How do you pronounce this name properly? In North America I think they would say looellen but I think the ll = cl in Welsh? Or am I mistaken in thinking it's a Welsh name?

ps. I'm not from the UK originally so cut me some slack ;)

loo well in? That's how I would pronounce it.

If you were in wales it'd be:

Lhwellin

But generally Llwelleyn is pronounced Luhwellin

I always heard that the Welsh pronounce it CLewellen. and no sheep jokes :hihi:

Originally posted by owdlad
I always heard that the Welsh pronounce it CLewellen. and no sheep jokes :hihi:

Yeah, its a like a soft 'c'

Try and pronounce "Lh" with C in mind and thats what it is :lol:

Very odd language ;)

How about 'Thlewellin'?

Originally posted by RPG
Yeah, its a like a soft 'c'

Try and pronounce "Lh" with C in mind and thats what it is :lol:

Very odd language ;)

Uh?

A soft 'c' is like an 's' as in ceiling.

Hum, its hard to explain lol.

C in Ceiling is ssee

The first L in LL is long like the c in ceiling

just start it with clearing your phlegm and launch straight into 'loo well in' :D (*clew-ellen)

You can practise with:
Llandudno (*clandidno),
Llanwrst (*clanroost)
Llangyfellach (*clangervella*c)
Penllergaer (Pent*c-legerr)

Now how about F???

Welsh FF = English F
Welsh F = English V! :confused:

It was compulsory to holiday in North Wales every year if you were brought up on Merseyside in the '70's :D

Mr Strix

I would say that the "LL's" are pronounced like the Ch sound in "loch" but adding an l (similar to the start of "clue" or "clock")

it'd sound almost Like "clue- eth-lan",

PT

The Welsh Studies Institute in North America Inc. has a good page here of how to pronounce welsh :

http://www.madog.org/dysgwyr/gramadeg/gramadeg1.html

some of the things listed in the Notes section at the bottom of the page are really weird, like there being no 'K' or 'Q' in Welsh. Must be weird e.g. playing scrabble [pick the K's and Q's out before playing ?] :confused:

Originally posted by rtapper
there being no 'K' or 'Q' in Welsh. Must be weird e.g. playing scrabble [pick the K's and Q's out before playing ?] :confused:
And scribbling 'L' on half the 'E's to even it up a bit?

It all depends on the context of its use. If it's a place name the LL is generally pronounced "cl" - as in "clandudno"

But if it's the name of a person it is usually pronounced with an "F" - so in this case it would be "Flew-ellin".

Are there many Llewellens in Sheffield then?

Originally posted by msmouse
Are there many Llewellens in Sheffield then? I thought that they would choose to stay in Wales, as it's a VERY Welsh name (probably of the breed who would be into burning English holiday cottages, or am I being a bit unfair?)

No, just offensive.

Originally posted by msmouse
Are there many Llewellens in Sheffield then? There are nine in Sheffield who aren't XD, so there's probably about twice that many. Hope none of the cottage burners live down your street 'mouse :shocked:

Soooooo everyone is just as confused as I am or what?? I think there's four different ways to pronounce it posted so far from louellen, cluellen to fluellen......

Any Welsh people around?

Originally posted by mitziwillow
loo well in? That's how I would pronounce it.

That's how I'd say it n'all:nod:

I can't claim to be Welsh speaking but my parents were - I'd say RPG's answer was spot on :



If you were in wales it'd be:

Lhwellin



Can't say I've ever heard any of my Welsh speaking relatives pronounce the Ll as Cl :suspect:

Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth just behind your top front teeth & sort of breath right from the back of your mouth into your cheeks & 'through' your tongue.

That probably doesn't help at all so stick with RPG ;)

Sorry if I offended any Welsh people on the forum by my last post – I actually had (have?) some very good friends who came from the place with the the long name on Anglesey (you know the one I mean - Llanfairpyllgwyngyll...gochgochgoch). The problem is that I also have friends who owned a holiday cottage near Portmadog in Wales, and as such was very concious of the evilness that pervaded the campaign of burning English holiday cottages in North Wales (‘come home to a real fire’ as the joke went at the time).

I love you really, Welsh people (but I’m still a little concerned about the sheep…).

Originally posted by Siân

Can't say I've ever heard any of my Welsh speaking relatives pronounce the Ll as Cl :suspect:


Siân,

Agreed - it's a poor approximation. It maked me cringe when I hear BBC announcers pronounce LLandudno as Clandudno...Clandidno might be excusable :)

I think you need to live for a while amongst Welsh speakers to master the pronunciation; I worked at it because it was nice to 'fit in' and not be sniggered at by the locals.

I was told that when I could pronounce Dwygyfylchi without having to think about it then I was getting somewhere, but the 'll' sound seems to be the hardest thing to master for most non-Welsh speakers.

The welsh 'Ll' is pronounced 'Thl', but with the tongue further back on the roof of the mouth giving it a softer sound.

I used to live in Oswestry in Shropshire right on the Welsh border and made friends with a lot of Welsh people.

Sorry if I offended any Welsh people on the forum by my last post – I actually had (have?) some very good friends who came from the place

None were Sons of Glendower then ;)

msmouse you are a gem :hihi:

Originally posted by rtapper
The Welsh Studies Institute in North America Inc. has a good page here of how to pronounce welsh :

http://www.madog.org/dysgwyr/gramadeg/gramadeg1.html

some of the things listed in the Notes section at the bottom of the page are really weird, like there being no 'K' or 'Q' in Welsh. Must be weird e.g. playing scrabble [pick the K's and Q's out before playing ?] :confused:

It's not a problem, when playing Scrabble in Welsh you would use a Welsh version which has no q's and k's. Different languages have different editions of Scrabble, with scientifically worked out numbers and scores of each letter depending on how often they occur in the language.

Exactly, it's the same in spanish. 'ch', 'rr' 'n' (with a tilde over it) are just some of the letters which don't exist in English.

Originally posted by fhain29
It's not a problem, when playing Scrabble in Welsh you would use a Welsh version which has no q's and k's. Different languages have different editions of Scrabble, with scientifically worked out numbers and scores of each letter depending on how often they occur in the language. I've looked on the net, but couldn't find any welsh scrabble :(

What's welsh scrabble in welsh? :D

It's just a weird language (and the most heavily funded, for such a small percentage of speakers... could have kept the pits open with all the money they spend on it). I am in Llanelli quite a lot, and most people there pronouce the first double L as 'Cl' but not the second one, which people seem to pronounce as almost a 'Th' sound.

Best idea, change your name to Smith.