1. Alphabet & Vowels - Welsh Pronunciation (Series 1)

Learn to pronounce Welsh clearly and understandably whether you're in north or south Wales.
Alphabet & Vowels (Series 1 | Video 1)
Part of the Welsh Pronunciation Series.

[@SiroccoDream]

What a fantastic resource! I speak American English as my native language, but have loved the sound of spoken Welsh since I first heard it in the 90s. This is the first pronunciation guide that I've found that breaks down this beautiful language into bits even my old ears can grasp. I especially love the fact you have Northern and Southern Wales native speakers to show us all the regional differences. I confess I'll probably stick with the Southern accent, because, hey, one less vowel sound to learn! 😉 Well done, and thank you!

[@welshplus]

+SiroccoDream Diolch yn fawr! Great to hear you find it useful. We're already planning a second series so watch this space.

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus april fools!

[@ThatGaijinFella]

I grew up for a while in Bethesda, and my mother now lives in Plas Madoc. I've decided to restart learning Welsh and this is a great starting point and very clear to follow! 🤗

[@qiro3633]

This is amazing! Thanks for making this guys!

[@welshplus]

+Joe Lai Croeso / You're welcome :)

[@qiro3633]

Rwyf wrth fy modd tatws bach!

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@qiro3633 baby potatoes? 😂😂😂

[@sledgehog1]

Fun fact, ô is pronounced exactly like that in Portuguese as well and Northern Welsh "u" is pronounced like our atonal "e"(or Turkish "ı"). Very interesting!

[@petermorris5808]

Thank you very much for taking the time to make these excellent videos!

[@schwa8805]

Wow. I like someone from Wales. This is nice.

[@javirezio5]

I love his spoken English, it sounds way perfect to me, that I'm a Spanish speaker... I think, although he's Welsh his English is nicer than the standard one.

[@welshplus]

Diolch yn fawr / Thanks a lot!

[@robertsckemp]

The English accents of people who speak Celtic languages (or who were brought up in those areas) are often quite clear, soft and even musical. English spoken with a Scottish Gaelic accent is very pleasant to listen to. In the UK, many top radio and TV presenters have often come from these areas.

[@bacodenaus6866]

From Scotland and a friend from Gwynedd suggested to let me learn this

[@anitahaslam2302]

One thing that would make this even more helpful would be to have IPA transcriptions.

[@welshplus]

Totally agree. If you want a good guide, please see the Welsh pronunciation appendix on Wiktionary: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Welsh_pronunciation

[@jeremieherard2166]

Excellent video ! This is really interresting and smart of you to show us both northern and southern accents !!(i am unable to prunounce "tri" "dro" the southern way^^).

[@zachhaywood1564]

I'm an American who is fiercely proud of my Welsh ancestry, and want to learn for when I go there.

[@welshplus]

Gwych! / That's great!

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus happy april fools day!

[@milliman4]

I want to learn gaulish because I am from Austria, straight from the centre of the hallstadt culture. Welsh is the closest living language to gaulish. I would apprechiate any information I could get on either language.

[@nocilantro_gack]

OMG I'm a Yank that lived in South Wales... I could NEVER pronounce the towns I was at..specially the "double LL" ones...I was surprised to hear so many people still speak it..especially in the south...

[@martinkullberg6718]

I went to wales, I did like to read all the exotic words on all the signs like : dim parcio dros nos. I like the welsh word arraf and betws y coed 😁 Also you should look at the language brithenig , it is based on welsh orthographie, info is on the site ill bethisad.

[@jamesharland3727]

Thanks for this - very clear and useful. Obvious question: apart from the to bach, how can you find out if a vowel is long or short?

[@welshplus]

+James Harland There are rules but they're pretty tedious to learn. My advice would be to follow a Welsh course consistently and practise as much as possible and soon you'll be pronouncing new words correctly due to your constant exposure to the language. But if you're really interested, some of the rules are here: geiriaduracademi.org/morffoleg-y-gymraeg/#quantityofvowels

[@hlynurelli]

I'll try to summarize this as much as possible. I read this on the Welsh orthography Wikipedia page: 1. An unmarked stressed vowel is always long when: • At the end of a word • Before the voiced stops b, d, and g, and all fricatives except ll (that is, before dd, f, ff, s, th) 2. An unmarked vowel is short when: • In an unstressed word (for example, the indefinite article "a" in English in rapid speech) • Before the voiceless stops c, p, t, and ng • Before most consonant clusters If a long vowel is to occur in the circumstances mentioned above, it must carry a to bach. 3. A given vowel can be long in some words and short in others when preceding l, m, n, and r. There is, unfortunately, no easy way to predict vowel length in these circumstances, and vowel length must therefore be memorized.

[@_what._.]

Thank you so much!!

[@welshplus]

Croeso! / You're welcome!

[@cat_1878]

Hi everybody from my school doing their homework!

[@maryevans5050]

hi harvey

[@draaaaagon7826]

I did it

[@josedavidarellanoroman5107]

Hi

[@cristinam6575]

It's so clearly explained and sooooo useful! *_* Thank you :)

[@welshplus]

Croeso! / You're welcome!

[@CarlosHenrique-sn3le]

Cymraeg is unbelievable!

[@alexxks5165]

Thank you!

[@welshplus]

Croeso! / You're welcome!

[@78jelenica]

This is great! Thank you for making these lessons. I've just had my first lesson in Welsh on Duolingo. We are informed that the course uses IVONA text-to-speech (Gwyneth). Can you tell me if her accent is from the south or from the north? I was also wondering about "to bach" - is it only used to avoid confusion between homonyms? Thanks again. Greetings from Serbia.

[@welshplus]

+78jelenica Shwmae. I'm sure I replied to your comment about this last week. Did you get it or did I forget to click "Reply"? :(

[@78jelenica]

+Welsh Plus - Learn Welsh Online With Us You must have forgotten to click "reply". Don't worry - it happens to me, too.

[@mikelewis2286]

Welsh Plus - Learn Welsh Online With Us 7

[@brenainnmacthomais]

@@welshplus I would like to know the answer to this as well!

[@welshplus]

@@brenainnmacthomais Looks like comments and notifications went awry with this one, sorry. Better late than never though! The Duolingo TTS is based on a southern accent. That said, it's not always very accurate and does say some really weird things sometime. I wouldn't use it as a model for Welsh pronunciation. The _to bach_ isn't so much to do with homonyms. There are specific rules for when to use or not to use it. Essentially, you'd use a _to bach_ to show a long vowel where the spelling would otherwise mean it was short. The rules are quite involved and not everybody wants/needs to learn them but if you're interested, you can read about them here: geiriaduracademi.org/morffoleg-y-gymraeg/#quantityofvowels.

[@KylaSchmitt]

Haha xD Thats kind of the same pronounciation we use in Germany 😊 And the north-welsh "u" sounds exactly like "u" in japanese ^^

[@welshplus]

That's interesting about German. Japanese "u" tends to be produced further back in the mouth whereas north Welsh "u" is in the middle or even nearer the front. If you can already pronounce the Japanese "u", then just bring your tongue forward a bit and you'll get a perfect north Walian "u"!

[@fhpurcell5364]

sounds very similar to how "u" is pronounced in Norwegian too

[@inancminep5495]

Welsh's "u" sound is like Turkish's "ı" sound

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus 아니, 감사합니다.

[@sakalava47]

I can't tell the difference between the short a and the long a. How would "atal' be pronounced with long a's? "Ahtahl?" Sounds like it would be exactly the same.

[@welshplus]

sakalava47 Short and long A are the same sound, just that one is held for longer than the other. "Atal" only has short As in it. In fact, if you remember words of more than one syllable can only have short vowels, you won't go far wrong. The only time you really need to be able to make the difference is in monosyllabic words like short "tan" (until) and long "tân" (fire). In that case, hold the A of "tân" for longer.

[@sakalava47]

Thank you, that helps!

[@welshplus]

sakalava47 Croeso / You're welcome!

[@videosdojairo]

❤👏

[@devdevai]

Thank you for this video series. For the NW long u, I'm hearing a pitch-drop both in the recording and when I try it. Is Welsh tonal or is it purely coincidental that that tongue positioning seems to cause a change of pitch?

[@welshplus]

No, not at all. The pitch drop is probably on the recording because it's the second word in a pair. People often pronounce the second word of a pair at a lower (or more falling) pitch when said as a pair - in Welsh, English and other languages. If we'd put the long "u" word first, it'd probably have a higher pitch than the following word. Hope that explains it!

[@rtperrett]

I don't perceive the long vowels being pronounced a longer duration than the short vowels. It appears to me that Welsh is similar to English vowels in there being lax and tense vowels. Northern Wales pronounces the U as similar to the dotless i in Turkish and the i with the circumflex in Romanian.

[@gm_construct4697]

I spent a whole minute laughing at bum with an accent on it.

[@schrodings9465]

thank you for the effort. It's very clear and informative, thank you!!! Could you recommend any Welsh grammar books? That would be quite nice. Thanks a lot

[@welshplus]

The best Welsh grammar I've seen for learners is _Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar_ by Gareth King. There are other books by Gareth King that are cheaper too, all of which are good. If you want to some free stuff to get you going, however, check out the BBC Welsh grammar: www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/pdf/welshgrammar_allrules.pdf or these grammar guides on imgur: imgur.com/gallery/icnrP.

[@schrodings9465]

Welsh Plus - Learn Welsh Online With Us thank you for the fast reply

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus what is imgur?

[@SeanZ482]

Interesting, I'm not any sort of Welsh (american) but the northern way of saying the vowel "u" is easier for me to do.

[@welshplus]

Could be because the sound does actually occur in some varieties of English, including the pronuncation by some Southern American speakers of the vowels in "good" and sometimes in "lip".

[@staceyhaworth7875]

This is a good video. I think it would also be helpful if before pronouncing the words below each short and long vowel sound, you pronounce the short sound, then the long sound...then proceed with the pronunciation of the words.

[@welshplus]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@jackcooper4998]

the differences in Northern and Southern accent seems very similar to that in England as the northern accent sounded similar to a west Yorkshire, Manchester, or Liverpool; whereas the southern sounded like Bristol or maybe slightly BBC.

[@Titemaud]

Hi, would you say northern long U is pronounced like French U, or is it yet different ?

[@welshplus]

Titemaud It's different. French U is pronounced at the front of the mouth with the tip of the tongue raised and the lips rounded. Northern Welsh U is said with the middle of the tongue raised in the middle of the mouth and the lips more unrounded.

[@cat_1878]

I'd say it different.

[@neiltheboxtankengine3065]

Cymru am byth!!

[@videosdojairo]

didn`t you said you were gonna see the alphabet too ! but really good video

[@RIZFERD]

Basically, Dutch (including Belgian Flemish) is a mix of Welsh, German and French and a bit of Aramaic/Hebrew/Arabic.

[@ellavanveelen549]

How??

[@mahaelah6295]

Hello, my ancestry is Welsh and so is my name. I am trying to find the correct spelling of my name, but I am having difficulty. Would you be able to help me or point me in the direction of a place that could?? Thank you!

[@welshplus]

I assume you mean your surname, yes? "Williams" is a very common surname in Wales and your way is the usual way of spelling it. Many surnames in Wales are spelt the "English" way, using English spelling conventions, because before modern surnames were a real thing in Wales, people mostly used patronymics i.e. they just took the name of their father. As an example, "Ioan ap Gwilym" was "Ioan son of (=ap) Gwilym". When Welsh people were required to have "proper" surnames by the English government, many Welsh names became anglicised in form and spelling, hence why today most people in Wales have surnames like "Williams", "Jones", "Davies" etc. which include non-Welsh spelling conventions. I hope that explains a bit of the background. If you come to Wales you'll find many, many Williamses just like you!

[@mahaelah6295]

@@welshplus hi :) thank you for this information. I'm actually talking about my first name :)

[@welshplus]

@@mahaelah6295 Oh, sorry! "Mahala" isn't a Welsh name as far as I'm aware.

[@PKWI587]

In Welsh, is the letter W also pronounced /w/ as in walk, like the English W?

[@welshplus]

Yes, before another vowel, _w_ is /w/. We cover it in video 5: kzbin.info/www/bejne/onbVpnqQgbBpmNkfeature=shared&t=82

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus huh??? i didn't even know it!

[@shambleslongplay3566]

when i was in school we didn't have a J, and S was used instead.

[@Gw0wvl]

How do you know if the " i " is long or short if it doesn't have the accent ? ... Confusing .

[@welshplus]

Yeah, a vowel with no accent mark could be short or long so there are rules determining which it will be. That said, most learners never really learn these rules and instead just pick them up naturally as they progress through their Welsh course. If you're interested in the rules though, you can read about them here: geiriaduracademi.org/morffoleg-y-gymraeg/#quantityofvowels.

[@crumplehornedsnorkack2098]

I'm super interested in this topic, but you lost me on the letter A. Short & Long sound exactly the same to my poor ears!

[@welshplus]

For "a" it just means the long vowel is held for longer than the short one. It's important because the difference in length can change the meaning of a word e.g. "man" "place" vs "mân" "small, fine". If you're struggling to hear the difference, the best thing to do would be to get a Welsh speaker to go through the words in the video with you slowly as you practise. As you increase your exposure to Welsh, you should start to hear the distinction. Dal ati! (Keep at it!)

[@andioop-1778]

Just a question, what’s the difference between w and o?

[@welshplus]

Short _o_ is a bit like "o" in British English "pot" whereas short _w_ is like "u" in "put". Long _o_ is a bit like in "aw" in British English "law" whereas long _w_ is like "oo" in "loo" but the lips are rounder in Welsh for these last two sounds.

[@andioop-1778]

Welsh Plus - Learn Welsh Online With Us thank youuuuu

[@welshplus]

@@andioop-1778 Croeso / You're welcome

[@stevecool21iscool55]

This went from hard to easy real quick . Faroese gave me nightmares unlike welsh they have long vowels and short vowels and they sound very different

[@welshplus]

Glad to hear it. I've looked at Faroese numerous times and yes, Welsh pronunciation is generally a lot easier to understand and predict from the spelling!

[@sapphoenixthefirebird5063]

The pronunciation of "tu" and "sur" sound like Russian "ты" and "сыр", so is the northern Welsh U = Russian Ы?

[@welshplus]

That's right!

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus 무슨?

[@alfiew07]

Have you got any more videos on how to speak English with the welsh accent

[@geoforamorio]

It's so hard to learn Welsh and consider I'm from Greece, but I 'll try my best!

[@welshplus]

Yeah, keep at it and you'll get there. Pob hwyl / All the best!

[@geoforamorio]

Hmmm I'm not very optimistic but anyway... diolch!

[@welshplus]

Most Welsh letters you don't have to worry about. As a simplified guide for Greeks: a - α b - μπ c - κ d - ντ dd - δ e - ε f - β ff - φ g - γκ i - ι l - λ m - μ n - ν o - ο p - π ph - φ r - ρ s - σ t - τ th - θ u - υ w - ου The other letters that don't have equivalent Greek sounds are the ones you need to work on: ch - a bit like Greek "χ" but heavier, like German "ch" ng - like English "song" h - a bit like Greek "χ" but lighter, like English "h" j - like English "joke" ll - see the next video rh - Greek "ρ" + English "h" y - final syllable like Greek "ι", non-final syllable like English "a" in "ago"

[@geoforamorio]

Thanks for this but I'm ok with the letters. I already speak 3 languages, and the 2 have latin alphabet so I know who to pronounce. I mostly found out what's going on with Welsh accent. The main problem with the Welsh is the complicated Grammar. The first thing I saw as difference, in Greek as in English, we put first the subject, then the verb and then the object, usually adjective or noun. For example Ο Γιώργος παίζει ποδόσφαιρο or George plays football. It's the opposite in Welsh and this is an example. Anyway, as I said I'm gonna try it and I ll see how it goes. It's good to see efforts like this, using video etc to help us learn a new language, as there is no way to find a teacher for Welsh here. Actually, I watch Welsh series and this is how I liked the language and decided to learn it!

[@welshplus]

geoforamorio Da iawn. That's great! With videos like this and more stuff online like Duolingo, more and more people are getting interested in Welsh. The verb-initial structure is something a lot of people find difficult initially, but it comes with practice. Pob hwyl / All the best!

[@gyroh6593]

What’s the difference between short o and short w?

[@welshplus]

Where are you from? What's your accent? (I can probably explain better if I know how you pronounce things.)

[@gyroh6593]

@@welshplus thanks for the reply. I’m from Mexico and have latinoamerican accent. The short/long O and short W, sound very similar to our spanish letter O. And the welsh long W sounds like our Spanish letter U.

[@welshplus]

@@gyroh6593 Yes, I see what you mean. The short vowels in Welsh are generally made with a more open mouth than the long vowels and are more open than those of Mexican Spanish too. You could think of short _o_ and _w_ like Mexian Spanish _o_ and _u_ but with you mouth a little more open for each. The mouth will therefore be more open for _o_ than it is for _w_ . Or to put it another way, Welsh short _o_ is a bit like the _o_ in British English _pot_ whereas Welsh short _w_ is like _u_ in British English _put_ . It's difficult to describe sounds in writing (unless you understand IPA - _o_ is /ɔ/, _w_ is /ʊ/) but hopefully that helps a bit.

[@gyroh6593]

Oh wow I didn’t know about the IPA but looking up those sounds on wiki I can hear a more clear distinction between the two. Definitely have to listen to it more for sure. Thanks a bunch!

[@joshuacarre06]

What about da iawn from what I know you say da like diy

[@welshplus]

That's because you're hearing the _da_ right next to the _i_ of _iawn_ and when _a_ and _i_ combine, they run into each other making a sound like English "eye", so _da_ sound like "dah" but _da i..._ sounds like "die...". You can learn all about how it works in video 7: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2jNfIeJqbGlors.

[@alyanahzoe]

​@@welshplus you're cursing!

[@amandafournier9255]

4:44 i know its a diffrent language BUT WHEN YOU SAY THAT IN THE US thats when people raise an eyebrow

[@lovelyh.969]

Omg welsh pronouncation is similar to English

[@krishacz]

so the w in welsh is pronounced the same way as northerners pronounce the o in "nothing," cool to know

[@welshplus]

When you say northerners, do you mean people from north Wales of the north of England?

[@martinjameskilleavy8488]

How do you pronounce deur. Google translate is incomprehensible

[@welshplus]

_Deur_ isn't a Welsh word. Where did you see it?

[@martinjameskilleavy8488]

@@welshplus in Google translate Deur is listed as tears

[@welshplus]

@@martinjameskilleavy8488 "Tears" as in 😭 is _dagrau_ which is pronounced "dag-rye".

[@martinjameskilleavy8488]

I am aware of the word Dagrau but have you been to Google translate welsh to English? Their you see Deur translated to tears. Are you saying it is wrong or simply a word you are not familiar with.

[@welshplus]

@@martinjameskilleavy8488 It's wrong. It's not a Welsh word (I've checked too). Google Translate does funny stuff sometimes, especially for non-major Western European languages.

[@caryshumphreys8016]

da iawn eglurhad syml a clir

[@welshplus]

Diolch :)

[@sillylittlemonkey7130]

2:43 Now you can't just say that to unexpecting viewers

[@alyanahzoe]

what...?

[@sillylittlemonkey7130]

@@alyanahzoeNI

[@alyanahzoe]

@@sillylittlemonkey7130 no cursing!

[@emmalee4452]

Who else is here for Will Herondale

[@nicolasgray4183]

This guy sounds just like Sam from Game of Thrones

[@luciobrazil007]

he does, even though Sam is not Welsh

[@garethifan1034]

K, Q, X and Z are not in the Welsh alphabet.

[@SadisticSenpai61]

Am I the only one that had a really hard time hearing the differences between the short and long a?

[@welshplus]

Short and long "a" are literally the same sound except that the second one is held for longer - a bit like the "a" in English "father". It might be difficult to hear on a quick video like this so if you have access to a Welsh speaker, get them to read those words for you, the slower the better to start with.

[@carlanallyy3697]

why is there a scouser doin this for welsh it don’t make sense

[@jackieroberts7895]

She probably is welsh from north wales which is close to Liverpool maybe

[@MikeGreenwood51]

Sorry. But under freedom of speech can I say I just hate Welsh langage as I find it daft. Irritating and anoying. Maybe they feel the same about European languages. But when I hear a Welsh teacher trying to teach Omega, our double U as a short vowel it almost make me need to shut down and look to sanity. Maybe it was reading a Learn Welsh Book more than a decade ago that first repulsed me. What got to me was that the first lesson was not Welsh but the way to pronounce Welsh is other than English. As if that was the key logic that orientates the basis of Welsh. That it is formed in a way other than English. Pronounced anyway as long as it is different to English. I can read Russian, Hebrew, English, Greek, Latin, Most Cirillic languages, Scandinavian languages, French and most European Languages. I can read them but only understand a per centage. But I believe Welsh defies proper pronounciatiin because they intentiinally try to develop it differently. So if for the last 50 years European Language reforms have been to modernise European Languages to improve them for greater understanding and comprehension, then that is for a greater benefit. To make language easier and to better facilitate communication between Nations. But when a society trys to eliminate similarities on race basis rather than intelligence then it is like, rejectionism. Cutting their nose off to spite themselves. Breeding in to them selves alone language problems. For themselves and the generations yet to come. Fairplay. You (they do) not want to sound like English because they are not English. But English is not the only Language in Europe. Modern English as with other European Languages is a form of hybrid Language comprising Latin, French, German, shared Scadanavian, Sanscrpt, Indo European, Phonetian, Comanch, Blackfoot and some Inuit (Sammy). Alsort really. I think generally words are aborbed and only some grammar and pronounciation is different. There is no emphasis that the pronounciation is different. Except when dialects are used for colloquial English. Then it is more about identity. Identifiny yourself as a local. Or native of that area. But language is about communication. The ability to communicate, your needs, intentions or expression. It seems an error to develop a language differently based on it should be different to one paticular language. Especially if that language is a shared language sharing with the rest of the continent. It results in Isolation and an inability of others to easily communicate. It does not seem really to share common roots with other languages. But I think maybe it did before they tried changing it to be different to English. That has led to English possibly being closer to their ancient ancestral mother tongue languages as the Welsh has changed from it's roots to be different. Now they can no ling tell their root origins. If it was Iberian. English is now closer, and Welsh more foreign. That is the problem when developing a language as a foreign language. It becomes foreign. But maybe it always was an alian language. In the video the use of the ^ to indicate the long vowel only appears some times. Why? How is a person to know the difference of the long and short? But then also you use, Omega (w) double U (which is a long vowel) as a short vowel. Double uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, see it is already long. It corresponds with Omega (Mega O (The big O (The O that is bigger than the little 'o'))). It came from Phonetian. Corresponds with Waw in Hebrew (O or o or vav (so vowel or consonant)). You can find it in many ancient languages. So basically no one can know if it is really long or short except for those long 'O' words that have the Long vowel sign. The ones with out could be either. What do the teach you? Oh use the roof sometimes and some times not. ()to bach means little roof. So the teacher teaches the Acent and circumflix then turns to the class and says little roof (to bach). Well what is a little roof? It is a gramical sign. Call it by it's function not by it'd appearance. It does function as a root. It functions as an indicator to indicate the correct form of pronunciation. So in a word like glo at 3.16 how would a reader know it is long? And if long that it is not pronounced as 'glue' (gluu)? Clearly a language can become indiffsiferable to outsiders if it is designed that way. As really some of the Welsh can not read it either as the logic behind it is (Lol, not the way the English do it). A language is for communication not for Isolationism. As a young Englishman, I lived in Wales and nearly married there. 30 years later I still find the language impossible and of no real use outside.

[@MikeGreenwood51]

+Feder Schwert Are you Welsh at all, yourself? I actually speak on a social basic to more Welsh than my own Family. I lived in Wales, nearly bought a house there in midwest costal Wales as well as having close relations. I now live close enough to Wales to see the boarder. My intention was not to arouse an objection from someone like you. But I had to realise there my be comments from some you leave the primary focus of language. Therefore trying to take it along the unintended path. My comment whilst containing some obvious observations that could be seen as criticism. It was intended as construtive rather than insultive. Or the way you reacted to it. Are you just a reactionary or do you have any language stills yourself such as insight in to true Welsh. Contary to your view, I do not have something against The Welsh. Where I attended school, every one of my house masters were Welsh. So my relationship with locals may be far different than yours. I admit my comment contained certain disconteded views due to my personal difficulties with finding the language difficult. But I tried to air my views. Looking for linguistic assistance from people with better knowledge than myself. From people who know better than to take a comment out of context and personally. I suggest you have no teacher qualifications an never did any teacher training as you made the basic error of misinterpretation and misinterpretinging my comment as a personal attack. So you launched in to your personal attack against, and at me. But mine was never personal. It was objective. Maybe this was not the place for my comment. But KZbin is one of the few resources I have. Poormans choice, I know. Maybe I should have consided better. But then it could have been fine. It is not presented as psudeo at all. I have University qualifications . I worked in the Deen Forest at a principal cross roads there which if you know the region you may know that it is just a few miles from the open boarder. So contact is regular. Could be almost daily. If you have no difficulties learning it. Fine. Others may have. Hence they talk to teachers rather than subjective personality disorder types. Not saying you are tottally subjective personality disorder type. But at a higher level the education becomes objective. Critical thinking is a part of the educational practices. It can be how people reach the root of the problem. But before I critisize you on a personal level there by becoming like you (subjective). It would be better first for myself to realise I have probably made a mistake as the video is primary level. Welsh is not my first language. In fact it is a foreign language. So yes it my be very easy for thousands but not for others.

[@MartinBannister]

I'm sorry but your comment is not objective at all and quite rude; it is filled with opinion and insults and suggests the Welsh language has somehow been _made_ to be different from modern English deliberately (your comment starts with the very subjective opinion that you find Welsh daft, irritating and annoying). If you knew what you were talking about at all you'd know that Welsh is the closest language still around to what would have been spoken in England in ancient times (pre-Roman invasion) and as such will obviously differ from other European languages because it doesn't have Latin roots. Elements still exist in modern English, the word Avon for example means River in old English so the river Avon is literally River River, Malvern is derived from a word mean bald hill. There are plenty of examples of how blended modern English is with all sorts of other languages. And incidentally; I have been learning Spanish recently, from an actual Spanish person, and the pronounciation of vowels differs significantly from English, not always in sound but certainly I'm consistency, they don't change like they do in English, and the same is true of some consonants as well, Y & Z spring to mind along with the LL sound. There are also differences between Spanish and French pronounciation that kept tripping me up since I learnt French at school. So I think I can safely say that there are two examples there of how pronounciation is different between European languages beyond local dialect. I've only been learning Welsh for a week or so but my initial thoughts are that there does seem to be less consistency and 'rules' around how vowels are pronounced, certainly compared to Spanish and even they have exceptions as there are many exceptions in English. I am reserving judgement because I am not learning from a person but electronic resources so may yet have come across some definitive guide to pronounciation 'rules'.

[@MikeGreenwood51]

TY. I welcome your view point and agree about the fact that it was clearly potentially subjective. In fact I think it was really personal and clearly my opinion. I have lived in Wales, as well as living with in sight of the borders of Wales for more than 25 years. At school all my house masters were Welsh including those who inflicted corporal punishments as their teaching practices. So yes, I have had a rather personal relationship with many. But maybe I had that as a misfortune rather than a pleasantry. The misfortune included myself trying to learn some Welsh but found rather than the sites teaching Welsh they taught pronunciations as 'other' than the English way. So I found it was they who were singling out the English rather than them teaching how. Or roots, or other comparative pronunciations in other languages. I regularly have for years had relations with at least one Welsh person on a very infomal friendly basis and respect his intelligence on many subjects. He would be one of the first choices for me to turn to for basic translations or discussions about grammar. But even he could not advise about comparative languages or models. So it remained that after many years the greatest insights in to 'how' I could find from a number of so call educational Welsh teachurs was that it was pronounced 'other than' how English is pronounced. I can read Russian, some Hebrew, Greek, Latin and about every European Language from the Balkans to Scandinavians at least to a very basic level. I worked in multilingual countries with 4 National Languages (Switzerland). Some Afrikaance is even understandable for me. I do not agree it was 'rude'. But would agreed there was or is an potential implied insult. Or 'constructive criticism'. I have to believe that sometimes somethings come down to the personal level and clearly need to be defined as personal opinion. So not all can be viewed with the objective microscope. In this instance I would have preferred to have the more objective microscopic scientific view. But alas I do not. This happens for me to be one case where getting personal is the correct way as it is in many ways personal. I learnt to read Russian in less than a week after learning Greek it was relatively easy. But that was 14 years ago and no problems there now as often now I read subtitles to a Welsh friend. But even with Welsh 'Teach youself books' 14 years ago I still came up with the same problems in those books that only taught that pronunciations were 'other than' the English way. So I came to the conclusion that Welsh Education Authorities were trying to inbreed an 'other than English' mentality rather than teaching Welsh. On the objective level I agree with an interpretation of insultive. But the insult is not personal. It is about a mentality. Or a constructive criticism about a teaching technique, rather than a personal attack. But I have to accept that many of the more subjective personalities in our UK society will not see it in an objective light, but are almost certain to see it subjectivly. More about my personal relationship with Welsh and teaching: I had for about 30 years a very close relationship with the Royal Army Education Authority RAEC, so close in fact that I had to answer to them as one at least was my peer for the first 18 years of my life. So in terms of objectiveness I regard 'teaching techniques' as objective and not subjective. So bad techniques can be critisized and should be critisized sometimes amongst friends (my opinion). Critics who point out a persons short coming (only really understandable on an objective level) are often those who are rewarded better than those who just allow errors to continue or fail themselves to spot them. So whilst I realize the more subjective personalities may find their selves to have been insulted. That is because they are subjectives rather than seeing objectively. So maybe I should have pointed out that this comment is not suitable for children or subjectives as it is adult objective. But had I used that, I was still sure to receive replies from subjectives with their subjective hurt feelings. There will most likly always be those in UK society as there is always likly to be a tier system. Having a university qualification in micro biology, sociology and epidemiology I have writen a million or more words about people but all at an objective level. So I am no stranger to objective criticism. Especially when expressing my own viewpoint. Many of the worlds so called greatest scientific discoveries were a persons own opinion but backed up with observations and evidence and later became accepted as fact. So at the end of some days a per centage of scientific fact (objective) was a person's opinion. Individual experience can often be the motivation behind many scientific endeavors. So in my opinion sometimes a person's personal opinion is a relative fact. Especially if dicussing the languages spoken by nations. Such can seem so personal. But on the other hand it could equally be objective. Yes it was of my own personal experience. Yes it was written as a result of what I consider to be my own difficulties at learning something which I believe should not be difficult. But alas I ended up with difficulties with that one language. So I identified that difficultie as being due to what I saw as limited teaching rather than the development of their own language based on the imbreeding of the way it is spoken being 'other than English'. I could say that that was where rudeness or insultiveness was. But I didn't. I choose to use objective criticism about general teaching techniques or practices in Welsh language education. Had an English teacher taught that English is pronounced any way other than the Welsh way then those who taught that could be equally open to criticism as it would clearly be wrong or a bad act of national policy as it would be in complete disregard of the fact that there are tens of thousands in inter related marriges and millions who share open borders. So my own opinion is in favor of an intermediate language rather than the teachings of those endevouring to make learning impossible as their sole method is to outbreed any possibility of agreement in language as they teach theirs as different rather than language for the purpose of communication and good relations. I could resort to saying their techniques are racist. As rather than teaching how. They taught their own possible animosities and so were building in their own cultural divide. Reqardless of centuries of intergration. A cultural divided that most likly will affect their next generation. Sorry but this may be a neighbor thing. Or a local issue of a so called unighted people sharing thing. IE the UK. Lol.

[@schmozzer]

Like modern English, modern Welsh is a mixture. Some words like terfyn have Latin roots (terminus) or perhaps clawdd, a hedgebank, from claudere, close off. In north Wales vowel pronunciation is sometimes inconsistent - four pronunciations of the 'ae' in Blaenau, for instance. Michael should try and get Pwllheli right. I can hear it but it is hard to reproduce, so I too think Michael was unjust.

[@MikeGreenwood51]

To tfmuch, I am thinking the ll of Pwllheli is as in ll as in full. Heli is easy but the pw may be poo. So Poolheli? Just guessing and not cross referencing it with any books or videos. Lol. Tfmuch, would I be a tad unjust if I grabbed a Welshman's balls and kicked them over the goal posts. I think not. But the Welsh may not like it. But I like it. Or liked it. As at my age I am a bit beyond scrumming down head to head. Point is I am a bit of an oldie. Born in the fifties when a cane was a cane and Welsh education had a certain less humanity about it. So I need to be a bit politer to the younger Welsh than there were to me on occasions. But really I was only chating about attitudes with in eduducation. No intention of going much futher with it. It was just a bit sad for me to hear such attitudes when really most of all the Welsh I grew up with had such a strong bond. A sort of love affair you could say. 45 years later and I still have contact with some from my School days. But all mostly now the then younger generation. As most of the teachurs have passed away. So It was written more with the belief that the Welsh generally are not so whimpy as to be able to reply in kind or accept a small criticism if that was true. Feed back was my purpose. Just some chat about my own personal view. A view not likly to change the world. Oh! Have a good night.