Welsh prounciation, simplified?
By Rhiannonw
- 2558 reads
Are you scared of words like Llŷn,
Llanelli, or Llandrindon?
It’s not you don’t know what they mean,
(most English towns have names mysterious,
only unravelled by the curious),
but how d’you say that double ‘l’?
It’s not a ‘thl’ or ‘chl, but still
not quite impossible a skill:
don’t press your tongue so hard behind
your teeth, just keep it there
relaxed and soft, and breathe it out,
let ‘ll’, not ‘l’ appear, –
for ‘ll’ is not a double ‘l’,
like ‘thrill’, and ‘fill’, and ‘wall’, and ‘all’
it’s one, uniquely-sounding letter,
a pleasant tone, like running water.
A helpful rule: it is far better
to leave it as an ‘l’, –
[if otherwise it’s just a splutter,
a grating noise or growly mutter,
that’s painful to the ears
of those who love the lilt they know],
– for sometimes it does alter so:
‘ll’ to ‘l’ does sometimes change,
and so will not sound very strange,
nor pain my brain, when said, instead;
won’t seem as odd as some new sound,
that’s not in any language found.
‘Croeso i Gymru’ (Cr-oi-so ee Guh-m-ree)
means ‘Welcome to Wales’
[after ‘i’ (ee) (to) the C of Cymru has mutated]
so ‘Croeso i Landrindod’ on the sign
is quite correct and shows ‘l’’s fine,
in certain places, for one letter is affected
by near neighbours, – smoother lingual flow
you slowly learn to know.
The ‘y’ can be confusing too,
like ‘un-’ when early in a word,
but sometimes as in ‘each’ or ‘in’, –
for saying ‘mynydd’ [meaning ‘mountain’], do begin
with ‘myn’ pronounced to rhyme with ‘gun’,
and end with ‘ydd’ which rhymes with ‘with’.
In all unhyphenated words, however long,
please place the emphasis upon
the syllable that’s last but one.
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Comments
*smiles* As an inheritor of
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Thanks for that lesson. I
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Hi Rhiannon
Hi Rhiannon
That was a very clever poem and lesson in Welsh. I'm pleased to have read it, and in future will not struggle to try to make the ll sound, which I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do properly anyway.
My first contact with the ll was in meeting my new husband's great aunt at our wedding reception. Her name was spelled Gwynllyn I think. but I always prounced it Gwenthlian in the more English way. She welcomed me to the family - the eldest Mrs. Day to the newest one.
Jean
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Useful. If all the rules are
Useful. If all the rules are consistent, Welsh is less confusing to learners than English
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