Welsh Pronunciation
Getting your tongue around the words
Letters which don't appear here are exactly the same in Welsh and in English.
c as in the English 'car' never as in 'cease'.
ch a dry gargling sound in the back of the throat as in the composer 'Bach'.
dd said as the th in 'the'.
f as the v in 'vase'.
ff as in 'office'.
g always as in 'grand' never as in 'giant'.
ng as in 'gang'.
ll A difficult one to describe. Put your tongue into the right position to say L and then blow hard. It should work!
r As in 'perfect' but rolled more. A cat purring comes pretty close.
rh very similar to r, but you should hear the h.
th as the th in 'thin'.
There is no K, Q or Z in Welsh although an S is sometimes used to give a Z sound as in sw (a zoo).
a this can be said either as in 'lard'or as in 'tram' never as in 'game'.
e as in 'then' never as in 'because'.
i either as in 'tree' or as in 'wink' never as in 'time'.
o as in 'hot' never as in 'only'
w as the oo in 'zoo'.
u as the ee in'seen' never as in 'cup'.
y can be said as in 'cup', as in 'pin' or as in curtain'.
If there's an accent (^) on any letter it makes the sound a little longer.
When vowels are combined they are sounded as in these English words:
ai, ae, and au as sounded in the English 'aisle'.
eu, ei and ey as in 'pay'.
oe, oi and ou as in 'boy'.
aw as sounded in 'brown'.
wy as in 'gooey'.