Here's What I Created.

Findy wrote:Well done everyone, so far! Dragonlady, with an adorable face like that no one will notice any bits of dust. It all adds to the charm.
Tree, yours is lovely (and I love the back too, erm whichever, I love both sides).
I've been so busy I've forgotten to check in here. It's been really exciting to be a part of this. Thank you for inviting me. *hugs*

Findy, mine's the one with the tree (link) on it, not the rosey one. I was just trying to help out Turin with the image links he tried to post. Turned out they were links to webpages, which of course does not work with the "[image]" BBCode.
On the back of my tile I quoted a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, that went well with the tree and Carol's situation:

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.

My picture is done, I just have to stick it on the tile and mail it out, and Dean is going to be painting his soon, he's just about finished the book he's working on, and then he'll have the time. I know he already has the idea!

Beautiful work, everyone! What a treasure she is getting!

Oh, this is so much fun.

Dragonlady, that little guy is adorable!

Turin, yours is beautiful.

Oh and Jools, it says:

There is no medicine like hope
no incentive so great,
and no tonic so powerful as
expectation of something better tomorrow.

Janet-Xenia wrote:Oh, this is so much fun.

Dragonlady, that little guy is adorable!

Turin, yours is beautiful.

Oh and Jools, it says:

There is no medicine like hope
no incentive so great,
and no tonic so powerful as
expectation of something better tomorrow.

Show-off.

And she already informed me of the spelling errors in "incentive" (forgot to underscore the v so it's a th) and "something" (missed the silent e).
T

Janet, thanks but I had already worked it out I was just playing with Turin so he wouldn't be too disappointed

Carol also told me what it said

It makes more sense to me not to follow English spelling rules for a language that uses a different font and has a different sound inventory.
Actually, in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) it would be wrong to include orthography that is not in the phonology. So don't worry about that silent e (ə = "schwa")

ðɛɻz nɔ͜ʊ ˈmɛdəˌsən laɪk hɔ͜ʊp
nɔ͜ʊ ɪnˈsɛntɪv sɔ͜ʊ gɻɛ͜ɪt,
ænd nɔ͜ʊ ˈtɒnɪk sɔ͜ʊ ˈpa͜ʊəɻˌfəɬ æz
ˌɛkspɛkˈteɪʃən əv ˈsʌmˌθɪŋ bɛɾəɻ təˈmɒro͜ʊ.

tree wrote:It makes more sense to me not to follow English spelling rules for a language that uses a different font and has a different sound inventory.
Actually, in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) it would be wrong to include orthography that is not in the phonology. So don't worry about that silent e (ə = "schwa")

Ah yes, all of these things are true, EXCEPT for the fact that JRR and Christopher had tengwar modes specifically used for writing English - The Original Mode and CJRT's mode. And each of these had "full" styles and "tehta" styles, Technically what I wrote is in a third type - the Common Mode. It is a hybrid mode that allows great freedom of spelling and overall approach, and its use varies (sometimes widely) from person to person. It does however seem to be almost universally understandable to people who get into this sort of stuff.

I could talk about this for days, and have started a blog on it too... more on that later. Yes I'm inclined to let a silent e slide, but technically this IS English and not a different language, just font. But thank you!
C

Very nice work Turin and Dragonlady, this little dragon looks so cute indeed. Bravo!

Turin, I'm no elvish tongue speaker so I'd be interested to know ... aha, not what's written on the tile, but the link of you blog.

wow, that's still a lot of tiles that are astray in the different parts of the world. And thanks for that photo of the hanger and 'arrived' tiles already, it does look great!

And there I was thinking you actually had written this in Tengwar and Sindarin :-/

Here's what I did (the gradient is more subtle in reality, the scan acted like a flash, but that's not too bad):


On the back, I'll write:
The Phoenix rises reborn from the ashes of what it once was, burning through the sky brighter than ever before.

Nice work Mr. Corey; a very bold image and a good message. Very masculine too; it suits you.

Corwin wrote:And there I was thinking you actually had written this in Tengwar and Sindarin

Sorry to disappoint.
T

Nice one, Corwin.

Corwin, that's a great tile. I agree with Turin it is a masculine piece and will look great among the more "girly" ones. Also I like your choice of words for the back, very nice indeed

Nice work, Corwin.
'
Turin, I'm always torn between trying to write English in Tengwar as it is written or as it sounds. "Something" is one of those words I struggle with, because technically the "o" is pronounced--in America--as a short "u" sound, or a shwa. Whereas an "o" with a silent "e" should be a long "o" sound. But I don't know of anywhere that pronounces it that way. On the other hand, If we each wrote tengwar phonetically, our accents might seriously confuse each other.

Tolkien left the whole thing rather open for interpretation. In high school we sort of adopted a happy medium (no Graeme, not a cheerful fortune teller) that worked for us.

OFF TOPIC
Phew ok I didn't mean to start a linguistic discussion now. I actually don't know much of the languages that Tolkien invented. Maybe I'll have a look at it with all my scientific knowledge once I finish studies and get a degree.
Turin, you seem to know your stuff, I won't say anything anymore then. ;-)
Janet, the pronunciation of "something" depends on the phonological environment in which it appears. In rapid speech the vowels have a different pronunciation than if you carefully pronounce only the word itself. On a side note, schwa's only appear in non-stressed syllables. "Something" is most commonly pronounced with the lower mid back unrounded vowel ʌ, aka the "cut" vowel. Depends on the variety of English you speak, really. And the social and regional dialect. And your emotional state, your age, your education, social class, .... ah well.
Cumbrians would probably say "sumthin" -> [ˈsʊmˌθɪn] instead of something -> [ˈsʌmˌθɪŋ]
OFF TOPIC
Let's get back to those tiles. ;-)

tree wrote:OFF TOPIC
Cumbrians would probably say "sumthin" -> [ˈsʊmˌθɪn] instead of something -> [ˈsʌmˌθɪŋ]
OFF TOPIC

Well, we'd say "summet"

While we're still off topic, may someone liguistically challenged (but curious) ask what this "schwa" is?

OFF TOPIC
Wikipedia puts it short and nice:
Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English, a reduced vowel in many unstressed syllables, especially if syllabic consonants are not used (this last bit - syllabic - is about syllable structure, which is a bit theoretical but explains a lot of things in phonology):
* like the 'a' in about [əˈbaʊt]
* like the 'e' in taken [ˈteɪkən]
* like the 'i' in pencil [ˈpɛnsəl]
* like the 'o' in eloquent [ˈɛləkwənt]
* like the 'u' in supply [səˈplaɪ]
* like the 'y' in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]
In German you use the schwa in words like Mücke [ˈmʏkə], gegangen [gəˈgaŋən] or Dschungel [ˈdʒʊŋəl].
To pronounce the schwa on its own, you open your mouth (just enough to be able to breathe through it) and relax your tongue and lips as you don't need either of them to produce an ə. Vowels are determined by tongue height and front/backness and lip roundedness. An Ü therefore is an I, only with rounded lips.
So just leave the lips and tongue relaxed to get the schwa sound.

OFF TOPIC

I now realize reading your posts that we were supposed to find a comforting quotation to write on the back of the tile, and since I wasn't on this forum from the start it eluded me despite my attempts to catch up. So I only wrote "made with much love by Livel". Mine will be the only one without a comforting thought written on it and there's nothing I can do she already got it

oh don't worry Livel, I don't think a 'quotation' was required, just a few words from the heart were perfect, so that's okay with what you wrote.

Very nice one Corwin.

Writing anything on the back was not compulsory, I'm sure even a signature would be appreciated

Livel, there was no need to write a quotation or anything on the back, some of us did and some of us didn't, so don't worry. The fact that you wrote your name and said it was made with love is perfect anyway. Really your tile will not be the only one without a quotation so don't be sad

Absolutely, I only wrote the title of the piece, "Daisies by Gérald and Alanna"

tree wrote:OFF TOPIC

To pronounce the schwa on its own, you open your mouth (just enough to be able to breathe through it) and relax your tongue and lips as you don't need either of them to produce an ə. Vowels are determined by tongue height and front/backness and lip roundedness.

OFF TOPIC

Tree, what is the alt code for schwa? It is not listed in any of the common charts about the interwebz. I did a search for it not too long ago, and the only thing I found was more people asking how to write it!

Livel: I think only a handful of us wrote anything. No worries.
T

I usually use the IPA Picker and just copy and paste.
The alt code for schwa would be ALT+0601 but its not working for me for some reason. I have to switch between keyboard and numerical keypad on my laptop.
Alternatively, you can go to Start -> Run ,type in "charmap" and then it gives you all the special symbols and letters you need.

Great you make me spend my whole morning on looking for the alt code that works on this shleptop.

Hi everyone!
I'm terribly late!
By the way, this is my tile: