Welsh phonology

ThephonologyofWelshis characterised by a number of sounds that do not occur inEnglishand are rare inEuropean languages,such as thevoiceless alveolar lateral fricative[ɬ]and severalvoiceless sonorants(nasalsandliquids), some of which result fromconsonant mutation.Stressusually falls on thepenultimate syllablein polysyllabic words, while the word-final unstressed syllable receives a higherpitchthan the stressed syllable.

Consonants

Welsh has the followingconsonantphonemes:

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Dorsal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m			n̥	n					ŋ̊	ŋ
Stop	p	b			t	d	(tʃ)	(dʒ)			k	ɡ
Fricative	f	v	θ	ð	s	(z)	ʃ				χ		h
Trill					r̥	r
Approximant										j	(ʍ)	w
Lateral					ɬ	l

Symbols in parentheses are eitherallophones,or found only inloanwords.The sound/z/generally occurs in loanwords, e.g.sŵ/zuː/('zoo'), although this is usually realised as/s/innorthern accents,e.g./suː/.The postalveolar affricates/tʃ/and/dʒ/occur mainly in loanwords, e.g.tsips/tʃɪps/('chips') andjeli/ˈdʒɛli/('jelly'), but also in some dialects as developments from/tj/and/dj/,e.g./dʒaul/fromdiafol/ˈdjavɔl/('devil'). Thevoiceless nasals/m̥n̥ŋ̊/occur mostly word-initially, as a consequence ofnasal mutation.These nasals have recently been interpreted as sequences of/mnŋ/+/h/.Initial/χw/is colloquially realised as[ʍ]in the south, e.g.chwech/χweːχ/('six') pronounced[ʍeːχ].

[ç]results from/j/when preceded by/h/,often as a result ofh-prothesisof the radical word, e.g.iaith/jai̯θ/'language' becomesei hiaith[ɛiçai̯θ]'her language'.

The stops/ptk/are distinguished from/bdɡ/by means ofaspirationmore consistently than byvoicing,as/bdɡ/are actually devoiced in most contexts. This devoiced nature is recognised in the spelling of/spsk/as⟨sb sg⟩,although/st/isorthographically⟨st⟩for historical reasons.

The fricatives/vð/tend not to be pronounced in certain contexts, e.g.nesaf/nɛsav/('next') realised as/ˈnɛsa/ori fyny/iːˈvənɨ/('up') frommynydd/mənɨð,mənɪð/('mountain'). Historically, this occurred so often with thevoiced velar fricativethat it disappeared entirely from the language. The occurrence and distribution of the phoneme/ʃ/varies from area to area. Very few native words are pronounced with/ʃ/by all speakers, e.g.siarad/ˈʃarad/('talk'), although it appears in borrowings, e.g.siop/ʃɔp/('shop'). In northern accents, it can occur when/s/precedes/iːj/,e.g.es i/ˈeːʃi/('I went'). In somesouthern dialectsit is produced when/s/follows/ɪ/or/iː/,e.g.mis/miːʃ/('month'). The voiceless fricative/χ/is realised as uvular except by some southwestern speakers, who produce the sound in the velar region as[x].

The/r/phoneme is reportedly pronounced as thevoiced uvular fricative[ʁ]by some speakers inDyfedandGwynedd,in a pronunciation known astafod tew('thick tongue').

In some dialects of north-western Welsh, the/l/phoneme is consistentlyvelarisedor "dark" ([ɫ],not to be confused with[ɬ]) in all positions,but remains unvelarised or "clear" ([l]) in the south, except in rare exceptions where[ɫ]is found after/d/,e.g.dlos[dɫos]'pretty'.

Vowels

A chart plotting the vowelformantsof a Welsh speaker fromBangor, Gwynedd

Thevowelphonemes of Welsh are as follows:

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ	iː	ɨ̞	ɨː	ʊ	uː
Mid	ɛ	eː	ə		ɔ	oː
Open			a	aː

The vowels/ɨ̞/and/ɨː/merged with/ɪ/and/iː/in southern dialects, but are retained in northern dialects. In all dialects, the contrast between long and short vowels is found in stressed penultimate syllables of polysyllabic words or in monosyllabic words. Word-final vowels show a contrast betweenvowel qualityrather thanlengthproper, e.g.ysbyty/əsˈbə.tiː/is realised as[əsˈpə.ti]with final short[i]rather than with final long[iː].

The vowel/ə/does not occur in the final syllable of words (except a few monosyllabicproclitics). It is always pronounced short except when emphasised in the name of the lettery.

The long counterpart to short/a/is sometimes misleadingly transcribed/ɑ/.This is often found in solely quality-distinctive transcriptions to avoid using a length mark. The actual pronunciation of long/a/is[aː],which makes the vowel pair unique in that there is no significant quality difference. Regional realisations of/aː/may be[æː]or[ɛː]in north-central and (decreasingly) south-easternWalesor sporadically as[ɑː]in some southern areas undoubtedly under the influence of English.

Diphthongs	Second component
First component	front	central	back
close	ʊi	ʊɨ	ɪu,ɨu
mid	əi/ɛi,ɔi	əɨ/ɛɨ,ɔɨ	əu/ɛu,ɔu
open	ai	aɨ,aːɨ	au

The diphthongs containing/ɨ/occur only in northern dialects; in southern dialects/ʊɨ/is replaced by/ʊi/and/ɨu,əɨ~ɛɨ,ɔɨ,a(ː)ɨ/are merged with/ɪu,əi~ɛi,ɔi,ai/.There is a general tendency in the South to simplify diphthongs ineveryday speech,e.g. Northern/ɡwaːɨθ/corresponding to/ɡwaːθ/in the South, or Northern/ɡwɛiθjɔ/and Southern/ɡwiθɔ/.

Stress and pitch

Stressin polysyllabic words occurs most commonly on thepenultimatesyllable,more rarely on the final syllable (e.g. verbs ending in -áu).Exceptions can arise in relation to borrowings from foreign words, such asambiwlansandtestament(both stressed on the first syllable). According to its positioning, related words or concepts (or evenplurals) can sound quite different, as syllables are added to the end of a word and the stress moves correspondingly:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
ysgrif	/ˈəsɡrɪv/	"article, essay"
ysgrifen	/əsˈɡrivɛn/	"writing"
ysgrifennydd	/əsɡrɪˈvɛnɪð/	"secretary"
ysgrifenyddes	/əsɡrɪvɛnˈəðɛs/	"female secretary"
ysgrifenyddesau	/əsɡrɪvɛnəðˈɛsai/	"female secretaries"

Note also how adding a syllable toysgrifennyddto formysgrifenyddeschanges the pronunciation of the second⟨y⟩.This is because the pronunciation of⟨y⟩depends on whether or not it is in the final syllable.

Stress on penultimate syllables is characterised by a lowpitch,which is followed by a high pitch on the (unstressed) word-final syllable. In words where stress is on the final syllable, that syllable also bears the high pitch.This high pitch is a remnant of the high-pitched word-final stress of earlyOld Welsh(derived from original penultimate stress inCommon Brittonicby the loss of final syllables); the stress shift from final to penultimate occurred in the Old Welsh period without affecting the overall pitch of the word.