Pronouncing Welsh Place Names
...and their meaning

Welsh Place Names | Meaning of Welsh Signs | Useful Words & Phrases

Do not climb on the bull Wales is a bi-lingual country - both Welsh and English are spoken. You certainly don't need to speak any Welsh to enjoy your visit in Wales. But, just a little understanding of Welsh place names will bring your time in Wales to life, especially as most Welsh place names are largely descriptive. So, if you want to learn a little bit about the Welsh language as you cycle around, here goes...

Town sign in Welsh and English Apart from a few vowels that are slightly different from English, Welsh is a more or less a phonetic language, you pronounce it as it looks. Don't get put off by the long list of vowels and consonants, once you've understood the few rules it is easy.

It may help you to pronounce names if you remember that the emphasis in Welsh is usually on the penultimate syllable. For example, Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von), Beddgelert (beth-gel-airt), Llanberis (thlan-ber-ris), Felindre (veh-lin-dray).

Welsh has a slightly different alphabet from English:-

C - pronounced as a K, as in English 'kick' eg: Caernarfon (kyre-nar-von).
CH - pronounced as in the Scottish 'loch' and the composer Bach.
DD - pronounced TH, as in English 'breathe' eg: Beddgelert (beth-gell-airt).
G - pronounced as a hard G, as in English 'get' eg: Beddgelert (beth-gell-airt).
LL - roughly pronounced THL eg: Llanberis (thlan-ber-ris). To get closer to the correct sound, place your tongue firmly at the top of the mouth behind your teeth and blow.
F - pronounced as a V, as in English 'of' eg: Felindre (veh-lin-dray).
FF - pronounced as an F, as in English 'off' eg: FFestiniog (fest-in-yog).
W - pronounced as an OO, as in English 'swoon' eg: Llanrwst (thlan-roost).
Y - has two different pronunciations. In all but the last syllable of a word it's pronounced as a 'U' - as in English 'fun'. When it is in the last syllable of a word it is pronounced as an 'i' - as in English 'is'. For example, the Welsh for mountain is mynydd (mun-ith); the Welsh for mountains is mynyddoedd (mun-uth-oith). Because it no longer occurs in the last syllable, the sound of the second y changes from 'i' to 'u' (also, notice the emphasis moves along to the new penultimate syllable). In single syllable words, the Y is unpredictable!

Welsh Place Names

Welsh place names are largely descriptive, eg: Mynydd Bach is small mountain (Mynydd = mountain, Bach = small). A famous example of this is the town on Anglesey with that long name:-

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Which roughly translates as:-

The Church of St. Mary by the pool with the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool by St. Tysilio's church and the red cave.

The actual name of the village is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is locally abbreviated to Llanfair PG (well wouldn't you). A Victorian publicity stunt landed the villagers with the long name. If you really want to show off by learning how to pronounce it, try this:-

Thlann vyre pooth gwinn gith gogg-erra kweern drobbooth lann tuss-ill-yo goggo gauk.

The following list of place name elements will help make your map reading a little easier:

Place Name Elements

Welsh	English	Example	Rough Pronunciation
aber	river mouth	Aberdaron	abb-er-darron
afon	river	Afon Dee	avv-on dee
bach or fach	small	Felinfach	velin-vach
bont or pont	bridge	Pontnewydd	pont-neh-with
bwlch	gap, pass	Bwlch	boolch
carreg	stone	Carreg Samson	karregg samson
cefn	ridge	Cefn-coed	kevenn-koid
coch	red	Castell Coch	kass-teth koch
coed	wood	Cefn-coed	kevenn-koid
cwm	valley	Cwmfelin-fach	koom-velin-vach
dinas	fort, city	Dinas-Emrys	dinnass emm-riss
du	black	Cwmdu	koom-dee
eglwys	church	Eglwyswrw	egg-lewis-oorroo
fawr or mawr	big	Fforest Fawr	forest vowr (rhymes with hour)
felin or melin	mill	Felinfach	velin-vach
croes or groes	cross	Croesgoch	croiss-goch
llan	church lands	Llanwrtyd	thlan-ooer-tid
llyn	lake	Llyn Brianne	thlin bree-annay
maes	field	Maesteg	mise-teg
mynydd	mountain	Mynydd Bach	munnith bach
pen	top	Pen-y-bont	pen-a-bont
rhyd	ford	Rhydfelen	reed-vellen

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Meaning of Welsh Signs

Welsh	English	Rough Pronunciation
Cymru	Wales	kumm-ri
Gwesty	Hotel	gwesty
Lon	Lane	lonn
Ffordd	Road	forth
Llwybr Cyhoeddus	Public Footpath	thlooy-beer kahoy-this
Siop	Shop	shop
Swyddfa'r Post	Post Office	sooeethva post
Gorsaf	Station	gorsav
Heddlu	Police	hethlee
Ysbyty	Hospital	uss-butty
Traeth	Beach	trye-th
ARAF	SLOW	arav
Dim ...	No ...	dim ...
Dim mynediad	No entry	dim munned-yad
Toiledau	Toilets	toy-led-eye
Merched	Ladies (toilet)	mair-kedd
Dynion	Gentlemen (toilet)	dunny-onn

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Useful Words & Phrases

English	Welsh	Rough Pronunciation
thanks	diolch	dee-olck
thanks very much	diolch yn fawr	dee-olck unn vowr
please	plis	please
OK	iawn	yown (rhymes with gown)
good morning	bore da	bor-er dah
good afternoon	prynhawn da	prin-hown dah
good evening	noswaith dda	noss-wythe-ah
good night	nos da	noss dah
hello	helo	hello
cheerio, goodbye	hwyl	who-ill
currant bread	bara brith	barrah breeth
leek soup	cawl cennin	cowl kennin

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The Goat pub Foot-note: If you think that Welsh is unpronounceable, then think on. In fact English is one of the most unphonetic languages. For instance the English '...ough' can be pronounced 10 different ways:- through, though, thought, tough, cough, borough, bough, hiccough, lough (pronounced 'och' as in loch), and hough ('ock'). The last is fairly archaic, but it does appear in the 1995 Concise Oxford Dictionary.