In reply to Anna Chenoweth's question about 'eye' sounds in Welsh, the answer is yes....but! By the way, I'm not a linguist, nor do I have any special knowledge or anything like that and I'm sure what follows is full of mistakes, but this is my understanding. As with most languages, what is standard pronounciation (ha ha!) is not always the same as what people actually speak. In Welsh, the main differences in accent are between speakers from North and South Wales, and the way each vowel pair is said can be different. 'ae' e.g. cae is usually said like English 'eye' but may be said like 'caa' in the South 'au' e.g. papurau - the au may be said like 'eye' or be like the a in English 'cat' in the North or like the e in English 'then' in the South 'ue' Help! I can't think of a word with this in! 'ei' e.g. Llandeilo - the ei is usually said like the a in English 'paper' but is commonly like 'eye' in the South. It also seems to depend on the word 'ai' e.g. ffaith - I think this is always said like English 'eye' 'ew' e.g. llew - I think that this is never like English 'dew' but always a more open, longer sound. I can't think of a sound like it in English. Only now when I sit down and thinks about these things does it hit me how complicated these things are. It seems that there are no hard and fast rules, and that there are always exceptions. It seems to be very dangerous to generalize, especially in this North/South business. I also wonder how many of us Welsh speakers actually speak any dialect which can be called 'pure' - there are always all sorts of influences all around. Hywel