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Names derived from languages other than English aren’t always easy to pronounce for English speakers, and Welsh is no exception. As far as I am concerned, please feel free to pronounce the names and places in this book however you like. I want you to be happy!
That said, some people really want to know the ‘right’ way to pronounce a word, and for them, I have included the pronunciation guide for Welsh sounds below.
Enjoy!
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a an ‘ah’ sound, as in ‘car’ (Catrin)
ae an ‘eye’ sound (Caernarfon)
ai an ‘eye’ sound (Dai)
c a hard ‘c’ sound (Catrin)
ch a non-English sound as in Scottish ‘ch’ in ‘loch’ (Fychan)
d as in ‘David’ (Dafydd)
dd a buzzy ‘th’ sound, as in ‘there’ (Dafydd; Gwynedd)
e an ‘eh’ sound as in ‘bet’ (Medwyn)
f a ‘v’ sound as in ‘of’ (Caernarfon)
ff as in ‘off’ (Gruffydd)
g a hard ‘g’ sound, as in ‘gas’ (Gruffydd)
i an ‘ee’ sound (Catrin)
l as in ‘lamp’ (Hywel)
ll a breathy /sh/ sound that does not occur in English (Llywelyn)
o a short ‘o’ sound as in ‘cot’ (Conwy)
rh a breathy mix between ‘r’ and ‘rh’ that does not occur in English (Rhys)
th a softer sound than for ‘dd,’ as in ‘thick’ (Arthur)
u a short ‘ih’ sound (Gruffydd) or (Tudur), or a long ‘ee’ sound if at the end of the word (Cymru—pronounced ‘kumree’)
w as a consonant, it’s an English ‘w’ (Llywelyn); or as an ‘oo’ sound as in ‘book’ (Bwlch)
y when it is located in any syllable before the last one, it is an ‘uh’ sound (Hywel). At the end of a word it can be ‘ih’ as in ‘Llywelyn’ or ‘Gruffydd’, or ‘ee’ as in ‘Rhys’ or ‘Cymry’.
