Re: Latin vowel inventory

Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:

> Quoting Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>:
>
> >     The less common diphthongs oe and eu are best pronounced as they are
> > written (o+e, e+u). In 'cui', 'hui' the ui is to be pronounced as a
> > dipthong, somewhat as in 'ruinous'; but 'qui:' is [kwi:].
>
> I have three syllables in "ruinous", and like to think that I in this mimic
> most nativers I've heard. And I've heard Americans complain about Tolkien
> describing the Quendian diphthong /ui/ as like the _ui_ in "ruin", despite
> the later not being a diphthong.
>
> So, is there some (obsolete?) variety of English English that have a
> monosyllabic pronunciation of "ruin", or have I, due to people like the
> abovementioned Americans, acquired an unusual pronunciation here?
No, you are correct.  Again, it's just a dumbing down, this time
on the part of Tolkien, to reach an audience essentially ignorant
of phonetics.

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