Page:Morris-Jones Welsh Grammar 0019.png

§ 17 Voiced spirants: f ≡ Eng. v, labiodental; dd ≡ Eng. th in this (ẟ). O.W. had also the guttural voiced spirant, which may be represented by ᵹ, corresponding to ch; see § 19 i.

v. Voiceless nasals: mh; nh; ngh. The nasals can only be made voiceless by a strong emission of breath, which causes a distinct aspirate to be heard as a glide after the consonant. Thus nh is somewhat similar to Eng. nh in inhale.

Voiced nasals: m; n; ng. The last has two positions corresponding to those of g, namely front ŋ̑, back ŋ.

Voiceless liquids: ll; rh. The former is a voiceless l pronounced on one side. It is produced by placing the tongue in the l position, raising it so as to close the passage on one side, and blowing between it and the teeth on the other. The common imitation thl conveys the effect of the “hiss” (voiceless spirant) in the th, and gives the side effect in the l. But ll is of course a simple sound, which may be described shortly as a “unilateral hiss”. The sound of rh is the Welsh trilled r made voiceless by a strong emission of breath, causing an audible aspirate glide after it. Briefly, it is r and h sounded together.

viii. Voiced liquids : l; r. The latter is trilled like the strong Scotch r, or the Italian r. The trilled r is a difficult sound to acquire; young children usually substitute l for it. A few never acquire it, but substitute for it a guttural r (≡ ᵹ). This is almost the only defect of speech to be found among speakers of Welsh; it is called tafod tew ‘thick tongue’.

ix. Sibilant: s. Welsh has no z; such a pronunciation as zêl ‘zeal’ is pure affectation; unsophisticated persons say sêl, selog. Before i̯ as in eisi̯au, s now tends to become Eng. sh, and in some S.W. dialects after i. But many old speakers cannot pronounce shibboleth at all. Standard Welsh s is the ss in hiss.

x. Aspirate: h. The aspirate is distinctly sounded, and is never misused except in Gwent and Glamorgan. It is really the voiceless form of the vowel which follows it, or the glide between a voiceless nasal or liquid and a vowel.

xi. Semi-vowels: i; w. As these letters also represent vowel sounds, they will be marked i̯, w̯ in this work where it is necessary to point out that they are consonantal. i̯ is the sound of the Eng. y in yard; w̯ is the Eng. w in will.