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WELSH ENGLISH DRAGAN KABRANOV
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Welsh English or Wenglish are the dialects spoken in Wales by Welsh citizens.
The dialects are influenced by Welsh grammar. In addition, there’s a difference in accents, depending on where you live/go in Wales.
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Phonology The most general feature of Welsh English is the lilting intonation due to the rise-fall at the end of statements as opposed to the fall in other forms of English. Long vowels tend to occur only in stressed syllables. There is little distinction in length among low vowels so that words like grand and grass sound as if they had the same vowel. Wenglish has some traits in it taken from the Celtic language, like the trill /r/, similar to the Scottish counterpart. There is also the fact that they don’t emphasize any single syllable in a word in particular, giving the Welsh accent its distinctive rhythm.
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Pronunciation The vowel of cat /æ/ is pronounced as a more central near-open front unrounded vowel [æ̈]. In Cardiff, bag is pronounced with a long vowel [a:]. The vowel of end /ɛ/ is a more open vowel and thus closer to cardinal vowel [ɜ] than R.P. The vowel of "kit" /ɪ/ often sounds closer to the schwa sound of above, an advanced close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̟] The vowel of hot /ɒ/ is raised towards /ɔ/ and can thus be transcribed as [ɒ̝] or [ɔ̞]
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Pronunciation The schwa of better may be different from that of above in some accents; the former may be pronounced as [ɜ], the same vowel as that of bus. The vowel of "bus" /ʌ/ is pronounced as [ɜ], which is a shortened version of the vowel in R.P. e.g bird
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Long monophthongs The vowel of car is often pronounced as a more central open back unrounded vowel [ɑ̈][8] and more often as a long open front unrounded vowel /aː/ Most other long monophthongs are similar to that of Received Pronunciation, but words with the RP /əʊ/ are sometimes pronounced as [oː] and the RP /eɪ/ as [eː]. An example that illustrates this tendency is the Abercrave pronunciation of play-place [ˈpleɪpˌleːs] In northern varieties, coat and caught/court are often merged into /kɔːt/
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Diphthongs Fronting diphthongs tend to resemble Received Pronunciation, apart from the vowel of bite that has a more centralised onset [æ̈ɪ] Backing diphthongs are more varied: The vowel of low in R.P., other than being rendered as a monophthong, like described above, is often pronounced as [oʊ̝] The word town is pronounced similarly to the New Zealand pronunciation of tone, i.e. with a near-open central onset [ɐʊ̝] The /juː/ of R.P. in the word due is usually pronounced as a true diphthong [ëʊ̝]
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Consonants A strong tendency towards using an alveolar tap [ɾ] (a 'tapped r') in place of an approximant [ɹ] (the r used in most accents in England). Some vowel elongation is often encountered, e.g. money is pronounced [ˈmɜ.nːiː] In northern varieties influenced by Welsh, pens and pence merge into /pɛns/ and chin and gin into /dʒɪn/ In the north-east, under influence of such accents as Scouse, ng- coalescence does not take place, so sing is pronounced /sɪŋɡ/ Also in northern accents, /l/ is frequently strongly velarised [ɫː]. In much of the south-east, clear and dark L alternate much like they do in BR.E.
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Welsh influence We also have some Welsh words entering the English language. Here are a few examples: Daps = Shoes Chopsing = Arguing Tamping = Furious Humming = Disgusting Butty = Friend Tidy Darts! = Great!
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Grammar Working-class users of English in Wales tend to use the following constructions, also found elsewhere in the UK: multiple negation (l’aven’t done nothin’ to nobody, see?); them as a demonstrative adjective {them things); as as a relative pronoun (the one as played for Cardiff); non-standard verb forms (She catched it, The coat was all tore); ‘isself for himself and theirselves for themselves (‘E done it ‘isself and they saw it for theirselves);
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Pronunciation exercise:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch LLAN - FAIR - PWLL - GWYN - GYLL - GO - GER - YCH - WYRN - DROB - WLL - LLAN - TY - SILIO - GO - GO – GOCH LLAN - To start off with, pronounce this section as you would do the word "clan". Lie your tongue flat in your mouth so that the tip is firmly touching the bridge behind your front teeth. Keeping the tip of your tongue in place, try and touch your back teeth with the sides of your tongue - now breathe out forcing the air to run strongly over the back of your tongue. This will cause a vibrating noise near your back teeth.
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FAIR - Simply pronounce this section as you would the English word "fire", (not like you would expect to pronounce the word "fair" in English!) and change the "f" for a "v". PWLL - The "pw" section is pronounced like the "pu" in the English word "put". Now add the "ll" on the end as described above. GWYN - Just say the English word "win" and put a "g" in front of it. GYLL - This is a bit more tricky. First say the English word "gil" (as associated with fish!"). Then change the "l" (as in "let") to "ll" as explained above. GO - Looks easy doesn't it - it is! Pronounce it as you would the "go" in "gone“ GER - Simply say the word "care" but change the "c" for a "g". YCH - Like the pronunciation of "ll", this is another tricky section to explain. Think of something you don't like and say "yuck". Now take the "y" from the beginning to leave "uck". Now change the "ck" to "ch" as pronounced in the Scottish word "loch". WYRN - This looks more complicated that it is. Just say the English word "win". DROB - First say the English word "draw" and then add a "b" on the end. Easy. WLL - It's pronounced the same as "pwll" above but without the "p". LLAN - Again, this is exactly the same as the "llan" at the beginning of this section. TY - Simply pronounce this section as you would the "t" in "twig". SILIO - Just say "silly - o". The "o" is pronounced as in "cot". GO - As above. GOCH -Simply say "go" as above, put the "ch" after it and that's it!
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