How to Pronounce the Tricky Letter ‘Ll’

[@VintageTat]

Thank you for this podcast series. I've been looking to learn Welsh for some time. This is by far one of the best I've come cross

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Vintage Tat Diolch!/Thanks! I’m glad you like the podcast!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

So it’s basically an airy S sound!

[@orangeedo]

After learning a bit of Welsh it's clear to me why the Welsh are renound for their singing. It's very difficult to mumble in Welsh, proper facial movements and a greater control of airflow are required.

[@katejay9786]

this is a fascinating idea

[@ShaneSchofield52]

This is harder than I thought, language is fun like that.

[@legniak1]

My grandad tried to teach me Welsh. I ran away crying 😭😂

[@newguy90]

In Nahuatl, an Aztec language spoken in Southern Mexico, the "TL" has the same sound as Welsh "LL" For example, "Nahuatl" would be pronounced Nah-wah-LL. And the girl's name "Xochitl" (flower) would be pronounced Soh-Chee-LL.

[@servantofaeie1569]

Not the same sound, but similar. The Nahuatl TL is a sequence of a T and a Welsh LL. In Welsh spelling, Nahuatl and Xochitl would be "Nawatll" and "Siotsitll".

[@shahbajsingh4228]

Wrong it’s a sequential T and L sound

[@servantofaeie1569]

@@shahbajsingh4228 The L is in fact devoiced with frication added.

[@Oxtankahn]

I'm from the center of Mexico in which our ancestors spoke nahuatl, and yes, it is similar, but not the same. In nahuatl, the pronuntiation of "tl" is a mix between the sound of T and L in the spanish alphabet, you pronounce both letters at the same time "TL"

[@citrusblast4372]

the x is pronounced as an sh

[@royparman1498]

As an English first-language speaker, that sound is the one that trips me up the most, thanks for the tip!

[@Angie-et5gq]

This crazy because it reminds me of how we pronounce the “-tl” in the náhuatl language of Mexico.

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

That’s very interesting to hear. A lot of countries seems to have a similar pronunciation. So many people have messaged me saying they have something similar in their language.

[@NL-tq1yr]

@@LearnWelshPodcast we have tge same in adyghe language, we actually have two versions of it.

[@robertbruce5213]

Claro! I was just thinking that when I first heard him make the sound. Like Tlaloc, etc

[@robert9016]

It’s actually the same! Funny enough I came here through the wikipedia article on náhuatl and it referenced the welsh double L for t͡ɬ

[@guaycura]

@@LearnWelshPodcast I totally agree with Angie. In the minute 1:56 I thought "that's Nahuatl to me".

[@katejay9786]

standing in the kitchen wearing headphones and going "chh, tl kl klhhchssl, llllcchchll". my gf thinks i'm nuts

[@Sarah.Riedel]

I lived in Cardiff for awhile (I'm from the United States originally) and because I was working for NHS Wales I had to learn some basic Welsh phrases. I actually found the LL sound fairly intuitive for some reason - the way I explain it is...curl your tongue against the roof of your mouth and the backs of your upper teeth in the same way you would pronounce a single L, but unlike the single L you do not voice the consonant, as in you don't make any sound from your throat. Instead you blow with your tongue against your teeth and hard palate - just a soft puff of air as in the voiceless H - so that the first use of the vocal cords in a word beginning with LL will occur with the first voiced speech sound. By that I mean, in a word like "LAN," your first voiced sound would be the consonant L; by comparison, the first voiced sound in "LLAN" is the vowel A. Hope that helps a little!

[@MassacreVegan]

This helped a ton!

[@mollywillo]

This is a very helpful description!

[@david203]

Is it like SLAN, with the S just a hissing sound? Or is the S and L simultaneous?

[@Sarah.Riedel]

@@david203 no there's no S sound in it at all, the closest I can describe it is like more of an H, back-of-the-throat sound. So essentially you are making the H sound with your throat while your tongue is against the back of your upper teeth for the L sound. Try to merge the two sounds as simultaneously as possible. Does that make sense?

[@david203]

@@Sarah.Riedel I guess it makes sense, but the only approximations I can make are sounds like FL and SL. What I'd really like to hear is a much slower pronunciation, with both north and south Wales dialects, so I can imitate it slowly, then speed up. On TV shows, ll in Welsh sounds like FL to me most of the time.

[@wickedest-witch]

We have this sound in Icelandic as well! It's written "hl" (for example "hlaða", and is also how we pronounce l when it comes before a t, p or k ("elta" "úlpa" "fólk").

[@att.6134]

This was very straight forward and it all made sense. Good is that you simply present it and don’t feel shy. This helped, thx!

[@beta5183]

Thank you so much! Happy to see this accurate guide. This sound is common in Regional Chinese languages in Taishan 台山 and Kaiping 开平.

[@bacodenaus6866]

Thank you! I knew the Welsh double-L didn't sound like a normal "L". Greetings from Scotland! Love your videos!

[@andrewlaverghetta715]

This makes me think of one of the ways cartoons would make fun of a speech impediment in children in American tv. It was usually associated with people who had braces or headgear, or just dorky/nerdy people overall. I don’t know if it’s the same sound or not, but it reminds me of that.

[@bhazerelli7611]

Like that kid in Bob's Burgers😄

[@kimw6698]

My Grandpa was from Llanfairfechan. My Dad (born in USA) always called it Clanfairfechan because he couldn’t pronounce the Ll. This video is great!!

[@kamodo2299]

I’m a native American English speaker, and this is how I’ve pronounce my sh all my life. I’ve only noticed within the past few months, but it’s nice I can show someone that the sound does exist lol.

[@kallinan]

Really? I'm a native American English speaker from the Great Lakes region, and our "sh" sounds start with the tongue tip underneath the top teeth - not above as in welsh "ll"

[@kamodo2299]

@@kallinan yeah I mispronounced it pretty bad, think they just missed it during speech therapy as a kid. Someday I want to fix it because it can be noticeable

[@Mylegiscaughtinashackle]

I'm fascinated how that was easy for me. My first instinct with double L is the Spanish LL and the English LL. But this one wasn't too hard.

[@pronunciationmade4u571]

Articulation at its best. Very good explanations, I could perfectly put into practice. Thanks, maestro! Welsh is such an amazing and attractive language from the point of view of pronunciation and culture. Glad to have found you. Keep it going!

[@deanl4575]

There’s a Llaneast Street in Melbourne, Australia, and the tram next stop announcement voice actually pronounces it the Welsh way

[@doritodog6242]

Thanks for this! I feel like I can finally properly pronounce llyfrgell.

[@seiretzym]

thank you for explaining how to produce the phoneme in detail, it made it very easy for me!

[@admiralhill1485]

There's a pub in Saint Louis, Missouri, called Llewellyn. As you might imagine, it's well known as "Loo-ehl-in" and now I can't ever call it that again. Nobody will know what I'm talking about there, now. :D

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

You’re bringing the Welsh language to Missouri, one properly pronounced Welsh word at a time. 😂

[@ldbarthel]

I'm looking at one my cups and although you have the local pronunciation right, you have the spelling wrong. It's "Llywelyn's Pub" llywelynspub.com. (Too many US variant spellings. My wife is a "Llewelyn"....) Her family is constantly asked if they' own the pub...

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

@@ldbarthel It’s not just a US variant. We have that spelling in Wales as well.

[@tykeinbrum]

Would that be Saint Looey or Saint Loowiss? ;-)

[@admiralhill1485]

@@tykeinbrum Yes.

[@_Fais_ce_qui_te_semble_bien]

Ahh you sister is so pretty and kind her smile is so precious

[@MissNebulosity]

OMG YOU MADE THAT SO MUCH EASIER!! I'm 100,000 times further ahead than I was before!

[@feshpince7181]

I needed this video for the dumbest reason. There is a boss in OldSchool RuneScape called a Hunllef, which means 'nightmare' in Welsh. I couldn't figure out the 'Ll' letter's pronunciation, but now it makes much more sense.

[@seaofsmiffy]

Ah, diolch! You’re such a savior, now I finally understood how to pronounce this tricky tricky letter!

[@jandunn169]

This helps quite a bit because you explain it so thoroughly. Another video said it sounds like a SH and a lady in the North said everyone in her community makes it sound like a hissing H.

[@vivapinata7728]

1:27 Inappropriate hand gestures, man. XD I jest. I just started to learn Welsh on Duolingo and this really helps a lot. Thank you so much for putting this out here.

[@ramzy-6566]

great video for Welsh ll sound.

[@RD19902010]

as a German it's surprisingly easy to pronounce. Thanks! My English friend pronounces it "cl"

[@mishapurser4439]

I find putting my throat in the 'ch' shape at the start too also helps in certain words.

[@jimmie999999999]

i grew up in Newfoundland with a boy named Llewellyn Strange. That is also the name of the first police constable too back in the day. I use it as a pseudonym when i write

[@ingloriousday8811]

I’m reading david j peterson’s book, “the art of the language” and I had to look up how to pronounce the double ll sound. Great instructional video!

[@germpore]

That sounds like a very aspirated 'sl' to my ear. And funny that you mention 'Llandudno' right off, because that's precisely one of the places I visited when I was in Wales and was struggling to pronounce correctly. I know the last part was pronounced "didnaw" because Welsh orthography is quite different even where a sound have might actually some close English counterpart.

[@MPBradley]

Me being born and raised in Wales, I actually do speak Welsh yet I still struggle pronouncing "Llanelli" and "llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch", this has still helped my pronunciation of my "Ll"'s

[@annanadal7908]

Excellent tips!!! It's very peculiar the way a double "l" can sound so different from any of the languages I know. Here, there's a bit of 'aspiration' present (that 'air' puffing out from the cheeks) which makes it sound like a snake. Wonderful tongue gym!

[@RyanEdmondsMyLifeAsRyan]

In South Africa our Bantu languages have the -hl which is exactly the same. Such a lovely sound. Thank you. I'm trying to learn the pronunciations of the Manibogion

[@PedroMachadoPT]

Great video. I was looking for how this peculiar sound actually sounded like. Some people with a speech impediment talk like that in languages without that sound. When you speak English, it sounds like you have that speech impediment, because your Welsh affects the way you speak English, like for example how you pronounce the s.

[@Miikhiel]

The double l sound is almost identical to the Icelandic double l’s.

[@servantofaeie1569]

Icelandic and Welsh suprisingly have a lot of similarities

[@MrsGlynn07]

My years as a speech therapist are coming in handy here!

[@joalexsg9741]

The best exemplification ever!!! Diolch yn fawr!

[@karenkelly1670]

Very entertaining indeed .love the way you say VIDEO

[@friendlyletters]

brilliant - very doable

[@jfjoubertquebec]

Bonjour! I'm trying to pronounce Arwyn... there was a storm called Arwyn and I noticed people in Wales were saying it was not pronounced right on the TV. Diolch yn fawr!

[@TheSm1thers]

The "Ll" sound came naturally to me as a scouser haha. Sounds like how we say "ck" sounds normally.

[@angelrose8464]

Fellow Scouser here, but moved to the states when I was four 😂 so I have no accent and I’m having to learn this 😂 wish I still had my accent

[@tylarjackson7928]

@@angelrose8464 Scouse is Liverpool, right? Now I'm picturing how John Lennon would say "ch".

[@bhazerelli7611]

I've heard that Liverpool had quite a bit of Welsh and Irish influence so that would make sense.

[@ashlillings]

Super helpful, diolch! Been struggling with this, especially in llyfrgell where you have to hit it twice.

[@chrisparti]

The easiest way I have explained it to friends, is to say the letter L then stop using your voice box and blow gently instead, letting the air pass the sides of your tongue... basically the same as you are saying, but with a slightly different approach to explaining it..

[@cherecdickey7263]

Thank you! Now I can pronounce my son’s middle name!

[@angelfly168]

I've never been able to figure out the double l. This finally made sense and success, I did it!

[@suzycreamchez123]

Thank you for the useful explanation. I will be checking out your podcast too!

[@marcobechere4452]

Well, here in Europe the only places where this sound is in use are Wales, Iceland and NW Sardinia. I'm from Sassari and I use this sound very often :)

[@anneknight3875]

You do the best pod casts and this was the very best way of saying the ll sound. The other way I was told felt me tongue tie and I couldn’t get the whole word out. Thank you so much.

[@robertbruce5213]

Thank you! Finally the LL was properly explained to me! ...Someone told me once it was almost like a “trilled L.“ No, it is the guttural unvoiced aspirate that is gushed around the side of the mouth, while the tongue is in the lingual-velar position. Clear.

[@soulus98]

I thought the correct term is voiced lateral alveolar fricative but idk

[@AlasdairColl]

Da iawn, diolch yn fawr! I knew I was getting close, and I got it quite right when I spent a fortnight in Pwllheli a Penrhyn Llyn back in 1995. If it weren't for Corona, I'd book myself into Nant Gwrtheyrn this very summer, for a fortnight as well. I wonder whether Gwyndaf (formerly landlord of the Penlan Fawr in Pwllheli), and Gwennan whom I know from my Irish course in Connemara in 1997 are still teaching there... I have more than mastered the Goidelic cousins of Welsh in ten years' time, I'll master Welsh too, someday... 😉 Hwyl, Axel

[@RealtorJeffBonner]

THANK YOU! Very helpful.

[@keithtaylor3347]

You make a big song and dance about this very simple-to-pronounce sound. Simply place your tongue as if to say the letter "L", then with no voice behind it, simply blow gently That's all there is to it. Zulu uses a very similar sound, which is written as "hl". One of my nicknames is Mahlathini, (Mallateenee in Welsh) which contains this combination of letters and is a direct translation of my name, which is the Scottish "Keith".

[@Grunfeld]

Thanks for this. I've been taking breaks in Wales regularly the few years so reckon it's time to make a bit of an effort with the names. Subscribed

[@elizabethmcnamara6548]

Thank you so much. Now it makes so much more sense! I was learning the word “Allan” (Out in English.) but was pronouncing it like the male name Allan haha. I’ll learn soon hopefully, I really want to learn Welsh so bad I started 2 days ago! Diolch!!!

[@annadang5811]

Got a presentation coming up on Wales in my English/British cultural studies and I really want to try to pronounce names and words properly to do this beautiful language and culture a bit justice... Thank you for this helpful video, Jason!

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Pob lwc/Good luck! Hope the presentation goes well.

[@annadang5811]

@@LearnWelshPodcast Thank you! What a chad, still commenting after almost 3 years! 🥺👏🏼

[@kernicole]

I can manage that in most words, but Pontcysyllte beats me every time. Have you any advice for that?

[@M4th3u54ndr4d3]

We also had this sound in ancient hebrew, probably before 1800b.C

[@ieyasumcbob]

Helpful, thankyou

[@MegalopsykhiaLIN]

Surprisingly I think this sound is the lighter version of Chinese “sh” like in 是.

[@elgranlugus7267]

It's close to the TL in mexican names: Tlaloc.

[@tr-h7217]

Indeed. The Welsh ll is a lateral fricative, whereas the nahuatl tl is a lateral affricate. Affricates are essentially just a combination of building up the pressure of a plosive (plosives are sounds like p t and k) and releasing the air as a fricative. For instance the sh sound in english is a fricative. If you make t sound and release it with a sh sound you get a the sound written in English as ch So if you make a t sound and release it with a Welsh ll sound you get the Nahuatl tl sound.

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

Well, that makes sense. 😁 (As long as you know a little spanish, anyway...) Like Tenochtitlan ?

[@RandyKing314]

Thanks!

[@paulshirley6383]

How to Pronounce the Tricky Letter Learn Welsh Podc love louis shirley

[@Chris-tb7jh]

Really helpful thanks!

[@crimstar4026]

I speak Welsh, but can't pronounce the LL because I have a slight lisp. RIP TwT

[@TheSequentCalculus]

Do you know why the second "ll" in Llewellyn is not pronounced with a lateral, but with a normal "l"? I've heard native Welsh speakers say /ɬe'welin/ instead of using "ɬ" both times.

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

I’ve wondered that myself but I can’t find any info on why it’s pronounced that way.

[@servantofaeie1569]

"lateral"? I believe the word you are looking for is "fricative" or "voiceless". They are both lateral. /l/ is a voiced lateral approximant, while /ɬ/ is a voiceless lateral fricative.

[@TheSequentCalculus]

@@servantofaeie1569 I meant fricative, you're right. I don't know what confused me. Thanks for the correction.

[@JohnDoe-df4yg]

In welsh the name Llewellyn is written as Llywelyn, without the second ll.

[@ivorwm2291]

Thanks

[@bevoburn]

so i been mispronouncing my buddy Lloyd's name for my whole life.

[@MrManningata]

Wow, this was so helpful! Thanks!

[@theassasin158]

new meaning to Llanowar elves

[@Takayama-sama]

That’s rather similar to how you pronounce the R/L sound in Japanese, apart from blowing air out from your cheeks. You put your tongue up there like you would when you’re making an R sound, but instead you make an L sound and it comes out like a hybrid of the two. I might have a leg up on the Ll sound!

[@definitelynotafox6262]

i'm trying so hard but i sound like a sneezing dog. i really want to pronounce words properly but it's so frustratingXD

[@SiyaDube]

This sounds the same as "hl" in Zulu a language spoken in Southern Africa.

[@PavaniGanga]

⭐Thanks!😊👍

[@lisareed5669]

I'm getting it.

[@roiq5263]

Is it normal if I have some problems with saliva when I pronounce it?

[@chekhososlanian1942]

One year of practice and I will be able to pronounce Llewellyn

[@Dennis-di4cx]

Diolch yn fawr!

[@DeborahHMarks]

Well, that wasn't so hard. Thanks for a great explanation, unlike Google. 🙄

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bookwermofthefandoms]

I still can't do it. I keep saying sh instead

[@musicguy2220]

What about llangeitho?

[@Milioem]

My tongue cramped

[@ithhoofol]

My native language have this sound

[@gyrrakavian]

So it's like 'hrunting' but with an 'l' instead of an 'r'?

[@Ida-xe8pg]

So its more like a ɬ͡l rather than just a ɬ?

[@maxmatthews2463]

I was wondering how to say this

[@SamianHQuazi]

I gave up on it after spitting up saliva, and now I just replaced it with "shh".

[@stevebuckley7788]

My parents had the great idea of giving me Lloyd as a middle name...I still can't pronounce it properly.

[@SamDeLamb]

How do you pronounce Llion?!

[@onslaughtgaming-742h]

Llaith, Llanelli, Llandudno, Llandovery

[@amitchhabra999]

What I understand is that the LL is said as "sh-l". Then why is Llanelli said as Shlan-ekhli?

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Its a hard sound to describe. Not really an sh-l sound. More of a ch sound at the back of the throat followed by an L. The Ll sound in the middle of a word is different to the sound at the front of the word and your written version expresses it well. Ekhl. Not sure exactly why it’s different in the middle of a word but it might be partly because of how awkward a front ll sounds in the middle of a word and it’s slightly harder to say as well.

[@amitchhabra999]

@@LearnWelshPodcast Thanks for clarifying that ❣️

[@Mrinternet6]

If I could try to make the sound In English I pt would be shul really really fast.

[@gyongya]

Hl in Zulu is pronounced the same way as the Welsh Ll.

[@Ida-xe8pg]

1:27 Those fingers

[@S24ARJ]

How do you pronounce Llinos?

[@LearnWelshPodcast]

Llee-nos. ‘Llee’ sounds like the name ‘Lee’ but with the Ll sound at the start. ‘Nos’ to rhyme with ‘Boss’.

[@theowl2134]

In Hebrew we have this. Though the Ashkenazi of Israel just pronounce it as 's"

[@baruchpinnick811]

Which Hebrew letter has the double L sound?! I don't think any of them do.

[@theowl2134]

my ADHD got in when I said ashkenazi pronounce it as "s" thats the "th" sound that the ashkenazi pronounce as "s" as for the double L sound, back in Biblical Archaic Hebrew the letter Sin (shin without dages) would make that sound. Though this sound was had assimilated into an "s" still during biblical times

[@Rodegon___]

Anyone familiar with a suffix known as, "Llyd"-?