In FFG's LOTRLCG tutorial video, I found that they say Dúnhere as " due-near".

But I wonder it should be pronounce as /ˈduːnhere/. because it comes from dún "hill" and here "army“. Am I right ?

I hate to be repetitive on pronunciation, but I always emphasize on that vowels in the languages that Tolkien used most (mostly Old English and his different varieties of Elvish) were pronounced very differently from languages like modern English and French. Did a little research on Old English, which is the language Dúnhere belongs to, and its etymology, and it seems like the word means "mountain-warrior": "Dún" meaning hill (derived to english "down") and "here" meaning host or warrior. ú in Anglo-saxon does not have that "you" or "ew" sound, it's just a hard u like in modern english "boot". And short e's are like that of "let, not as in "here". So, my guess (it's also the mst intuitive way to pronounce it in Spanish as well) would be DOON-heh-reh.

btw, sources were Tolkiengateway and other Tolkien pages, Wikictionary and a series on Youtube of Old English lessons.

Further linguistic goodness:

source: https://books.google.cl/books?id=v2OcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

Basically, that chapter says those "composite" sounds of english vowels, like that of letter a which rhymes with hey, and u becoming "you" are a result of French influence in the language during the Norman conquest.

I hate to be repetitive on pronunciation, but I always emphasize on that vowels in the languages that Tolkien used most (mostly Old English and his different varieties of Elvish) were pronounced very differently from languages like modern English and French. Did a little research on Old English, which is the language Dúnhere belongs to, and its etymology, and it seems like the word means "mountain-warrior": "Dún" meaning hill (derived to english "down") and "here" meaning host or warrior. ú in Anglo-saxon does not have that "you" or "ew" sound, it's just a hard u like in modern english "boot". And short e's are like that of "let, not as in "here". So, my guess (it's also the mst intuitive way to pronounce it in Spanish as well) would be DOON-heh-reh.

btw, sources were Tolkiengateway and other Tolkien pages, Wikictionary and a series on Youtube of Old English lessons.

Further linguistic goodness:

"About A.D. 1000, the vowels were probably sounded nearly as in modern Italian, except that [æ] stood for a sound intermediate between those of a and e(i.e. the modern southern sound of a in pat), and that y, as already remarked, was like the French u."

source: https://books.google.cl/books?id=v2OcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA392&lpg=PA392&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

Basically, that chapter says those "composite" sounds of english vowels, like that of letter a which rhymes with hey, and u becoming "you" are a result of French influence in the language during the Norman conquest.

Thanks very much, because I'm a chinese player and I don't know if I say it correct. In China there are two translation editions of LOTR, one comes from Taiwan about 10 years ago and in that book Dúnhere pronounces like dun-here， and in the Shanghai edition which published 2 years ago Dúnhere pronounces like DOON-heh-reh.

I like to call him "done here".

Are you sure Old English didn't have the silent 'e' concept? This changes the way I would pronounce a lot of Rohirric names: Gleowine, Deorwine, etc

Are you sure Old English didn't have the silent 'e' concept? This changes the way I would pronounce a lot of Rohirric names: Gleowine, Deorwine, etc

Yes, I had totally forgotten that. Just checked the pronunciation of Aelfwine, a common anglo-saxon name Tolkien used a lot, and while I couldn't find any certain information on how it's pronounced, there's a possibility it is pronounced as "Aelf-win", which would make Dúnhere as "DOON-her". That's a possibility, but so far I haven't found any good info.

Are you sure Old English didn't have the silent 'e' concept? This changes the way I would pronounce a lot of Rohirric names: Gleowine, Deorwine, etc

I have no idea if this is an authoritative source, but according to them it seems to be pronounced "win-eh" at the end.

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/g/gleowine.html

Pronunciation

Approximately 'glay'awineh'

The silent <e> came about in Middle English when orthography began to be standardized. If you assume Rohirric is based off that and not Old English, then it would be /h I 9/ (WorldBet transcription) - NB the vowel is closer to a modern "long e", as the English silent <e> marks a vowel raising/lengthening with the Great Vowel Shift. Otherwise it would be roughly a schwa sound, like /h E 9 &/, in Old English. Additionally the <r> would probably be less of a rhotic sonorant and either more uvular or a coronal tap. I.e. pronounce Dunhere like it's a Spanish word, but with a short <e> on the end.

I don't think Tolkien left much describing which variety he based the Rohirrim on, but my guess is Old English based off the morphophonemics of other proper names like Meduseld and Eorlingas.

Network57, Tolkien was an Oxford proffessor of Old English and made studies on Beowulf and translated other Old English literature. Most of the names and words in Rohirric are either just straight up OE words (thinking of Ceorl), or slightly modified variations like Eowyn (which in standard OE would be Eowine). I'm pretty sure he was very explicit on that. So, with that said I agree with your proposed pronunciation.

This is an awesome thread! Today I learned something interesting.

Great! I think we're done here!

Great! I think we're done here!

... ''Done here''? Mouhahaha!!!