Pronouncing letters in Welsh

Transcription

1 Pronouncing letters in Welsh The Welsh alphabet is fairly similar to the English alphabet but you will find that Welsh spelling is far more regular and pronunciation is simpler than you might have expected. Here are a few simple rules: k,q,v, x and z don t occur in the Welsh alphabet but we use other letters to spell these sounds There are eight letters in the Welsh alphabet which we don t use in English. These all appear to be two letters but actually only count as one. Welsh has seven vowels a,e,i,o,u,w and y Every letter has one sound apart from y, which will be explained separately. This means that the vowels only have one sound, though sometimes this is short and sometimes long. Listen to the difference between these short and long vowel sounds. a short - pan, dal, cam, ac e short - pen del, het, pert a long - mab, tad, cân cath e long - hen, cês, beth, deg

2 i short - dim, nid, bin, ing o short - pont, os, stop, dol u short - tun, pump, hurt, punt w short gwn, twp, cwm, bws y short syn, byr, tyst, hyn i long - ci, pib, tri, mis o long - jôc, cof,, bod, ffos u long - hud, tu, pur, cul w long - rhwd, cŵn, twf, dŵr y long tŷ, hyd, bys, cryf y can also sound as it does in these words yn, yr, dy, fy. When you look at a word you don t always get a clue as to whether the vowel sound is long or short. If the vowel has a circumflex, which we call a to bach (little roof) above it the sound is definitely long and if it has an accent that s downward sloping the vowel is definitely short, for example, sgil and sgìl. You won t always get this clue but don t worry you will pick this up over time. When we look at most letters of the Welsh alphabet (the consonants) we can see that they only have one sound. Try saying these words: b - bant, bag, baban c - cant, acen, cath c is always hard, as in cat and never soft, as in ceiling. d - da, nid, adio f - cof, afal, fel f is always pronounced like the f in the word of and never as in the word off. g - Gareth, bag, gwn g is always hard as in big and never soft as in giraffe. h - hadyn, hyn, hebog

3 j - jeli, jam, Jac l - lemwn, lôn, cul m - maneg, mam, cam n - nos, nawr, sôn p - pin, potel, pump r - car, côr, prif r is always pronounced even after a vowel. s seren, crys, isel When followed by another vowel s + i together become sh as in Siân, Siôn, sied and siwr. t - tân, ato, twt. Now for our two letter sounds: Note that each of the following counts as a single letter: ch - coch, bach, uchel as in loch or Van Gogh.. dd - Dafydd, bedd, naddo like the th in that, this or the. ff - Ffion, Offa, cloff like the f in fear, fang or fun. ng - cangen, Bangor like the ng in singer or occasionally finger. ll - llong, allan, colli try blowing as you say l. ph - a pherson, â phen like the ph in photo. rh - Rhian, Rhys, rhad try blowing as you say r.

4 th - cath, peth, Bethel like the th in think, thought or thistle. Word stress normally falls on the last but one syllable in Welsh. Say these words and notice how the stress moves: meddyg brechdan tegan eistedd tywyll angen chwarae meddygfa brechdanau teganau eisteddfod tywyllwch anghenion chwaraeon Welsh has pure vowel sounds and diphthongs. This simply means two vowel sounds together, with the first gliding into the second. The following diphthongs all finish with the i sound ai, ae and au - these are all pronounced like the English word aye. Try saying the following words: Mai, llai, sain, rhain. mae, cael, paent, llaeth, cau, parau ffrindiau gwaun ei. eu and ey - these are all pronounced like the English word hay Try saying the following words: cei, Meirion, Teilo, gweithio. neu, gwneud, teulu, neuadd. Teyrnas. oi, oe and ou - these are all pronounced like the English word boy. Try saying the following words: cloi, cnoi, ffoi oer, coed, ddoe, toes clou, cyffrous

5 wy This sound doesn t occur in English but try saying the following words: trwy, mwy, dwy, llwyd. Here are some more diphthongs. These end with the sound w. aw - This sound doesn t occur in English but if you sound the a followed by the w and glide them together you will be able to pronounce these words: daw, caws, baw, cawl. ew - This sound doesn t occur in English, either, but if you sound the e and glide into the w you will be able to pronounce these words: Dewi, llew, tew, ewch. ow - This is similar to the English ow in slow. Try saying these words: brown, clown, Owen. iw, uw and yw These are all pronounced like the ew sound in the word few. Try saying these words: lliw, criw, diwedd, uwch, Huw, buwch, byw, yw, llyw, clyw. Remember that as happens with English speakers from different regions, not all Welsh speakers will pronounce sounds the same way. You will hear variations due to regional accents and dialects. Don t worry about this. You will gradually tune into these differences.