The phrase for eager

In lesson 10 of course 1, there is a problem with the Welsh word for “eager”. The indistinct sound on this part of the lesson means that I cannot pick up what is being said. Can anybody please enlighten me on what the phrase structure is

The word is “awyddus”, and to my ears it sounds (as written in English) like “hour this”.

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In south that “u” is pronunced more like “e” so awəddes. So, no “r” in the word actually.

Well, at least I hear it so and I speak it so though.

I hope this helps.

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Correct (as far as I know). Maybe I should have mentioned that I grew up in Birmingham, and I pronounce my “hour” without an “r”! To my Brummie ears, “awyddus” sounds like “hour this”… !

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How on earth did you get that upside down “e” to show the schwa? You rally do have a lot of tricks up your sleeve! :grin:

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it is so simple. I’ve searched for the sign on Internet and copied it in here. No trick really though. I could also look up in charmap on my PC but was just too lazy to do that. :slight_smile:

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This is one that Gweiadur has the sound for:

http://www.gweiadur.com/en/Pawb/awyddus

I have to check later if it sounds a bit like mine recording at all. When posted my recording I all of a sudden thought it is aweful but what it is it is … let it be there. :slight_smile:

It sounds like ‘hour this’ with my S Cumbrian accent too, though I hadn’t thought of it that way. I think the only time you hear the r in hour is when the next word starts with a vowel. Now I’m thinking about it, there’s quite a few accents that ‘hour this’ wouldn’t work in. Isn’t language interesting!

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That’s one of those words that had me completely flummoxed the first time I heard it! I would describe the pronunciation as something like “uh-wuh-this”. Tatjana’s recording does a good job of it.

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I know what South Cumbrian sounds like (extended family live there), so I know what you are getting at here.

The only thing is that in the Welsh, the stress would be on that “y” sound (last but one syllable) whereas in South Cumbrian “hour this”, I think the stress would be more on the “this”.

Very few English (meaning English in England) accents have a clear “r” sound. Parts of Lancashire I believe, and some of the West Country. At one time, Gloucester (where I was born) had it, but I think it’s much less evident now.

Sorry to hear Gloucester is losing its accent!! Is TV the reason for everyone getting to sound much the same? (Very gradually!)
.p.s. I have a tendency to say English ‘u’ for Cymraeg ‘y’ unless it’s a word like ‘dyn’, or a last syllable like Pontyprydd. I believe llyfr is ‘llifr’, but I still naturally say ‘llyfr’ with an English ‘u’. @aran comments?

When I was small, I first came across Llyfr with and English i, and then in school, I was taught Llyfr with an English U and it has stuck a bit - these things fry my brain a bit sometimes, because I’m undoing some things and resetting them to how I first heard them. I used to get everyone in hysterics in school because I used to say wee for egg - (that’s what I would say in the house), but in school it was meant to be an oy.

You would think some of the teachers would have stood up for me, rather than let me feel the fool, but there you are. I think that has something to do with my hesitancy in trying to speak over the years (total confusion) - I used to look the other way when anyone asked me to speak in class, because I thought my pronounciations were all wrong, when actually I can now see they were probably closer to normal in the first place.

Lots of other ones, but another one I was more used to hearing was Curiad - with an English U sound - rather than cariad

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I am so sorry for the little you! I know exactly what it is like to sound different from everyone else, but I was a self-confident ‘Hermione’ type and a good mimic. I soon sounded like the others and, later, used whichever accent was most likely to get me what I wanted!! (Part in school play, accent ‘rough-edged-hint of Yorks’, delivery youthful and strong - (at girls’ school) - got me Bolingbroke in Richard II rather than John of Gaunt! Of course, I was much older then an no longer in Yorkshire!! Don’t ask me why that play was picked for a load of girls!!!