One thing that is important to
remember is that the pronunciation of Welsh varies widely between dialects.
Therefore the student should remember that the pronunciations (and even the
words) are guidelines, and regional varations are myriad.
Since the system of accents
used in Welsh is not supported universally by the computers comprising the
Internet and connected networks, a set of substitute characters has been devised
by speakers of the Celtic languages who participate in network discussions.
These will be used in this series of lessons. They are:
Thus, we have 'ty+' for
'house', 'gweddi%o' for 'to pray', 'glanha/u' for 'to clean', etc.
- Note
- The symbol chosen for the
circumflex may appear to be arbitrary, since almost all keyboards have a
caret character; however the experience on the net was that the code used to
represent the caret differed on different machines. These codes were
specifically chosen because they were consistent across all known machines.
Simple vowels, i.e., not
diphthongs, may be either long or short depending on their context and on
whether or not there is a circumflex accent. There is a difference of duration
and also of pronunciation between corresponding long and short vowels.
- a
- As in UK English 'can'
(short) or UK 'father', USA 'gone' (long). Examples: 'nghap'
(short) and 'gwlad'
(long).
- e
- As in 'let' (short) or
Yorkshire/Scottish accent 'late' (long) - i.e., like 'late' but with no 'eee'
sound at the end of the vowel. Examples: 'phen'
(short) and 'hen'
(long).
- i
- As in 'pit' (short) or
'lean' (long). Examples: 'mhin'
(short) and 'llid'
(long).
- o
- As in UK 'lot' (short) or
Yorkshire/Scottish accent 'coat' (long) - i.e., like 'coat' but with no 'ooo'
sound at the end of the vowel. Examples: 'siop'
(short) and 'ffos'
(long).
- u
- A matter of discussion; in
the south, it is completely equivalent to 'i' (long or short), even in
diphthongs; in the north, it's halfway between the vowels in 'lick' and
'look' (short) or 'leap' and 'loop' (long) with the lips not rounded but
slack. [Briony - I also sense it has having the tongue more flattened
against the palette; am I right here and is it worth mentioning? Or is it
hopeless for English speakers to try to make this sound without living in
North Wales? The sound also seems to have a similar sound to the Russian
yeri, but not centered so far back in the throat.] Examples: 'sut'
(short) and 'thus'
(long).
- w
- As in 'put' (short) or
'soon' (long). Actually, 'w' can represent either a vowel or a consonant in
Welsh spelling. Examples: 'twp'
(short) and 'rhwd'
(long).
- y
- Has two sounds:
- like the vowel written 'u',
with the same geographical variants; can be long or short. This sound is
referred to as clear y.
- the unstressed obscure
vowel in the first syllable of 'aside' (though in Welsh it can be stressed).
It is always short. Examples: 'llyfr'
(clear, short), 'gwy+dd'
(clear, long), 'bychan'
(obscure).
'y' almost always takes sound 1 in
word-final syllables, except for a few 'small' words like y, yr, yn, yng, ym, fy,
dy (sound 2). 'y' takes sound 2 in non-final syllables, and in the above
exceptions.
Simple vowels (monophthongs) in
stressed syllables take the long pronunciation when one and only one of the
following consonants appears in the same syllable as the vowel (eg. when
word-final): b, d, g, (single) f, dd, some cases of l, n, m, and ng - and also
when no consonant at all follows the vowel. If more than one consonant - of any
kind - occurs after the simple vowel, then the vowel is short. Simple vowels in unstressed
syllables are short, whatever the following consonant.
- Note
- All of the vowel sounds in
Welsh are pure vowels. One of the most difficult things for English speakers
to overcome in pronouncing Welsh is the tendency in English to 'diphthongize'
vowels. For example, if you listen to yourself very closely when you
pronounce the word 'toe' (long o sound), you will find yourself putting an 'oo'
sound at the end. The trick is to clip the sound off before you get to the 'oo'
part. The same thing problem occurs with long a as in 'bay': it tends toward
having an 'ee' at the end.
- ae,
ai, au
- These combinations sound
like the Welsh long 'a' quickly followed by long 'i'; thus, they sound like
the vowel in 'bike', although the North Wales pronunciation of 'ae' and 'au'
have the colo(u)ring listed above under the vowel 'u'. In the North, 'ae', 'ai',
and 'au' tend to become 'a+'. Examples: 'caer',
'main', 'haul'.
- ei,
eu, ey
- These combinations are
similar to 'ae' et al. except that instead of starting from the Welsh 'a',
they start from a shwa sound (the 'e' in 'mother'). We don't have an exact
counterpart in English. Again, the North Wales pronunciation of 'eu' and 'ey'
is colo(u)red by their pronunciation of 'u'. In speech, (both North and
South) the possessives 'ei' (his, her) and 'eu' (their) tend to become long
'i'. Examples: 'peidio', 'nheulu'.
- aw
- Like the 'ow' in 'now'. Example:
'faw'.
- ew
- We don't really have this
sound in English. It is approximated by the English 'e' in 'get' followed
quickly by the 'oo' in 'food', with the emphasis on the 'e'. Example:
'tew'.
- iw, uw
- Similar to the the 'ew'
sound in the English word 'hew', except the emphasis is on the first part of
the diphthong rather than the second. Examples: 'lliw', 'uwch'.
- ow
- This is just like the 'o' in
'home', including the diphthongization towards 'oo'. Example: 'brown'.
- oe,
oi, oy
- Like 'oy' in 'boy'. Examples:
'noeth', 'osgoi'.
- wy
- There are actually two
versions of this diphthong: a rising version
(stress on the 'y'; the 'w' is consonantal) and a falling
one (stress on the 'w'; the 'y' is consonantal). Examples: 'gw+ydd'
(goose) is pronounced GOOH-eethe (falling); 'gwy+dd'
(trees) is pronounced GWEETHE (rising).
- b
- As in English. Example:
'bychan'.
- c
- Always as in 'cow' (even
before e, i and y). Example: 'caer'.
- ch
- As in Scottish 'loch'
(guttural 'kh'-type sound). Example: 'bychan'.
- d
- As in English. Example:
'dwyn'.
- dd
- Like 'th' in English 'the',
never as in 'think'. Example: 'gwy+dd'.
- f
- Like English 'v'. Example:
'faw'.
- ff
- Like English 'f'. Example:
'ffos'.
- g
- As in English. Example:
'gw+ydd'.
- h
- As in English. Example:
'haul'.
- j
- As in English (this is not a
native Welsh sound). Example: 'ngarej'.
- l
- As in English. Example:
'nheulu'.
- ll
- Put your tongue in the
position for 'l' and blow out. Example: 'llid'.
- m
- As in English. Example:
'main'.
- mh
- Like it looks; not as hard
as it sounds, since it almost always occurs after a vowel. Split it between
two syllables if you like. Example: 'mhin'.
- n
- As in English. Example:
'main'.
- ngh
- Sort of like 'mh'; split it
into ng-h. Example: 'nghap'.
- nh
- Similar to 'mh'. Example:
'nheulu'.
- p
- As in English. Example:
'peidio'.
- ph
- As in English 'phone'; it
represents the same sound as 'ff'. Example: 'phen'.
- r
- Trilled with the tongue-tip.
Example: 'caer'.
- rh
- Like 'r', followed by an
aspiration of breath (h). Example: 'rhwd'.
- s
- As in English, though 'si'
is pronounced as in English 'sh', and is found before 'a', 'e' and 'o' only
- eg. 'siop' (shop). Exception: the 's' in 'sw'
is pronounced like the English 'z' in South Wales. Examples: 'sut', 'siop'.
- t
- As in English. Example:
'twp'.
- th
- Like 'th' in English 'thug',
never as in 'this'. Example: 'thus'.
- ts
- Like 'ch' in English 'chip'.
(This is not a native Welsh sound.) Example: 'mats'.
- gw
- Like 'wy', 'gw' is
pronounced differently in different words. In 'gwlad'
(land), 'gw' is little more than a 'g' with lips rounded, so the word
remains one syllable. But in 'gw+ydd' (goose), it sounds more like 'goo-eethe'.
Sometimes the accent gives a clue: if there is a circumflex over the 'w',
pronounce it like 'oo'.
- wl,
wn, wr
- The consonant 'w' can
combine with 'l', 'n', or 'r' to form a hybrid consonant. Examples: 'gwlad',
'gwneud', and 'gwraig'.
- -fr,
-fn, -gr, -tr, -bl, etc. at end of word
- Often in speech, some vowel
is inserted between the two letters of these combinations, making an extra
syllable where there really isn't one. An example is 'llyfr'
(book) which becomes 'llyfyr'. The inserted vowel mirrors the one in the
previous syllable (or the second part of it, if a diphthong). eg. 'cefn'
becomes 'cefen', 'aml' becomes 'amal', 'ofn' is 'ofon'. [1]
Also, the final consonant is sometimes dropped, so 'ffenestr' (window)
becomes 'ffenest' and 'posibl' (possible) becomes 'posib'. The consonants
that are often dropped are 'f' (pronounced as /v/), and 'l' and 'r' when
after other consonants.
- -f
at end of word
- The letter 'f' is considered
a weak consonant in Welsh, and is often
dropped when it is the final letter of a word. For example, 'haf' (summer)
is usually prounounced 'ha'.
The rule in Welsh is that the
accent, or stress, goes on the penult
(the next-to-last syllable). There are a few exceptions to this general rule, to
be noted in the lessons. A regular exception to this rule is that words ending
in '-hau' are accented on the last syllable.
Because of this rule, stress
often shifts when a word adds an ending. For instance, 'AFal', (apple), with
stress on the first syllable, has a plural 'afALau', (apples), with stress on
the second syllable.
One slight trickiness is
knowing when two adjacent vowels actually form separate syllables. For example,
the letters 'i' and 'w' are often consonants rather than vowels. A common case
is the ending '-io', as in 'peidio'
(to cease). The letter 'i' is a consonant in this ending unless there is a diaeresis
over is (as in 'si%o'). The treatment of 'ia', 'iau, 'ie' in a final syllable is
identical; e.g. 'tincian' (to tinkle) and 'smotiau' (spots) are both
two-syllable words.
Stress is sometimes a tricky
thing to hear in Welsh, since the last syllable, especially in the last word
of a clause or sentence, is uttered with a rising tone. So it sometimes sounds
like the last syllable is stressed, to the ears of an English speaker. Hearing
the accent correctly comes with practice, and it is a good idea to use tapes if
you have no access to a native speaker. Example: 'tystio'.
As mentioned in Section
1.2, there are four different kinds of accents that can occur in Welsh. The
accents occur only over vowels, and in theory any accent can occur over any
vowel. All of the accents are relatively rare. The following descriptions are in
increasing order of rarity of occurrence.
- A
circumflex
- Causes a vowel to be long
where it would otherwise be short. Example: 'ti+m' (team).
- An
acute accent
- Causes the stress to occur
on a syllable where it would normally not occur (usually the ultima,
or last syllable). Example: 'ambare/l' (umbrella).
- A
diaeresis
- Causes the vowel to be
pronounced separately when it would otherwise be part of a diphthong.
Example: gweiddi%o (pray); in this case the vowel also assumes the accent,
since it becomes the penult.
- A
grave accent
- Causes the vowel to be short
where it would otherwise be long. Example: 'sio\l' (skull).
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