======================= [By Roger Vanderveen , with editing by Briony Williams and Mark Nodine .] This course is also being made available on World Wide Web. You can access the top-level node for the course or this lesson at the following destinations: http://www.cs.brown.edu/fun/welsh/home.html http://www.cs.brown.edu/fun/welsh/Lesson01.html The version on WWW has some advantages over the simple text version: (1) Significant cross-referencing between relevant parts of the course (2) A glossary of grammatical terms (3) A searchable lexicon (limited to the vocabulary actually presented) for browsers that support forms (4) A standard lexicon for browsers that don't support forms (5) Links to the answers for the exercises (and, eventually, translations for the conversations) (6) Clickable tables of contents for easy browsing (7) Navigation buttons for going to the next/previous lesson, etc. Contents: 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Internet Orthography 1.3. Simple Vowels 1.4. Diphthongs 1.5. Consonants 1.6. Other Strange Combinations 1.7. Where Does the Stress Go? 1.1. Introduction ----------------- 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. 1.2. 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 % diaresis, or umlaut; two dots / acute accent \ grave accent Thus, we have "ty+" for "house", "gweddi%o" for "to pray", "glanha/u" for "to clean", etc. **Note:** The symbol chosen for the circumflex may appear to be arbitrary, since almost all keyboards have a caret character; however the experience on the net was that the code used to represent the caret differed on different machines. These codes were specifically chosen because they were consistent across all known machines. 1.3. Simple Vowels ------------------ Simple vowels, i.e., not diphthongs, may be either long or short depending on their context and on whether or not there is a circumflex accent. There is a difference of duration and also of pronunciation between corresponding long and short vowels. a as in UK English 'can' (short) or UK 'father', USA 'gone' (long) e as in 'let' (short) or Yorkshire/Scottish accent 'late' (long) - i.e., like 'late' but with no 'eee' sound at the end of the vowel. i as in 'pit' (short) or 'lean' (long) o as in UK 'lot' (short) or Yorkshire/Scottish accent 'coat' (long) - i.e., like 'coat' but with no 'ooo' sound at the end of the vowel. u a matter of discussion; in the south, it often sounds the same as the 'i' (long or short); in the north, it's halfway between the vowels in 'lick' and 'look' (short) or 'leap' and 'loop' (long) with the lips not rounded but slack. w as in 'put' (short) or 'soon' (long). ["w" can represent either a vowel or a consonant in Welsh spelling] y has two sounds: 1) like the vowel written 'u', with the same geographical variants; can be long or short. This sound is referred to as clear y. 2) the unstressed obscure vowel in the first syllable of 'aside' [though in Welsh it can be stressed]. This is always short. 'y' almost always takes sound 1) in word-final syllables, except for a few 'small' words like y, yr, yn, yng, ym, fy, dy (sound 2). 'y' takes sound 2) in non-final syllables, and in the above exceptions. Simple vowels (monophthongs) in stressed syllables take the long pronunciation when one and only one of the following consonants appears in the same syllable as the vowel (eg. when word-final): b, d, g, (single) f, dd, some cases of l, n, m, and ng - and also when no consonant at all follows the vowel. If more than one consonant - of any kind - occurs after the simple vowel, then the vowel is short. Simple vowels in _unstressed_ syllables are short, whatever the following consonant. **Note:** A circumflex accent lengthens a vowel that would otherwise be short by these rules. A grave accent shortens a vowel that would otherwise be long by these rules (e.g., sio\l), and is only rarely needed. 1.4. Diphthongs --------------- ae) Most of these sound like the vowel in 'bike', although those ai) which have a 'u' in them tend to be colored by the speaker's au) pronunciation of the 'u' (either North Welsh or South Welsh). ei) eu) In the north, 'ae', 'ai', 'ai' tend to become 'a+'. In speech, (both North and South) the possessives 'ei' (his, her) and 'eu' (their) tend to become long 'i'. oe) Like 'oy' in 'boy' oi) oy) wy There are actually two versions of this diphthong: a rising version (stress on the 'y') and a falling one (stress on the 'w'). For example, 'gw+ydd' (goose) is pronounced GOOH-eethe, whereas 'gwy+dd' (trees) is pronounced GWEETHE. 1.5. Consonants --------------- b as in English c always as in 'cow' (even before e, i and y) ch as in Scottish 'loch' (guttural 'kh'-type sound). d as in English dd like 'th' in English 'the', never as in 'think'. f like English 'v' ff like English 'f' g as in English h as in English l as in English ll Put your tongue in the position for 'l' and blow out. 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 Trilled with the tongue-tip. rh like 'r', followed by an aspiration of breath (h). s as in English, though 'si' is pronounced as in English 'sh', and is found before 'a', 'e' and 'o' only - eg. 'siop' (shop). t as in English th like 'th' in English 'thug', never as in 'this'. 1.6. 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. at end of word: 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". The inserted vowel mirrors the one in the previous syllable (or the second part of it, if a diphthong). eg. 'cefn' becomes 'cefen', 'aml' becomes 'amal', 'ofn' is 'ofon'. Also, the final consonant is sometimes dropped, so "ffenestr" (window) becomes "ffenest" and "posibl" (possible) becomes "posib". The consonants that are often dropped are 'f' (pronounced as /v/), and 'l' and 'r' when after other consonants. -f at end of word: The letter 'f' is considered weak in Welsh, and is often dropped when it is the final letter of a word. For example, 'haf' (summer) is usually prounounced 'ha'. 1.7. Where Does the Stress Go? ------------------------------ The rule in Welsh is that the accent, or stress, goes on the penultimate, or next-to-last, syllable. (There are a few exceptions to this general rule, which will be noted in the lessons.) Because of this rule, stress often shifts when a word adds an ending. For instance, 'AFal', (apple), with stress on the first syllable, has a plural 'afALau', (apples), with stress on the second syllable. 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, to the ears of an English speaker. Hearing the accent correctly comes with practice, and it is a good idea to use tapes if you have no access to a native speaker.