How to Read Welsh - a Celtic Language

The Welsh Language may look difficult to pronounce coming from English, French or Irish, but the language - unlike those 3 - is written almost entirely phonetically. So if you read it, you can become fluent that way. It is a huge advantage the Welsh Language has. Some quick tips to get you on your way!
Join me on Patreon: / benllywelyn Be a member of the channel: / @benllywelyn
Buy Me a Coffee www.buymeacoffee.com/benllywelyA Business enquiries: [e-mail]
Equipment: Canon2000D: amzn.to/3ndGZep Rode VideoMic Pro Plus camera microphone amzn.to/3uvkRjq Osmo Ambitful tube lights: amzn.to/3lJkZel amzn.to/3OJgwEs DJI Action 2 amzn.to/3qPP7Y6
00:00 Beginning
01:12 Vowels
03:23 Consonants
06:33 Diphthongs
08:14 Separation
09:46 The ending F
10:38 The Gw
11:48 H and accent
12:42 Hyphen
13:20 Shhh
Music. uppbeat.io

[@Retrogamer71]

Thrilled to experience the essential basics of a native Celtic language active in the motherland today. Excellent teaching presentation in this video. Good job!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@alicehenderson2490]

Hello there ben!, thank you so very much for covering some of my nation. You have also fueled my and many of my family's interest. And I love the fact you cover my nations history please do not let anything sour your incredible interests!

[@alexalice7374]

Yes I agree ben you are nothing short of incredible, I follow your posts with dedication. I had an educator in my early life which fuelled my interest in linguistics. so thank you!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Kind indeed. Diolch / Thank you.

[@norielgames4765]

Thank you so much for explaining this to me! I've been struggling to pronounce Welsh for ages because I was trying to follow my language's phonetic rules

[@BenLlywelyn]

Great!

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

Hello Benjamin. This lesson is so exceptionally good . I like your motto " if you have the drive, you will get it. " Thanks so much for sharing this lesson. 🥇🏆🥇🏆🥇

[@BenLlywelyn]

You are very welcome. Cheers.

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

@@BenLlywelyn Prynhawn Da.

[@stevegee4863]

I love all your videos , I actually find your voice very relaxing so put the channel on if I’m feeling a bit stressed

[@BenLlywelyn]

Most kind indeed, I will try to keep using my voice.

[@michaelhalsall5684]

This video is very much needed. I've heard English speakers mocking Welsh because its spelling made no sense to them. This video explains the Spelling Conventions of the Welsh language. All languages have spelling conventions, most are different to English. Irish spelling which looks chaotic to English speakers, has clear spelling conventions that once understood make sense. All these Silent Hs in Irish usually represent a lenition of the previous consonant. Irish has essentially 10 vowels (AEIOU with or without the 'fada' (acute accent). English speakers tend to have a mental block when it comes to accents and letter modifiers used in other languages. it is interesting to see Welsh uses the circumflex to elongate vowels identical to French.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you. I hope the video will be able to help those beginning the journey.

[@SlaviSokol]

Great video realy helpful.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Excellent. Thank you for watching.

[@Topofdescent55]

Thanks Ben. I love your videos! I have just started learning Welsh after being born and living in the Chester area till l was 32 before emigrating. Duo is great and your videos add understanding. Thanks!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Great you are learning Welsh. Diolch am wylio. Dal.ati / Keep at it.

[@norielgames4765]

Cadwyn sounds incredibly similar to Spanish cadena, in fact my phone's Spanish autocorrect tried to correct cadwyn to cadena (spanish word for chain) I'm really interested in the connection between italic and Celtic languages, since they're said to be the one's closest to the romance languages.

[@BenLlywelyn]

I would estimate that around %30 of Welsh's core vocabulary for simple short words, come from Latin. A contrast from English which more often took longer words from Latin.

[@ProjectMirai64]

Awesome video! The Welsh languages always seemed very complicated and wierd before, now after watching this video it honestly seems very easy

[@BenLlywelyn]

Yes, much easier than 1st appears!

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

Welsh is actually a category 1 language like most Germanic languages, so it’s pretty easy, category 1 languages and category 2 languages being the easiest languages ever, including all Germanic languages and Welsh / Breton / Cornish / Manx, and, Irish / Scottish Gaelic are category 3 languages, so they aren’t as easy as Welsh, and they are the hardest languages I am learning, but I am learning all the modern Celtic languages, and also all Germanic languages like Norse / Icelandic / Dutch / Norwegian / Danish etc! However, none of the pretty languages are phonetic languages, as phonetic language means that it looks exactly the way it sounds and that it has a consonant + vowel + consonant etc format without double consonants or double letters etc, and, Welsh looks very different in spelling and it has many double letters and two consonants or three consonants in a row, so it is the opposite of a phonetic language, and even languages such as Spanish and Italian aren’t phonetic, only semi-phonetic or partially phonetic! Welsh doesn’t look the way it sounds, as it uses W instead of U and, the U is more like an I / Y sound etc, plus the Y can be pronounced like E / A / I depending on the word, and there are words with different vowel sounds that don’t sound like in most other words, so it all depends on the word and what sounds best for each word, and, the rh is pronounced hr etc! I find its pronunciation very easy, definitely way easier than French / German / Swedish pronunciation! Tho I’m not sure about the LL sound as to me it sounds like the LL is like a type of S-sound or something like that, but I am not sure about this sound, tho it does sound just like a softer S sound, so I use a soft S sound at the moment as I don’t know how to make that exact sound yet, and I don’t know if it really is different from a S, so if it is, I will probably get it right when I get to an advanced level, if I keep hearing it and trying to figure out what type of sound it is!

[@fredericosampaio6457]

Guersney, Guantánamo. Diolch yn fawr iawn am dy fideo, Ben 👏👏

[@BenLlywelyn]

Croeso. Mae Guernsey yn 'Gehrn'.

[@CarlsLingoKingdom]

Diolch yn fawr! Just the video I needed.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Gwych.

[@ctyligad]

My understanding is that the written Chinese language is disconnected from the spoken as it is not phonetic, so one could conceivably read and understand it without actually speaking it. Welsh seems to me kind of like the opposite: With a few basic instructions one could read it fluently; though understanding and speaking it is a whole different thing. I sure do enjoy hearing it anyhow!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Diolch am wylio / Thank you for watching!

[@SionTJobbins]

Dolch Ben, the Welsh alphabet is amazingly elastic and simple. The 'y' is usually a schwa sound.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Croeso. Mae gwyddor a dull o ysgrifenu dda iawn gan y Gymraeg.

[@cardenmanning2455]

It's a nice video. For me it always looked difficult to read Welsh, but thanks to your video, not anymore. Also it seems to me Welsh had pretty strong Roman influence, with some vocabulary. Vowels sound like in Latin/Romance languages, very open. By the way, the accent in Welsh is the same like in Romanian, on penultimate syllable. As opposed to many Germanic and Slavic languages.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

Great video Ben. One of your best.👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿. By the way. There is no word in the English language that starts with Gw. Only names such as Gwen,Gwynneth which are Welsh names anyway. There are 13 pages in my Welsh dictionary that have words starting with Gw. Diolch yn fawr iawn.👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@BenLlywelyn]

The Gw. Fascinating isn't it! Diolch.

[@gwilwilliams5831]

PenGWyn (PengUIn). Which came first! The chickens or the eggs? Agree, Radio Cymru is a great resource. Nadolig Llawen, Athro.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Diolch yn fawr!

[@miguelangelmartinezaguinag9953]

Hello Ben! Happy New Year 2024! Sorry, to be late😅 But in México, We have a "Lot of Christmas celebrations" We have a "Marathon" 😅😅😅 of celebrations Really!!! 😮😊 We call them: "Marathon Guadalup- Reyes" 😅We start On December 12 to January 6" 21 long days!!! "Parties, Drinks, Dancing, Laughing, Joking" We have a special Parties called "Posadas" in December from 16 to 24!!! Many Persons from other countries came to enjoy them!!! Our City, is lighting with millions of little colours lights!!! And Thousands of Christmas Figures!!! So, We almost Finnish "These increíble celebrstions" This sunday 6!!! In addition, with many World friends, it was so complicated to send "Christmas Messages" To All of them! Anyway, My Best wishes to You, your family And of course to Wales People!!! For this 2024!!! 😮😅😊😂🙃🤔🤣🎄⛄🎅🍷🍾🥂🥩🍸☕🎉😇🇲🇽😎

[@BenLlywelyn]

Happy New Year! Hope you had a find Mexican holiday!

[@miguelangelmartinezaguinag9953]

@@BenLlywelyn Certainly!!! Ben! No problema with that! But, remember, México is the Only country on the World, who has "Religión Celebrations Every Day" Every Small Town, City, have a Catholic Church!!! Every Church has a Saint to be the guide of Town! For example: The Best City on the World (UNESCO Classified) is in "Guanajuato State, México" and His named is "San Miguel de Allende" (Saint Michael) And the Principal Church, Celebrate on September 29! Saint Michael Day! But, the celebration cover 5 days! So, imagine that We have more than 3,000 Churchs on the country!!! It means, an everyday's celebration But, is not a simple celebration... No man, "The People of the Town" Colaborate with money, to make a great celebration!!! Bands of Classical Music, Mexican Music, Impress fire works, People make Splendid Flowers Carpets!!!Over Floor!!! Hand made!!! Little Food Restaurantes, Mechanical Games, Dancing Groups, Singing Groups, etcétera So... Is an unbelievable way to celebrate!!! For example, now A Very Close Church from home, is celebrating his Saint!!! Till January 7 A World tourism leader, say, México "Is a Completely Different World" 🍇🍷🍾🥂🥩🍸☕😇🇲🇽😎

[@lugo_9969]

The Orthography of irish is a total nightmare. The name 'concubar' is pronounced 'krukoor'

[@qwertyTRiG]

Irish is written pretty phonetically, these days. It may not be intuitive initially, but once you learn the system it's not bad.

[@christopherellis2663]

The Art of Orthography Guelph

[@BenLlywelyn]

Indeed. Romanian orthography is quite straightforward also.

[@christopherellis2663]

​@@BenLlywelyn Ea vs ia, oa vs ua * ia/ îa & wa/ ŵa. Â din a,, î din I.

[@nicolaelucianmindrila6059]

The vowells its an similar with Romanien vowells

[@BenLlywelyn]

So is the R, actually. No the Rh, but the R in Welsh.

[@johndavis6119]

Diolch yn fawr iawn Ben

[@erikbishopASMR]

I have found that Scottish Gaelic is the most phonetic of the Celtic languages.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Oh?

[@erikbishopASMR]

@@BenLlywelyn Well, my experience is that in reading the Mabinogion, the names are quite hard to pronounce (hence, how I found your channel trying to get some helps on the Mabinogion), whereas my attempt at Irish had changes in the sounds of different letter combinations that were hard to follow. With Scottish Gaelic, once I heard some of it, it became easier for me to follow. There seems to be more regiment with it.

[@judithparker4608]

MERRY SATURNALIA......1750/52....GREGORIAN SERF SWITCH....MARITIME

[@i_ate_a_cat_]

You should've used IPA for this video

[@BenLlywelyn]

I don't know IPA except for beer.

[@richlisola1]

English has way more than five vowels.

[@BenLlywelyn]

A E I O U

[@dyyony]

@@BenLlywelyn ...and perhaps "Y", as in by, shy, rhythm etc. I do like the way that Welsh is largely consistent in it's phonetics. Thanks for this video Ben - I found the content very useful, and your attitude to learning Welsh very encouraging. Diolch yn fawr, cadwch y fideos i ddod!

[@BenLlywelyn]

@@dyyony Croeso. Appreciated.

[@BenLlywelyn]

English has more than 5 vowel sounds, but has 5 vowels.