Welsh Alphabet - Welsh Vowels - Yr Wyddor Gymraeg

Welsh Alphabet - Welsh Vowels

The Welsh alphabet in Welsh is "Yr Wyddor Gymraeg". A question we are often asked is, "How many letters are in the Welsh alphabet"? or "How many vowels are in the Welsh language"? The answer is 29 letters and 7 vowels!

How Many Letters in the Welsh Alphabet

The Welsh alphabet contains 29 (yes not twenty-six as in English) letters but is written in the Latin alphabet just like many languages including English, French, Italian and many others. There are no silent letters as is the case with English. Every letter has a sound, Welsh is a phonetic language.

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Welsh Alphabet - Yr Wyddor Gymraeg

The Welsh alphabet has 29 letters, which are;

A, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, j, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t, th, u, w, and lastly y.

Whilst many of the letters are the same as in English, sometimes they represent different sounds in Welsh. The letters K, Q, V, X and Z are not included in the Welsh alphabet but are sometimes found in borrowed words and in technical words. Interestingly, in Y Wladfa, the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, the letter v is used generally to represent the sound v instead of the letter f. The letter J has only recently become more familiar and accepted in the Welsh alphabet for borrowed words, for example garage (garej) and is generally now included in the alphabet.

Letters such as ch, ll, ff and other equivalents are a single letter in Welsh. So, as far as crosswords are concerned the word “Llan” (as in Llanfair, Llandaf, or Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch - the longest Welsh word) has only three letters. Llan would be written into three boxes in a crossword. As an aside, in 2002, the Anglesey town of llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk  was given the title of longest domain name in the world by the Guinness Book of Records.

Have listen to this (courtesy of Channel 4).

Welsh Alphabet - Vowels

There are seven vowels in Welsh, a, e, i, o, u, w, and y. The letter y can be a vowel but also a consonant. The Welsh alphabet employs diacritics, marks placed above or below letters to modify their pronunciation. Acute and grave accents indicate the length of vowels, while the circumflex accent (â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ) marks a vowel with a broader sound. The diaeresis, two dots placed above a vowel, indicates that the vowel should be pronounced separately.

Welsh Alphabet - Consonants

There are twenty-three consonants in the alphabet with the letter y being both a consonant and a vowel. Two consonants, 'n' and 'r', are sometimes doubled in written Welsh, e.g., "tynnu," "torri." (Please remember that letters such as 'dd,' 'ff' and 'll' are not two letters or doubled but are consonants in their own right).

Welsh Alphabet - Diphthongs

There are no silent letters in the Welsh alphabet, every letter is pronounced phonetically. Every letter has a sound, and the sound is vocalised in spoken Welsh. However, diphthongs are two letters which are pronounced as one letter and they are as follows;

Ae, ai, au, aw, ei, eu, ew, ey, iw, oi, ou, ow, uw, wy, and yw.

Welsh Words without Vowels

This is a myth!!! Every now and again, mainly in the English media, someone lists a number of Welsh words or place names apparently with no vowels! Recently, the place name "Ynysybwl" has been quoted in English Press as a word with no vowels. Other place names include,

• Crymych (Pembrokeshire)
• Cwmystwyth (Ceredigion)
• Mwnt (Ceredigion)

These are Welsh places and of course they do have vowels, namely the letters "w" and "y"!!! There are also lots of Welsh words with no (English) vowels, here are just a few...

• Bryn (hill)
• Cwtch (only the Welsh can cwtch)
• Cwm (valley)
• Gwyn (white)
• Ynys (island)
• Ysbyty (hospital)

So, there are 7 vowels in the Welsh language, and we have two extra ones, "w" and "y" than in English. Myth busted.

About FelinFach

      

Located in Pembrokeshire Wales, our ethos is defined in the three words...

NATURAL TRADITIONAL HANDMADE.

• Hand woven iconic Welsh blankets.
• Hand dyed yarn, dyed with natural dyes only - no exceptions!
• Hand poured candles, candle accessories, Candle Making Workshops and soapery.
• Natural Dyeing Craft courses.
• Yarn shop, yarn bowls, project bags, tools and accessories for knitters and crafters.
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Last updated 10th October2024