As promised, here is lesson one of the WELSH-L Welsh lessons. (I meant to get it out over the weekend, but I didn't trust our mail server.) I have attempted to stay true to the typical learner's texts, and added some of my own notes to clarify points which have been confusing to me as a learner. If you have questions, please post them to the WELSH-L mailing list, or to the newsgroups soc.culture.celtic (where there are abundant, if not vocal, Welsh speakers); not because I don't wish to answer them, but because there are many more learned than I. LESSON 1: PRONUNCIATION One thing that is important to remember is that the pronunciation of Welsh varies widely between dialects. Therefore the student should remember that the pronunciations (and even the words) are guidelines, and regional varations are myriad. Internet Orthography: Since the system of accents used in Welsh is not supported universally by the computers comprising the Internet and connected networks, a set of substitute characters has been devised by speakers of the Celtic languages who participate in network discussions. These will be used in this series of lessons. They are: + circumflex, or caret, or pointed hat % diareses, or umlaut; two dots / accent grave (instead of apostrophe) \ acute accent (backwards accent grave) Thus, we have "ty+" for "house", "gweddi%o" for "to pray", "glanha\u" for "to clean", etc. Vowels: a as in UK English 'can' e as in 'let' i can be short, as in 'pit', or long, as in 'machine' o as in UK English 'lot' u a matter of discussion; in the south, it often sounds the same as the short 'i'; in the north, it's somewhat like saying 'ee' with your lips rounded w like 'oo' in 'food' or 'u' in 'put' y has two sounds: 1) like the 'u' sound, with the same geographical variants, and 2) like 'u' as in 'bus' 'y' almost always takes sound 1) in final syllables, except for a few 'small' words like y, yr, yn, yng, ym, fy, dy, where it takes sound 2) 'y' takes sound 2) in non-final syllables, and in the exceptions given above Note: a circumflex accent lengthens vowels, also changing their sound somewhat. a+ 'ta+n' (fire) rhymes with something close to American 'gone' e+ 'pe+l' (ball) sounds like 'pail' with a "Celtic" accent; i.e. the sound does not glide into an 'ee' like Americans do. Listen to a native of Wales or Scotland or Ireland (or even N. England!) i+ Easy. 'penli+n' rhymes with 'lean' o+ 'co+t' (coat) like English 'coat', but does not glide into 'oo'. Another "Celtic" sound. w+ 'sw+n' (sound) like English 'soon', but with non-glide 'oo' sound y+ Always like y(1) above. 'ty+' (house) Diphthongs: ae most of these sound like the 'i' in 'bike', although those ai which have a 'u' in them tend to be colored by the speaker's au pronunciation of the 'u'. ei eu In the north, 'ae', 'ai', 'ai' tend to become 'a+'. In speech, the possessives 'ei' (his, her) and 'eu' (their) tend to become 'i' oe like 'oy' in 'boy' oi oy wy as a diphthong, sounds like 'we', but it may or may not be a diphthong. A recent discussion on WELSH-L seemed to indicate that words containing 'wy' need to be taken on a case-by-case basis Consonants: b as in English c always as in 'cow' (yes, even before e, i and y) ch as in Scottish 'loch' d as in English dd like 'th' in English 'the' f like English 'v' ff like English 'f' g as in English h ditto l ditto ll here we go ... put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, right behind your top teeth, and blow out ... that's it. m as in English mh like it looks; not as hard as it sounds, since it almost always occurs after a vowel. Split it between two syllables if you like. n as in English ngh sort of like 'mh'; split it into ng-h nh similar to 'mh' p as in English ph as in English 'phone' r as in English, with a slight roll or tap rh like 'r', followed by an aspiration of breath s as in English; sometimes 'si' is pronounced as in English 'sh' t as in English th like 'th' in English 'thug' Other strange combinations: gw like 'wy', 'gw' is pronounced differently in different words. In 'gwlad' (land), 'gw' is little more than a 'g' with lips rounded, so the word remains one syllable. But in 'gw+ydd' (goose), it sounds more like 'goo-eethe'. Sometimes the accent gives a clue: if there is a circumflex over the 'w', pronounce it like 'oo'. -fr, -fn, -gr, -tr, -bl, etc. often in speech, some vowel is inserted between the two letters of these combinations, making an extra syllable where there really isn't one. An example is "Lloegr" (England) which becomes "Lloegyr". Also, the final consonant is sometimes dropped, so "ffenestr" (window) becomes "ffenest" and "posibl" (possible) becomes "posib". Where Does the Accent Go? The rule in Welsh is that the accent, or stress, goes on the penultimate, or second from the last, syllable. Because of this, stress often shifts when a word adds an ending. For instance, "CW-mwl" (cloud) changes to the plural as "cy-MYL-au" (sorry, I've just introduced you to vowel changes). Stress is sometimes a tricky thing to hear in Welsh, since the last syllable, especially in the last word of a clause or sentence, is uttered with a rising tone. So it sometimes sounds like the last syllable is stressed. Don't worry about this -- it will come when you start to develop the accent. I'm afraid, though, that I can't help you with that -- you've got to find a Welsh speaker for yourself.