A few Notes on Welsh Pronunciation

A very brief key, with some approximate English sounds:

a as in "bath" or "hard"
ae rhymes with "high"
c is always pronounced like the hard k
ch always as in "loch"
th always as "thick"
d as "dog"
dd as th in "that"
e as a long a as in "sane" or "echo"
f as v
ff as f
g as in "go"
h as in "hat" --- never silent
i as ee in "peer" or as in "tin"
l as "love"
ll see below
u as in "hit" --- but when accented, as a rounded ee
w as oo in "pool"
y as u in "but" --- preceding a vowel, as y in "yet"


Welsh names and words can look formidable. But an attempt can be made to pronounce most with reasonable exactness. In Welsh, every letter is pronounced. With few exceptions, the accent is on the next-to-last syllable. The most difficult sound is the rh, but a well-trilled r will do instead. The consonant ll is another matter and has to be acquired. You can get near to it if you prefix the liquid l with the ch sound in loch, or if you put th in front of l. Thus Llan = Chlan or Thlan.

Another example of pronunciation: Ysbyty Ifan = Us-butty Eevan.