In terms of the whole Tolkien thing, I can totally appreciate your frustration. I always pronounced it Tul-KEHN when I was growing up. However, I found out it was supposedly pronounced Tul-KEEN a few years ago. Honestly, I’m not sure how it’s supposed to be pronounced. I suspect it’s the latter. If I ever meet Tolkien’s son, I’ll ask him what the right pronunciation is. But the English have a weird predilection for pronouncing names in ways that seem to violate the English language. Take, for instance, Davis/Davies. You would think that the former would be pronounced Day-vihz, and the latter, Day-vees, right? Wrong. Actually, it’s the opposite way around. And then there’s the economist, John Maynard Keynes. You would think that his last name is pronounced “Keenes”, right? Wrong. The “proper” way of pronouncing it is Kay-nes. And for place names, Gloustershire, is pronounced “Gloster”.
And on and on. Point is, that the English often pronounce names in ways that don’t seem right to us, over here. Probably because it sounds more “sophisticated”, and “intellectual”.
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