A Guide to Pronouncing the Names of Welsh Mountains

Introduction

“Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name BZJXXLLWCP is pronounced Jackson.” Mark Twain (1835-1910)

This article is a guide to the names of Welsh mountains, lakes and valleys that are listed and written about on SummitPost, and is designed to help anyone who can’t speak Welsh. It is a general guide, and not all names are covered, however it does cover those that are most common. For anyone unfamiliar with Welsh I have also included a brief introduction to the langauge and a quick guide on how to pronounce names, words and phrases. If anyone feels that a name or word is missing let me know by posting a comment and I'll make sure it's added to the table.

A Brief Guide to the Welsh Language

The language of Wales, more properly called Cymraeg in preference to Welsh (A Germanic word denoting "foreigner"), is a Celtic language spoken as a community language in Wales (Cymru) by about 659,000 people, and in the Welsh colony (Y Wladfa) in Patagonia, Argentina (yr Ariannin) by several hundred people. There are also Welsh speakers in England (Lloegr), Scotland (yr Alban), Canada, the USA (yr Unol Daleithiau), Australia (Awstralia) and New Zealand (Seland Newydd). Welsh is fairly closely related to Cornish and Breton, and more distantly related to Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic.

At the beginning of the 20th century about half of the population of Wales spoke Welsh as an everyday language. Towards the end of the century, the proportion of Welsh speakers had fallen to about 20%. According to the 2001 census 23% of the population, 659,301 people, can speak the language and a total of 797,717 people, 28% of the population, claim to have some knowledge it. In most heavily populated areas of Wales, such as the Southeast (containing the large urban centers of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea), the normal language of everyday life is English, but there are other areas, notably in the Western and Northern regions, (Gwynedd and Dyfed particularly) where the Welsh language remains strong and highly visible. The Welsh word for their country is Cymru (Kumree), the land of the Comrades; the people are known as Cymry (Kumree) and the language as Cymraeg (Kumrige). Regional differences in spoken Welsh do not make speakers in one area unintelligible to those in another (as is so often claimed), standard Welsh is understood by Welsh speakers everywhere.

Despite its formidable appearance to the uninitiated, Welsh is a language whose spelling is entirely regular and phonetic, so that once you know the rules, you can learn to read it and pronounce it without too much difficulty. For young children learning to read, Welsh provides far fewer difficulties than does English, as the latter's many inconsistencies in spelling are not found in Welsh, in which all letters are pronounced.

The Welsh Alphabet: (28 letters)

A, B ,C ,Ch, D, Dd, E, F, Ff, G, Ng, H, I, L, Ll, M, N, O, P, Ph, R, Rh, S, T, Th, U, W, Y

(Note that Welsh does not possess the letters J, K, Q, V, X or Z, though you will often come across "borrowings" from English, such as John, Jones, Jam and Jiwbil (Jubilee); Wrexham (Wrecsam); Zw (Zoo).

The Vowels: (A, E, I, U, O, W, Y)

A as in man. Welsh words: am, ac Pronounced the same as in English)

E as in bet or echo. Welsh words: gest (guest); enaid (enide)

I as in pin or queen. Welsh words: ni (nee); mi (me); lili (lily); min (meen)

U as in pita: Welsh words: ganu (ganee); cu (key); Cymru (Kumree); tu (tee); un (een)

O as in lot or moe. Welsh words: o'r (0re); don (don); dod (dode); bob (bobe)

W as in Zoo or bus. Welsh words: cwm (koom), bws (bus); yw (you); galw (galoo)

Y has two distinct sounds: the final sound in happy or the vowel sound in myrrh Welsh words: Y (uh); Yr (ur); yn (un); fry (vree); byd (beed)

All the vowels can be lengthened by the addition of a circumflex (â), known in Welsh as "to bach" (little roof). Welsh words: Tân (taan), lân (laan) .

The Diphthongs:

Ae, Ai and Au are pronounced as English "eye": ninnau (nineye); mae (my); henaid (henide); main (mine); craig (crige)

Eu and Ei are pronounced the same way as the English ay in pray. Welsh words: deisiau (dayshy), or in some dialects (deeshuh); deil (dale or dile); teulu (taylee or tyelee)

Ew is more difficult to describe. It can be approximated as eh-oo or perhaps as in the word mount. The nearest English sound is found in English midland dialect words such as the Birmingham pronunciation of "you" (yew). Welsh words: mewn (meh-oon or moun); tew (teh-oo)

I'w and Y'w sound almost identical to the English "Ee-you." or "Yew" or "You": Welsh words: clyw (clee-oo); byw (bee-you or b'you); menyw (menee-you or menyou)

Oe is similar to the English Oy or Oi. Welsh words: croeso (croyso); troed (troid); oen (oin)

Ow is pronounced as in the English tow, or low: Welsh word: Rhown (rhone); rho (hrow)

Wy as in English wi in win or oo-ee: Welsh words: Wy (oo-ee); wyn (win); mwyn (mooin)

Ywy is pronounced as in English Howie. Welsh words: bywyd (bowid); tywyll (towith)

Aw as in the English cow. Welsh words: mawr (mour); prynhawn (prinhown); lawr (lour)

The Consonants:

For the most part b, d, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, and t are pronounced the same as their English equivalents (h is always pronounced, never silent). Those that differ are as follows:

C always as in cat; never as in since. Welsh words: canu (Kanee); cwm (come); cael (kile); and of course, Cymru (Kumree)

Ch as in the Scottish loch or the German ach or noch. The sound is never as in church, but as in loch or Docherty. Welsh words: edrychwn (edrych oon); uwch (youch ), chwi (Chee)

Dd is pronounced like the English th in the words seethe or them. Welsh words: bydd (beethe); sydd (seethe); ddofon (thovon); ffyddlon (futh lon)

Th is like the English th in words such as think, forth, thank. Welsh words: gwaith (gwithe); byth (beeth)

F as in the English V. Welsh words: afon (avon); fi (vee); fydd (veethe); hyfryd (huvrid); fawr (vowr), fach (vach)

Ff as in the English f. Welsh words: ffynnon (funon); ffyrdd (furth); ffaith (fithe)

G always as in English goat, gore. Welsh words: ganu (ganee); ganaf (ganav); angau (angeye); gem (game)

Ng as in English finger or Long Island. Ng usually occurs with an h following as a mutation of c. Welsh words Yng Nghaerdydd (in Cardiff: pronounced ung hire deethe) or Yng Nghymru (in Wales: pronounced ung Humree)

Ll is an aspirated L. That means you form your lips and tongue to pronounce L, but then you blow air gently around the sides of the tongue instead of saying anything. Got it? The nearest you can get to this sound in English is to pronounce it as an l with a th in front of it. Welsh words: llan (thlan); llawr (thlour); llwyd (thlooid)

Rh sounds as if the h come before the r. There is a slight blowing out of air before the r is pronounces. Welsh words: rhengau (hrengye); rhag (hrag); rhy (hree)

The most common expressions that Welsh-Americans come across are Cymanfa Ganu (Kumanva Ganee); Eisteddfod (Aye-steth-vod); and Noson Lawen (Nosson Lowen)

Mutations (Treigladau):

Welsh has a system of mutations which affects the initial letters of words. This feature is common to all Celtic languages and can make it difficult to find words in dictionaries. The nasal mutation (treiglad trwynol) and aspirate mutation (treiglad llaes) present few difficulties, but there are over 20 different occasions when soft mutation (treiglad meddal) occurs.
Mutations often crop up in place names and there are numerous examples in the mountains, rivers and lakes of Wales. For example in the case of Glyder Fach, the B in Bach is substituted for an F; and in the case of Garnedd Ugain, the C in Carnedd is substituted for a G.

A table of Welsh mutations

Practice:

Read the following, written using the Welsh alphabet:

Gwd lwc. Ai hop ddat yw can ryd ddys and ddat yt meiks sens tw yw. Iff yw can ryd ddys, dden yw ar dwing ffaen and wil haf no problems at ol yn lyrnyng awr ffaen Welsh alffabet.

Good luck: I hope that you can read this, and that it makes sense to you. If you can read this, then you are doing fine and will have no problems at all in learning our fine Welsh alphabet.

The Names

Now the important part. The following table contains words and names that are commonly associated with Welsh mountains. The first column contains the Welsh word, the second its translation into English, the third an example of where the word is used and fourth a translation of the example into English.

Colours

Colours are often present in Welsh place names, for example Y Foel Goch (The Bare Red Hill), therefore I have included a short table of the most common colours used.

External Links

Welsh Language Board
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg Welsh language pressure group
Cymuned Welsh language pressure group
Yr Urdd (Welsh Youth Association)
Welsh-English / English-Welsh online translator
Welsh-English / English-Welsh Online Dictionary
Welsh-English / English-Welsh Online Lexicon

Comments

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mountainmanmark - Mar 7, 2008 6:11 pm - Voted 10/10

Truely Inspired

Dan I lived in North Wales for three years and after such a time still didn't get it. If only I had your page. What made me laugh is even when I used what I did pick up no matter how I pronounced it, it would be wrong simply because as someone not born in Wales there is no way I was going to be told it was correct. But still as you say Iechyd da pronounced "Yacky dah" ?

Nanuls - Mar 8, 2008 9:21 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Truely Inspired

I've got a couple of friends who are learning Welsh at the moment, and they keep saying how it's such a hard language to learn. It's real funny listening to them try and pronounce stuff. Guess I shouldn't laugh, I was lucky to have learnt it when I was a kid. Strangely although English is my first language, the first language I learnt to write in was Welsh. I can tell you it's a much easier language to write in than English, completely phonetic with no silly rules like English has!

Yacky dah!
Dan

yatsek - Nov 25, 2008 8:28 am - Voted 10/10

No Surprise/Surprise

Having read some other pages of yours - high quality's no surprise.
But this is a huge surprise:
"Despite its formidable appearance to the uninitiated, Welsh is a language whose spelling is entirely regular and phonetic-"

I'm just having difficulty understanding how the U works against I. Isn't U for the longer sound, as in queen/these? And I for the shorter one, i.e. pin but not queen?

And what about R after a vowel, as in e.g. Garth - pronounced?

Nanuls - Nov 26, 2008 8:25 am - Hasn't voted

Re: No Surprise/Surprise

Right, how do I explain this...

The type of ee sound is only ever elongated if it has a little 'roof' thing over it e.g. on this â (I couldn't find an example with an i, u or y). Otherwise the pronunciations are all the same.

You got the 'R' question right, that's exactly how you pronounce it.

yatsek - Nov 26, 2008 8:32 am - Voted 10/10

Re: No Surprise/Surprise

Diolch

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