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Welsh orthography AI simulator
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Hub AI
Welsh orthography AI simulator
(@Welsh orthography_simulator)
Welsh orthography
Welsh orthography uses 29 letters (including eight digraphs) of the Latin script to write native Welsh words as well as established loanwords.
The traditional names of the letters are a, bi, èc, èch, di, èdd, e, èf, èff, èg, èng, aets, i, je, èl, èll, èm, èn, o, pi, ffi (yff), èr, rhi, ès, ti, èth, u, w, y. In South Wales, where the letters i and u are pronounced identically, they are distinguished as i-dot and u-bedol (bedol means "horseshoe"). Thus the television channel S4C is pronounced ès pedwar èc. Informally, another way of saying the letters is often used, adding the sound [ɘ] after stop consonants and simply pronouncing the others: a, by, cy, ch, dy, dd, and so on.
In a Welsh dictionary, the Welsh order of letters is strictly observed, so that cyngor 'council' is found before cyhyrog 'muscular', and lori 'lorry' is found before llaeth 'milk'.
Welsh orthography makes use of multiple diacritics, which are primarily used on vowels, namely the acute accent (acen ddyrchafedig), the grave accent (acen ddisgynedig), the circumflex (acen grom, to bach, or hirnod) and the diaeresis (didolnod). They are considered variants of their base letter, i.e. they are not alphabetised separately. The Welsh alphabet also lacks ⟨K⟩ (ce, [keː]), ⟨Q⟩ (ciw, [kɪu̯]), ⟨V⟩ (fi, [viː]), ⟨X⟩ (ecs, [ɛks]), and ⟨Z⟩ (sèd, [sɛd]/[zɛd]).
Welsh borrows a number of words from English. Those words are spelled according to Welsh spelling conventions, for example: bws "bus", bwc "buck", bwced "bucket", car "car", nogin "noggin", gob "gob", slogan "slogan", fflanel "flannel", trwnt "truant", and gêl/geol/jael/jêl/siêl "gaol".
The letter ⟨j⟩ was only recently[when?] accepted into Welsh orthography: for use in words borrowed from English which retain the /dʒ/ sound, even when it was not originally spelled ⟨j⟩ in English, as in garej ("garage"), jiráff ("giraffe"), and ffrij ("fridge"). Older borrowings of English words containing /dʒ/ resulted in the sound being pronounced and spelled in various other ways, resulting in occasional doublets such as Siapan and Japan ("Japan").
The letters ⟨k, q, v, x, z⟩ are not part of the Welsh Alphabet. However, these letters are used in foreign proper names and their derivatives: Kantaidd, Zwinglïaidd. They are also sometimes used in technical and other specialized terms, like kilogram, queer, volt and zero, but in all cases can be, and often are, nativised: cilogram, cwiar, folt and sero.
The earliest samples of written Welsh date from the 6th century and are in the Latin alphabet (see Old Welsh). The orthography differs from that of modern Welsh, particularly in the use of ⟨p, t, c⟩ to represent the voiced plosives /b, d, ɡ/ non initially. Similarly, the voiced fricatives /v, ð/ were written ⟨b, d⟩.
Welsh orthography
Welsh orthography uses 29 letters (including eight digraphs) of the Latin script to write native Welsh words as well as established loanwords.
The traditional names of the letters are a, bi, èc, èch, di, èdd, e, èf, èff, èg, èng, aets, i, je, èl, èll, èm, èn, o, pi, ffi (yff), èr, rhi, ès, ti, èth, u, w, y. In South Wales, where the letters i and u are pronounced identically, they are distinguished as i-dot and u-bedol (bedol means "horseshoe"). Thus the television channel S4C is pronounced ès pedwar èc. Informally, another way of saying the letters is often used, adding the sound [ɘ] after stop consonants and simply pronouncing the others: a, by, cy, ch, dy, dd, and so on.
In a Welsh dictionary, the Welsh order of letters is strictly observed, so that cyngor 'council' is found before cyhyrog 'muscular', and lori 'lorry' is found before llaeth 'milk'.
Welsh orthography makes use of multiple diacritics, which are primarily used on vowels, namely the acute accent (acen ddyrchafedig), the grave accent (acen ddisgynedig), the circumflex (acen grom, to bach, or hirnod) and the diaeresis (didolnod). They are considered variants of their base letter, i.e. they are not alphabetised separately. The Welsh alphabet also lacks ⟨K⟩ (ce, [keː]), ⟨Q⟩ (ciw, [kɪu̯]), ⟨V⟩ (fi, [viː]), ⟨X⟩ (ecs, [ɛks]), and ⟨Z⟩ (sèd, [sɛd]/[zɛd]).
Welsh borrows a number of words from English. Those words are spelled according to Welsh spelling conventions, for example: bws "bus", bwc "buck", bwced "bucket", car "car", nogin "noggin", gob "gob", slogan "slogan", fflanel "flannel", trwnt "truant", and gêl/geol/jael/jêl/siêl "gaol".
The letter ⟨j⟩ was only recently[when?] accepted into Welsh orthography: for use in words borrowed from English which retain the /dʒ/ sound, even when it was not originally spelled ⟨j⟩ in English, as in garej ("garage"), jiráff ("giraffe"), and ffrij ("fridge"). Older borrowings of English words containing /dʒ/ resulted in the sound being pronounced and spelled in various other ways, resulting in occasional doublets such as Siapan and Japan ("Japan").
The letters ⟨k, q, v, x, z⟩ are not part of the Welsh Alphabet. However, these letters are used in foreign proper names and their derivatives: Kantaidd, Zwinglïaidd. They are also sometimes used in technical and other specialized terms, like kilogram, queer, volt and zero, but in all cases can be, and often are, nativised: cilogram, cwiar, folt and sero.
The earliest samples of written Welsh date from the 6th century and are in the Latin alphabet (see Old Welsh). The orthography differs from that of modern Welsh, particularly in the use of ⟨p, t, c⟩ to represent the voiced plosives /b, d, ɡ/ non initially. Similarly, the voiced fricatives /v, ð/ were written ⟨b, d⟩.