Welsh The alphabet and pronunciation

Welsh is very, very different.  In Welsh the alphabet goes…  Yes, I know, very weird indeed.

But how do I say it?  The only differences are… ‘dd’ is pronounced as ‘th’ in the word ‘things’.  ‘F’ is a ‘v’ in ‘very’.  ‘Ff’ is an ‘f’ in ‘fairy’.  ‘Ng’ is like in ‘going’.  ‘Ll’ is like ‘l’ but whilst blowing.  ‘Rh’ is a rolled ‘r’ but whilst blowing.

But how do I say it?  ‘Th’ is like ‘th’ in ‘bath’.  ‘U’ is like ‘ee’ in ‘week’.  ‘W’ is an ‘oo’ sound like ‘cuckoo’.  ‘Y’ is naughty because it has a rule. In the first syllable, it is an ‘uh’, whereas in any other syllable, it’s ‘ee’ like the ‘u’. However, in one syllable words, it’s just ‘ee’.

What now?  You need to move on to some other PowerPoint or maybe find a Welsh sight or leaflet and try to pronounce the words correctly.  Emphasis is unusual because normally, I would say to emphasise the penultimate syllable… but it’s not that easy. You just have to learn examples.

I hope that helped! Matthew Vernon