✶Ad. [cʰ] ‹ch›

✶Ad. [cʰ] ‹ch›
A primitive voiceless aspirated stop in the c-series (palatals), the aspirated form of [c] (SD/416). Tolkien represented this sound with the diagraph “ch”, but it was not pronounced like English “ch”. Rather, it was an aspirated form of [c], a sound that does not exist in English, but can be approximated by pronouncing an aspirated [k]-sound while putting the tongue in the y-position (which is all rather challenging). [cʰ] became an [s] in Classical Adûnaic along with the other voiceless consonants of the c-series (SD/418).

Reference ✧ SD/416 ✧ Ch

Element In

Phonetic Development

✶Ad. most palatals became sibilants [s] or [z] > s ✧ SD/418 (Ch > S)