Piedmontese System of Vowels

AppE (I)

the sounds … were of normal kind … approximately those represented by i, e, a, o, u in English machine, were, father, for, brute, irrespective of quantity.

Which are, respectively: /məˈʃiːn/, /ˈwɛːr(ə)/, /ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)/, /fɔː(ɹ)/, /bɹuːt/. The ‘irrespective of quantity’ is usually taken to mean that both long and short vowels have the same quality, however:

• This is re-iterated separately for Sindarin, and not for Quenya
• é and ó were noted to be pronounced tenser on the same page

AppE (I)

long é and ó were, when correctly pronounced, as by the Eldar, tenser and ‘closer’ than the short vowels.

The lack of i, u in this note can be interpreted into what’s called here the ‘Piedmontese’ system:

vowel	sound	example	approximation
Short Vowels
/a/	[ɑ̟]	/‘anːa/ gift	En. bath, Ru. палка
	[ä]		It. casa, Ru. парта
/e/	[ɛ]	/‘lenda/ journey	En. bed, It. bene, Ru. это
/i/	[i]	/‘kirja/ ship	En. machine, It. bile, Ru. лист
/o/	[ɔ]	/‘rokːo/ horse	En. not, It. però, Uk. любов
/u/	[u]	/‘kundo/ prince	En. brute, It. tutto, Ru. узкий
Long Vowels
/aː/	[ɑ̟ː]	/‘aːre/ sunlight	En. bath, Ru. палка
	[äː]		It. casa, Ru. парта
/eː/	[ɛ̝ː]	/‘neːsa/ sister	It. crederci, Ru. человек
/iː/	[iː]	/‘liːco/ wax	En. machine, It. bile, Ru. лист
/oː/	[ɔ̝ː]	/‘loːke/ snake	It. forense, Ru. тост
/uː/	[uː]	/‘ŋuːle/ sorcery	En. brute, It. tutto, Ru. узкий

Note

Whether <a> is indeed [ɑ] is rather debatable, as ‘a as in father’ is casually applied to a broad range of possible sounds.

The downside of this system is that it ignores the larger context of available material, see On ‘Calabrian’ System.

It seems conceivable that AppE material simply states that the vowels were ‘normal … irrespective of quantity’, i.e. monophtongs, unlike English. The lack of mention of difference between ĭ, ŭ and ī, ū can be explained as not being phonemic nor caused by peculiar phonological developments, which cannot be said about ɛ — e and ɔ — o mergers.