The Dark is Rising and Welsh Pronunciations.

[Dai Evans]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Scott" <insanus_scottus at y...> wrote:
> Now this might sound like a dumb question but how do you pronounce 
> the Welsh surname Llewellyn? 

Along with the towns Llanelli (most non-Welsh don't have a clue where 
to start pronouncing that one) and Pontypridd, Llewellyn is one of 
the words that makes me cringe when I hear a non-Welsher saying it.

I often hear such persons attempting to pronounce the double ell 
sound as th-loo, flew or, in the case of my english grandmother, 
klew. I have come to the conclusion that you freaks on the wrong side 
of the border just don't have the ability to pronounce the sound 
correctly.

To describe the sound most accurately, I think it's best thought of 
as h-l. As in chucking a very brief bit of the hard beginning of the 
H sound in before diving into the ell part.

Giving hlewellyn, and hlanelli. It's also worth pointing of that this 
new H sound should be made with the tip of the tongue touching the 
front of the roof of the mouth, not with the throat as you usually 
would.

The second double ll in the the word is not so easy to describe. I 
guess you just have to make it a really hard ell sound. I find my 
tongue making contact with the front and  back of the roof of my 
mouth at the same time while pronouncing it.

Other things to watch out for:-

dd is pronounced as a th sound. So, Pontypridd is pronounced 
Pontyprith and Caerdydd (the welsh translation of Cardiff) is 
pronounced Cie-er-deethe

i has more e in it. So Pontypridd is pronounced Pontypreeeth.

u has more i in it, so the name Alun is pronounced Al-in. And Cymru 
(the welsh translation of Wales) is pronounced come-rhy

f is a soft consonant. So is pronounced as a v sound, with ff being 
the hard, english f-type version.


I think that's about it, although I sure I missed a few.


Dai