Namárie (subtitled and translated)

This version aims at as much accuracy as possible in pronouncing Quenya the way Tolkien had imagined it would sound.

Kloczko's "Elvish Languages" has been very useful, though not flawless, due to its "creative" approach to the Int'l Phonetic Alphabet.

Being Quenya's phonology linked to that of Finnish, Greek, Latin and Italian, I found it natural to adopt D. Jones's "Cardinal Vowels" for Elvish /i e a o u/. Tolkien stated clearly that "long 'e' and 'o' were closer and tenser" than their short counterparts, e.g. /e/[ε] BUT /e:/[e:]. The same happens in many Germanic languages, which Tolkien loved so dearly. I did my best to utter each sound with full clarity and precision.

Regarding pauses and intonation, my reading might sound peculiar to those accustomed to other versions, but I preferred to stick to the syntactic structure and to the meaning of the words, rather than mechanically keep the same rythm for each verse. Again, my approach to stress is based on Kloczko's authoritative handbook.

The Lament is read at a very slow pace, and sometimes my voice gets lost in nowhere. I did this intentionally, not only to avoid slurr, but even more to convey that sense of profound sadness inherent all along the poem.

Were you interested in a more artistic - and maybe more beautiful - approach, I suggest ALBUSEVERUS's version, which I find better than that of Tolkien himself.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• namarie
• lingua
• studi
• umanistici
• arti
• sceniche
• media

[Etyaldaron]

Hey Marco.

I like your pronunciantion, eventhough you made two or three mistakes in stressing some words.

But every letter was pronunced just perfect.

Namárië, meldonya.

[marcoxyzxyz]

Hi, thanks for your comment. Please tell me which words are not correctly stressed. I'll look them up on Kloczko's dictionary.

Bye.

[albuseverus]

This is really well done, I like it!

It has the right spirit and a pronunciation I cannot find fault with. :)

Keep it up, let's hear your Sindarin. You don't have to hide yourself, you are really good (and I wouldn't say so if I didn't think so)!

[marcoxyzxyz]

哎,不敢当,不敢当您过奖了。Thank you, anyway.

And... what about this Sindarin? I can't find reliable material to work on :-(

[gavinoaw]

ok, i REALLY like this video for a couple of reasons. firstly its made by sumbody who realy worked on his pronouncation, and secondly its sumbody who is not a german speaker, cuz all good examples of elvish (quenya or sindarin)that i know are by german speakers (my own and those of Albuseverus), except that of tolkien of course. thx for posting this!!! now i only have to find an equaly good example of spoken sindarin.... does anyone know if there are recordings of tolkien speaking sindarin?

[marcoxyzxyz]

Too kind of you! I was so-o-o scared at the idea of posting my voice in Quenya. °_° I truly appreciate your comments, thanks for your support! I was thinking about reciting something in Sindarin, but I lack a serious phonosynthesis scheme: one can find many transcriptions on the Net, but none of them is really reliable. Maybe, you could help me in that.

[mitchull45]

pronunciation is actually pretty good, but the fact that you read it so slowly kind of kills the spirit of the language

quenya should kind of flow from your tongue

[AngieChasinFireworks]

r u italian????u sound italian....

[birdshapes]

reminds me of finnish... interesting!

[ilyverymuchly]

I have come to the conclusion that Italian-speakers have an easier time pronouncing Quenya than English speakers! lol

[gigino86]

grazie per questa versione del video con sottotitoli in italiano..... per un pricipiante è fondamentale....

[xgfxfailx]

@mitchull45 not so easy to read it quickly like Tolkien you mess up a lot :]

[meteorologykid]

okay i really think this is one sexy language NO JOKE! i wanna learn it so bad i just need someone to help me :'(

[MaBu888]

@gavinoaw

There's good Quenya by a Finnish guy too. Search Godfather in Elvish.

[imladris50]

Quenya con acento italiano... hahahaha

[Ailell7]

I cryed for half hour when I heard it....so sad, so beautifful....

thx you....

[paolo16100]

It sounds really "authentic" ;)

the stress mistake was in particular: Tintalle /tin'talle/ bu probably also Rómello and ómaryo are not properly stressed. Buon lavoro davvero!