How to pronounce the strange looking letter ‘Rh’ in Welsh

In today’s video I am going to show you how to pronounce the letter Rh in Welsh. It looks strange but it is not too difficult to pronounce. I’m going to give you tips on how to pronounce the letter Rh and I’ll give you lots of examples of how it’s sounds as part of a Welsh word and some Welsh names as well.
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[@artiomcybov]

This has finally made sense, after 2 years of trying and failing. That is why I failed. I tried R then H when you actually need to do a little H in front of R. Will still be hard, but now at least possible. Thank you so much for this!!

[@AdamBoyes]

Diolch! I was trying to understand why 'rhywbeth sounded like people were saying it with a 'p' in front of it but now I understand it is a 'h' sound.

[@wookie2222]

Interesting, how this pronounciation comes very close to the way the ancient Greeks pronounced their letter Rho, if it was in the beginning of a word.

[@nawarmasijah5447]

Thank you a lot for the explanation!

[@justgold1]

Thanks ! I will just think of words like Rhaid and Rhedeg as Hraid and Hredeg

[@joalexsg9741]

I so love this phoneme, it reminds me one similar phoneme I heard once an Irishman pronounce it. Diolch yn fawr iawn for making a video especially about it!] I may be going utterly gaga about this too but I could swear I also heard the same phoneme in some European Portuguese accents. I know my mother tongue, Portuguese, is a romance language but, unlike our Brazilian variety, European Portuguese had a Celtic substrate, there being even noble scholars trying to revive the Old Gallaic language. If memory does not fail me and this phoneme does exist in some European Portuguese varieties, perhaps it's a lingering remnant of a long-forgotten Celtic substrate!

[@casebarn]

Very very helpful. Thank you!! I always refer to your videos for pronunciation.

[@TerencePetersenAjbro]

Congratulations on the 10,000 subscribers! Thank you for this video, the rh sound was one that I was having problems with, I think I was overdoing the h sound. For me the hardest aspect of Welsh is the nasal mutation, it makes many words I have learned almost unrecognisable! Tad is father, but fy nhad, my father!

[@EvidenceViolatesCG-s5]

Hey Jason, thank you for the pronunciation videos. They've been helpful. Could you please do one about 'ch'? Including how it changes, if at all, before or after certain words, based on where it appears in a word, what letter(s) follow or precede it; etc. Cheers, sir. 🍻

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

Bore da Jason. Congratulations for having more than 10K subscribers ( now reaching 16.7 K , i think), I am learning Welsh to the best of my ability . Yeah, now i am able to pronounce the Rh. So nowadays i practice saying Rhiannon, Rhedeg, Rhad. So I take no small pride in pronouncing the Rh. Diolch Jason. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅

[@honestyandtruth6847]

That was so useful, thanks so much for the explanation.

[@msbeaverhausen7226]

Thank you so much for these videos. I love the Welsh language. It is so beautiful and rich xoxo

[@toneycd]

Diolch Jason. This one has been tough for me being from the US south east :)

[@susanpotts-bury7936]

Thank you Jason for explaining the rh problem. I thought I was going nutty and my hearing was up the spout as all I could hear when words like rhedeg was being said it sounded like Tredeg to me.

[@ivorwm2291]

Thanks. I am learning bits of Welsh. My mother didn't learn Welsh

[@yizhou5903]

Diolch！It's so helpful.

[@InaEsin]

Hello, I need your help. Can you please tell me how to pronounce these words: Eira. Iâ. Rhewllyd. Rhew. Asgwrn. Esgyrn. We just had a litter of all white purebred Alaskan Malamutes. So I want to go with typical names, but in Welsh. Snow, Ice, Icy, Frost and Bones for the boy. Thank you so much.

[@chrisjones2625]

Brill thanks

[@mercianthane2503]

That sound reminds me of Old English hr, like in Hræfn, tho it seems the H in Rh is softer compared to that Hr in Old English.

[@annepeacock9056]

I looked up Rhos pronunciation and heard it pronounced Chos with an Oh sound. Which is correct?

[@asseyez-vous6492]

Very interesting. Does it really matter if someone simply cannot trill their Rs? I’ve never been able to do it despite trying to practice it!

[@cybersecDad]

I too have been trying to roll my r's all my life, unsuccessfully to date.

[@israellai]

@@cybersecDad same. But from my observation, Welsh people (and speakers of many trilling languages) seldom actually roll it unless they're emphasising. In fact the rh sounds almost nothing like an r and more like a puff of air.

[@lindsayheyes925]

@@israellai It varies across Wales, generally strongest in the north-west, weakest in the south-east. As in all countries, accents are regional and ever-changing under a range of influences but, historically, Welsh has proved far more stable than English.

[@annepeacock9056]

I just heard examples of saying Rhos as Chos. which is correct please

[@ComeRee]

Ta diolch brawd! Cariad fawr o Gastell Nedd x

[@striderwhiston9897]

Is it acceptable to say it like, well i'll try to explain. You know that little "rumble" sound you make when saying ch (like in loch in scottish and coch and such) and which sometimes appears while saying ll, yeah, that. Is it okay to do a more lengthy version of that rumble with a "uh" at the end? is that correct? I can't trill my r's unfortunately.

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

If you can’t roll your R’s then here’s a sound that works ok as a substitute. Say the R sound as in Road, reach and really but extend it slightly. Use that when you see a Welsh word with an R in it. If it’s a word that starts with Rh, then use the same sound but put a very slight huh sound in front of it. Hope that helps.

[@juneroberts5305]

I take no small pride in my pronunciation of the Rh. 😁

[@hanes_cymru_]

Rhys

[@IanRomErv]

I guess voiceless nasals work the same way.

[@florianfrank8512]

cymru am byth. Diolch iawn

[@taffbanjo]

it's "aitch" not "haitch". Good effort, though.

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Not if you’re from South West Wales. We have this habit of pronouncing the letter as ‘Haitch’ rather than the more correct ‘Aitch’ but then dropping the letter H when saying a word that should start with an aitch sound. For example, Ow instead of How or Am instead of Ham. It’s a terrible habit of mine but at least it shows I’m not from England and trying to put on a Welsh accent. 😉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿😂

[@taffbanjo]

@@LearnWelshPodcast Nice try but no dice - the letter is aitch, not haitch, but this is English, not Welsh. This won't stop me being one of your patreons, though - you are doing a great job. Keep it going, my boy .

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Glad you like the video’s and my lovely pronunciation of the English language. 😉

[@dysphunctional]

@@taffbanjo wtf? You clearly know nothing about historical linguistics to be saying so much shit about the way he pronounces his "haitches". You don't speak Old English, do you? No, and that's because languages change. I'm sure in your English dialect you say stuff that people who speak other dialects find wrong. Who's right, then? EVERYBODY is.

[@taffbanjo]

@@dysphunctional Wow! A lighthearted dig about the pronunciation of a word and you have a tantrum about classical linguistics. Are we talking about the Prescriptive or Descriptive approach to linguistics? As it happens, I do know something of Old English (say 8th Century), Middle English, AND the Great Vowel shift of the 14th to 17th Centuries. What's that got to do with anything? Jason is doing a great job bringing Welsh to the heathen English and he has been much more gracious than you in this little bit of banter. Try not to be such a big girl! PS. The letter is and always has been "aitch".