Welsh Language

Submitted by Danny Evan Proud

Getting from Frustration to Fun with Welsh

The gymanfa ganu (a gathering to sing) is an essential part of our Welsh heritage and Cymraeg, the Welsh language, is an essential part of our singing heritage.

Although some of us would like to sing in Welsh, it’s not easy to get the hang of it. But years ago when I went to my first gymanfa, I decided I wanted to sing in Welsh, and now I can!

I have put together a series of short, fun-to-read articles designed to remove the mystery and intimidation of Welsh words. These articles, “From Frustration to Fun,” are written in simple form for those who don’t want to take a language course, but just sing in Welsh. Listen to Welsh music any way you can, go to the next gymanfa ganu, and review these notes. It will enrich your life.

Please give it a try!

Lesson 1: Welsh Vowel “Y”

When I was a pupil in Huff Grade School (Michigan), I learned about the vowels in the English language: A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y and W!

Welsh has the same vowels, but the Y and W feature prominently in the language. Let’s look at the Welsh vowel Y.

It is important to note that Y in Welsh by itself is not the same as the Y in English. In Welsh the Y by itself is pronounced “uh” and means “the” – we use Ys all over the place:

Example: “y gymanfa” (the gathering) – uh guh-MAHN-va
Example: “Y Delyn Aur” (the golden harp) – uh DELL-in EYE-ur

In Welsh, Y (“the”) is embedded in many place names in Wales:

Example: Crugybar (CREEG-uh-BAR) – 3 words: Crug y bar
Example: Betws-y-Coed (BEH-toose uh COID)
Example: Rhosymedre (RHOSE-uh-MED-ref) Rhos y medre

In English we use the “uh” sound (also called “schwa”) with different vowels: the article A before a noun, as in “a tree” and “a porcupine;” with E in “the;” with O in “daffodil;” with U in “buzzard.”

We’ll have more to say about the Welsh Y …

Lesson 2: Welsh Alphabet – Consonants                               

The Welsh alphabet has 7 vowels (A E I O U WY) and 21 consonants:
(B C CH  D  DD  F  FF  G  NG  H  L  LL  M N P  PH  R  RH  S T  TH).

The eight two-letter consonants, bolded above, have distinct pronunciations and follow their associated one-letter consonants in the Welsh dictionary. For example, chws (breeze or gust) follows cywyddwr (poet).

Most single-letter consonants sound the same as in English, except:

  • C has a “K” sound—never “S” (no need for a K in Welsh!).
  • G is hard, as in “girl”—never soft, as in “giant.”
  • R is rolled or flipped, as it is in Spanish.
  • S sounds like “SSS” rather than “ZZZ” (no Z in Welsh!)
  • T sounds like “T”—not “D” (for example, “little,” not liddle)

These two-letter consonants in Welsh are interesting:  DD and TH.

  • DD sounds like the TH in English, as in “though” and “seeth”
  • TH sounds like the TH in the English “throw” and “through.”

The other two-letter consonants have consistent pronunciations:

  • CH sounds like CH in “loch” and “Bach.”
  • FF is always “F.” The Welsh letter F is always a “V” sound.
  • NG is the sound of NG in –ING in English.
  • LL has a sound not found in English—hiss while forming an L.
  • PH is also the F sound.
  • RH is an aspirated R, something like “HR.” Trill the R.

Several English letters are not found in the Welsh alphabet:

  • J is not a Welsh letter, but is borrowed (such as in “Jones”).
  • Letter replacements: K=>C; V=>F; Q=>Cw; X=>Cs; Z=>S

Note: SI takes the place of CH, J, and SH in words such as siop (shop), siar (jar), siwr (sure). In English we also use this sound (as in “tension”).

Lesson 3: Uh…Um…Duh!  Y!

While the Welsh Y is usually pronounced “uh,” we might also know that Y has other pronunciations. It can be pronounced “ee” or “ih,, as in “tree” or “fin.” 

There is a rule to help you here. In words with multiple syllables, a letter Y has the schwa sound (“uh”) unless it is in the last syllable. The Y in the last syllable is pronounced “ee” or “ih.”

Key to examples below:

Syllables (“uh”) before the last (penultimate syllable)
Last syllable, with Y (“ee”/”ih”)
First Y
Last Y

Example: Cym – ry (Cymry=Welsh people), pronounced “KUM-ree.” “uh”  “ee”
Example: fyn – y (fyny=up), pronounced “VUN-ee.” “uh” “ee”
Example: myn – ydd (mynydd=mountain), pronounced “MUHN-ithe.” “uh” “ih”

In 2-letter words for pronouns, prepositions, and forms of the article “the,” the Welsh Y always has an “uh” sound (schwa):  fy (my), dy (your), yn (in), ym (in), yr (the)

Example:  yn y nefoedd (“in the heavens,” pronounced “un uh NEH-voythe”)
Example:  fy Iesu (“my Jesus,” pronounced “vuh YES-ee”)
Example:  fy nhad (“my father,” vun Hahd). Note: fy + N are tied together: fyn-had.
Example:  yr Eisteddfod (“the Eisteddfod,” pron. “uhr eye-STEDDE-fawd”)

The Welsh noun “tŷ” (“house”) looks like a pronoun, but the circumflex over the Y changes the pronunciation to “tee.” (The circumflex is called a “to bach” (little roof), “toe BACH.”)

Lesson 4: Au—Aiiiy!  Oedd—Oy! Pesky Plurals

Plural noun endings in Welsh (Cymraeg) are not the same as those in the English language (-s or -es). What are the Welsh noun endings, then?

One: The most common plural suffix in Welsh/Cymraeg is -au. The pronunciation of this is a surprise for those of us with Germanic ties, since in German “au” is pronounced “ow.” However, the “au” ending in Welsh is pronounced “eye”. 

The “au” is a diphthong, two vowel sounds combined into a single sound:  a + u = au.  Put another way, the pronunciation is “ah” + “ee” = “eye” (or “aye”). 

Example: a + u = au (pronounced “eye”)

This is one of the closely kept secrets of the language: the “u” in Welsh is actually an “i” – pronounced either “ee” (long i) or “ih” (short i). The letter “i” in Welsh has the same pronunciation, for our purposes (to sing in Welsh).

Example: “ah” + “ee” = “eye” (or “aye”, as in “the ayes have it”)

Examples of pluralized nouns:

Example: gêm s. (“game”), gêmau pl. (pronounced “GAME-eye”) meaning = game(s)
Example: tad s. (“tahd”), tadau pl. (pronounced “TAHD-eye”) meaning = father(s)
Example: mam s. (“mahm”), mamau pl. (pronounced “MAHM-eye”) meaning = mother(s)

Two: Another common plural suffix is -oedd. (Remember that dd, or double “d”, is a separate letter in Welsh, pronounced “th” as in the words “thee” and “that”.) 

Example: o + e + dd = oedd (pronounced “oy-dd”)

This begins to make sense when we realize that verbs have two sounds: the “o” in Welsh can be pronounced “aw” (short o) or “oh” (long o). An “e” in Welsh can be pronounced “ay” (long e) or “eh” (short e). When “oe” appears in a word, it is always pronounced with the short “o” and the long “e” together:

Example: “aw” + “aye” + “the” = “oy-the”

Examples of -oedd as plural endings:

Example: oesoedd = oes-oedd (“ages”), (pronounced OYSE-oythe)
Example: cymanfaoedd = cy-man-fa-oedd (“gatherings), (pronounced kuh-MAHN-vah-oythe)

Three: There are other plural forms in Welsh:

-iau, -ion, -on, -en, -i, -ydd, -edd, -ed, -ad, -iaid, -aint, -er, -yr, and -s