Thanks a lot, the neu in the recording sounds like the ones in SSIW challenges and in the songs (aka my tutor Mr.Edwards) - that I usually refer to for pronunciation.
The fact is that when I try to understand what I hear on the radio I make my guesses and then try to understand if they make sense.
In this case I heard someone listing things like a phone number, an email, a Twitter account etc connecting them with what I heard as ne. Like neu without the u. An e more or less like in neb, beth, peth, fel (I don’t know how to make examples in English, there’s too many ways to write and pronounce vocals!)
I just wondered if it’s like beth becomes be, wedi becomes di, or gyda becomes da.
Sometimes (to avoid problems with whether or not people know IPA) you’ll see people refer to things in terms of these Lexical sets for English. Of course, it doesn’t work very well for discussing Welsh – unless you’re actually trying to do so with an English accent – given that the vowel of neu isn’t really the FACE vowel. But sometimes it might help: I understand what you said to mean that you heard it with something like the DRESS vowel, when that wasn’t quite what you expected to hear.
Right, that may work. But with all the tiny variations that exist (and I have heard speaking with people with different accents) I’m often not sure that the sound I normally use for an English word is correct! So I’m not sure of which word to use for comparison.
For example, I suspected (English vowel) of bed is like Welsh fel or neu, but not completely sure, so I prefer to compare to other Welsh words.(you said dress, that I’m pretty sure it’s same sound as bed so it would have probably been right.
There are some regional differences, in some quite rural areas I’ve heard “neu” pronounced like the English “nair” - but for the most part, like the English “nay”
The “correct” pronunciation of neu is - as others have said - rather like the english “nay.”
But also remember that, when someone is speaking fluently, and especially when listing off multiple things (like “this or that or the other”) the actual word neu will probably be said very quickly and thus, probably, come out sounding more like ne. If I just say that phrase in English, my “correct” pronunciation of “or” turns into 'r.
What’s the pronunciation of “Ofnadwy”? Or, I suppose, of “wy” in general? I know it’s one of those funny ones that changes depending on what precedes it, particularly if it’s a G, but how does it sound at the end of words?
Is it more like “ov-nad-oy” or “ov-nad-wee”? For that matter, how is the name “Myfanwy” pronounced? “Muh-van-wee” or “muh-van-oy”?
As someone who comes from Trefynwy, Sir Fynwy… I’d love to be able to give you a definitive answer - but I can’t! I hear it pronounced both ways by different people in different places.
Personally, I tend to use the ‘-wee’ pronounciation, but for instance the late, great historian John Davies always used the ‘-oy’ one.
Disgwyl is more of a southern thing and really means expect. It’s a slang way of saying look and is commonly used in the south. Not much help but that’s all I know ha.
@Sionned it makes sense!
However, in the challenges (that’s where I found it), it doesn’t really seem to mean expect, does it? You don’t look old enough - So chi’n disgwyl yn ddigon hen. They look lively - Maen nhw’n disgwyl yn fywiog They look like a real handful - Maen nhw’n disgwyl fel llond llaw go iawn.
Maybe as @Macky it’s just a very Southern thing…just like someone before was saying in the North people might not even have heard of dishgled for cup?
By the way it disgwyl fel they really love this dishg/disg sound in the South!
I’m afraid I got a bit intrigued when you said “slang”, so I did some digging.
In Edward Lhoyd’s famous book on the British languages including Cornish language in 1707 Archaeologia Britannica, Volume 1, page 234, he says that disgwyl in Welsh from the 13th/14th Century means, to look, to view or behold.
Hmm… .That is interesting! One of the things I like about Y Geiriadur Mawr is that it has a lot of “archaic” words - words that aren’t used any more or that have changed meanings. It also gives the definition first in Welsh, then in English. So I looked up disgwyl in GM and here’s what I found:
As a matter of interest, how do you pronounce “Clwyd”?
I ask simply because I remember on an old episode of Catchphrase, (which at one time I used to (try to ) listen to when it was broadcast on Radio Wales on one of the old AM frequencies (and reception here in Lloegr was pretty mediocre), and the presenter (Basil Davies or Cennard Davies) said slightly grumpily that he got annoyed with people pronouncing “Clwyd” as “Cloo-wid” (bit like the way the name of Anne Clwyd, the politician, used to be pronounced by English speakers, and that it was a single (dipthong) sound, not two sounds.
(so I’ve always been a bit paranoid about pronouncing it right ever since then! ).
EDIT: Oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t realise “clwyd” was a noun, as well as a name (“hurdle”, apparently). Gweiadur has a sound sample, for those who have access to it:
).