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VOWELS

Typically, they are a, e, i, o, u (and additionally y in Sindarin).

Long vowels are typically marked with an acute accent (as is the case in Sindarin and Quenya). However, there are differences in pronunciation.

Sindarin: á, é, ó have the same quality as short vowels but extended Quenya: é, ó are tenser and 'closer' than the short vowels.

It is rather difficult to express long vowels properly in English, so it is better perhaps to merely have a convention (which is open to suggestions) and for simplicity apply it universally.

Approximate pronunciations for vowels in these languages is as followed (in brackets):

      Short Vowel        Long Vowel

      a (fathom)         á (farm)             
      e (were)           é (keen)
      i (machine)        í (bite)
      o (fog)            ó (mope)  
      u (brute)          ú (cool)

In Sindarin, the use of the circumflex denotes a long vowel which is stressed (which typically results in an unsually prolonged vowel).

Example: Dûn (dÚn) compared to Dúnedain (dúnEdain)

The meaning of the circumflex in other languages is uncertain. In LoTR, Tolkien claims that in tongues such as Khuzdul and Adûnaic, it is merely used to mark the tongue out as alien (but he may be implying that it merely means that no excessive stress is implied as it is in Sindarin).

In his construction of Adûnaic as described in Sauron Defeated, Tolkien used the macron to denote long vowels (e and o are strange in that they do not exist as short vowels). Circumflexes were used to denote over-long vowels. However, in his published work, it is the circumflex which takes the place of the macron in this tongue.

As a rule, it is perhaps simplest to consider the use of the circumflex as denoting a long-vowel in languages other than Sindarin.

What is MUME?

MUME, Multi-Users in Middle-earth, is a multiplayer text-based online game based upon J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth during the epic wars of the late Third Age between the forces of the Dark Lord and the armies of the Free peoples. MUME is completely at no cost and has been continuously running, expanded, and remastered by a community of volunteers since 1991.

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