Family History - Derwas Back to BC

Website Design by SAM 365

Genealogy Places of Interest

A SHORT WELSH DICTIONARY

The Welsh language is very descriptive. A lot of names and place-names are made up of a description of the person or place, examples being ‘Pengwern – head of the swamp’ or ‘Betswy Coed – chapel in the trees’. The Welsh language does not use the letters J, K, Q, V, or Z but makes up for this by having sounds comprising of combined letters, such as ll, sounding as lth, dd sounding as th. They have additional vowels such as w, pronounced oo, y pronounced er. The letter u is pronounced i as in kit but with a sort of swing to it. There is often not a single word in English as a true meaning of a Welsh word but the following meanings may be useful :-   

Many Welsh names and their English pronunciations are similar and can be easily identified, eg Huw and Hugh. However many are different and some are listed below. The name Ial meaning Yale was a Lordship in N.E. Wales and a University Founder.
 

Many place names in Welsh can be accurately guessed because of their similarity to English when said with an English pronunciation, but for Genealogists and interested readers some of the more unusual ones follow.
 

Then we come to days and dates. In Welsh a written number is the same as for the majority of countries in the Western Block, but as with these countries the pronunciation is different. Months have abbreviations as do the English but there is quite a difference when it comes to weekdays, as in Welsh the lower case word for day (dydd) is followed by the day's name. In Welsh a word can often change when it is preceded or followed by a vowel or female meaning, so bear with me on the following :-