There are two rules that conflict here. First of all, I've found out the Tolkien family-name is german in origin, from his poppa. I found a bit about it on the TolkienSociety interwebpage.
But second, there is an old linguist rule that says that when a foreign word is brought into your culture, the "proper" way of pronouncing it gets decided by what the general consensus is.
Sweden, Denmark and Finland pronounces it "Tolki-yen". We swedes also pronounce pizza "pitsa" and Babs Streisand "Streysund" (not strisand). This is not wrong, it is idiomatic.
So yes, I admit the proper way would be Tolkeen (I'm a sensible, mature man after all), but also that our way is accepted. So Nyah!
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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"But second, there is an old linguist rule that says that when a foreign word is brought into your culture, the "proper" way of pronouncing it gets decided by what the general consensus is."
Right. But a name isn't a word, in that sense. The correct way to pronounce a name is how the owner pronounces it.
I mean, look at how many people in the US have names ending in "-stein" and they pronounce it "-steen". It may be wrong in terms of it being a German word, but it's their name, so it's pretty much their call on how to pronounce it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Well then I have something interesting here, maybe. In the appendices of the "Fellowship" EE-DVD, the son of Tolkien's original publisher gave an account about him, and about how he was asked to write a review on "The Hobbit" at age 10. This man, it seems, pronounced it Tolkiyen. So there's a chance JRR did what your "Goldsteen" did and pronounces his own name different than other past Tolkiens, echoed by those around him.
Take that, standards, manners and traditions!
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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