Pronunciation Guide

As Tolkien says himself in Appendix E to The Lord of the Rings, his names in Elvish and other languages are generally intended to be pronounced as they are spelt, following the conventions of English. In general this rule holds, but there are a few cases where the pronunciation might be unusual or counter-intuitive, and there are also a handful of non-standard conventions and accents to consider.

Across the site, we've included individual pronunciation guidelines for each relevant entry, but sometimes the space available for a brief comment is insufficient to discuss all the features of pronunication in depth. This guide, then, is designed to give a more expansive explanation of the sounds of Tolkien's languages, especially Elvish.

The pronunciations give here draw on three main sources, with the primary source being Tolkien's own notes on pronunciation in Appendix E I to The Lord of the Rings. He also provides some useful points of clarification in The Road Goes Ever On, and we also take into account the additional notes given by Christopher Tolkien in The Silmarillion.

A Note on Stress

'Stress' is the emphasis given to a particular syllable within a word. In the pronunciation guides within individual entries, we've marked the position of stress by using a single quote mark (') following the vowel sound in the stressed syllable. The rules for the placement of stress in Elvish are relatively consistent, with only a few exceptional cases to consider.

For two-syllable words, the stress is almost always place on the first syllable (Tolkien hints that there may be a tiny number of exceptions, but he does not give details). So, for example, in names like Sauron, Balrog, Valar, Morgoth and so on, the stress or emphasis is always on the first of the two syllables. (For instance, Sauron is pronounced SAU-ron, not sau-RON).

For words with more than two syllables, the stress is usually placed on the antepenult (that is, the second-to-last syllable of the word). In a three-syllable word, this equates to the first syllable so, for example, Aragorn is stressed as AR-a-gorn, and Celeborn as KEL-eb-orn. In a four-syllable word, the antepenult is the second syllable (for example, Inglorion is stressed as in-GLOR-i-on), and so on.

These are the typical rules for stress in a word with more than two syllables, but matters are complicated by a series of exceptions. These exceptions relate to the vowel sound of the penult (last-but-one syllable) of the word, and if that falls into one of three classes, then it takes the stress instead of the preceding syllable. These exceptions are:

• Where the vowel is long (which usually means that it is marked with an acute accent). An example is Gandalf's name Incánus, which would be stressed as IN-kan-us if not for the long á sound, but with that long vowel it becomes in-KAN-us.
• Where the vowel is a diphthong (any of a set of vowel-pairs treated as a single vowel sound). An example is Valaraukar, the Quenya name for the Balrogs, where the combination au is one of the recognised diphthongs. This name is therefore stressed as 'val-a-RAUK-ar' rather than 'val-A-rauk-ar'. Other examples include names like Finduilas and Crissaegrim (ui and ae are diphthongs, so these names are stressed as 'fin-DUI-las' and 'criss-AEG-rim'). The full set of diphthongs is included in the following pronunciation guide.
• Where the vowel is followed by two or more consonants in sequence. An example is Isildur, where the i sound of the penult is followed by the combination -ld-, so the name is stressed as 'is-IL-dur' rather than 'IS-il-dur'. This rule is complicated slightly by the fact that it applies to Elvish consonantal sounds, which don't quite overlap with English consonants. For instance, following the English spelling of Elendil, this rule would seem to suggest as stress pattern 'el-EN-dil'. Actually, however, nd is a single character in Elvish writing so this rule does not apply, and the name should therefore be stressed as 'EL-e-ndil'. The reference list below includes letter-combinations like this that vary between English and Elvish.

Note that this guide is particularly designed to help with the pronunciation of Elvish names, though some notes on other systems (especially the language of the Rohirrim) are also included. For names that are English in form (most notably, the names used by the Hobbits of the Shire), these are intended to be pronounced as is natural in English. To follow Tolkien's own example from Appendix E: in Elvish the g sound is always hard, as in English 'garden', but the Hobbit-name Bolger is nonetheless pronounced with a soft g as in the English word 'bulge'.

Pronunciation Reference

It's common for pronunciation guides to break down their contents according to the type of sounds (consonants, vowels, diphthongs and so on). We've taken a slightly different approach here, listing all the sounds in simple alphabetical order to make it as easy as possible to find a particular reference.

We've listed accented characters as separate sounds in the list below, but we've also omitted letters or combinations for which the sounds follow standard English pronunciation, except in a few noteworthy cases. In other words, if a particular letter or sound isn't listed here, it should be pronounced just as is natural in English.

a	always represents the slightly lengthened sound of a in English 'father', and never the short a in words like 'bat' or 'cat'. This can be counter-intuitive in names like Annatar (which is formally pronunced not as 'an-na-tar', but something like 'ahn-nah-tahr') and within entries we have sometimes used 'ah' to represent this sound and make its lengthened status clear.
á	in Quenya names, represents a longer version of simple a, but with the same quality, so this sound might be represented as something like 'ah'. It appears, for example in names like Vána or Elentári. In Sindarin names, the sounds of á and a were effectively identical.
â	in non-Elvish names (which are the vast majority of cases), â is equivalent to á above, representing a lengthened 'ah' sound. In Sindarin only, this accent implies a sound slightly longer than á, occurring only in rare monosyllables (and in fact the only canonical Elvish name using this sound is Saruman's title 'Lân, 'the White').
ae	is a diphthong with no direct equivalent in English, but it can be pronounced like 'eye' (that is, to rhyme with 'by' or 'lie'). So, for example, the last syllable of the name Arahael rhymes with English 'file' or 'tile'.
ai	has a similar sound to ae above, though distinct in its origins. Like ae, ai can pronounced like English 'eye' so that, for example, the last syllable of the word Dúnedain is pronounced like English 'dine'. This diphtong is sometimes seen in combination an a sound, notably in Maiar, where the combination produces a pronunciation like 'my-ar' (that is, the first syllable sounds like the English word 'my').
au	a diphthong pronounced like ow is English 'town', or ou in 'sour'. This vowel combination is prominently seen in the name Sauron, which is pronounced like 'sour-on' (that is, the first syllable sounds like the English word 'sour', not 'saw').
bh	is problematic and uncertain. It occurs in only a single Dwarvish name (Sharbhund), and its intended pronunciation is never explained. Following the model of the much more common kh sound in Dwarvish names, bh would probably be pronounced as in English 'abhor'. An alternative possibility is that the h is meant to indicate a 'fricative', making a sound somewhat like v, though this seems less likely in the context of the sounds used by the Dwarves.
c	always has a hard sound like k, as in English 'cavern' or 'costume', and never a soft sound as in 'celebrate'. So Celeborn of Lórien and Círdan the Shipwright had a names that would be pronunced like 'keleborn' and 'keerdan', and not 'seleborn' and 'seerdan'. In fact c and k are sometimes used interchangeably when transliterating Elvish (for example, the river-name Ciril is sometimes also seen written as Kiril, and both spellings have identical pronunciations to one another).
ch	is pronounced with a guttural sound as in German auch, Welsh bach or Scots loch (and never the common 'ch' sound in English, as in words like 'church' or 'chew'). Thus names like Erchamion or Anglachel are pronounced somewhat like 'erkamion' or 'anglakel' (using 'k' to represent the true, more guttural, Elvish sound of ch).
dh	is not pronounced as 'd', but rather as a voiced 'th' sound (that is, the sound of th of English 'these' or 'wreathe' as opposed the unvoiced th in 'thin' or 'wreath'). The most prominent example of this sound is probably in the mountain name Caradhras, which is pronounced as 'karathras' (but, note, with a voiced th sound), and not 'karadras'.
e	has the value of a short 'e', as in English words like 'let' or 'red'. Unlike in English, this vowel is always pronounced, even when it appears at the end of the word (and in that position it is often accented as ë to emphasise this). So, a name like Essë is pronounced as 'esseh', not 'ess' (within entries on this site, we have often used 'eh' to emphasise this final pronunciation, but note that the sound is still that of a simple short 'e', not the 'ay' sound that 'eh' might suggest). Unlike in English, the quality of the 'e' sound does not change depending on the structure of the word. For example, it would be natural in English to lengthen the 'e' sound in a name like Melian to produce something like 'meelian', but in Elvish the 'e' remains short (effectively as if the name were spelt 'mellian').
é	specifically in Quenya, has the value of long or closed 'e', sounding approximately like 'ay'. So, for example, a word like Cuiviénen would be pronounced like 'kuivi-aynen'. In Sindarin words, conversely, é is unmodified, and sounds like its unaccented version. This accented é was also very common in names used by the Rohirrim, but in those names it usually formed part of a diphthong, for which see éa and éo below.
ë	is simply pronounced as a short e sound. The diaeresis (the two dots over the e here) does not modify the quality of the vowel, but merely emphasises that it should be distinctly pronounced. This sign is commonly used where e is the final sound of the word. For example, the Elvish month-name Nénimë might naturally be pronounced in English as something like 'ne-neem', but the accenting of the vowels shows that it should actually be pronounced 'nay-ni-meh'. Where an ë appears within a name, it is used to emphasise that two vowels are distinct, and do not form a diphthong. A prominent example of this is seen in the name Fëanor, where the diaeresis shows that the e and a sounds are separate (and so the name is pronounced 'feh-anor', and not 'feenor').
ê	represents a long 'e' sound. In principle, this accent would be used in Sindarin to mark an especially elongated monosyllable, but in fact no such application appears in the canonical sources. In other languages, notably Adûnaic, the circumflex accent simply marked a long 'e' sound (equivalent é in Elvish), so a word like Akallabêth would be pronounced like 'aka'llabeeth'. (If Akallabêth had been an Elvish word, rather than Adûnaic, it would have been accented as Akallabéth.)
ea	is not a dipthong in Elvish. Whereas in English, ea usually is a diphthong, with the sounds being run together, in Elvish the e and a sounds are always pronounced separately. So, where English fear is pronounced like 'feer', the Elvish word fëar ('spirits') has two syllables, 'fe-ar'. As in this example, in Elvish words the combination ea is almost always marked with a diaeresis over one of the vowels, to make this distinction clear.
ëa	represents a pair of distinct vowel sounds, as described under ea above. This particular style of accenting (with the diaeresis over the initial e) is typical where this combination of vowels occurs within a word. The most prominent example is Fëanor, but the same structure is also seen in names like Eressëa or Vëantur. In all these cases, the diaeresis emphasises that the two vowels are to be pronounced separately and so, for example, Fëanor is pronounced like 'feh-anor', not 'feenor'.
eä	is effectively identical to ëa above. This particular style of accenting (with the diaeresis over the a) is used where the combination appears at the beginning of a name, as in Eärendil or Eärnur. Note that e is always short in Elvish unless otherwise specified, so a name like Eärendil is pronounced like 'eh-arendil', not 'ee-arendil'.
éa	does not occur in Elvish, but represents a diphthong from Old English, and thus appears in words from the language of the Rohirrim, as well as related tongues of the Vales of Anduin. The pronunciation of this sound is hard to communicate in text, but it falls somewhere between the 'ay' in English 'say' and the 'ai' in 'air'. The best known example is in Sméagol, which is properly pronounced as something like 'smaigol'.
ei	is a combination representing diphthong, pronounced as 'ay' in English 'hay' or 'ray'. So, for example, Mitheithel (the Elvish name for the river Hoarwell) is pronounced as 'mithaythel', and Nîn-in-Eilph (Swanfleet) as 'neen-in-aylf'.
el	is a combination with a slight difference between Elvish and English. In Elvish words the sound was somewhat 'palatalised' (that is, pronounced towards the roof of the mouth) and the combination was historically sometimes written as ehl to emphasise this. In later use this subtle difference seems to have been lost, or at least become less distinct, so that Elvish el was pronounced more closely to the natural English 'el' (and so in the pronunciation guides for individual entries on this site, we have disregarded this minor effect).
eo	occurs primarily in names derived from Old English, in which language it is pronounced as a diphthong, with the vowel sound sliding from a short e sound to a mid-central vowel sound or schwa (that is, approximately the vowel sound in the word bird). The full sound is difficult to communicate in text, but it might sound something like 'ehuh', with examples including Eorl and Beorn. Note that this sound would not be a diphthong in a name derived from Elvish, but in practice Elvish uses of eo tend to be accented to make the distinction clear (see below).
eö	in Elvish names, where e and o appear together, they are pronounced as separate sounds (that is, as a short e followed by a short o). This distinction is emphasised by the use of the diaeresis symbol over the o. There are only two prominent examples of this combination, in Eöl and Eönwë, whose names might be pronounced as 'eh-ol' and 'eh-onweh' respectively.
éo	comes from the Old English for 'horse', and is therefore common in the names of the Rohirrim. This is a diphthong combining two vowel sounds, specifically ay with o, so ço represents a single vowel sound something like 'ayo'. Note that the 'o' here is short, as in 'dot' rather than 'dote', so a name like Éomer is pronounced 'ayo-mer', not 'ay-oa-mer'.
ëo	as with eö above, the accenting here simply serves to emphasise that the e and the o are pronounced as separate sounds. This combination is identical in intent to eö, except that it used when the vowel pair appears within a word, rather than at the beginning. The sole canonical example is in the name Bëor ('beh-or'), which is not in fact an Elvish name, but the same rule applies.
er	is generally pronounced as in English, except where er appears at the end of a word, or immediately before a consonant within a word. In these cases, it should be pronounced like the English 'air'. Examples of this combination ending a name would include Ondoher or Ostoher (both of which should end with an 'air' sound), and within a name an example would be Mereth Aderthad (where Aderthad is pronounced as 'adairthad').
eu	presents some difficulty. This combination is noted as being a diphthong, but as to its correct pronunciation, all we're told is that there is no sound in English that comes close. There are in fact no canonical Elvish names that contain this sound, so its obscure pronunciation presents less of a problem than might otherwise be the case.
f	is, in most cases, simply pronounced as 'f' usually would be. At the end of the word, however, the f sound is modified to v (as in fact also happens with some English words, notably 'of'). Examples where this v rule would be active are names like Fladrif or Nindalf, which would be pronounced 'fladriv' and 'nindalv', respectively. An important exception to this rule is the familiar name Gandalf, which does not derive from Elvish, and so the final f sound need not be modified.
g	is always hard in Elvish names and words. That is, g is always pronounced as in English 'gift' or 'garden', never soft as in 'ginger' or 'giraffe'. So, for example, the first syllable of the Elf-name Gildor is pronounced like English 'gild'. The same rule applies where g appears within the name, so Eregion or Region are pronounced as if they were spelt 'ereggion' or 'reggion' respectively, and not with a soft g as in English 'region'.
hl	is a rather obscure combination said to have been found only in archaic Quenya (though not in fact present in any recorded name). It represents a voiceless l sound (see lh below).
hr	represents a voiceless r sound (that is, the sound produced by shaping the mouth to pronounce r, but without vibrating the vocal cords). In Elvish, r was usually distinctly pronounced, voiced and trilled, so a separate form, hr, is used to represent those rare cases where the r is unvoiced. Note that the use of 'h' here is a convention to specify the unvoiced sound, and is not meant to imply that h should actually be pronounced. This unusual sound in fact only occurs a single canonical case, hrívë (the Quenya word for 'winter'), which would be pronounced 'reeveh' with a weak initial 'r' sound.
ht	in Quenya words, has the sound at the end of German words like acht or nacht; that is, the h sound is pronounced like ch above (as in auch or loch. This sound occurs in a variety of names derived from Quenya; for example, Calimehtar is pronounced like 'kalimechtar', and Minohtar like 'minochtar'. The same sound is in Telumehtar, the Quenya name for Orion, which is pronounced as 'teloomechtar'. Remember that the ch is all these cases has a hard sound, not the familiar 'ch' as in 'chew'.
hw	As hr above represents a voiceless r sound, hw is used to denote a voiceless w. This sound is rare in English, though it does occur in the pronunciation of words like 'white' or 'whine' in certain dialects. It is equally rare in Elvish, to the extent that there is no recorded instance of its use in an Elvish name within the canonical texts.
hy	represents a modified y sound, as at the beginning of English words like 'hew' or 'huge' (which, despite their spelling, are typically pronounced as 'hyoo and 'hyooj'). In names, this sound is usually found in derivatives of Quenya hyarmen, 'south', so (for example), Hyarmendacil is a name with four syllables ('(h)yar-men-da-kil'), not five (that is, not 'hy-ar-men-da-kil').
i	is usually pronounced short, as in English 'pit' or 'bid'. There is a degree of confusion over this vowel sound, because Tolkien's pronounciation guide in The Lord of the Rings compares the i sound to that in the word 'machine'. That would seem to imply that it should be pronounced long (that is, something like 'ee'), but he clarifies the intended sound elsewhere. The longer machine sound actually only applies in specific cases (for which see í and ir below). There are a handful of special cases, all of which apply when i is the initial sound in a word or name. In Elvish names, where i appears before another vowel, it takes on the sound of y (so, for example, Iarwain is pronounced as 'yarwine'). A further special case occurs where i is the initial sound in words derived from Old English, most prominently in Isengard. Isen is related to German eisen (both words meaning 'iron'), and in this specific context i should be pronounced like the English word 'eye'.
í	when marked with an acute accent, í is pronounced long, effectively sounding like the 'ee' in see or the 'i' in machine. This most prominent example is probably in the name of Círdan the Shipwright, which is pronounced as 'keerdan'. Similarly, the palantíri or Seeing-stones have a name that is pronounced as 'palanteeri'.
î	like the acute accent above, the circumflex marks a vowel as long, in this case indicating a vowel sound like 'ee' in English. In Sindarin monosyllables, like Mîm or Dîn, the sound is noted as being particularly extended and stressed (so Mîm, for example, is pronounced something like the word 'meme'). Circumflex accents are also seen marking words in Adûnaic or Khuzdul (for example Zamîn or Nulukkizdîn; unlike Sindarin, these languages use the accent to mark a simple lengthened vowel (like the acute-accented í above in Elvish).
ie	is not a diphthong in Elvish. In English, the combination ie is often pronounced as a single vowel (typically 'ee' as in thief or shield) but in Elvish words it always represents two distinct sounds, a short i followed by a short e. So, for instance, Lórien is pronounced 'loari-en', not 'loareen', and Galadriel is 'galadri-el', not 'galadreel'. In less clear cases, this is sometimes emphasised by the use of a diaeresis, as in Niënor, where the mark over the e denotes that the name is pronounced 'ni-enor', not 'neenor' or 'nynor'.
il	is normally pronounced as in English (that is, like the word 'ill'), but there is a subtle and specific effect that comes into play where il comes before a consonant, or at the end of a word - that is, in names like Isildur or Elendil. In these cases, the sound is slightly 'palatised', or pronounced with the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth than would be usual in the English pronunciations of these names. The result is hard to represent in text, but the examples given here would formally approach something like 'Isioldoor' or 'Elendiol', where 'io' is not a pair of distinct vowels, but rather represents the modified sound of i in these contexts. In practice this detailed point has only a negligible effect, and we have generally disregarded it in the pronunciations keys for individual entries.
ir	is an exception to the usual rule for i. An unaccented i is usually pronounced short, but in combination as ir, the usual short pronunciation changes. Specifically in cases where ir precedes a consonant (as, for example, in Nirnaeth), or comes at the end of a word (as in Boromir or Faramir). In these cases, irrespective of any accent, the i sound is pronounced long, so the examples here become 'neernaeth' (with 'ae' pronounced like English 'eye'), 'boromeer' and 'farameer'. It was perhaps this rule that Tolkien had in mind when he gave the example of 'machine' for the pronounciation of i in The Lord of the Rings.
iu	is noted as being a diphthong in Quenya words and names, though Tolkien does not provide a convenient pronunciation guide. Fortunately, this sound is absent from any canonical name or piece of Elvish text, so the lack of a specific guide is not particularly problematic. Based on related sounds, we might speculatively hypothesise a sound something like the English word 'you'.
k	is pronounced as in English. In Elvish words, Tolkien came to prefer c for this sound, but k is sometimes seen in older works, often as an alternative spelling of the same name. For example, the river that ran past Calembel in Lamedon is named Ciril in the text of The Lord of the Rings, but labelled Kiril on the large-scale map of Gondor (at least in older editions). In either case the pronunciation is the same (with a hard k as 'kiril').
kh	varies in its pronounciation, depending on the language being used. In Adûnaic or in Orkish names (like Gimilkhâd or Grishnákh) its sound is equivalent to ch in Elvish; that is, as in Scots loch. This presumably also applies to the handful of names like Khand or Khamûl that derive from unknown Eastern languages, though this is less certain. The combination kh is also very common in Dwarvish names (indeed the Dwarvish name for their own language, Khuzdul, contains an example). For the Dwarves, the k and h sounds were more distinct, making a combination of sounds like those in the middle of English words like 'backhand' or 'deckhand'.
l	is pronounced as in English, except that in certain specific cases the sound become somewhat palatised. This palatisation occurred when l followed either e or i, and was in turn followed by a consonant (as in Eldar or Isildur), or was the final sound in a word (as in Galadriel or Elendil). For details of how this palatisation effect worked in practice, see el or il above.
lh	represents a voiceless l, a sound exceptionally rare in English, but common in some other languages (notably in Welsh, where it is represented by ll). Essentially this sound made when arranging the mouth for a more usual l sound, but then breathing out without moving the tongue or vibrating the vocal cords. In canonical Elvish words, this sound appears only in the name of the river Lhûn and its Gulf, and of the hill of Amon Lhaw. In archaic Quenya, this same sound was represented by hl.
ll	simply represents a lengthened l sound, as in Silmarillion or Bragollach. In English, a doubled letter like this affects the sounds of surrounding vowels (compare, for example, 'tiling' and 'tilling') but this is not the case in Elvish, where the doubled character simply extends the length of the l sound.
mb	is an old form, and in most cases came to be pronounced as an elongated m (given as a doubled mm where it is relevant to the stress of a word).
ng	when it occurs within a word, as in Angband or Fingolfin, ng has the same sound as in the middle of English 'finger'. This sound is modified in cases where ng appears at the beginning or end of a word, when it becomes a 'simple nasal' (that is, the g is not directly pronounced, as for example in English 'sing' or 'ring'). This rule will be familiar to English-speakers at the end of a word (as for example, Glamdring), but in Elvish ng could sometimes occur at the beginning (as in ngaurhoth, 'werewolves'), and note that in these cases the sound is the same as that at end of a word.
nn	represents a long n sound (often originating with nd in older forms of a word). In names like Annatar or Pelennor, the n sound is extended as in English words like 'unneeded'.
o	is pronounced essentially as in English words like 'pot' or 'top'. However, Tolkien does note that in Elvish this vowel was pronounced in a slightly more 'rounded' way than in English (that is, with a degree more rounding of the lips when the sound is pronounced).
ó	has a pronunciation that depends on the language in use. In Sindarin, ó was effectively the same as unaccented o (for historical reasons; the original value of ó having been lost). In Quenya, ó did have its own distinct sound, being compared by Tolkien as the vowel-sound in the word 'no' (though this is given as an approxmation only; the sound used by the Elves is described as being similar to o, but 'tenser' and 'closer'). Examples of this Quenya usage include Gandalf's former name Olórin as well as Lórien. In pronunciation guides on this site, we have represented this sound by the combination oa.
ô	simply defines a long o sound, as in English 'cone' or 'hole'. Circumflex accents like this are relatively common in Adûnaic or Khuzdul words, but rare in Elvish. In Sindarin, an o marked with a circumflex accent appears only in monosyllables, where it represents an especially elongated sound. There is in fact only a single recorded instance of such a vowel, in the name of the mountain Orod-na-Thôn, whose last syllable would rhyme with Engish 'phone'.
oe	is a diphthong that does not have an exactly equivalent sound in English, but can be represented by a sound like oi in 'toil' or 'boil'. So, for example, the great battle known as Nirnaeth Arnoediad has a name that might be represented as 'nirnaeth arnoydiad' (noting that ae is pronounced like the English word 'eye').
oë	although oe is usually a diphthong in Elvish, where oë appears with a diaeresis (a double dot) over the e, this simply indicates that the combination is to treated as a pair of distinct vowel sounds, rather than a single sound. This is a rare combination, and indeed the only instance in the canonical works is Loëndë ('Mid-year's Day'), where the accented ë shows that this is pronounced as 'lo-endeh' rather than 'loyndeh'.
oi	is pronounced like 'oy', or the equivalent English diphthong in words like 'boil' or 'toil'. So, for example, the Elves' season of Coirë is pronounced 'koyreh'. This diphthong is commonly seen with a following o in the element oio-, meaning 'forever', hence names like Oiolossë ('Ever-snow-white', a name for the mountain of Taniquetil) are pronounced with a leading 'oyo-' sound (in this case, the full name is pronounced 'oyolosseh').
ph	is directly equivalent to the natural English pronunciation of f. So, for example, King Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor had a name pronounced as 'ar-farazon', and the Westron name for Moria, Phurunargian, is pronounced 'furunargian'. In some cases 'ph' is used in preference to 'f' to indicate mutation, specifically of an initial p sound to an f sound according to grammatical rules. An example of this mutation effect is seen for Periannath (Sindarin for 'Halflings'), which mutates its initial 'P' in the phrase Ernil i Pheriannath, 'Prince of the Halflings' (with Pheriannath being pronounced as 'feriannath').
qu	transliterates the combination kw in Quenya words (as indeed in the name Quenya itself). This combination is thus pronounced as in English.
r	is always pronounced 'trilled' or 'rolled' with a slight vibration of the tongue, giving a sound that does not occur in English. In Elvish words, the r sound is always pronounced, even in situations where it might seem natural not to do so. For example, the name Mordor would naturally be pronounced by many English-speakers, depending on local accent, as something like 'mawdaw', but the more accurate Elvish pronunciation would be 'morrdorr' with trilled r sounds. In individual pronunciation guides within this site, we have often given this r sound as 'rr' to emphasise it, especially at the ends of syllables where it might easily be forgotten.
rh	describes a voiceless r sound (a weak r sound formed without vibrating the vocal cords). This represents the same sound as hr above (rh was used for this sound in Sindarin, while hr was preferred in Quenya). This form is used to distinguish r sounds that were not trilled (the usual pronunciation of r in Elvish). So, examples like Rhovanion or Rhûn each start with a weak, untrilled r.
s	is pronounced as in English, with the exception that, in Elvish, the sound is always voiceless. That is, in English s can sometimes represent a voiced sound like z (as in words like 'please' or 'visit'), but that voiced z sound did not occur in Elvish.
sh	has the same sound as in English, though note that the sh sound is not used in Elvish words. It is used in words and names from other languages, however, such as Dwarvish Bundushathûr, Orkish Shagrat or Adûnaic Agathurush.
ss	is simply a long or doubled s sound, notably in Elessar the royal name and title of Aragorn.
th	represents a voiceless th sound. In English, the combination 'th' can be used for two different sounds, a voiced version (as in 'these' or 'breathe') and an unvoiced version (as in 'this' or 'breath'). For Elvish words, the combination 'th' always represents the unvoiced sound (the voiced th is also used in Elvish, but it is consistently represented by 'dh' rather than 'th'). So, for example, the last syllable of the name Morgoth rhymes with English 'cloth', not 'clothe'.
tt	in common with other doubled consonants, this simply represents a lengthened consonant sound, in this case a lengthened t. This sound is relatively rare in Elvish names, but it does occur, for example, in Mettarë, the name of the last day of the year (in which the doubled tt can be produced by pronouncing the name as if it were spelt met-tareh).
ty	represents the a modified t sound, for example at the beginning of the British pronunciation of the word 'tune' (which sounds like 'tyoon'), or the combination of consonants in the middle of the phrase 'not yet'. The resulting sound is very similar to ch. Note that this pronunciation only applies where ty is used as a combined consonant (as for example in tyelpë, 'silver'); in some cases the t is a consonant and y is a vowel (as for example in tyrn, 'downs', which is pronounced like 'toorn').
u	has a slightly lengthened quality compared with its common use in English words like 'but' or 'cut' (Tolkien compares it to the vowel-sound in the English words 'brute' or 'foot'). In pronunciation guides on this site, we generally use 'oo' to represent this sound (so, for example, Sauron's tower of Dol Guldur would be pronounced like 'dol gooldoor').
ú	represents an 'oo' sound, so words like (for example) Númenor or Dúnadan are pronounced respectively as 'noomenor' and 'doonadan' (and not 'nyoomenor' or 'dyoonadan', which might be more natural to many English-speakers).
û	is used in Sindarin, and almost exclusively in monosyllables, to mark a stressed and extended vowel. A prominent example is the name Barad-dûr, where the accented dûr element has an especially extended 'oo' vowel sound. The circumflex accent also appears in names in Khuzdul (Dwarvish) and in Adûnaic (for example, in Dwarvish Khazad-dûm), but in those languages the accent simply indicates a long u, like ú in Elvish.
ui	is explicitly a diphthong in Elvish, or a single vowel sound composed of a 'glide' from one sound to another. The examples Tolkien gives are the English words 'ruin' and 'pursuing' (though, to complicate matters, most modern English-speakers would tend to pronounce the 'ui' in those examples as pairs of distinct vowels). The Elvish ui can be approached by gliding from an 'oo' sound to an 'i' or 'ee' sound, pronounced as a single vowel. (In a text of The Lay of Leithian, Tolkien rhymes Elvish Aeluin with English 'kin', which shows something of how he expected the ui diphthong to sound.)
ur	has a lengthened u sound and a trilled r, so that this combination is pronounced as 'oorr'. This is especially true where ur appears at the end of a word, or before a consonant within a word, when the u sound is lengthened further to create an elongated 'oo' sound. So, words like Ainur or Dol Guldur are pronounced as 'ainoor' or 'dol gooldoorr'. (In the case of Dol Guldur, because -ur is at the end of the word, the second u sound should be slightly lengthened in comparison to the first.)
v	is pronounced just as the English sound of v, though it is noted that, where this sound appears at the end of an Elvish word, it is written using 'f' rather than 'v' (just as English 'of' is pronounced as 'ov' rather than 'off').
y	can be used as either a consonant or a vowel. The consonantal form occurs only in Quenya, where it is pronounced as in English 'you' or 'yellow'. As a vowel, y strictly represents a modified u sound, not found in English, but exemplifed by the vowel in French tu or lune (which is difficult to represent in text, but is somewhat close to English 'oo'). There was, however, some geographic difference in pronunciation, and in Gondor, y represented a simple 'i' sound.