Welsh Alphabet

The Welsh alphabet has 29 letters: 7 vowels (a, e, i, o, u, w, y) and 22 consonants. The consonants include 8 digraphs (ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th) which are two-letter combinations representing single sounds and are treated as individual letters in Welsh alphabetical order.

In Welsh, w and y function as vowels because they represent vowel sounds:

• W represents the sound /u/ (like "oo" in "food") - for example, "cwm" (valley)

• Y can be /ə/ (like "u" in "but") or /ɨ/ (similar to "ee") depending on position

• This makes Welsh unique among European languages

• Words like "cwrw" (beer) use only w and y as vowels!

The Welsh "ll" is one of the most distinctive sounds in Welsh:

• It's a voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ - unique to Welsh

• How to make it: Place your tongue as if saying "l", then blow air around the sides

• It sounds somewhat like a breathy "hl" or "thl"

• Famous in place names like Llanelli and Llandudno

• The longest place name in Europe, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll..., starts with this sound!

Welsh is spoken in several places:

• Wales - where it's spoken by 538,300 people (17.8% of the population) ^[1]

• Y Wladfa - the Welsh colony in Patagonia, Argentina, established in 1865

• Welsh communities in England, United States, Canada, and Australia

• It's an official language of Wales ^[2] and experiencing a revival!

Welsh has initial consonant mutations - a unique feature where the first letter of a word changes:

• Soft mutation: "cath" (cat) becomes "gath" after "ei" (her cat)

• Nasal mutation: "pen" (head) becomes "mhen" after "fy" (my head)

• Aspirate mutation: "tad" (father) becomes "thad" after "ei" (her father)

• These changes are grammatical, not spelling errors!

• They indicate possession, gender, and grammatical relationships

Welsh has unique challenges but also helpful features:

• Phonetic spelling - once you learn the rules, you can pronounce any word correctly

• Verb-Subject-Object word order - different from English

• Mutations - initial consonants change based on grammar

• No irregular verbs like English - more predictable patterns

• Masculine and feminine nouns - but simpler than French or German

With practice and the many free resources available, Welsh is learnable!

Welsh is more phonetically consistent than English:

• Welsh has 7 vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u, w, y) that represent clear sounds

• Each vowel has a predictable pronunciation

• Vowel combinations (like "ae", "oe", "wy") create additional sounds systematically

• The circumflex accent (^) indicates long vowels: â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ

• Unlike English, Welsh spelling is much more regular and predictable!