Learn Russian!

 Start to learn the Russian alphabet with the help of Tolkien! 

I'm sure that everyone will be able to transliterate the first two lines of this book cover! But notice how several Russian letters bear a misleading resemblance to ours (which are taken from the Roman alphabet) but are pronounced quite differently. (The Russian letter, not included here, that looks like a backward R is actually pronunced "ya"). Note that the Russian language has no "J" sound, so two letters are used here to give a rough equivalent, which is pronounced "D-ZH". Neither is there an "H" sound: the letter looking like an X is pronounced something like the Scottish word "loCH". Also note the odd fact that the simple word "the" has no equivalent in Russian. It was also absent in Latin.

  This book cover was the work of Denis Gordeev (more correctly, Gordeyev), a  very good Russian fantasy artist little known in the West. If you enter his name into Google, you'll discover a huge selection of his work, illustrating Tolkien and many other writers. 

Postscript: Overheard on the streets of Moscow some years ago, from two British tourists in search of somewhere to eat: "There's what we want: one of those pecktopah places!" No prizes are offered for using the picture above to help in transliterating the Russian PECTOPAH!