| Welsh Language |
| The Alphabet Welsh is a phonetic language, which means that every letter is always pronounced the same way. The only variation is the amount of stress given to different words. There are the inevitable exceptions. Firstly the letter Y, which can be pronounced either ‘clear’ or ‘obscure’; and when the letter S is followed by an I – this forms a ‘sh’ sound. The Welsh alphabet has 28 letters as opposed to 26 in the English language. The letters J, K, Q, V, X, and Z are omitted from the Welsh, although J has be been used in recent times owing to the absorption of some English words e.g garej for garage and of course in that most Welsh of surnames, Jones. There are an additional 8 letters: ch, dd, ff, ll, ng, ph, rh and th. If you advance sufficiently to be able to do Welsh crosswords, these count as a single letter and go into one square! There are seven vowels: A, E, I, O, U, W and Y. Approximate English pronunciation of each letter. |
a : e : i : u : o : w : y : ae, ai and au : eu and ei : ew : i’w and y’w : oe : ow : wy : ywy : aw : b : c : ch : d : dd : f : ff : g : ng : h : l ll m n p ph r rh s t th |
| The Vowels Either long as in part or short as in hat Either long as in pale or short as in well Mostly long as in need, but sometimes short as in win As the ee in weed in the South, or like the i in win in the North Either long as in door or short as in hop Either long as oo in school or short as the oo in look The clear sound as for u above. The obscure, as the u in under The Dipthongs: As the English eye. i.e mae is pronounced my As the ay in pray Similar sound to ‘eh-oo’ or as in mount. Similar to ‘ee-you’ or yew or you Similar to oy or oi As in tow, or low Similar to ‘oo-ee’ or as in win As ‘owie’ As in cow The Consonants: As in boat Always hard as in cart As the sound ch in the Scottish, Loch or the composer Bach As in door As th in that. As v in wave As f in force or ff in effort Always hart as in glove As ng in sing As in horse As in long Similar to l with a th in front of it. A sound made in the mouth As in man As in nail As in paper As in pharmacy or the f in front As in red but slightly rolled Combine letters quickly but sounds as if h comes before r As in sort As in tree As in thorn |
| More space would be required to give a fuller idea of Welsh grammar but try the paragraph below, which is in “English” using the Welsh alphabet. Gwd lwc. Ai hop ddat yw can ryd ddys and ddat yt meiks sens tw yw. Iff yw can ryd ddys dden yw ar dwing ffaen and wil haf no problems at ol yn lyrning aw ffaen Welsh alffabet. Good luck. I hope that you can read this, and that it makes sense to you. If you can read this , then you are doing fine and will have no problems at all in learning our fine Welsh alphabet. |
 |
 |
 |