You should hear how bad Welsh sounds in my (slightly) Scottish accent. Some Welsh sounds (that were pointed out as “difficult”) are very easy for me, other sounds are absolutely impossible and are going to take an awful lot of practice to get right!
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Because it’s the language of fy nhadau— My grandfather whose name was GWYLLT before he moved to London (It was changed to GWILT because nobody could pronounce it) was Welsh and,even as a child I was always asking"What is the Welsh for that"… Always felt proud of my heritage. It’s also one of the languages coming out of “the mists of time”
Strangely on page 191 of the book "InSearch of Wales " by H.V. Morton It mentions Percy Bysshe Shelley coming to the house, Nant Gwyllt after his unfortunate marriage to Harriet Westbrook… My mother’s name was Marie Westbrook Gwyllt ! Not very interesting for people generally but exciting for us.
Margaret
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… because I live in the South Wales valleys, where I hear a lot of people speaking Welsh and, being nosy, I’d like to understand what they’re saying and maybe even join in the conversation if I’m feeling brave. And I’d like to understand programmes on S4C and Radio Cymru.
As far as I know, I have no Welsh ancestry but, having lived in Wales for almost 18 years now, I feel that I’m missing out on certain things because I can’t yet understand much Welsh. I also want to prove that the reason that I was rubbish at learning French and German at school was due to the teaching methods and not because I was especially bad at learning new languages.
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I want to be able to hold a conversation at work and also I love the language and how it sounds
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Oh dear, me too, and particularly that darn LL! I can say it reasonably well when it’s at the beginning of a word (like lle or llan or Lloegr), but when it’s in the middle or at the end — and especially if it follows an E — my tongue flaps and I get completely tangled up in knots. 
What, if anything, is the secret of the LL?
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Try this -
Step 1: slowly say the normal L sound preceded by all the vowel sounds you can think of -
e.g. AL, ALL, ELL, ILL, OL, OOL, ULL…
and pay attention to where your tongue is position everytime you make the L sound.
Step 2:
Now, repeat all those but this time, instead of making the L sound, keep your tongue exactly where it is (i.e. about to make the L sound), but just blow, letting the air go either side of your tongue.
Keep doing this with these one syllable combinations eventually getting faster, then when you feel you’ve got the hang of it, practice it in actual Welsh words where the LL comes in the middle or the end, again saying them slowly to begin with then speeding up.
You’ll soon be able to do it without even thinking about it 
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Very useful, well-explained advice, and I’m going to print it out. Diolch yn fawr iawn 
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The phrase that gets me in the biggest knot is “wythnol yn ôl” and all variants of it. Any advice on how to pronounce that?
…I want to keep bucking the trend (for mother tongue anglophones to be monoglot and thus to destroy less populous language communities) so as to be polite, not exclude myself through my own ignorance, visit Wales with respect.
One thing I hope will happen when I am a Welsh speaker:
A vision of possibility will open up:
- I will step off a train in Aberystwyth, or even somewhere more countrified, stay at a B&B and communicate in Welsh at every opportunity all weekend long…and/or…
- I will stay near Lake Bala and join a group who toggle between Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Breton and Welsh…and/or…
- I will find out and understand the situation of Deaf users of BSL in Wales, and how Deaf children in Welsh-speaking communities and schools get on…and /or…
- I will just use it online.
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Is there a particular sound in the phrase that’s unusually difficult?
(Edit for a misspelling. Ugh)
You’ll be reeling off “Llwy a Chyllell” before you know it! 
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No, it’s the entire phrase. The whole thing ties me up in knots, although the ending is the worst bit.
I don’t want to hijack this thread too much, and I don’t know how to spilt posts to a separate thread, so I’ll start a new topic and answer there
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There are loads of people in Wales who still can’t do the LL.
My son’s name is Llŷr. and when they call him, they call him CLEAR
Sorry, that doesn’t really help.
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Well, if I thought I was the oldest on here, I was wrong! Happy to meet you Nefyn! They say speaking more than one language is excellent for staving off the effects of old age on the brain!![quote=“margaretsteinmann, post:143, topic:10504”]
Not very interesting for people generally but exciting for us.
[/quote]
And anyone else who has thrilled at, “Hail to thee Blythe Spirit, Bird thou never wert, that, from heaven or near it pourest thy full heart!”
Not just a great poet but an exciting human being!
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I want to be a fluent Welsh speaker because 1) I am Welsh, 2) I now live in a Welsh speaking area and 3) I think it will be beneficial for me in the future
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I’ve lived in Wales for 40yrs and learnt some welsh in school as a child, but never became fluent, so now given the time and a GREAT opportunity with this inspiring course I’m giving it my best shot and look forward to the outcome of being an encouragement to other learners and to honour my welsh friends!
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When I was little we visited my Carmarthen grandparents 2-3 times a year. One day our grandmother took my brother, my sister and me to visit Mrs Jones next-door but one. I remember Mrs Jones shaking her head sadly and saying “No Welsh children any more, only English children.” Mrs Jones, it is 60 years too late to speak to you in Welsh, but this is for you.
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I want to be a Welsh speaker because I want to be a more active participant in my local community. I hope it will improve my confidence (and, incidentally, I gather that learning new skills helps keep dementia at bay. That ?!!@%% illness runs like Josh Griffiths in my family …)
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