Spelling & Pronunciations Basics

Spelling & Pronunciation Basics

Pronunciation Tips

Consonant Mutations

Verb and Subject Order in Welsh

Before we continue, it's important to get a grip on Welsh spelling. First off, for the most part (with some well-defined and yet persistently irritating exceptions), it's fairly phonetic. If you look at a written Welsh word, you know how to say it. Again, there are some exceptions (the letter "y" for example, which can be said either of two ways, and the letter "f," which is bizarrely used to represent a /v/ sound), but spelling reflects pronunciation almost completely. This is a delightful relief for those of us who speak English natively, where we talk like Snoop Dog and spell like Chaucer.

Where I use the slashes to set a letter off, I am speaking of its pronunciation as opposed to referring to the letter itself. Where you see /t/, for example, think of that puff of air noise that you make when actually pronouncing the letter. The word "ten" in English is written with a letter "t", but pronounced with the /t/ sound.

Also, you'll see that some of the letters are actually two letters taken together, like the "ll" and the "ch." These letters -- "ch," "ff," "dd," "ng," "ll," "rh," and "th" -- are called digraphs, and are considered to be letters all on their own. If you look in a Welsh dictionary, you will see that the words that start with "ll" are actually in a separate section from those that start with "l." Similarly, the words that start with "ch" are not in the "c" section, but in a separate section all their own. In the Welsh version of the popular board game "Scrabble," the digraphs have their own individual tiles.

And please keep in mind that the linked .mp3 files are my own, and I am a non-native speaker. My profound apologies for any ... hinkiness in what may be my profoundly strange yankee-gog accent.

Welsh Consonants
Letter	English equivalent	Special notes	Listen
"p"	as in "pen"	none	papur newydd: "newspaper"
"t"	as "tent"	none	tâd: "father"
"c"	as in "kick"	This is always a hard sound and never a soft sound as in the word "license." The letter "k" is never used in Welsh.	celf: "art"
"b"	as in "ball"	none	brawd: "brother"
"d"	as in "dog"	none	dafad: "sheep"
"g"	as in "give"	This is also always a hard sound, never a soft sound as in the word "giant." The letter "j" is only used to spell loan words from English, like "jeli" or "jôc."	gwyn: "white"
"f"	as in "video"	Yep, it's a /v/ sound. I know. This is without a doubt the grand prize winner for Most Irritating Spelling Choice In Any Language Ever. I still trip over it and I've been studying Welsh since mid-2004.	celf: "art"
"ff"	as in "fall"	none	ffôn: "phone"
"th"	as in "think" or "throw"	none	etholiad: "election"
"dd"	as in "this" or "that"	none	newydd: "new" gogledd: "north" dafad ddu: "black sheep"
"s"	as in "sink"	None of the mutations care the slightest bit about this letter, so you can turn your brain off for this one. Nothing touches it. Welsh does have a /sh/ sound, as in the word "shake," but it's usually written as "si-," where the word "siarad" is pronounced /sharad/.	safle: "site" siarad: "to speak"
"ch"	as in the Scots "loch" or German "Bach"	none	chwarae: "to play"
"l"	as in "level"	none	lori: "truck"
"r"	American "river," but strongly trilled	This is strongly trilled.	fel arfer/roeddwn i: "typically" and "I was"
"ll"	(no English equivalent)	Check out the Pronunciation Tips page for how to pronounce these consonants.	cyllell/llysiau: "knife" and "vegetables"
"rh"	(no English equivalent)	Check out the Pronunciation Tips page for how to pronounce these consonants.	rhedeg/rheolwr: "to run" and "manager"
"m"	as in "more"	none	mynydd: "mountain"
"n"	as in "never"	none	newydd: "new"
"ng"	as the consonant at the end of the word "sing"	This is a nasal sound made at the back of the palate. In the Welsh alphabet, it comes after "g" in a dictionary.	fy ngarej: "my garage"
"mh"	as in "firm hat"	A regular /m/ sound with a puff of air after it. This sound and the following two of what are called aspirated nasals are never pronounced in isolation in Welsh, so you won't have to start a word with any of these sounds. This makes them easier to say.	fy mhen-blwydd: "my birthday"
"nh"	as in "ten hats"	Same as above.	fy nhad: "my father"
"ngh"	as in "sing hallelujah"	Same as above.	yng Nghaerdydd: "in Cardiff"
Welsh Vowels
Letter	English equivalent	Special notes	Listen
"a"	as in "tap"	none	siarad: "to speak"
"e"	a short, sharp vowel halfway between "bet" and "bait"	If you know Spanish or Italian, just say it that way, and you'll be fine.	denu: "to attract" de: "south" sedd: "seat"
"i"	as in "beat" or "bit"	A fairly high, tight vowel.	ffatri: "factory" ennill: "to win"
"o"	as in "caught," more or less	A little on the lax side.	ffon: "walking stick"
"u"	A little unusual	In the south, it's the same as the "i." In the north, it's more like a throatier version of the French "u" in a word like "tu" or "dur." Go ahead and pronounce a word like "credu" as if it were spelled "kreh-dee" in English. You'll be fine with that. (You may find as you listen to these sound files that, unless I'm making a specific effort to sound Southern, my own unfortunately yank accent has a slight Northern feel to it. Everyone I know in Wales lives up north, so I've picked up a bit of a "gog" accent.)	un (SW): "one" un (NW): "one" credu (SW): "to believe" credu (NW): "to believe"
"y"	as in "much" or "bit"	If it's the only vowel in the word, say the short-i: South Walean "hyd," for example is pronounced like the English "heed." If there are two, schwa the first one: "mynydd" is pronounced as if it were spelled "muh-nidd," with the voiced-th sound for the "dd." North Walean Welsh often treats this as a "u."	mynydd: "mountain" hyd (SW): "along" hyd (NW): "along" ty/byd (SW): "house, world" ty/byd (NW): "house, world"
"w"	as in "wall" when a consonant, or "food" when a vowel	none	wyth: "eight" Wyddfa: "Mount Snowdon"
Any of the Welsh vowels, including the "w," can be rendered stronger and longer with the inclusion of a little hat on top, called a "circumflex": ffon: "walking stick," pronounced roughly as California-English "fawn." ffôn: "phone," pronounced the same way with a little less of a glide after the "o."