Pronouncing Welsh Place Names

...and their meaning

Welsh Place Names | Meaning of Welsh Signs | Useful Words & Phrases

Wales is a bi-lingual country - both Welsh and English are spoken. You certainly don't need to speak any Welsh to enjoy your cycling holidays in Wales. But, just a little understanding of Welsh place names will bring your cycling holiday in Wales to life, especially as most Welsh place names are largely descriptive. So, if you want to learn a little bit about the Welsh language as you cycle around, here goes...

Apart from a few vowels that are slightly different from English, Welsh is a more or less a phonetic language, you pronounce it as it looks. Don't get put off by the long list of vowels and consonants, once you've understood the few rules it is easy.

It may help you to pronounce names if you remember that the emphasis in Welsh is usually on the penultimate syllable. For example, Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von), Beddgelert (beth-gel-airt), Llanberis (thlan-ber-ris), Felindre (veh-lin-dray).

Welsh has a slightly different alphabet from English:-

C - pronounced as a K , as in English 'kick' eg: C aernarfon (kyre-nar-von).

- pronounced as a , as in English 'kick' eg: aernarfon (kyre-nar-von). CH - pronounced as in the Scottish 'loch' and the composer Ba ch .

- pronounced as in the Scottish 'loch' and the composer Ba . DD - pronounced TH , as in English 'breathe' eg: Be dd gelert (beth-gell-airt).

- pronounced , as in English 'breathe' eg: Be gelert (beth-gell-airt). G - pronounced as a hard G , as in English 'get' eg: Bedd g elert (beth-gell-airt).

- pronounced as a hard , as in English 'get' eg: Bedd elert (beth-gell-airt). LL - roughly pronounced THL eg: Ll anberis (thlan-ber-ris). To get closer to the correct sound, place your tongue firmly at the top of the mouth behind your teeth and blow.

- roughly pronounced eg: anberis (thlan-ber-ris). To get closer to the correct sound, place your tongue firmly at the top of the mouth behind your teeth and blow. F - pronounced as a V , as in English 'of' eg: F elindre (veh-lin-dray).

- pronounced as a , as in English 'of' eg: elindre (veh-lin-dray). FF - pronounced as an F , as in English 'off' eg: FF estiniog (fest-in-yog).

- pronounced as an , as in English 'off' eg: estiniog (fest-in-yog). W - pronounced as an OO , as in English 'swoon' eg: Llanr w st (thlan-roost).

- pronounced as an , as in English 'swoon' eg: Llanr st (thlan-roost). Y - has two different pronunciations. In all but the last syllable of a word it's pronounced as a 'U' - as in English 'fun'. When it is in the last syllable of a word it is pronounced as an 'i' - as in English 'is'. For example, the Welsh for mountain is mynydd (mun-ith); the Welsh for mountains is mynyddoedd (mun-uth-oith). Because it no longer occurs in the last syllable, the sound of the second y changes from 'i' to 'u' (also, notice the emphasis moves along to the new penultimate syllable). In single syllable words, the Y is unpredictable!

Welsh place names are largely descriptive, eg: Mynydd Bach is small mountain (Mynydd = mountain, Bach = small). A famous example of this is the town on Anglesey with that long name:-

Which roughly translates as:-

The Church of St. Mary by the pool with the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool by St. Tysilio's church and the red cave.

The actual name of the village is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is locally abbreviated to Llanfair PG (well wouldn't you). A Victorian publicity stunt landed the villagers with the long name. If you really want to show off by learning how to pronounce it, try this:-

Thlann vyre pooth gwinn gith gogg-erra kweern drobbooth lann tuss-ill-yo goggo gauk.

The following list of place name elements will help make your map reading a little easier:

Place Name Elements

Welsh English Example Rough Pronunciation aber river mouth Aber daron abb-er -darron afon river Afon Dee avv-on dee bach or fach small Felin fach velin- vach bont or pont bridge Pont newydd pont -neh-with bwlch gap, pass Bwlch boolch carreg stone Carreg Samson karregg samson cefn ridge Cefn -coed kevenn -koid coch red Castell Coch kass-teth koch coed wood Cefn- coed kevenn- koid cwm valley Cwm felin-fach koom -velin-vach dinas fort, city Dinas -Emrys dinnass emm-riss du black Cwm du koom- dee eglwys church Eglwys wrw egg-lewis -oorroo fawr or mawr big Fforest Fawr forest vowr (rhymes with hour) felin or melin mill Felin fach velin -vach croes or groes cross Croes goch croiss -goch llan church lands Llan wrtyd thlan -ooer-tid llyn lake Llyn Brianne thlin bree-annay maes field Maes teg mise -teg mynydd mountain Mynydd Bach munnith bach pen top Pen -y-bont pen -a-bont rhyd ford Rhyd felen reed -vellen





Welsh English Rough Pronunciation Cymru

Wales

kumm-ri

Gwesty

Hotel

gwesty Lon Lane

lonn Ffordd Road forth Llwybr Cyhoeddus Public Footpath thlooy-beer kahoy-this Siop Shop shop Swyddfa'r Post Post Office sooeethva post Gorsaf Station gorsav Heddlu Police hethlee Ysbyty Hospital uss-butty Traeth Beach trye-th ARAF SLOW arav Dim ... No ... dim ... Dim mynediad No entry dim munned-yad Toiledau Toilets toy-led-eye Merched Ladies (toilet) mair-kedd Dynion Gentlemen (toilet) dunny-onn





English Welsh Rough Pronunciation thanks diolch dee-olck thanks very much diolch yn fawr dee-olck unn vowr please plis please OK iawn yown (rhymes with gown) good morning bore da bor-er dah good afternoon prynhawn da prin-hown dah good evening noswaith dda noss-wythe-ah good night nos da noss dah hello helo hello cheerio, goodbye hwyl who-ill currant bread bara brith barrah breeth leek soup cawl cennin cowl kennin



Foot-note: If you think that Welsh is unpronounceable, then think on. In fact English is one of the most unphonetic languages. For instance the English '...ough' can be pronounced 10 different ways:- through, though, thought, tough, cough, borough, bough, hiccough, lough (pronounced 'och' as in loch), and hough ('ock'). The last is fairly archaic, but it does appear in the 1995 Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Now for a bit of fun, here is Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert on learning Welsh...

Apologies to Welsh speakers if we have taken a few liberties with the pronunciations. We have tried to keep it as simple as possible.

See also...