Boab wrote: βWed Oct 13, 2021 5:15 pm
Anyone got a cheat sheet on how to pronounce various placenames...? I fear I'm going to make a complete tit of myself when asking for directions etc...
As a starter, how do you pronounce Llanbrymair...?
I'm sure we had a thread about Welsh place name pro nun see ehshun
All vowels are short, so 'a' as in cat not as in gate. Y & W are also vowels, 'y' is something like a long 'i' as in bin. 'w' is like 'ew' in news.
Vowel pairs are a bit weird: 'oe' is something like 'oye' - croesor (welcome) sounds like 'croyesor', the 'e' being quite subtle. 'au' (as in Blaenau) sounds like the English word 'eye'; 'ae' sounds like the 'y' in 'fly'.
Consonants are as for English with the following differences.
'C' is always hard as in 'cat'
'G' is always hard as in 'get'
Single 'F' is English 'v' as in 'of'
Double 'FF' is English 'f' as in 'off'
'DD' is somewhere between English 'v' and 'th'
'LL' is a bit like 'fl' but almost without the 'f' part - put your tongue in the front top part of your mouth then try saying it, so for 'llan' try saying 'flan' and it will sound near enough.
That's a simple starter.