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THE ALPHABET

The Welsh alphabet has 28 letters. It does not include the six letters: j, k, q, v, x and z., although the letter j is gradually coming into popular use with words like garej (garage), however it has eight additional letters: ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh and th.

It is useful to remember that these additional letters, although consisting of two letters are treated as a single letter. If you were to look in a Welsh dictionary for the word rhydd (free) it would be listed with all the other words beginning with rh in a section of its own, between all the words beginning with r and all the words beginning with s - not between words beginning with re and ri. Incidentally the letter ng comes between g and h in a Welsh dictionary.

Now that's really logical isn't it? Don't worry - you'll have plenty of opportunity to practice, particularly in the Welsh crosswords in later lessons.

 

PRONUNCIATION
The Welsh language is phonetic so, although the stress may be different, each letter is pronounced and sounds the same every time. There are just two exceptions to this rule:
1. The letter Y can be clear or obscure - more of this later.
2. The letter S when followed by the letter I produces the sh sound as in shop or Sian.

All the Welsh words in this course have an approximate "English" pronunciation, using the following list:

Letter	Sounds like
a	as in "hat" (short) or as in "part" (long)
b	as in "boy"
c	as k in "kite"
ch	as ch in "loch" or "Bach"
d	as in "dog"
dd	as th in "this"
e	as in "tell" (short) or as a in "sale" (long)
f	as v in "value"
ff	as f in "foot" or ff in "effort"
g	as in "girl"
ng	as ng in "ring" or "king"
h	as in "hair"
i	as in "pin" (short) or as ee in "see" (long)
l	as in "learn"
ll	Place tip of tongue against the back of front top teeth and blow sharply
m	as in "mother"
n	as in "new"
o	as in "top" (short) or as in "boat" (long)
p	as in "pin"
ph	as f in "foot"
r	as in "red"
rh	as rh in "rhapsody"
s	as in "sit"
t	as in "table"
th	as in "think" or "thigh" - not "this" or "that"
u	as ee in "feel"
w	as oo in "book" (short) or as oo in "pool"
y	as ee in "feel" (clear) or as u in "up" (obscure).

In addition to a, e, i, o and u, Welsh has two more vowels - w and y. There are no dipthongs in Welsh - the joining of two vowels to make a single sound, as "Aesop" or "oestrogen". The phonetic nature of Welsh means that all vowels are pronounced, e.g. coed (tree) . Even three vowels following each other, e.g. gloyw (shiny) still follows the phonetic rules.

Welsh words have a habit of changing their first letters, this is called mutation. This can be difficult for beginners to grasp and we do not intend delving too deeply here. The following mutations are shown so that you don't suddenly think that you have found some new word that you don't know the meaning of.

You need not worry too much about mutations unless you intend getting really, really serious about Welsh. You will be perfectly well understood if you just use the original form of the word. We Welsh are so amenable and considerate ;-)

sound	original word	soft mutation	nasal mutation	aspirant mutation
p	pren (stick)	ei bren (his stick)	fy mhren (my stick)	ei phren (her stick)
t	tad (father)	ei dad (his father)	fy nhad (my father)	ei thad (her father)
c	cot (coat)	ei got (his coat)	fy nghot (my coat)	ei chot (her coat)
b	bara (bread)	ei fara (his bread)	fy mara (my bread)	ei bara (her bread)
d	dant (tooth)	ei ddant (his tooth)	fy nant (my tooth)	ei dant (her tooth)
g	gwal (wall)	ei wal (his wall)	fy ngwal (my wall)	ei gwal (her wall)
ll	llaeth (milk)	ei lath (his milk)	fy llaeth (my milk)	ei llaeth (her milk)
rh	rhaff (rope)	ei raff (his rope)	fy rhaff (my rope)	ei rhaff (her rope
m	mam (mother)	ei fam (his mother)	fy mam (my mother)	ei mam (her mother)

Notes
The soft mutation is used after his, nasal after my and aspirant after her.
Only p, t and c mutate to all three forms; b,d and g only mutate to the soft and nasal form; and ll, rh and m only mutate to the soft form.