Americans Pronounce Welsh County Names (Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr, Ynys Môn...)
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- Опубликовано: 25 июн 2020
- Two Americans try to pronounce Welsh county names. Starting with Blaenau Gwent, talking a stroll through Gwynedd, and ending in Wrecsam, here are all 22 of Wale's UK counties, said by Americans 😂
Do you know how to say the Welsh counties we got wrong? Let us know down in the comments!
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The south Walian person is bang on with most of his pronunciations. I’m from North Wales and the northern pronunciation is miles off. Doesn’t sound like he’s a welsh speaker tbh and the ability to speak welsh honestly does make a massive difference. Happy to help you guys out as a native welsh speaker to verify next time if you’d like?
I am from South Wales Dude I was up North Wales about 2 years ago and it's a different world up there butty... Everyone was talking Welsh. It was beautiful and because I couldn't speak Welsh?? The Northerners were treating me like an Englishman.... hahaha
It was a fantastic few days with my bird. The mountains were peaceful all the time.
The Welsh folk up North kept the language alive.
Story Goes ????? When Julian Ceaser and the Romans invaded around 2000 years ago,
The people in South Wales supposedly rebelled?? and Julius Ceaser wiped them completely out, and the Welsh language with them. It's the law in South Wales now
Kids start learning Welsh as soon as they start school. Take care brother ...
@@jamesdaunter8557 Nice story about Julius Cæsar, but it's not true. The Welsh language was very strong in South Wales for more than a thousand years after the Romans left.
@@jamesdaunter8557 The North-East is English-speaking.
I grew up in Colwyn Bay, and most of the South Walian stuff sounded right to me, too. Just the odd 'oo-wee' for 'wy'. I'm not fluent, but I think 'Blaenau' in the North is sometimes pronounced 'bligh-nah' and in the South 'bligh-neh' (or is that just words like 'blodau'?). Am I right? I've also heard that it's the 'rh' the non-Welsh-speakers find hardest to pronounce, not 'll' and less 'ch'. I"ve lived in Scotland now for 20+ years, so I've forgotten a lot of my Welsh :( Hiraeth!
Iolo Llywelyn I agree. The South Walian pronounced it like I would but I think the North Walian was way off. He was pronouncing a lot of them like an English person would and these were all the Welsh versions of cities and counties.
2 americans doing a better job pronouncing Welsh than most English do in Wales
Oh my thank you! :D
@@WanderingRavens True, from an Englishman.
Yes! You're bang on, lol
Totally agree I live in Cast e (as in egg) ll (flem sound 😂) Nedd or to make it simple for non Welsh people Neath 😂 and one that makes me laugh is Llanelli pronounced by non Welsh folk as Lan e (as in egg) Lee 😂. I have to admit though even though there are contradictories in pronunciation between North and South I just accept that anything North of Aberystwyth accept the North Pronunciation and anything South of Aberystwyth accept the South Pronunciation don't fight it as it's just easier 😂
not fare as they have the auto voice to help them
hi im from north wales and the second guys pronounciation sounds waay more accurate than the first
Indeed. The first voice is useless :)
Agree - ae is like “eye” and y is “uh”.
Definitely
Agree the North Wales guy presumably doesn't speak Welsh at all and he's plain wrong on the first three - it's not a regional thing
Er for a second I thought you were calling Grace a guy! 😁
I have never in my 43 years of existence and living in North Wales heard anyone pronounce most of those words the way your Gog did!
"au" is always pronounced as "aye", never "ow" (as in German, for example).
"ae" is pronounced "aye" too, but there is a very slight, almost imperceptible difference between it and the "au" sound. It's never "ey".
"y" (on its own) is always pronounced "uh", never "ee".
"y" in the middle of a word like Caerdydd is pronounced "ee".
"w" is generally pronounced "oo" in words like Morgannwg. Never "ih". But it is both a vowel and a consonant in Welsh (along with "y"). Its pronunciation depends on where it appears in a word.
Welsh is a very phonetic language, once you understand how to pronounce the individual sounds, and there are rules on pronunciation depending on where the sound appears in a word. It's not like English where the same combination of letters in a word can be pronounced in multiple ways, such as "cough", "bough", "borough", etc...
You're spot on with the "ff" = "f", and "f" = "v". You also spotted that we have "dd" which makes more of a hard "th" sound (as in "the"), whereas a single "d" is just a standard "d" sound. Our "r" sounds are pronounced with a slight trill, and this is exaggerated a bit more if it's an "rh". "ch" is always pronounced the same as it is in "loch" (Scottish lake). And finally, there's the "ll" sound, which is almost impossible to describe in any way that makes sense!
As an aside, on "Wrecsam", that's the only one on the list that is a Welshified version of an English name. The town was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement which ended up on the Welsh side of the border, and whose name eventually became Wrexham, but as there is no "x" in Welsh, it's been changed to "cs".
And finally, as another interesting aside, the words for "bridge" are the same in both Welsh and French - "pont". It's one of those words the Welsh adopted when the Romans arrived.
The problems that English speakers have with Welsh is that there is a different alphabet. In Welsh, the letters y and w are vowels
Ohhh! That explains why they kept pronouncing "w" as an "o"
@@WanderingRavens For context, the Welsh alphabet goes: a b c ch d dd e f ff g ng h i l ll m n o p ph r rh s t u w y. And only one of those double letters is pronounced the way you'd expect it to as an English speaker.
@@smockboy also to point out an English v is a Welsh f and an English f is the Welsh ff. Which as a dyslexic English speaker who's second language is Welsh is very confusing and hard to spell stuff right
@@WanderingRavens The Welsh w is more double-u than English, and closer to oo. Fair play to you for trying.
The South Wales accent is a lot more accurate, don’t use the first one
He is using both north and south
Ignore the supposed north Walian “expert” you have. I am a Welsh speaker from North Wales and his pronunciation is way off. I cannot fathom why he could be so bad!
Yeah from the start I was like what's he saying?
I'm from mid Wales but probably heard more North walian pronunciation growing up even if I was taught more southern words and it did not sound right to me even Wrecsam which 40 mins from me and is northern he didn't seem to pronounce quite right.
@@francisluke4739 Same for me, I'm a Cardy, my south Walian friends all say I sound like a gog but I tend to use 'southern' words like llaeth. Gotta concur with everyone else, I know our gog cousins butcher the language ;-) but the the guy they used sounded nothing like I've ever heard, certainly wasn't Welsh!
The North Walian butchered most of the prononciations. I'm not convinced he's even Welsh!
I agree! I’m north walian and I agree with the south walian
@@angeladavies898 I'm not welsh but some of my family are and the north sounded off to me but I just thought it was because my family was from the south.
I'm not convinced he's even human. Sounds like a voice synthesiser to me... and one which hasn't really been "trained" in Welsh, either.
@@ftumschk When I heard it in the preview at the start of the video I thought "Oh no, they're using Google Translate"
They sound very scouse up their to be fair.
Caerdydd is cardiff just it's the welsh name for it.
The guy from North wales didn't sound like he could speak welsh, his pronunciations were way off.
I'm from North Wales by the way and I'm a native Welsh speaker
Glad you said that I know there are some differences between North and South but didn't think they were that pronounced
@@JohnHardingIngvar Despite it's comparatively small size, there are noticeable differences between how they pronounce words in North and South Wales (and that's not counting the different dialects that you get from county to county). North and South are the most pronounced because they're the opposite sides of the country. They even have different words - for example, to say "I can" in Welsh, you'd say "dwi'n medru" in the North and "dwi'n gallu" in the South. Milk is "llefrith" in the North and "llaeth" in the South. The general rule is that the people of South Wales think they speak the language of God, whereas the people of North Wales KNOW they speak the language of God 😉
Wow! Didn't realize the differences went beyond pronunciation! Thank you for explaining :D
hello., great attempt by americans living in paris,.....probably montparnase its great there...
as for the second guy it was way more accurate, than the first .,... the first actually sounds like cornish not welsh...at all...
there is only tiny or slight difference in accent between north and south welsh*....most notably on milk... llaeth/lleffrith..
.
also iam from wales, and a native speaker too...also understand cornish... that is why i said the first speaker sounds cornish lol...
I speak South Walian but I thought the North Walian sounded off too.
Grace is spot on with her observation about patterns. I’m English but I have made my home in Wales. My kids are Welsh speaking and I’m a welsh learner to try and keep up with them - when you get your head around the fact that Welsh is phonetic and doesn’t have the irregular pronunciations that you get in English, it’s actually really logical
That's really cool that you brought up your kids to be bilingual. I have Welsh parents but born in England and they forgot to teach me, so I'm trying to learn. Definitely easier to guess the pronunciation once you know the phonetics compared to English.
Speaking as someone from South Wales, you guys are excellent at picking up welsh pronunciation guys. I am very impressed.
Wow! Thank you! :D
Hi I'm from Caerffili (English version of the name is Caerphilly), Cardiff is the English name given to Caerdydd. All counties at least in South Wales has an Welsh version and a English version of the name. I don't know if it's just my family but we also called Welsh people as a whole as Walians (pronounced whale-ians) and then add north, south, east or west to the beginning. Thank you both for doing this, Wales doesn't get as much acknowledgement as it should. Ardderchog (Excellent) video guys 😊 🏴
So glad you enjoyed the video! And thank you for answering those questions for us!! x
I'll translate caerphilly to american for them - cu philly.
😂
I mean Rhondda Cynon taff doesn't have 2 names
When I lived in Caerphilly, it was easier for me to just say Philly or C'philly because my accent makes people giggle.
Cymru am byth!
I was looking forward to this video so much and you did not disappoint! I’m South Walian and speak Welsh. I hardly reconised a lot of the North Walian pronouciations! You did very well especially since you did the Welsh versions of the names! Most of them we use the english versions, unless you’re speaking Welsh.
Caerdydd - Cardiff
Abertawe - Swansea
Pen y Bont ar Ogwr - Bridgend
Bro Morgannwg - Vale of Glamorgan
Sir Benfro - Pembrokshire
Castell Nedd - Neath
Sir Gaerfyddin - Camarthenshire
Casnewydd - Newport
Caerffili - Caerphilly
Sir Fflint - Flintshire
Etc
Tips to remember with the Welsh language:
- W and Y are vowels in Welsh along with A E I O and U.
- W and Y can be pronounced different ways depending on the word.
- Welsh has letters in the alphabet that English doesn’t; Ch, Dd, Ff, Ll, Ng, Ph, Rh and Th.
- Mutations are just there to make things easier to pronounce. E.g the ‘G’ in Sir Gaerfyrddin was originally a ‘C’ but is mutated.
- There are 3 different types of mutation: Soft, Nasal and Aspirate.
- Mutations happen for a variety of reasons and only happen to certain letters, not to all of them.
- Don’t worry too much about mutations, I wasn’t taught about them until I did my Welsh A Level in school. Until then we were told we didn’t need to worry too much about them.
- As a whole we would say that we are Welsh. But if we want to specify where in Wales we’re from (North, South, East, West) we would use the word Walian. So for example, if I was to say I’m Welsh, you would know that I’m from Wales but not know where in Wales. If I was to say I’m South Walian then you would know that I am from South Wales. However you would never use Walian on its own e.g you wouldn’t say ‘I’m Walian’ it would always be I’m Welsh.
Fun fact: North Walians are often referred to as ‘Gogs’ because the Welsh word for North is Gogledd!
One, da iawn i ddau ohonot ti!
Now let’s see you put them on a map!
I'm from North Wales and speak Welsh and I hardly recognised a lot of the North-Walian pronunciatia.
It's good to offer the Welsh the love and respect they deserve.... Especially after the North & South line you had up a couple of weeks back! ☺️
Shows you pay attention to your comments section It's good of you both Ravens!
I'm not convinced the North Welsh guy is saying things correctly.
He should have known Blaenau Gwent, but the difference in pronunciation between north and south is huge so it's hard.
He's not and I'm a North-Walian.
he’s not saying them correctly AT ALL, it has nothing to do with him being supposedly a Gog, he just doesn’t speak Welsh or he just isn’t Welsh at all.
As a Welsh person, this episode makes me so happy. You did well for a first try.
Just remember that those are the Welsh names of places, most places have an English name too that is either;
- A completely different name altogether, ("Abertawe" - "Swansea")
- A translation, ("Pen-y-Bont" - "Bridgend")
- A similar but easier to pronounce name, ("Caerdydd" - "Cardiff")
- An English spelling of the Welsh name but pronounced the same, ("Caerffilli" - "Caerphilly")
- Exactly the same spelling and pronunciation so having both on the road signs would look silly.
Which version you use depends on which part of Wales you are in and who you are talking to. Generally if the road signs have the English message above the Welsh one then you'd use the English names, although "Welsh First" road signs have been spreading South into predominantly English speaking areas.
And I don't know where you got the "correct" pronunciations from but some of them are WAAAAY off how the locals actually pronounce them. I think it's like the difference between "RP" English and Everyday English.
We pronounce "Sir" more like "Seer".
"C" is always a "K" sound, never an "S".
The "W" thing was a bit of a red herring, I think you were reading too much into it. It's either a "W" or "U" (halfway between an "uh" and an "oo" sound) depending on context. "Morgannwg" is just "Morgan" with a bit more emphasis on the "a", followed by "ug". "Wrecsam" or "Wrexham" could easily have been spelled without the "W" altogether.
"ae" in things like "Caer" is just like "Aye", as in "Aye Aye, Captain.
You spotted that "F" is actually pronounced as a "V" with "Ff" being a proper "F" sound.
"U" becomes "I" and "Y" becomes "U". So "Merthyr Tudful" becomes "Merthur Tidville".
There are a lot more rules including double letters like "Dd" and "Ff" and don't get me started on mutations. It's a really complicated language.
Yes, the mutations are something else! Gaelic (Scots/Irish) has them too.
Hi Tom! Brilliant comment. Thank you for writing this up! Your explanations of the pronunciations cleared up a lot for us. No lie, we are VERY tempted to start learning Welsh :D
What does "mutation" mean in this context?
@@WanderingRavens The rules are incredibly complicated. It's where certain letters in certain words change depending on the context. They are shortcuts to assist with fast pronunciation. Similar to Cockney where they drop their H's.
For example, "Wales" is "Cymru", but when talking about something "In Wales" it becomes "Yng Nghymru", pronounced "Un Gumree".
In other languages you wouldn't bother actually writing down these shortcuts, you'd stick with the normal spelling as the word itself doesn't actually change, but in Welsh and other Celtic languages you do.
I told you not to get me started.
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Welsh_mutations
@@WanderingRavens A mutation happens to the first letter of certain words when they're preceded by pronouns, prepositions etc. For example:
a chair = cadair
the chair = y gadair
my chair = fy nghadair
his chair = ei gadair
her chair = ei chadair
your chair = dy gadair (informal "your")
your chair = eich cadair (formal "your")
our chair = ein cadair
Cardiff = Caerdydd
in Cardiff = yng Nghaerdydd
from Cardiff = o Gaerdydd
to Cardiff = i Gaerdydd
There are rules for mutations but, as a first language Welsh-speaker who "mutates" naturally, I'm glad I didn't have to learn them! To be honest, if you just used the un-mutated word every time, you'd still be perfectly comprehensible; it just sounds a bit better with the mutations than without.
The French is affecting your accents. Mixture of Welsh French 😂
For sure! I struggle to pronounce any word that I don't know without the French accent now 😂😂
@@WanderingRavens putain c'est pas possible quoi
as a native speaker from Sir Gaerfyrddin i absolutely loved this video! i think you guys would really enjoy learning the cultural differences between the english and welsh because we're very different! loving the welsh representation though guys, thank you!
We know very little about Welsh culture. Do you know of any good books or documentaries where we could start learning?
@@WanderingRavens this vice series is a good little starting point and it's all about our food :) enjoy! ruclips.net/video/CTfgHBCfUF0/видео.html
You guys did so well!! This was so fun. As you realised, Welsh pronunciation tends to mostly follow a the same set of rules throughout (unlike English where one letter can be pronounced a thousand different ways)
To confirm/answer some things:
What we call ourselves:
The Welsh : Y Cymry
Cymro (singular masc)
Cymraes (singular fem)
North Walians / South Walians
Gogs is short for Gogledd which means North
CH, DD, FF, LL, NG, PH, RH, and TH are all singular letters
A, E, I, O, U, W and Y are all vowels
Ch tends to come from the back of the throat/top of the mouth
LL tends to come from the tongue touching the top of the mouth
F is pronounced like V whilst FF is like the English F
AE tends to make an AY / I sound
U is usually an EE sound
Cardiff is Caerdydd in English
Cardiff is our capital city
Sir means shire (Sir Gaerfyrddin - Carmarthenshire)
Caerfyrddin (the G is mutated) is also a town name and it comes from the latin Moridunum (sea fort) which is the same root as Merlin’s original name, Myrddin which also means sea fort (it’s rumoured that Caerfyrddin was his home town)
Ynys means island
Caer means there’s a fort/castle there
Llan means there’s a parish there
Aber means there’s a a river mouth there
Bont/Pont means bridge
Loved this so much!
The north Wales guy is way off, which is a little weird. There isn't that much differentiation, he's just wrong.
It depends where in the North he is from.
Welsh ff as in English "off", Welsh f as in English "of".
Brilliant! Thank you!
The guy from the South is so much more accurate
You did damn well! Most of us English struggle just as much with Welsh pronunciation, even though the rules aren't actually too hard to follow. I spent a couple of years covering Wales and the South West on the National Rail Enquiries phone lines, and I can only thank the Welsh callers for their understanding. Fortunately they're a good-natured people!
Glad to hear we didn't crash and burn! These are tough nuts to crack, but you're right, the pronunciation seems fairly consistent. Unlike English 😂
I always see people saying that welsh has no vowels, and if you look at it with an English perspective it's true, but in welsh, y and w are vowels, so that's why lots of words are seemingly lacking in the vowel department
2.28 OMG you are having a go at pronouncing where I live.. Bridgend Mid Glamorgan ... AKA ... Pen-Y-Bont Ar Ogwr, the 2nd version is the one I use.. But I say it as Pen-Ah-Bont Ar Ogoor..
Loving your very awesome attempts at the counties..
Best wishes from Wales ..
Their faces at the 'ch' sound on sir Ddinbych 🤣🤣
You guys did dda iawn in all fairness, i know someone who's lived in Llandudno for 30+ years, and pronounces it 'clun-dud-no', which is completely wrong 🤣
Just love you guys for your enthusiasm and genuine interest.
Thank you!
Amusing vid! Welsh name places are a bit tough, haha. 😄 Eric and Grace having another "you are me, and I am you" day 😛
😂❤️️
I am from Wales, specifically Cardiff ( Caerdydd) and one of my favourite towns is Tenby. It’s Welsh name is Dinbych-y-pysgod which translates to ‘Fortlet of the fish’. It is in Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro) a beautiful part of Wales.
Also known as “Little England Beyond Wales” to some of us!
I'm from Penybont and absolutely adore Tenby!
I guess Tenby is a butchered anglicised form of Dinbych, and they decided to give on the -y-pysgod bit of the name...
Hi, few tips on pronouncing Welsh dd together is like the English th in 'them'. One f is a v sound and two ff together is an f in English. Ch together is pronounced like the Scottish 'Loch'. Ll together is the difficult one, if you put the tip of your tounge behind your teeth and let air escape from the two sides it makes the ll sound, sorry if that doesn't make sense :) when you know how the letters are pronounced, you can read anything as it a phonetic language :)
Thank you for the tips, Cara! We're happy to learn that Welsh pronunciation isn't as intimidating as it looks!
I hear a lot of English newsreaders and reporters pronounce the ll with a sound like an English cl or kl so that, for example, Llanelli is something like "Clanecli" which I don't think is quite right.
@@WanderingRavens To expand on that, dd is like the th in them, but a th is like the th in thing.
@@trickygoose2 Yeah, Welsh 'll' sound simply doesn't exist in English (whereas there are similar sounds for the others) so when non-Welsh speaking, native English-speakers try it approximate it they typically settle on 'cl' which isn't quite right but it's close enough. They get points for trying.
@@smockboy the ch sound doesn't really exist in English either but most people know how to pronounce Loch so can manage it I guess ( when I tried to learn Spanish there was a sound like it that no-one english could get or explain then I got a tutor who also spoke Welsh and pointed out it was thech sound suddenly it made sense 😆)
Wow Eric the fresh cut is great!Loving your hair!
Thanks so much!
Wow this is so interesting! You're really good at mimicking the sounds and remembering how different letter combinations sound. I find languages really interesting and always find it so strange that some people can't do this!
The "North Wales" guy is definitely not from North Wales, I mean his pronunciation is way off. I'm from North Wales and the South Wailian sounds more accurate.
Agree - I'm from Bangor and I thought the same!
Omg more Welsh names plz.... i love this xx
Hi , I'm from Abertileri in south Wales , Not a fluent Welsh speaker but enough to get by ... I really liked this video .... Diolch 👍
Eric, I love your hair like this! Much much better than before x
Thanks!! x
Post: video delayed due to dentistry
Eric: has haircut
Conclusion: eric gets his hair cut at the dentist
His rates were too reasonable to pass up!
Barbers used to do dentistry
@@rickyg1247 Just dentistry or general surgery? I believe that the origin of the red and white barbers pole is that it represents bandages and blood.
Eric's hair!!!!! I mean, I like it but.... Oh my god!!!! Also, don't worry about pronouncing it wrong because I don't think anyone in the UK except the Welsh can actually pronounce any of these.
😂❤️️😂❤️️
Yep I always let Welsh customers say their address
😂😂😂I'd have to say you're correct there. I find English people find welsh very hard to pronounce, but Europeans and americans are able to roll their r's and pronounce ch correctly 😊
Well, as an Englishman, I'm proud of both my Welsh heritage and the fact that I can pronounce Welsh
I'm from South Wales and I live in the first county! Torfaen ❤️ Love watching your videos!
Really enjoyed that. Thanks for using my audio. Happy to help you guys with the letter combinations, but you picked up nearly all of them really quickly! Also, the “CH” and “LL” sounds can be learned quite quickly. For the LL put your tongue into contact with your upper front teeth and palate, like you would do to pronounce the letter “L”. But instead of moving your tongue, leave it there and expel air above the tongue out to either side.
Hi Jason! Thank you so much for your help with this one! Was so much better to have your voice in this than the Google bot we've used in the past 😂 And thank you for the pronunciation tips for "ll." Easiest explanation we've yet seen! Thank you! xx
Pam fod pobl o'r De wastad yn ymganu S fel sh os mae yna I ar ol o?
Sir = county (although it's literally 'shire' - in the same way that many English counties end in 'shire') so 'Sir y Fflint' literally means 'Shire of Flint' (or as the English would say: 'Flintshire')
That northern pronounciation is completely off, I can't believe he's a northerner. (A native northerner writes...). The southerner is much better. "Sir" means "county", though southerners do pronounce it with a lisp. Yes, you're right - "ff" is pronounced "f", "f" is pronounced "v".
So Eric can cut his hair but not change his shirt? Haha, love it. You two are amazing. Keep up the good work (and Eric's hair will take some getting used to!) 😂
Thank you!! And yeah, the new hair will take us a while to get used to too! 😂
I grew up in South Wales hearing the Southern Welsh way of pronouncing and you did much better than I did! I was also trying to work out the English names for them from memory. Also, love the hair, Jean-Pierre! 😂
Glad to hear we did okay! And glad you like my French locks 😂
He’s changed his hair,but not his shirt ?! 😂❤️(It looks good btw💜)
The hair change just means we're one step closer to changing the shirt 😂😂
Wandering Ravens Great !! 👍🤣💕
Does he only have one shirt? Is this because of lockdown? I'm new here.
Nat Yeah,but it’s just a joke because he always wears the same one in all of their videos😂
Caerdydd is the Welsh spelling for Cardiff!
Good to know! Eric was on to something there 😏
@@WanderingRavens i was giggling hearing you guys try pronounce where im from
To be more accurate, Cardiff is a weak attempt at coming up with an English spelling for Caerdydd.
Translated to me by my, at the time, Welsh girlfriend (From Llanelli) then improved on a few years later by a co worker who was born and raised in Cardiff as, and this is as phonetic as I can get it, "Kyra~deeth". It's a great place where you don't need to wave a taxi down in the street, a taxi will actually stop and ask YOU if you need a ride!!!
With regards to "the South Welsh accent". Which one do you mean? The Llanelli accent differs from the Swansea accent which in turn differs from the Cardiff accent. I suppose that only applies to the trained ear though. Everybody else just hears "What's occurrrrring?" or "Whos coat's that jaaacket? Shockin' weather we're 'aving innit?" X¬D
@@baylessnow It's really amazing how much the Welsh accent changes between places that are only a few miles apart. Whilst at university in London, I was friendly with Welsh people who lived not 15 miles away from me, and our mutual (English) friends were amazed at how different our accents were. We were only from different valleys, but we might as well have been from different countries :)
I got them all right because I am Welsh. Lol. It's great to see others trying to speak our language. I love it. Thank you for this.
Great attempts at those names. I find them so hard to pronounce. Your haircut really suits you!
South Waliens and North Waliens are the terms for people from north and south Wales. Cardiff is the English spelling of Caerdydd, Sir is the Welsh for Shire (As in the MontgomerySHIRE is Sir Drefaldwyn), yes Gwyneth is a Welsh name (I have an Aunty Gwyneth, thanks to some Welsh routes) and the name translates to Gwyn = White, and Geneth = a girl. Grace is right F is pronounced 'V' where as Ff is pronounced 'Eff' Ch is pronounced the same as in the Scottish Loch or the German Composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Some of these places are towns and Cities not counties though.
Go on, give Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgochgerrychwryndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch a try.
Eric, the hair cut suits you, not that you need it, but you look 5 years younger.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! And for helping us figure out how to say "ch" :D
And oh dear, we've been hiding from Llanfairpwllgwygll.... 😂
@@WanderingRavens there are some videos on youtube about how to pronounce it, including some with some catchy songs, it's not as hard as it looks really
As a postman I can say that they are all counties. For example, Abertawe (Swansea) used to be in West Glamorgan, but now it's the county of Swansea, and Neath & Port Talbot used to be both in West Glamorgan too, but are now in the county of Neath/Port Talbot.
Much Love from Bridgend, Pen-Y-Bont ar Ogwr
Oh! Are the two names translations of each other?
@@WanderingRavens For the most part there are yes, the ones you guys done in the video were the Welsh translations which are hard to pronounce in the best of times for non Welsh speakers, for Example with "Caerdydd" is the welsh name for the Capital city, which in English is Cardiff, and "Sir Gaerfyrddin" is Welsh for Carmarthenshire. If you ever do this again with the Welsh counties or Towns try and see whether or not they have an English spelling (most do) however when it comes to towns etc that's where it becomes a little more complex
Wandering Ravens Yes. ‘Bont’ is a mutated version of ‘Pont’ which means Bridge and ‘Pen’ in this context means ‘end’ (although it can also mean ‘head’)
So literally translated as ‘The end of the bridge’ hence Bridgend!
You’re probably wondering about the ‘Ogwr’ bit now?
‘Ogwr’ is the Welsh for Ogmore.
So the the whole county name literally translates as ‘The head/end of the bridge on the Ogmore’.
Basically there’s a bridge that crosses the river Ogmore.
That’s where the ‘Ogwr’ bit comes from. But most of the time the ‘ar Ogwr’ bit gets dropped off. Most people would just say Pen y Bont but the most common way you’ll here it is the English way which is Bridgend.
As for the mutation. Try saying Pen y Pont. It’s not easy is it? Because it’s not natural and doesn’t role of the tongue easily. Now try saying Pen y Bont. That’s much better right. That’s basically why mutations exist. To make things easier to pronounce!
If you want more on the history of Bridgend here’s a Wikipedia page: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgend
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The first synthesised voice is catastrophically wrong in most cases; it didn't get the capital of Wales (Caerdydd) right, and it didn't even know simple phonetic rules like "f = v" in Welsh! The second voice gets it right every time , and seems to have a real Welsh-speaker behind it... either that, or it deserves a Turing Prize :)
Dw i'n byw yn Pen-y-bont ar ogwr
Really it is easier if you just learn some basic rules: F is pronounced as V, FF is pronounced as F, and DD is pronounced as TH. Y is a vowel and often pronounced "Uh" The welsh name Meredith - which has been changed to a girls name , is actually a boys name and is spelled Meredydd with the emphasis on the second syllable,: "MuRedith" - it shows the pronounciation issues quite well
Thank you for the tips!
Of course Meredith is a boy's name! What idiot ever applied it o a girl?
@@allenwilliams1306 Americans. just like Rhys became Reece
@@simonwatkins3236 ...and don't forget Morgan! It's not just Welsh names, either; if I'd just had a beautiful baby girl the last thing I'd do would be to name her after a hunky hero of the Trojan War, but that's exactly what happened to Paris Hilton :)
Grew up in Wales and learnt a little Welsh in school - albeit a long time ago now - so really loved watching this as it made me laugh and brought back some fond memories of Wales - Diolch yn fawr iawn! I think the new hair 'do' makes you look like 'the one and only' Chesney Hawkes, Eric (although you may be too young and too American to know who he is)! Grace, make sure Eric drags himself away from the mirror and looks after your needs properly - get well soon xxx
Welsh is a phonetic language unlike English so the pronunciation is not particularly hard once you know what sound the letters make in Welsh. The Welsh alphabet is different to English and "dd", "ll", "ff", "th" and "rh" are considered single letters in the alphabet that make very different sounds to the single letters (like l, f or d, not sure how to describe them haha). These are the Welsh language names for the counties and some have English names too, Casnewydd is more commonly called Newport and Caerdydd is Cardiff (for example). "Sir" means county I believe or is the Welsh equivalent of the English "shire". To be honest I'm impressed how close you got on a few and how quickly you picked up on certain aspects of the pronunciation.
I live in Cardiff and yes, Caerdydd is the Welsh word for Cardiff. I was very impressed with your pronunciations guys! All children in Wales have to learn Welsh in school, and I always struggled with it 😫
Great job guys! Ps, the hair is GWYCH!! ❤🏴
Ooo, what does gwych mean? :D
@@WanderingRavens Gwych = Great 😊
Sir = shire (i.e. county)
Ohhhhh that's good to know! We were very mistaken with thinking it was a pronoun then 😂
Just asked the same question, thanks for clearing that up.
@@WanderingRavens Sir meaning county becomes Shire in England, as in Berkshire, WIltshire etc. The law enforcers in Counties were called Shire Reeves, which eventually became changed to Sherriffs.
Guys, I love what you are doing in this episode. I wish that more people would learn our language. I can help you learn it by sending you "how to say it" essays of Welsh words (there are some exceptions, but Lady Raven is kinda correct, it comes from the throat. That, phonetic mutations and the Ll are the hardest things to learn in the world's most poetic language.). DM me if you want to learn. You did get quite a few spot on whilst you were learning on the fly. Aarddethog i chi.
Hey guys :D
Well done guys, you done really well! However, I did not do so well :D I forgot half of my pronunciations before they were even revealed haha
Loved the little hair cutaway, although I'm left wondering what Eric has done to warrant such wanton destruction :P
Keep up the great work!
x
What about an attempt at impersonating regional accents next?
Brilliant idea! We love all the accent variations throughout the UK. Are there specific accents that you'd have us add to our list?
@@WanderingRavens Yorkshire, Geordie, Scouse, Glaswegian, Welsh, Irish, Cornish, cockney, Brummie, Bristol, Cumbrian. Off the top of my head. Maybe a one sentence each conversation in each accent? Oh, forgot Mancunians.
Lancastrian? Think Wallace and grommet.
@@markrichardson3421 don't forget the places below the M4, the South 😉👍
@@wencireone aren't they all just diluted cockney? 😁Sorry couldn't resist. Seriously though other than Cornish, Bristol and cockney i don't really know any other really distinctive southern accents. Maybe Norfolk (that's southern to me)
Reminds me of that joke about the Welsh Scrabble player. He had a crisis of consonants.
Nice one! Mind you, in reality, Welsh has more vowels than English (a, e, i, o, u, w, y), and some pairs of letters are in fact classed as one letter, even though they don't have a single "symbol" of their own (dd, ch, ng, ll, ph, rh, th). So, whilst a word like Llanuwchllyn (in terms of the English alphabet) contains 12 letters with only 2 vowels, it's only 9 letters in Welsh, and the vowel/consonant ratio is pretty balanced: 5 consonants, 4 vowels.
Wow! Good to know! :D Thank you!
@@ftumschk That's a great way of explaining it. When I was little, I could never understand why English people struggled with Glyndyfrdwy. I've always thought of Y as being a vowel.
"I like the Welsh language because it was obviously invented by a dad who lost its Scrabble."
- Jimmy Carr.
I am Welsh and my boyfriend is English and he cannot wrap his head around the Welsh language what so ever, I think you guys did quite well!
Also there’s a big Welsh speaking community in Patagonia, Argentina , by now of course they are mostly native Argentinian in looks and customs but have held on to Welsh language .....
Extra fun fact of the week :- there are 29 letters that make up the Welsh alphabet , but there are no k, q, v, x, z. In the Welsh alphabet
Extra fun fact, there is no J either in the Welsh alphabet, but Jones is the most common surname.
Look up the reason and history of Welsh surnames for interest.
Welsh is a lot more regular in pronunciation than English. I love the Welsh words for microwave and jellyfish.
ooo, what are those words? :D
@@WanderingRavens the welsh word for microwave is melcrodon and welsh word for jellyfish is slefrod mo^ r
Emma Jones as a English person I’ve always heard microwave is something like poppetyping. Lol.
seriously though
I love the Welsh word for carrot 🥕!!
😁....
Its 'moron'!
@@markgibson3034 you are correct according to my Welsh speaking friends!
It's ok, only the Welsh really know these places, some of the road signs have English spellings and translations of information
Welsh is a difficult language but we really love the way it sounds!
Really? What is the English translation of Aberystwyth, Llandudno, Dwygyfylchi or Crib Goch, for example?
@@t.a.k.palfrey3882 ok, good and valid point, perhaps it's just major places and information, as quite possibly only remembering the road signs coming into Wales on the M4 😁👍
@@t.a.k.palfrey3882
Major destination routes include, Machynlleth, Porthmadog, Pwllheli, Caernarfon, Llanelli, Llangollen, Corwen, Berws Y Coed, Blaenau Ffestiniog as well.
Welsh is actually unlike most western languages in that the way words are written is EXACTLY how they are pronounced, they just have a different alphabet to English. some things like "ll" are a single letter with its own sound
I’m from Fflint. I lived in Harlech, Gwynedd for 2 years. I was born in St Asaph - love your video. Xx
I'm off Fflint, too. I went to Ysgol Maes Garmon so I speak Welsh and I've always kept it up because I spend so much time in Gwynedd.
Cardiff is the capital of wales 🏴
Sounds lovely!!
Lots of places in Wales have an English version of the Welsh name. Cardiff English name Caerdydd Welsh name (same place). There is a small town on the coast called Llantwit Major in English and Llanilltyd Fawr in Welsh. John from Llwynypia in the Rhondda. Oh and Welsh is an English word meaning foreigner. The Welsh for Welsh is Cymraeg and Wales in Welsh is Cymru.
@@JohnHardingIngvar Llanilltud (Church of St Illtud) became the laughable Llantwit (Church of St Twit), presumably because someone in the dim and distant past couldn't be arsed to make an effort to pronounce Illtud's name properly. They could at least have chosen a less insulting approximation that didn't turn him into a twit!
@@ftumschk yeah how do you get from Illtyd to twit!
@@JohnHardingIngvar ... laziness and/or a complete disdain for the language, I guess :)
Yup they're not that easy, and the north Welsh was definitely off.
In welsh the alphabet is 28 letters long, but does not have the following letters from the english alphabet: J, K, Q, V, X, Z which is where all the weird double letters and sounds come from. Welsh vowels are AEIOU, plus W and Y which is why they make different sounds, like vowels do in english.
A good effort all around, as I know it's not easy to master those sounds on the spot and it comes with time and repetition (like being around place names that don't have english equivalents)
Nowaday it has a J its different from when you and I went to school.
The Paris joke was funny 😂 10 points for Paris, and also Conwy sounds like a place that I went to called Conway in New Hampshire. 7:47 And that was funny when Grace said Siri Flint lol 😂
Very well done! I know a Welshman who struggled with some of those, me!
Glad to hear we didn't completely fail! 😂
Looks like if I ever get to Wales there’s going to be a lot of pointing at the names of places instead of trying to say the names of places. I’ve had an easier time with Chinese and Japanese than I have in trying to repeat after you with these Welsh names! Fun video! Nice haircut! Looks French for sure! Mine looks like a bowl cut at the moment 😝
Kudos for you for doing this. A lot of our neighbours across the border wouldn't bother.
I live in Sir y Fflint (Flintshire). The Sir is just Welsh for Shire.
I'm glad you picked up on the patterns too. Once you get to know the sounds, Welsh is actually pretty phonetic and straight forward.
Top vid guys 👍
So glad you enjoyed it!! We are really liking Welsh. It seems a lot more predictable and consistent than English XD
@@WanderingRavens Did you know that Tolkien used Welsh (Cymraeg) as his inspiration for the Elvish language in Lord of the Rings?
I visited a high school in Michigan as a visitor. They asked me to say something in Welsh. I said the Hail Mary and they thought I was just speaking Elvish ☺
Hey you did almost as well as me, and Im from the (not so Welsh speaking) South Wales Cardiff /Caerdydd area. So, Very impressed!! Great job! 👏👍😉
Thank you!!
Entirely unrelated comment Re your off-hand mention of Amelie - if you like that film, you should definitely check out another called À La Foile, Pas Du Tout. It's one of my favourites and also has Audrey Tatou in. It's quite like Amelie, but gets much darker. Totally worth a watch!
Great video guys! (And nice hair Eric :P)
Will look it up! And thanks :D
My wife and I travel to Wales each summer to meet friends in Machynlleth, Powys and love the Welsh language.
We do try to speak a little but my accent and pronunciation is best described as barely existing.
The two main places we visit are Blwch Nant yr Arian for the Red Kites and the Prosiect Gweilch Dyfi (Dyfi Osprey Project) near Derwenlas.
you did so well i didn't get hardly any right i've heard of a few , grace hope you feeling ok after being at the dentist , eric that haircut has took years off you looks great my friend look forward to the next video stay safe
Thank you so much!! And Grace is resting up well. Sore cheek and jaw, but no complications :)
Stay safe as well x
You were brave attempting the English counties, but attempting the Welsh? 🤣👍🏼 Great how you were able to spot patterns with the letters, much better than the majority of Brits, many don’t even try 😊
The guy from the south is bang on. The guy from the north? Great to see you trying Welsh. (its Mythyr Tydfil btw).
You guys are a riot! And those were tough - only got 4 right :)
Same, I never use the welsh words for them.
So glad you enjoyed it! And yes, they are so tough!
Guessing you wont be trying to put these on a map?
Also loving new hair! Maybe its graces's turn next?
You're doing a lot better than my English next door neighbours I can tell you. I actually have English neighbours both sides of me, one from London, one from Torquay. The ones from Torguay do desperately try to say the Welsh place names, they love it so much here that they really do try, and they even support Wales in rugby but it's funny to hear them trying to get their tongues around the words, Merthyr Tydfil which is just over the mountain from Tynewydd in the Rhondda where we live, is a prime example. The ones from Lobdon do not try...lol. But they love it here too.
I live in Rhondda Cynon Taff☺️ you both did a great job of pronouncing the counties 🥰
Oh dear, you two are very brave 😂
😂
Polite, really. It's nice to see people trying. Even if they fail, its positive. It's much worse if someone doesnt have a go.
You have no idea how happy I was when you started to learn that a double D, Dd, is pronounced like a TH sound😂
I had fun listening to this, even after 20 years in North Wales I'm gratefull that the most place names have english and welsh versions of their name.
Great job guys, these are so difficult. Most of those are the Welsh language versions of the place names, many have more familiar names, like Cardiff, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend (Pen Y Bont, near where I live). You would have found those a lot easier I think.
OMG I’m not even going to try to pronounce these Welsh counties☺️ this video made me laugh so much😂
Glad you enjoyed it!
Sir is Welsh for county (or shire) - the South Walean guy is correct - the gog sounds all kinds of wrong! I've never heard any gog saying Welsh place names like that in my life!! Well done on working our the f/ff thing too! Oh and I also loved that you pronounced the Welsh with French accents!! lol
Looking good, love the new haircut
Well done guys, you did really well! And very well done on picking up that ff is pronounced as an English f, and a single f is pronounced as an English v. Not many people get that 😊
Thank you! 😄
Enjoyed the vid. Being from Merthyr Tydfil I thougnt you did really well. Once you appreciate that Welsh is based on a different alphabet eg d, l, and c are letters but double L, double d, ch etc are also considered as letters with their own sounds, it gets easier.
We hadn't thought of it as being a separate alphabet! That does make it easier. Thank you :D
I noticed you used 87 degrees. Do you exclusively learn Fahrenheit in the states or is Celsius taught as well?
Hair looks amazing! Wish I could manage mine at that length 😂
Thank you!! :D
I live in North Wales. Good job guys, very impressive.
You mentioned my hometown Caerphilly 😁thank you
I lived for a while, when I was younger, in a place called Penrhiwfer (Pen-ru-vur), just up the road from where I went to school in Tonyrefail (Ton-revul)
The table on the right here gives you the English names of the counties, with the Welsh-language version in brackets...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_government_in_Wales#Principal_areas_of_Wales
Settling into watch now 🥂
Hey Brandon!! Enjoy 🥂 See you on tonight's Patreon livestream? (happening in 45 minutes)
Wandering Ravens omg yes I’m late