It is impossible to describe the sounds of any language though those of another language but this will serve a good starting guide for those needing it.

Welsh is amongst the most phonetic of languages.You can easily learn to read the words out within a very short period. It is almost entirely regular.

Welsh has seven vowels. Once you know this a lot of the unpronounceable places names become a little clearer. The vowels are A, E, I, O, U, W and Y

A as in man.

E as in bet or enter.

I as in it or keen.

U In South Wales this has an EE sound like Keen but in the North is has a sound that has no equivalent in English which is half way between an EE and the U in the French word "Tu"

O as in cot or as the ou in Four.

W as in too or bus.
It is important to remember that on occasions W can act like a consonant. This is often where a G precedes it or where that G has been removed by a mutation. In this case it is rather like the English w would be in the phrase "A hag went".

Y has several sounds but their usage is easy to distinguish with just a little practice

The first only really occurs when the word for the (Y or Yr before a vowel is emphasised. In this case it sounds like the y in myrrh

In unemphasised situations this is pronounced like the U in up ( In this case note carefully that this is NOT the oop pronunciation of the word "up" used by certain speakers in the North of England.) This sound is used where the Y comes in an emphasised syllable in words of more than one syllable.

Where Y is not pronounced as above it is pronounced like the I in the word "in".

All the vowels can be made longer by the addition of a "hat sign" or circumflex known in Welsh as "to bach" (little roof).

There a number of vowel combinations in Welsh that have their own pronunciation

Ae, Ai and Au are pronounced as English "eye"

Eu and Ei are pronounced like the English ay in say.

Ew can cause difficulty for people it doesn't occur in standard English although people familiar with the English as spoken in parts of Wales will be familiar with words stupid and beautiful being pronounced Stewpid and Bewtiful. It is an eh-oo sound

Iw and Yw sound are a combination of the sound I in It and OO in Too

Oe is s pronounced like the OI in Coin.

Ow is pronounced like low

Wy as in English wi in win or oo-ee This can vary in context and between speakers of different dialects.

Ywy is pronounced like Howie.

Aw as pronounced like Sow.

Welsh has a set of consonants which differ from English. Most of them are very familiar sounds but note there are are double letters that have their own pronunciation.

B, D, H, L, M, N, P, R, S, and T are pronounced as in English. The following sounds are different however.

C always a hard sound as in cap never as in mice.

Ch as in the Scottish loch or the German ach or noch. This is approximated by a slight gargle, blowing with your tongue in the same position as for C.

Dd is pronounced like the English th in the words The and Their ( note the difference with Th below.

Th is like the English th in words such as Think, Forth, Thank.

F always like the English V.

Ff like the English f.

G always a hard sound like as in English Grave and Game.

Ng pronounced as in English finger or sing

Ll is an almost unique sound to Welsh that can cause beginners difficulty. Unless you were born in Wales and grew up knowing it from pronouncing the place names, or you are a native speaker of a language like Zulu or Navaho you may not know to move your mouthparts correctly. However, practice it is quite easily mastered.

Place your tongue where you would to say an ordinary L and just blow without using any voice sound. It doesn't really matter if the air comes out of both sides or only one.

Ph is pronounced like Ph in Pharmacy. It is generally only used in mutated words and a few biblical terms

Rh sounds as if the h comes before the r. There is a slight exhalation before the r is pronounced. (It is unvoiced as well.)

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