Dipyn o Gymraeg ~ A bit of Welsh

Readers and reviewers often comment that, while they enjoy the Welshness of my books, they sometimes struggle to get their tongues around some of the characters' names and other words I use to add flavour to my stories.  Some have said they wish they could speak Welsh in order to 'hear' the words on the page, and others have suggested a glossary might be useful. 

Due to word count restrictions, it's not really possible to include a glossary in the books themselves, but here is a quick guide to some of the names and frequently-used Welsh words in my books, and also a useful link to a fuller pronunciation guide to be found online, courtesy of Aberystwyth University.

Basically, all letters in Welsh are sounded purely, none are silent, and consonants are the same as in English but are usually hard, not soft. Vowels are often very different to the English and we have two extra ones - w and y - and also diphthongs, which are two vowels run together that have their own unique sound.  'R's are always rolled, 'f' is a 'v' sound and 'ff' is an 'f' sound, and 'u' is never pronounced in the English way, 'l' is an 'l' sound, but 'll' is an aspirate sound, made by placing the tip of the tongue against the back of the front teeth and speaking out of the side of the month instead of the front!

'Wales' in Welsh is 'Cymru' and is a good example of how Welsh is pronounced, hard and pure - Kumrreee, with the stress on the first syllable and rolled 'r'.

Have fun, and if you have any further questions or comments about Welsh pronunciation or meanings, do feel free to pop them in the comments section below. 

 

Characters:

The Welsh Lord's Convenient Bride (June 2022)

Rhun - pronounced Rheen, a long sound, with slightly aspirated 'Rh'

Huw - like Hugh, but flatter - Hiw.

Goronwy - all hard sounds, rolled 'r', stress on second 'o', wy is a diphthong of two vowels, so pronounced Gorrronwee. 

Morfudd - Morrrvith, with rolled 'r's, stress on first syllable, and heavy 'th' sound at the end 

Owain - as written, stress on first syllable, sounds like Ow-wine

Cai - hard 'c', rhymes with eye

Eryr - rolled 'r', stress on first syllable, like Errrirr, all short sounds. 

 An Alliance with his Enemy Princess  (January 2023)

Gwennan - pronounced as written but with the stress on the first syllable, a short sound

Rolant - stress on first syllable, 'o' sound is short, not long

Cynddylan - the two 'y's are a 'u' sound as in 'dull'; 'dd' is a thick 'th' sound, stress on the middle syllable, ie, 'ddyl' 

Angharad - the 'gh' is aspirate but is almost swallowed at the back of the throat, and carries the stressed syllable. 

Meuryn - the 'eu' is a diphthong and pronounced like 'eye', and is the stressed syllable, the 'y' is sounded like a short 'i'. 

Nest - as is bird's nest. 

Ywain - like Owain, but the 'y' is less rounded than an 'o'

Tarian - stress on first syllable, rolled 'r'

 

The Warrior's Reluctant Wife (September 2023)

Peredur - 'r' is always rolled in Welsh so this is pronounced Perrredirrrr, with short sounds, not long, 'u' is never sounded like an English 'u' but more like a short 'i', stress on the second 'e'. 

Rhianon - quite easy, as it's a common name even outside of Wales, but the 'rh' is an aspirate sound and the stress is on the 'a'.

Tangwystl - Tang-whistle, with stress on the first syllable and sounded, not silent, final 't'.

Cadwgan  - Cadoogan, with stress on the first syllable.  

Eilyr - stress on the first syllable, short sounds, pronounced 'eye-lirrr' 

Maelgwn - stress on the first syllable, pronounced 'mile-goon'

Hywel - like Howell, with stress on first syllable

Elin - as it's written, a short sounding word

Esyllt - the double 'll' is a aspirate sound that is difficult for non Welsh speakers (see above), stress is on the first letter E, and the 'y' is a short 'i'.

Fawrgi - Vowrgee, with rolled 'r' and hard 'g'

Mêl - the accent makes the sound long, but it rhymes more with ale than with eel

 

The Warrior's Forbidden Maiden (June 2024)

Many of the characters in this book appear in the first book of the Warriors of Wales series and their names are explained above. New characters are:

 Llywelyn - pronounced Llewelin (Ll is an aspirate sound that is difficult for non-Welsh speakers)

Cristin - both 'i's are short vowels, not like Christeen. 

Dyddgu - Duthgee

Gronw Gof - Gronoo Gov, with a short 'o' in Gronw and a long 'o' in Gov as in hope

Gwion ab Adda - Gweeon ab Atha

Rhys - Rhees, which an aspiriate Rh

Mwg - Moog, which means 'smoke'

Crug - Creeg, a mound or hillock

Ystrad Fflur - Ustrad Fleer

Ystrad Meurig - Ustrad Myrigg

Other Welsh words and their meanings:

I tend to use some stock words for exclamations, endearments or mild cursing, and here they are!

Duw annwyl - Dear God

Arglwydd mawr - Good Lord

Uffern dân - Hell fire

Nefoedd fawr - Great heavens

Diawl or Cythraul - Devil

Ysglyfaeth - rotter, of dubious character

Cnaf - knave 

F'nghariad - my beloved

F'anwylyd  - my dearest

And finally:

ferch means 'daughter of'

ap - or ab before a vowel - means 'son of', like the Scots and Irish Mc or Mac

Surnames were unknown in Medieval Wales and children were usually named consecutively after their fathers and grandfathers - eg, Rhys ap Gruffudd ap Rhys, and so on.   Often children would be known by a diminutive - fach, fychan, fechain - which means 'little' or 'young', so Morfudd Fechan means little or young Morfudd and Hywel Fychan means little or young Hywel. 

Following the conquest of Wales in 1282, this ancient system began to be gradually replaced by the English naming system, and by the Act of Union in 1536 - which brought Wales fully into the orbit of what became the United Kingdom - standard surnames had become the norm. So ap Gruffudd became Griffiths, ap Rhys became Price, ab Owain became Owens, ap Hywel became Howells, &c 

Happily, however, the old 'ap' system is increasingly coming back into use in strongly Welsh speaking areas of Wales, but 'ferch' has disappeared completely, although some women have adopted 'ap'.

 A fuller guide can be found here: https://users.aber.ac.uk/jcf12/project/welshcheat/welshcheat.pdf 

 

Me and 'Fawrgi' on the summit of Foel Offrwm ('the bare hill of offerings') - an iron age hill fort in Meirionnydd. Photo by Claire, owner of 'Fawrgi', aka Ffergus! Haf/summer 2023.