CUHWC goes to Wales four times a year, but so far its members have demonstrated a regrettable lack of interest in the varied and intricate sounds of the country’s ancient and beautiful language. Not only is this a shameful lack of cultural empathy, but it also makes them sound like fools to Welshmen (even if some would argue the feeling’s mutual). Would you be annoyed if a tourist came to Cambridge and cheerily insisted on calling it 'Camm-brid-gee'?
This lack of interest is usually put down to the language being full of sounds that require you to get your tongue stuck between your front teeth, not having nearly enough vowels, and looking as though a bowl of Alphabetti Spaghetti has had an accident with a blender. In actual fact, though, Welsh pronunciation is one heck of a lot easier to learn than English. Gone are the oddities such as cough failing to rhyme with tough, seven with even or show with cow. All you have to do is learn a few rules and a few new sounds and bam, you’re a half-decent Welsh speaker (even if you don’t have a clue what the words mean!)
For those who’re interested, then...
B, D, FF, H, L, M, N, NG, P, PH and T are said the same as in English.
C and G are always 'hard', as in cat and get; NEVER soft as in centre or gem.
CH is as in the Scottish loch or the German Bach, NOT as in church.
DD is the soft 'th' sound, as in that, NOT as in middle.
F is pronounced 'v' as in veil, NOT 'f' as in fail. Our 'f' sound is represented by FF in Welsh.
LL is a real peach of a sound, but it’s not all that hard to say. Just put your tongue in the position you would for an L, and blow hard. If you spray the person you’re speaking to with spittle, you may be overdoing it. Learning to put this sound in the middle and ends of words takes a bit of practice, but stick with it.
R is rolled. As in Arrrrrrrrr.
RH is to R the same way LL is to L; just blow harder and hope for the best.
S and TH are always as in bus and bath respectively, NEVER as in does or that. There is also a bit of an oddity in that SI is pronounced SH.
Vowels can be both short and long, much as in English. This isn’t much to worry about though, since they are only long in single-syllable words, and even then only when 0 or 1 consonants follow the vowel; remember this. The circumflex (e.g. in ê) is also used to show a vowel is long.
The short vowels A, E, I, O, U are pronounced as in bat, bet, bit, bot... bit. No that is NOT a typo. U is pronounced the same as I in Welsh. Get used to it.
The long vowels A, E, I, O, U are pronounced as in bra, bear, bee, bor, bee. Simples.
Y is a bit funny. In the last syllable of a word it makes the short 'i' sound, but elsewhere it makes a neutral 'uh' sound as in butter. Its long vowel sound is as in bee (obviously this only happens in single-syllable words).
W is even worse because between consonants it acts as a vowel, whereas next to another vowel it acts as a consonant (making the same 'w' sound as it does in English). Its short and long vowel sounds are 'uh' as in book and 'oo' as in food, respectively.
AE, AI and AU are all pronounced as in high.
AW is pronounced as in cow.
EI and EU are pronounced as in bay (the actual Welsh sound is a bit more like an 'uh' and an 'ee' strung together, but this is a reasonable approximation).
EW is like running a short 'e' and a long 'oo' together; it’s like nothing in English and learning to stick this sound at the end of words takes a bit of practice. Similarly, IW and UW are like running a short 'i' and a long 'oo' together.
I before another vowel; here the I ends up making a Y sound (as in yes) and the other vowel behaves normally. This catches people out.
OE is pronounced as in boy.
WY is a bit like the sound of gooey, but with the vowels run together more.
YW is pretty much as you'd expect (if you've a systematic mind). In the last syllable of a word it sounds like IW and UW; elsewhere it's like running a short 'uh' and a long 'oo' together. It ends up sounding a bit like an English 'oh' if you do it right.
A warning about R; it’s always pronounced (and always rolled). Do not try and pronounce AR, ER, IR, OR, UR or YR as they are in English – just say the short vowel and then stick the R after it. If you aren’t too fussy, ER will come out a bit like English air; IR, UR, YR (final syllables) like in English deer; and YR (non-final syllables) like in English fur.
See too many consonants at the end of a word (e.g. cefn)? The Welsh just haven’t bothered to write in the extra vowel that separates the f and the n. Such a vowel is always inserted and always sounds the same as the preceding vowel (or the second part of it, if a combination of vowels). Hence eifl is pronounced 'ay-vil'.
Oh, and the small words y, yr and yn are pronounced 'uh', 'uhr' and 'uhn'.
That really is it; not too bad. Thanks for sticking by, and happy Welshing.
These are the most difficult ones you are likely to see; most place names are a bit simpler than these. They're all from place names you might see on CUHWC trips. In the pronunciation guide vowels are short unless otherwise stated.
If you've got any queries, comments or corrections, please feel free to comment below.