses the connection.
Thank you so very much for your much looked for answer on the internet - and thank you so much for welcoming me to your forum 💕!!

Elfje

 

[Elhath Reborn]

The Sindarin word edhellen is stressed on the second /e/.

 

[Gilruin]

It is indeed edhEllen like the general rule predicts. Stress is pretty much only based on word shape, not etymology, so if you append a suffix to something, it will quite often change the stress.
There is not much I can say about it except for "Appendix E says so, and nowhere does Tolkien mention anything different", but for edhellen we have also the meter of the Moria Gate spell as evidence:

Annon edhEllen, Edro hí Ammen,
fEnnas nogOthrim, lAsto beth lAmmen.

Now if you dislike edhEllen, I don't think you'd appreciate nogOthrim either, but for what it's worth, this is how the verse seems to be written.

Quenya with its noun cases has a much more extreme version of this: Atan "man", atAnatar "father of Men", atanatÁri "fathers of Men", atanatarInnar "towards the fathers of Men" etc.

 

[Elfje]

Thank you very, very much for your very quick replies and answers Elhath and Gilruin 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 Indeed I have been trying to find an audio of that very Gandalf's incantation to get a clue - and your explanations are much more comprehensive and very much valued, Gilruin 😍👍🏻

If I may, is there a definitive or at least widely accepted contemporary source on Sindarin pronunciation? In particular for the pronunciation of the various lengths of the vowel o, the seven diphtongs, and whether double consonants like nn are pronounced as n-n, or a longer "single" n - or "just" as a simple single n which would still count as two consonants, as I have found in different and I admit somewhat unsettling yet apparently reputed sources?
No hurry to answer and any recommendation hugely appreciated from a swiss mountains' elleth 😎

Best and so many thanks again 😇!!!

 

[Elhath Reborn]

The recorded Sindarin textst at Glǽmscrafu are probably the best pronunciation help online.

Fiona Jallings' Sindarin pronunciation guide is not bad either, just as long as you follow the written example, should it differ from the recorded one.

For finding out the stressed syllable in an individual word or name, the appendices in David Salo's book A Gateway to Sindarin are still useful today.

 

[Elfje]

Woaw 🤩! Thank you so much Elhath 🤗!!! Glaemscrafu is a fantastic help - so much appreciated 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻! And yes, Fiona Jalling's recordings are superb - with tiny slips 😇And I will go to David Salo's book which I have heard so much of 👍🏻😎

With my gratitude and respect to you and all these great authors 😍

Elfje