Welsh/Alphabet: The Sounds of Welsh
Welsh/Alphabet: The Sounds of Welsh
Welsh/Alphabet: The Sounds of Welsh
Alphabet
Welsh Vocabulary • Alphabet •
• The names of the letters above are in Southern dialect. In the North,
the letters are pronounced differently.
• h indicates voicelessness in mh, nh, and ngh.
• ph occurs occasionally in words derived from Greek (e.g. phenol) but
more commonly as a result of aspirate mutation (e.g. ei phen-ôl)
• y indicates /ə/ in unstressed monosyllabic words (e.g. y "the", fy "my")
or non-final syllables, but /ɨ̞, ɨː/ (N) or /ɪ, iː/ (S) everywhere else.
• The digraphs (letters consisting of two characters) are treated as a
single letter (with the collation order as listed above), although the
same combinations of characters can sometimes also arise as a
juxtaposition of two separate letters. For example, the digraph ng
representing /ŋ/ is alphabetised between g and h (alphabetical order
llegach, lleng, lleiaf), but when ng is two letters representing /ŋg/ it is
alphabetised between nf and nh (alphabetical order danfon, dangos,
danheddog).
• si indicates /ʃ/ (as in English sheep) when followed by a vowel.
• di and ti sometimes indicate /dʒ/ (as in English joke) and /tʃ/ (as in
English church)respectively when followed by a vowel. Otherwise /dʒ/
and /tʃ/ are spelled j and ts, but only in loanwords like jẁg "jug" and
wats "watch".
• To pronounce the ll sound, blow while placing your tongue on the roof
of your mouth.
a b c ch d dd e f ff g ng h i j l ll m n o p ph r rh s t th u w y
A B C Ch D Dd E F Ff G Ng H I J L Ll M N O P Ph R Rh S T Th U W Y
And saying it out loud : ah bee ec ech dee eh edd ef eff eg eng aetch ee jay
el ell em en o pee phee er rhee es tee eth eu oo uh