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Machen, Dunsany, Tolkien, Others on Pronouncing Their Names
Posted by: Dale Nelson (IP Logged)
Date: 10 July, 2023 08:43AM
[ashiverinthearchives.blogspot.com]

Probably everyone here already knew how to pronounced Arthur Machen's last name. When I was I youngster, though, I heard it in my mind's ear as Matchen. It's good to see Tolkien's definitive statement, in a hitherto not recorded (so far as I know) bit of writing, about his name. In the video biography of Tolkien, his publisher Rayner Unwin pronounces it with the accent on the second syllable, if I remember rightly; this is incorrect. (When I was a boy I heard the name in my mind's ear as Tol-kine.) Lin Carter correctly explained the pronunciation of the author of The Charwoman's Shadow, which (when I was a kid) I heard in my mind's ear as Dun-sunny).

Re: Machen, Dunsany, Tolkien, Others on Pronouncing Their Names
Posted by: Sawfish (IP Logged)
Date: 10 July, 2023 12:35PM
Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> [ashiverinthearchives.blogspot.com]
> ow-to-correctly-pronounce-names-like.html
>
> Probably everyone here already knew how to
> pronounced Arthur Machen's last name. When I was
> I youngster, though, I heard it in my mind's ear
> as Matchen. It's good to see Tolkien's definitive
> statement, in a hitherto not recorded (so far as I
> know) bit of writing, about his name. In the
> video biography of Tolkien, his publisher Rayner
> Unwin pronounces it with the accent on the second
> syllable, if I remember rightly; this is
> incorrect. (When I was a boy I heard the name in
> my mind's ear as Tol-kine.) Lin Carter correctly
> explained the pronunciation of the author of The
> Charwoman's Shadow, which (when I was a kid) I
> heard in my mind's ear as Dun-sunny).

I'm uninformed on all of these, and would greatly appreciate the correct pronunciations.

In my mind's ear:

TOLL-key-en

MAY-chen

dun-SAY-nee

Here's one I know I got wrong and had to be corrected:

J. G. Ballard

I heard:

BAL-lurd

and I now believe it is:

bal-LARD or buh-LARD

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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Re: Machen, Dunsany, Tolkien, Others on Pronouncing Their Names
Posted by: Dale Nelson (IP Logged)
Date: 10 July, 2023 12:45PM
Sawfish, check the link for those names -- except Ballard's -- about which, yes, I have seen somewhere that it is accented on the second syllable.

You're already right about Dunsany, though.



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