oer        GWERS 1					

CYFLWYNYDD (PRESENTER):    CENNARD DAVIES

NOD (AIM):	 To start looking at pronunciation.

YR WYDDOR GYMRAEG (THE WELSH ALPHABET)

A      B      C      CH      D      DD      E        F        FF      G      NG      H      I      L     

LL    M     N      O        P      PH       R      RH      S      T      TH      U      W       Y

The letter J is also accepted these days in borrowed words such as ‘j”ns’, ‘j™c’, ‘jam’, ‘jeli’ and of course ‘Jones’.

RHAN 1  (PART 1)

1. 	 There are some sounds in Welsh which don't exist in English - except in 		 borrowed words.

	(a)		CH	-	Remember that this is a single sound and CH is a 	
					single letter in the Welsh alphabet.  It sounds 
					exactly as it does in the Scots word 'loch' and in the 
					name of the composer 'Bach'.

					bach 		-	small
					bachgen	-	boy
					chwaer	-	sister

	(b)		LL	-	This is another consonant which gives learners some 
					difficulty, but hardly Nigel - as he has played rugby 
					often enough against Llanelli.

				'Llan' means an enclosed area where a church is
				often built.  The 'llan' element often precedes the 
				name of a saint - as in 

				Llanelli  (St. Elli)
				Llanon  (St Non - who was the mother of St David)
				Llantrisant  (the church of the three saints)
	
				llaw		-	hand
				lle		-	place

	(c)		R/RH	-	R and RH are far more distinctly pronounced in 						Welsh than in English 

					R is always well rolled (even at the end of a  word).

					Treorci  (my home town!)
					Aberdâr

					chwaer	-	sister	

					RH is found in the placenames 

					y Rhondda   ( where I live) 
					Rhiwbeina

				rhoi 		-	to give
				rhedeg	-	to run

2.	There are sounds in Welsh which exist also in English but which are     	represented by different letters.

	(a)		DD	-	This is pronounced exactly like the ‘th’ in 'this', that' 							‘those' these'. It is voiced.	
		
					Dafydd
					Y Rhondda
					Caerdydd

(b)		F	-	This is always pronounced like the English ‘v’ or the 
				‘f’ in the word ‘of’	
	
					tafod		-	tongue
					cefn		-	back
				
					'Dafydd' is a name often mispronounced. It combines 					the two sounds ‘f’ and ‘dd’  -  as does the word 						‘eisteddfod’.
	(c)		FF	-	This sounds like the English ‘f’, as heard  in 'often', 							'after' and 'if'.
					Some English words use ‘ff’ as in Welsh  e.g. 'affair', 						'off' and 'effect'.

						Remember we always use ‘ff’ in Welsh.
			
					coffi	 	-	'coffee'
					hoffi		-	to like'

	3.	And here's your first Welsh sentence:

				Rydw i'n hoffi coffi.
				- I like coffee.

RHAN 2

1. 			Welsh vowel sounds are very open and pure. They can be short or long.
	
			   (a)		A	-	This is always open as in ‘car’, ‘maggot’, ‘pan’	
	
						short 		mam		-	mother
								cant		-	hundred
								pam?		-	why?
						long		tad		-	father		
			cath		-	cat   
			da		-	good

		(b) 		E	-	This is always pronounced ‘eh’ as in ‘men’, 									‘men’, ‘lemon’, ‘where’. 

						short		pen		-	head	
								merch		-	girl
								cefn		-	back
						long		tre(f) 		-	town
								hen		-	old
								lle		-	place

			(c)			I	-	This is always pronounced ‘ee’ -  as in ‘key’, ‘me’, 									‘we’, ‘meeting’.

						short		pin		-	pin
								cinio		-	lunch / dinner
								inc		-	ink
						long		fi 		-	me
								ni		-	us
								gwin		-	wine

		(ch)		O	-	This is always a pure ‘o’ - as in ‘more’, ‘toffee’, ‘pot’.
                                              In English it often becomes a diphthong (‘ow’ - as in 								‘so’) - but this never happens in Welsh.
						
						short		cloc		-	clock
							agor		-	to open
						bore		-	morning		
						long 		dod		-	to come
								glo		-	coal
								môr		-	sea

(d) 		U	-	This is ‘ee’ in South Wales but more like the French 	
					‘u’ in North Wales.

						short		tun		-	tin
								burum		-	yeast
								pump		-	five
						long		un		-	one
								cul		-	narrow
								llun		-	picture

(dd) 		W	-	Remember that ‘w’ can also be a vowel in Welsh. It is 					always pronounced ‘w / oo’

							short		lwcus		-	lucky
									anlwcus	-	unlucky
									wrth		-	by / near
							long		gðr		-	husband / man
								dðr		-	water
								cwrw		-	beer

2.		In English, many letters can be pronounced in a variety of ways. Here are 			a few examples:

				c				ceiling 	-	cap
				g				ginger		-	garden
				f				of		-	often
				a				hand		-	hall		-	hate
				e				evening	-	envy
		
		This does not happen with Welsh letters. They are always pronounced in 			the same way  -  that is, except for the letter ‘y’, which can be pronounced 
		in two ways  -  clear and obscure. (Remember that it can also be a vowel in 
         Welsh).

				Y	 clear	-	as in the English  ‘i / ee’			

						short		mynd		-	to go
								cyn		-	before
								byw		-	to live
						long		dydd		-	day
								tþ		-	house
								pryd?		-	when?

			Y obscure	-	as in the English ‘uh’. It is generally used in its 							short form.

						short		yn		-	in
								Cymru	-	Wales
								yma		-	here
								rydw i		-	I am / I do

			The word ‘mynydd’ contains both obscure and clear sounds  -  in 				that order.

3.		Sometimes two vowel sounds come together to form a dipthong  -e.g. ‘wy’
		
							wy		-	egg
							bwyd		-	food
							Clwyd		-	North East Wales
							llwyd		-	grey

Until the next time, from Nigel and me-
			
			Hwyl fawr!		-	Goodbye / All the best / Cheerio!