[Closed] Smwaug or Smorg ?

Its been Smorg since we were read it in infant school*

*Miss Harrison was ace

Urban dictionary says;

[i]A type of common, low quality grazing animal. Found mainly around the South of England, particularly Brighton. A smorg can be found migrating to a PC or such browser technology.

I was in Brighton last week, just so happened to see a Smorg in the town center. Nice wheels.[/i]

Which has left me none the wiser, tbh.

I've always read it as Smorg not Smawg but I read Sauron as Soron not Sawron and that was wrong too!

Smorg, no question about it.

How on earth do you get the 'r' in there? It's Smaug, pronounces Smog.

And Sauron, pronounced Sawron.

Smorg, no question about it.

If Tolkien was alive he'd question it! Here's another forum on the subject (over a decade ago):

http://www.minastirith.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=17;t=000011

There's a more recent argument on there about whether it's 650b or 27.5...

How on earth do you get the 'r' in there? It's Smaug, pronounces Smog.

English vs Scottish?

Going to see Smoog tonight 🙂

[img] [/img]

[b]Smeg.[/b]

Personally I'd always pronouced it more like Smog, but with a sort of extended "o" if that makes any sense.

Quite how anyone could come up with the pronunciation Smorg when there isn't an r in the word is beyond me. Then again some people will insist on prouncing the word south as sarf, so I really shouldn't be that surprised.

Slaughter naughty Smaug.

Smog. Like daughter.

gonefishin,

tell me then how you pronounce 'augment' ?

I'm an "Augment", "Aura", "Autism" pronouncerererer too.

Quite how anyone could come up with the pronunciation Smorg when there isn't an r in the word is beyond me

There's no O in it either not even an extended one.

tell me then how you pronounce 'augment' ?

Well that's really tricky to type but the au part I would pronounce the same as "awe" but with a very soft w. Of course none of that is all that relevant as the english languge isn't one where the same sequence of letters is always pronounced the same way 😉

I certainly wouldn't be adding an r to it!

edit

There's no O in it either not even an extended one.

That was a bad decription on my part in fairness it's probably more like the augment examply used above.

If it's Germanic then the 'au' would rhyme with the 'ou' in house.

I always pronounced it sm-oh-wg, but apparently Tolkien left extensive notes on language and pronunciation and sm-ow-g (as per the movies) is correct.

So all you augmented slaughtering sm-oh-wg'ers are, like me, wrong.

Tolkien left extensive notes on language and pronunciation and sm-ow-g (as per the movies) is correct.

Supposedly he was a very dull individual.

Smorg, definitely.

This pronunciation thing is a minefield. I always thought Rohan (as in Riders of Rohan) should be pronounced as Rowan, but in the movies it's Row-hahhhhnnn. Go figure.

To those who got it right, thanks for not lauding* it over us.

* Pronounced louding, obviously...

Whatevers innit. Can't be arsed to watch the thing after suffering the first one, frankly.

Cougar - Moderator

I always pronounced it sm-oh-wg, but apparently Tolkien left extensive notes on language and pronunciation and sm-ow-g (as per the movies) is correct.

This is LOTR in a nutshell, take whatever liberties you like with the characters and the plot but definitely do obsess over pronounciations and detail, that'll make all the difference when Legolas is surfing on a shield shooting orcs with his gatling bow.

ahhhhhh

according to 6music, just now it is 'Smoge'

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

As someone who has had dealing with the Tolkien estate, I can confirm it is 'smowg'. At least, that's how his son and editors pronounce it. I was nearly spat at when I said 'smorg'.
This shit matters, apparently.

I can confirm it is 'smowg'.

😯

Say what?

That dude could write epic fantasy, alright, but couldn't spell worth shit.

Plus, he forgot all about the dwarves except one (plus Moria) in LOTR. Where the hell did all the rest of them go?

gonefishin - Member

Quite how anyone could come up with the pronunciation Smorg when there isn't an r in the word is beyond me.

haul.

taut.

nautical.

fraud.

want me to go on?

it's 'Smorg' definitely*.

(*how i pronounced it in my head when i read the book when i was 9)

fyi: mount everest should be pronounced 'eve-rest', not 'ever-rest' - bu it sounds wrong so it is wrong, i don't care how [i]right[/i] it is, it's wrong.

haul. taut. nautical. fraud.

Which are pronounced:

hawl. tawt. nawtiecall. frawd.

Still no r in there, apart from the first r in fraud.

Which are pronounced:

hawl. tawt. nawtiecall. frawd.

Em, unless you're saying them different from me, they're pronounced:

horl. tort. nortical, frord... no?

is confused.

Em, unless you're saying them different from me, they're pronounced:

horl. tort. nortical, frord... no?

Well that's certainly NOT how I pronouce them, so that would be a no from me.

there might be a 'w' in it, but 'dawn' has the same sound, yes?

(ie, 'dorn')

...yeah, that's where I was coming from, ahw

there might be a 'w' in it, but 'dawn' has the same sound, yes?

(ie, 'dorn')

Again, no.

you're weird.

you really think dawn (or drawn) doesn't have the same vowel sound as taut?

how [u]do[/u] you pronounce 'dawn' then?

(andor all the words with a 'au' in them)

there might be a 'w' in it, but 'dawn' has the same sound, yes?

(ie, 'dorn')

Nope.

Dawn is pronounced dawn, taut is pronounced tawt. Neither has an r in them.

how do you pronounce 'dawn' then?

Dorn, and it was always Smorg (in my head) when I read it as a child.

you really think dawn (or drawn) doesn't have the same vowel sound as taut?

Oh they pretty much do have the same vowel sound, but what dawn and taut don't have is an "r" sound in them.

Oh they pretty much do have the same vowel sound, but what dawn and taut don't have is an "r" sound in them.

Would you really pronounce taut sufficiently distinctly from tort or torte as to make any noticable difference?

Would you really pronounce taut sufficiently distinctly from tort or torte as to make any noticable difference?

Definitely. Taut has no r sound in it, torte and torte do.

fyi: mount everest should be pronounced 'eve-rest', not 'ever-rest' - bu it sounds wrong so it is wrong, i don't care how right it is, it's wrong.

Or you could use the Tibetan/Sherpa name Chomolungma.

Another one for the baffled that anyone would pronounce any of these words with an r that isn't written down. I've never heard anyone do that either. However, I am Scottish, which I suspect makes all the difference. Those of you insisting on Smorg, how do you pronounce Mirror? With a rolled r in the middle or more like meerr?

mirror = 'mi-ruh'

(sort of)

dawn = 'dorn'

taut = 'tort'

smaug = 'smorg'

simple.

(in lots of words au / aw = 'or')

Nope, au/aw always sound like the noise people make immediately before saying "how cute!" when cooing over babies and kittens. No r sound at all. And it's obviously mirrr-or 😉
I reckon it's a dialect/accent variation thing.

I think the disagreement here comes from the dropped R in a British accent. Just imagine an American saying "taut" or "taught" and then saying "tort", they would sound different in his accent and near identical in a standard (i.e. BBC) British accent.

I suspect the same is true of a Scottish accent (they pronounce their Rs, where the English don't).

I suspect the same is true of a Scottish accent (they pronounce their Rs, where the English don't).

Ahhh... *penny drrrrrrops*

Tolkien wrote a book, he did not actually create Middle Earth and the languages spoken by actual people resident there. I appreciate that I may be naive in this, and will be told the error of my ways by people who use the word "canon" a lot, but I don't really care.

This stuff exists chiefly in the reader's head. In my head, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights generally isn't black and doesn't speak with a Mancunian accent, because the idea that he ought to was not really impressed upon my 17 year old mind. The one in your head may well differ. I care only very slightly what Emily Bronte thought about the matter.

🙂

Tolkien wrote a book, he did not actually create Middle Earth and the languages spoken by actual people resident there.

Oh dear.

Would you really pronounce taut sufficiently distinctly from tort or torte as to make any noticable difference?

Yes.

Edit. Doesn't everyone? I would however pronounce taut the same as taught.