Welsh lessons - Beginner - How to pronounce LL
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- How to pronounce the LL sound in Welsh, also known as the voiceless alvelor lateral fricative! Never again will you need to worry about how to say Llanberis or Llandudno.
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Take-home sentences from this lesson:
Llyfais y llwy yn Llanberis = I licked the spoon in Llanberis
Gwell nofio mewn llyn na pwll = Better to swim in a lake than a pool
Holy crab!!! I found brother/sister!! My language Taishanese/Toishan also has this syllable!!! It's a sub-language of Cantonese, China.. For example, we call "Three" and "Four" is "Llam" and "Llei"
Turkish guy learning welsh here. This was really helpful. Thanks.
*Instructions Unclear.*
*Have summoned several snakes to the house*
Why is this not top comment 🤣🤣🤣
@@LesMisFanaticForever agree!! Lol
😂😂😂
I needed to learn this sound as I'm learning IsiZulu. Thank you. This helps tremendously!
Watching Hinterland and am on season 3. Finally had to look up pronouncing different words I'm seeing on the closed captioning while I'm watching. Thank you very much for this. Thinking hard about relocating with my girls and Wales looks pretty nice.
This is exactly the same reason I came here
Me too! I was trying to figure out why Llew sounded sort of like Clow. Makes more sense now.
I am watching Hinterland, and was trying to learn how they are pronouncing the name Llew, of which I only knew the appropriate spelling because I have closed captioning on for everything all the time. Being from the US I wasn’t aware that Welsh was a language that is separate but akin to Gaelic. I have no knowledge of other languages other than that which I have learned from movies and television. I’ve noticed the similarities with some consonant and vowel sounds as those spoken on the show Outlander, which is supposedly spoken often using Gaelic language. Once I watched this video and saw what an effective tutor you are, I will begin and complete your lessons. That is after I finish Hinterlands last 3 episodes! Thank you so much for sharing free videos! 💙
halfway to Parseltongue
I was told to say it like I'd say the hl combination. Is that accurate?
I'm Welsh
Can’t make this sound.
Probably because I have a speech problem.
Aaron Ramsey brought me here
Hey my name is Llewellyn. i finally know how to actually properly pronounce it after 26 years.
Mr Remy Remmington
I understand how to make the sound yet Llewellyn is exactly the name Im trying to pronouce but cant seem to do it correctly :( I wish I could hear its correct pronounciation as a name
Adora Leonard Skype me and I'll show you xD
Ha. Not a chance.
Adora Leonard lol it's not difficult to pronounce. I'm sure there's a video on TH-cam showing you how
The confusing thing is that the second "ll" in Llewellyn is a standard L.
It makes a bit more sense when you consider the alternative spelling Llywelyn.
I speak Russian and am generally pretty good at pronouncing things but christ, the Welsh LL is my nemesis 😂
Но ведь это почти как "щ", только твердая ._.
@@PascalPc Хм, разве как щ? Мне кажется скорее как какое то странное 'х'
You mentioned that this sound is found in a number of languages. I live in Taiwan, where Mandarin Chinese is the main language, but many people speak the local Min language. Min has a variety of dialects, but there is one particular dialect (Puxian Min) that has this "ll" sound. It's spoken on a tiny offshore island (Wuqiu) that has only about 400 residents.
My family is Taiwanese and I speak fluent Taiwanese, and while it makes sense due to its close proximity to china, it never occurred to me that parts of Kinmen speak (besides mandarin) something other than Southern Min (Minnan); Wuqiu Puxian Min is linguistically classified as Coastal Min.
Wow! That is amazing!
I sounded like a hissing idiot until you used it in a word and all of a sudden I could make the noise😂🤦🏻♀️
That’s prime example of why I love learning things about other languages from TH-cam because it’s native speakers that are teaching me, not someone imitating an accent or noises.
I love how you teach!
Best way to learn is to know the ipa identifier:
Voiceless: don't use the vocal cords
Alveolar: press the tongue against the hard ridge behind the teeth
Lateral fricative: force the breath through the narrow gap allong the sides of your tongue.
The best way I can describe it is press you tongue on the roof of your mouth like saying an "L" but force the breath out like saying an "S" sound.
Good job!
I'm so confused :v
@@mothratemporalradio517 This reference to 's' is causing needless confusion. Forget the 's', keep to the voicless 'L', as explained at the begining of the video. TH-cam might make things sound a bit different, but you can't go wrong with blowing air through the L shape in your mouth, instead of actually saying L. (I.e: no vocal chords involved.)
@@WelshpronounciationYngan-ti9pm goodbye!
Oh man I have so much trouble with this🤦
Ok so I had a mild speech impediment when I was little and this is the exact sound I had to learn to avoid making, I literally spent half my life forcing and training myself to never make this sound, it feels so wrong trying to do it on purpose.
EDIT: Awesome Video!! Thank you🦊
AW! my son, whos 14 now, had an impediment when he was young. Turns out he was tongue tied. He had a 10 min procedure when he was 3 and all is well now
@@texastea5686
Oh man I had a similar thing going on, I feel this
I can pronounce this sound well but, when trying to say it using the 's', I spat all over my screen, lol...
Llo did I, I llpat over my llcreen too.
Haven't we all :-P
@@einat1622 Llurely not all of us
@@aicon0 Yell, we did. And don't call me Llirley.
@@TaranTheGiant By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?
Nepali learning Welsh... Gotta love covid 19
now i can pronounce llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch,DAT WELSH TOWN
😂😂😂
This sound along with the hard ch sound are really easy and natural sounds for me as a Spanish speaker. Even tho this "ll" sound is not a part of Spanish, it is common among Spanish speakers with speech impediments, towards whom (for better or worse) a lot of our bullying is often directed in school, which often leads to lots of other kids learning the sound in imitation/mockery. Bullying sometimes has unexpected results!
Just a clarification, when you talk about the Spanish "LL" do you mean the European Spanish pronunciation "ly", the Mexican "y' or the Argentinian "sh"?
@@michaelhalsall5684 none of the above, I mean the welsh LL which has a very distinct sound. Apparently it's a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative sound (IPA: [ɬ]). But in Spanish speakers with speech impediments this sound occurs instead of "S".
Is it an S sound? I hear it as an S - when saying llanberis in the video, I hear sanberis!
@John Stevens I think you nailed it! I just searched for lateral lisp and that's exactly what I hear! I cannot tell [ʪ] and [ɬ] apart. Are there any queues to improve on this as a listener? And as a speaker, what differs between those two? Elevation of the tongue I guess? Edit: when I block air by placing the tip of my tongue behind my teeth I think I am getting lateral airflow, but not central right?
@@FrozenMermaid666 it is like an S but you block some air from exiting your mouth with your tongue by placing it right behind your upper front teeth
Two Americans clearing British customs, en route to 2014 Eisteddfod: "We worked real hard to learn to say Llanelli."
You're killin' me here. I can't do it at all! Lovely explanation, though. :)
Thank you this video is really helpful and informative. I'm trying to conquer this sound as it is very common in the lingua franca of the pre-conquest Aztecs. Mis-informed videos say the pronunciation of tl is tl as in english, but it is really tLL as in Welsh. I'm quite astonished at the frequency of usage of this sound in Welsh I must say. Thanks!
Yes, it's everywhere. Here's a couple to practise with: "cyllell" (=knife), hard "c", "y" is a schwa. Also "llyfrgell" (=library), this time the "y" is a short "i" and the "f" is a "v".
After watching several different videos I'm still having enormous trouble making this sound, and even knowing which exact sound I'm supposed to make, as every person seems to pronounce it slightly different. And worse yet, I can't combine it with any other sounds to form a word, as my tongue seems to be locked in it's place for too long, so the pronunciation of any following letters is changed. It seems very strange to me that such a sound exists in a language where I can pronounce every other sound just fine.
tumarfa yeah same here.
I had a lot of trouble until I came across this explanation in a conlanger's online text.
The sound is made by pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth, drawing back the corners of your mouth as you would for a smile, and then saying "sh."
Give it a try. It certainly worked for me.
@@picarochi WOAH IT WORKED
@@picarochi you need to be serious! that’s how i pronounce it!
We have Welsh names in the family of Lloyd and Llewellyn (and others). I live in the USA and we say the hard "L" in both names (sigh). So, should Lloyd be pronounced simular to "Soyd" or "Shoyd"? Is Llewellyn pronounced like "Sewessyn" or Sheweshyn"?? Please help me. I'm embarrassed to be of Welsh blood if I cannot pronounce properly our list of family Welsh names!!!
Lloyd and Llewellyn are both anglicisations of the original Welsh: Llwyd and Llywelyn.
Lloyd is generally pronounced "Loyd", even in Wales, where the connection to the original "Llwyd" is all but forgotten. Llwyd is pronounced the same as "llwy" in this video, with a D tacked on to the end. Interestingly the surname Floyd also comes from Llwyd, its spelling reflecting the trouble English speakers have had with the Ll sound since time immemorial.
Llewellyn sometimes preserves the pronunciation of the original Welsh, Llywelyn. You will note that in the original Welsh, there is only one double L. Therefore it is pronounced Shuh-WEL-in
I'm convinced the Welsh language started out as a joke that got out of hand.
No❤️
The best example I have read about for producing this sound is to start with the English word 'antler'. Don't glottal-stop the "t" like a Londoner might, or pronounce the "r". (I am a Welsh Londoner). Where the 't' and 'l' run together soften the join by gently blowing air out of the back of the tongue under the teeth and you will be saying a word that in Welsh would be spelt "anlla". AFAIK there isn't such a word but that doesn't matter. Don't spoil the sound by putting an ordinary "L" after it; just go straight into the following vowel.
hey thanks i think that's a great description! i can get that whereas the other explainers didn't work out for me when i had a crack at following the instructions. Diolch!
ps I'm an Aussie with Welsh heritage who was never taught the language. Still intend to try to learn using the net... but i find it soooo hard. i wish i could have been taught while i was young. My brain is now ancient and has really struggled to grasp the transliteration generally.
I assume you mean pronounce "antler" as "an'TLe' " with the pressure on the "TL"
@@michaelhalsall5684 Yes, more or less. But don't make the "tl" plosive (as the phoneticists say) but more of a gentle push of air under the teeth but over the tongue near the back. There is a word that can be used to illustrate this, the village of Benllech in Anglesey. A starting point would be to pronounce it Bentlech. Then eliminate the "t" by just hissing gently in the way I described. Don't forget the guttural "ch" sound at the end! Another way of looking at it is to regard it as "SL" but instead of the air coming out above the middle of the tongue it should come out of the sides near the back. Not an English sound so I can see why English speakers find it difficult just as French and German speakers seem unable to make an English "th" sound which, incidentally, is quite common in Welsh, both voiced and unvoiced.
Her: *something poetic-sounding*
Me: "Plegh!"
😂😂😂
@@alyanahzoe Your comment made me try again and I'm much better :D
Since I started learning Welsh, this is my favorite letter at all.
The double _LL_ or ɬ in phonetic notation is a voiceless alveolar fricative. Speech sounds have three different attributes: the place of articulation, the manner of articulation, and whether it's voiced or voiceless. The "place" refers to the specific parts of the mouth that are involved, and the "manner" refers to the way in which the airflow is manipulated by the lips, tongue and glottis. If it involves the vibration of the vocal cords, it's considered "voiced" (i.e. the difference between _V_ and _F_ sounds).
For the above phoneme, "alveolar" = sounds you articulate against the roof of the mouth just behind the upper teeth, as in _N_ and _T_ sounds. And "fricative" = consonants that involve forcing air through a narrow channel like the _F_ and _S_ sounds. The vocal cords are lax, as in the voiceless glottal _H_ - I often describe the Welsh _LL_ as a combination of the _L_ and _H_ sounds.
So, the place of articulation is alveolar like _L_ - the manner of articulation is fricative like _H_ - and it's voiceless like the _H_ sound. You curl your tongue against the roof of your mouth behind the teeth, but don't voice the consonant. Instead, pretend you're pronouncing _H_ with your vocal cords relaxed and your tongue still in the _L_ "position" against the teeth. If that makes any sense at all.
If I had to transcribe it I'd probably spell it _HLH_ lol.
Welsh is beautiful. Hail to the ancestors.
She sounds like she could open the door to the chamber of secrets.
There is a third way:
Start with the voiceless palatal fricative which you can find in German words such as "ich". In the German "ich" sound, the blade of your tongue touches your hard palate. And now try to produce the same sound but just use the tip of your tongue and not the whole upper side = voilà, a Welsh "ll"
The area I live in Wales they just pronounce LL as plain old L. They think I am odd when I pronounce it the way that is shown in this video.
I'm watching Hinterland and the way they pronounced Llew, that made me look for this video. thank you.
I have to watch this show with titles because of the Welsh English. beautiful scenery. ☺️
Yep. Here too. 👍😊
Reading the Mabinogion and this really helped. Thanks!
Thanks for explaining this. I'm learning Welsh on duolingo but they don't explain pronunciation at all. This was very helpful!!
this was really helpful that Ł in navajo too thanks
I sound like i'm doing a wet fart through my mouth and my saliva is everywhere. I think I'm doing pretty alright but i sometimes end up using the 'sh' sound. =,='
You and your Land and your Language are all gorgeous.
I can't hear the difference between ll(Welsh) and sh(English).
I’ve always been curious about the proper Welsh pronunciation of my name Domhnulla
Gaelig name, not Welsh, sorry.
Amazing video. Thank you! I’m learning both Navajo and Welsh and they both use the Ł sound! I still can’t do it quite proper, but this helps a lot.
SO cool that Navajo also has this sound!!!
Huh. That's actually a type of lisp some English speakers have on "s".
possible origin idk
Faroese has this sound too :)
who else is here to learn to pronounce the town with long name
Thank you so much for making this video! I'm trying to learn Welsh and this particular sound is very hard to get right.
The hard thing is ll and s back-to-back. Hard to keep my mouth from pronouncing them alike.
While it is similar in Icelandic that sound is actually a copronounced t and ll sound its called an affricate which also occurs in Nahuatl.
i'm from a first nations "tribe" close(ish) to the coast of British Columbia Canada. we have the welsh Ll sound. a Dutchman came and gave use letters to use with our language. we spell it as "lh" though instead of "Ll"
My parents saved me from needing this lesson. Lol
OOOH, it's a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. That's all I needed to know. K thx bye!
Joke's on you, I study languages and that description is legitemately helpful.
@@AnnaMarianne as someone who doesn't study languages, it's still gibberish to me, so my joke stands.
*Blows a raspberry*
I want to name my son Noah Llyr one day (combining my paganism with my husbands Christianity) but wasn’t totally sure how to pronounce the middle name so this helped quite a bit, thanks!
This is great - it makes me want to finally try, after 8 months in Wales, to say Dolgellau.
Locals will turn the final "au" into a rather short sharp "a" as they often do with words ending in a vowel such as "bore" =morning, which becomes "bora". This is a Gwynedd sound and you don't really need to know it but it will make you sound really genuine if you do.
Would it be somewhat acceptable for an English speaker to pronounce this sound similar to the /sh/ sound in words like "shape"?
It sounds like someone speaking with a lisp, but not a lisp?
Putting it in actual words and not just the stand alone makes it sound like you’re just saying sh so if I can get away with that I’ll be golden lmao
They're similar but in person you'd be able to spot the difference. "Ll" is literally a "sh" with your tongue touching the same spot it touches when pronouncing an "l".
If you feel a weird sensation at both sides of the tongue and the air flow in your cheeks, congratulations.
Jon R i need to take like welsh lessons or something lmao that sound is mega hard for me
Another commenter said to put your tongue as if your going to make the "L" sound, but then instead you make the "th" sound
I'm Indonesian named Lloyd, after the company Jakarta Lloyd. Cmiiw so the correct pronunciation of my name is more like "schoyd"? Looking forward for the answer thanks!
A copy past of someone else's comment:
"Lloyd and Llewellyn are both anglicisations of the original Welsh: Llwyd and Llywelyn.
Lloyd is generally pronounced "Loyd", even in Wales, where the connection to the original "Llwyd" is all but forgotten. Llwyd is pronounced the same as "llwy" in this video, with a D tacked on to the end. Interestingly the surname Floyd also comes from Llwyd, its spelling reflecting the trouble English speakers have had with the Ll sound since time immemorial.
"
Da iawn ti Gwyneth
Nelson Mandel's middle name as two 'LL's in it! - the Xhosa language spells the sound ' HL' =
....Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
I had no idea that Nelson Mandela had a middle name - up until now. And suddenly I also understand why.
Is it ok to pronounce it like a mild cathissing sound with the tounge rather in the back of the mouth? Would it be understood?
How on earth do you say "colour" in Welsh? I can only find videos of people telling you how to say the actual colours; glas, gwyn etc. But the very word "colour"....?
Lliw :)
Colors = lliwiau
What colour is...? = Pa liw ydi...?
I've been really trying, but no matter what it doesn't come out right for me. When I hear other people say it, it sounds like a sort of "sh", but I sound like "kl".. any advice..?
Can you say "plot"? Now try it slowly and draw out the 'l'. Now you are almost there. Try again and pause on the 'l'. Just keep your tongue in place. Then restart. And stop. Keep your tongue in place. Easy.
So freaking cool! I ended up down a very strange rabbit hole and stumbled upon Welsh pronunciations and now I can say Llewellynn properly!
I’m writing a story and does anyone have any tips on how to pronounce Briallu or Briallen?
Bree-ALL-ee / Bree-ALL-en ("all" as in "shallow" not "swallow", with the Welsh fricative LL at the end, of course).
ftumschk thank you SO MUCH 😘
So, the name Llewellyn, with two sets of double L's, would be pronounced something like Shuweshyn?
Ted Pascoe
my question exactly
No. The second set of ll is pronounced like normal l.
The original Welsh spelling is "Llywelyn", as in Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (Prince of Gwynedd 1173-1240), so Ll at the start, and a single L near the end.
I came here after seeing that weatherman pronounce Llanfairpigglewigglellantysiliogogo jk I know it's not spelled that way :) Haha but yeah I didn't realize the ll makes a sort of s-sh kinda sound
It doesn't.
I really love these videos with Gwyneth but I have a lot of trouble with LL. Following instructions in the first part of the video, the sound I make is pretty close to what it should be, especially at the start of a word. However, I notice that in actual use Gwyneth's pronunciation (almost every time LL is NOT at the start) it sounds a lot more like 'sh'. So much so that I wonder how bad it would sound in Wales if I cheated along these lines! Any comments?
Anywhere in Wales, if you make the effort, it would always be appreciated regardless of how it sounds.
Thanks for lesson keep going greeting from morocco
Natural teacher, so good on camera 🧡
well idk. I'm so confused. I've been watching hinterland and that is not at all how they say it.
Same
Oh god thank you so so so much!!! When I saw the sounds description I was like what the hell is this, who ever could pronounce it, and then I found your video. Thanks again ❤️
This video has helped me so much. Thank you for your time in making it! I wrote down the phrases to practice! Diolch!
I'm from Poland, I can pronounce Polish, English and Japanese words without any problems. But this one sound has been my nemesis since I first had to learn it during my Welsh classes at uni. Our professor told us to try say it as "hl" but when he said it, it sounded kinda like Polish "ś". This is literally the worst and most difficult sound I came across! Thank you for this video, I'm finally closer to proper pronunciation!
Spróbuj powiedzieć "szl" i dać język na podniebienie i nie używaj głosu (jakby szeptać) mam nadzieję że będzie pomocne :)
Great, I'm learning Welsh now...
Thank you for posting this..I am trying. I am a newbie :-)
I've been unable to pronounce ll until this video, where you used the "L" method. Thanks so much!! Now I sound like one of my friends, who can't pronounce "s" properly so she says "ll" and I always wondered how to produce that type of sound!
Thank you so much for making this video! With the first method I can actually get this sound out. (:
Do my cheeks need to expand a bit when I make the sound?
In Wales: Here's how you make the sounds of the Welsh language...
In Ireland: Sounds of the Irish language? Same sounds as English innit? Radio na wha?
Is it like the sh sound in "shut?" Because either my mind cannot comprehend the sound (which I'm told is not possible for someone) or I am hearing it wrong.
It's similar - both are fricatives, but the place of articulation is different. To pronounce "sh", you need to constrict the airflow between the tip of your tongue and the alveolar ridge on the roof of your mouth.
To pronounce "ll", your tongue should be resting *on* the alveolar ridge, with the airflow constricted between the *sides* of your tongue and your cheeks.
For Pete's sake, stop fiddling with your hair, sit a little away from the camera, and have the camera centred. Basic presenting skills, in other words. Pretty much a useless video because I am none the wiser - and I want to pronounce the name of the town I live in - Llandrindod!
Welsh ll is to Nahuatl tl what sh sound is to ch sound.
I love this description!
because you just added a t
I didn't think that in the mouth of Gwyneth, this sound would be so sexy :)) Hello to everyone who is watching and learning Welsh in 2021 :))) P.s. For a Russian-speaking person, it is still much easier to speak Irish Gaelic:))) But Welsh is also too beautiful :))
I feel so sad. I have came so far to learn Welsh. Zoom classes, translating stories, Duolingo, Welsh music but I am shy to practice as I can't pronounce LL.
When I say milk it sounds like I am saying Slice
While in your video, you say that LL represents a kind of s sound, another set of videos on the Welsh language claims it's an s sound with a bit of an l after it. So I was going to ask you if perhaps there was a regional variation in Wales as to how it is pronounced. But then I saw a video, other than yours, on how to pronounce the name of Llanfairpwyllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - the one where they sing it - and in that video, I heard the LL sound as "s", "sl", "f", and "cl". Is there something else going on here?
Different people will say it sounds like different things but really it's none of thos letters, it's a completely different sound, it is quite similar to a lisp some people have in English though
It's only one sound - the sound of someone about to say 'L' but instead, blows. No vocal chords involved.
To my knowledge, /ɬ/ in Welsh can be realised as [ɬ] (most common) or [ç] (in the North). The pronunciation in this video sounds like a lateral lisp [ʪ], but I'm not sure if it's considered a speech impediment in Welsh.
I went to College in Wales (Bangor) many years ago but never realised that the sound is quite close to the German ch (like for „ich“, which means „I“) until I watched this video.
Thank you! Learning a little welsh for a role-playing game.
Me after this video: 👁👄👁
cant :( and honestly this is my only reason to be shy to speak welsh, i attend welsh classes and understanding some of the grammar but cant say LL. i say it like SH
Jimmy Carr Lied! It's not pronounced with a C.
Am I suppose to stick my tongue to the Alveolar ridge just like L with no release, or to seperate it a little so the air flows a little above the tip?
the air flow should go around and not above your tongue, like an L
@@ryuko4478 Yep. That's why it's called a "lateral".
@@peterfireflylund I am aware!
@@ryuko4478 of course, but the guy with the chicken-scratchy name might not be.
@@peterfireflylund ah, fair
thanks for actually giving a guide on how to shape your mouth and everything! only way i can figure it out but nobody ever says...
Is this the same sound as in lo'ch'? Just wondering if there's any difference since I can already say that. Thanks for the help!!
I'm wales I have to learn it in school
I mean this in the politest way possible. I keep sounding like Sid the Sloth when I try it. Should I be...aiming for that? Or is that wrong?
Is it lke doing the “th” sound, only that the tongue is in a “L” positon behind the teeth, instead of almost underneath it?
Yes
It works best if you let the l sound out through the side of the tongue
If snakes could speak and have a language it would be welsh. How I should pronounce the LLLL of that name town?
So am I just trying to make an S sound with a faked lisp? As stupid as that sounds, to me thats the best way I can describe it.