10. Test Yourself - Welsh Pronunciation (Series 1)

Learn to pronounce Welsh clearly and understandably whether you're in north or south Wales.
Test Yourself (Series 1 | Video 10)
Part of the Welsh Pronunciation Series.

[@LordDamo777]

Bora da - just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this series, and all the work that has been put into your channel. My Great Grandfather was Welsh and was also a Welsh speaker but unfortunately didn't pass it on to his children - none of my forefathers ever denied they were Welsh, but unfortunately the language became lost to us here in Australia. With your help, I'm going to bring it back (huge challenge, but that life isnt it). Cymru am byth :-)

[@welshplus]

Diolch yn fawr Damian! It's a sad reality but the same was true in Wales and whole generations of families lost their language. It's great to see people like you are now starting to reverse some of that trend and getting to grips with Welsh again. Pob hwyl i ti!

[@video_camera]

I decided to start learning Welsh today after accidentally stumbling upon a document from a random Welsh committee. Written Welsh looks so beautiful and ancient (despite looking like someone smashed their face on the keyboard) and spoken it sounds like someone making up words. Luckily I'm Spanish so there's familiarity with sounds :)

[@welshplus]

That's great. When you realise _w_ and _y_ are vowels and some of the "double" letters are actually just single letters, it doesn't look so bad anymore 😊

[@teacupprince7653]

You killed me at Chyllell XD

[@welshplus]

I know. We do it on purpose ;)

[@adrianacernochova]

These videos are so helpful, better than duolingo honestly, I’m wondering why is this channel no longer active?

[@welshplus]

It'd be great to add more content. I have lots and lots of ideas for videos but no time to sit down and make them, sadly.

[@Ro99]

⁠@@welshplusI can’t lie I really don’t get the sounds mh, nh, ngh. Is there a video which talks about the unvoiced nasals? I hope you are doing well with whatever you are doing

[@welshplus]

@@Ro99 Good thanks, just too busy teaching people Welsh to have time to make more videos 😄 The aim was to include the unvoiced nasals and other bits in a second pronunciation series but as I say, never had the time. In class, we practise them by first whispering the sound and then trying to add more and more breath (the _h_ bit) as we go. We also note that the nasal mutation, which creates these sounds, occurs most often after either _fy_ "my" or _yn_ "in". When you're pronouncing examples of the nasal mutation then, try and shift the inital letter of the following word over to the _fy_ or _yn_ like this: for "my cat" _fy nghath_ say _fyng hath_ (here _fyng_ rhymes with English "sung") for "in Paris" _ym Mharis_ say _ymm Haris_ (again _ymm_ sounds like English "um") If you think of and pronounce them this way, people find they usually come out right!

[@Ro99]

@@welshplus oh wow thank you so much! Hindi has aspirated versions of nearly every consonant and I couldn’t pronounce the voiced+aspirated ones for my life so maybe I’ll try this trick for that too. That is so helpful!

[@welshplus]

@@Ro99 Croeso! / You're welcome!

[@larrydykes7643]

Great series! REALLY HELPFUL! and yes I love "Cangarŵ"

[@welshplus]

Haha, great to hear that!

[@catherinewells7360]

This is a very helpful series.I did better than I thought I would with the test!

[@welshplus]

Da iawn / Well done!

[@jeremieherard2166]

Best word ever: Cangarw.

[@madapro03]

Wicked! I love it.

[@777LoveStory]

Gotta say, coming from learning Korean and Japanese, "si" equivalent consonant/vowel pairs are always pronounced "sh-"... It makes this much easier. At least in my experience.

[@drspaseebo410]

Yes.

[@tiny_toilet]

Diolch yn fawr iawn! Welsh is surprisingly (to me) quite beautiful and does not seem terribly difficult to learn - well, if you set aside some of the tongue-twisting pronunciations. Thank you for this incredible resource.

[@welshplus]

Croeso! That's great to hear. Once you get used to the sound and spelling system, most things are pretty regular and easy.

[@violettachernishova5083]

Diolch yn fawr!❤

[@mogbran]

Anyone else fluent in Welsh but just watching these for fun? yn 'neud i mi deimlo'n smart!

[@maryhowland1286]

feedback - you don't always leave a gap for us to have a go.

[@welshplus]

Diolch / Thanks for the feedback

[@Alsshakes]

This is amazing, I defo have a lot of work to do, but do you guys by any chance do just a welsh-English pronunciation guide, I’m trying to learn a north-welsh accent, but there isn’t much around to help! This is the best help I can find (and it’s amazing)

[@welshplus]

When you say pronunciation guide, what kind of thing are you looking for - a book? Practising with things you can listen to (like these videos) is probably the best way to get the pronunciation right.

[@smolfishminas9818]

I sometimes pronounce "u" as English "u". Just need to get used to it.

[@welshplus]

Yep, it's a common mistake. Think of "u" as "i" and you shouldn't go too wrong.

[@scruffysean3640]

Thanks for this whole series! I really appreciate the effort you went to; it's incredibly helpful. I didn't do too badly... the 'll' is not difficult for me. The most trouble I have is remembering that the 'u' sounds like an 'i' (in South Wales, anyway).

[@welshplus]

Croeso mawr / You're very welcome! Lots of people have the same problem remembering the pronunciation of "u", but it comes with practice :)

[@toma1280]

I have now learned Welsh so I can speak some lines from Halo 3:ODST

[@miciduve]

Do you have any tips on not misping a whole word because theres an ll. I find myself so prepared to speak the ll that i start messing up the other sounds.

[@jonbaker1697]

1:43 chyllell. My tongue was dancing, trying to get the right pronunciation :)

[@welshplus]

Ha 😆With enough practice it should start to feel more normal.

[@alyanahzoe]

1:46 lost.mp3

[@narwhal004]

These have been great videos. I appreciate you putting them together. Do you have predispositions for people from a Welsh region not of your own? Is it an accent you think is less educated or perhaps older and less influenced by English or other languages? It seems that the northern accent seems pretty heavy but the southern the guy speaks may be higher influenced by English as its softer and less stress on some of the sounds.

[@welshplus]

If I'm answering your question correctly, the accent that people hear in classes is generally the one that's pretty local to their area, so students in North Wales sound more northern and Southerners more southern. As courses progress from beginner to more advanced levels, students become better able to deal with other accents too, just like native Welsh speakers can. Northern accents do sound quite distinct from southern accents, although there are a number of different accents across the north, the south and the rest of Wales so you can't overgeneralise. What you're hearing here are individual words rather than proper Welsh sentences and conversations, so it's hard to get a fully rounded picture of how things sound. One point of difference to my ears however is that northern accents tend to be more staccato whereas southerners sounds more "singy-songy" and lilting. Maybe you'd hear it slightly differently. Again anecdotally, accents in the west of the country (north, mid and south Wales) tend to be less influenced by those in the east (nearer England). Thanks for asking some interesting questions. Let me know if I haven't covered what you wanted to know.

[@narwhal004]

@@welshplus That's what I was asking and a far more thorough answer than I deserve! Thank you! I would agree that southern sounds more rolling and northern is almost older or more original. That is just based on a guess from other languages that are influenced by English or other languages.

[@digantakrbanik]

Diolch! Just one thing how do I know if a vowel needs to be spelt in a long way or a short way?(When there isn't the accent mark)

[@welshplus]

There are rules for you to predict vowel length when there's no accent mark, but they can get quite involved. Nevertheless, if you do want to read through them, check out geiriaduracademi.org/morffoleg-y-gymraeg/#quantityofvowels

[@DylanDoesstreams]

Idk why I am watching this supposed to be for school

[@drspaseebo410]

Surely SIOC is pronounced as the English SHOCK (not as the English SOCK), just as the Welsh SIOP is pronounced as the English SHOP (though with a Welsh lilt).

[@welshplus]

Yep, that's how it's pronounced on the video. Welsh "sioc" and English "shock" sound the same.

[@pialigetic2406]

Diolch :)

[@grahamdicker7120]

da iawn diolch

[@welshplus]

+Graham Dicker Gwych! :)

[@Kuracisto066]

Diolch!

[@welshplus]

+toulib Croeso!