Dear Peter,
I'm not sure what point you are making in your comments about Welsh
pronunciation. I don't speak Welsh, but there seem to me to be unwarranted
and perhaps unthought assumptions behind your remarks, for instance that
English pronunciation is readily deducible from the orthography, which is
certainly not the case. As colleagues will be aware, English presents great
difficulties to learners precisely because of the inconsistency of that
orthography.
Questions of naming are always tricky, of course, raising issues of control
as they do. "Little Orme", hm...
Beir beannacht,
Pat Coughlan
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Sent: 02 March 2007 10:36
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Subject: Re: Welsh pronunciation
Joseph Black wrote --
>I've just realized that this talk requires me to say the word
>"Rhiwledyn" aloud. I *think* the 'iw' is pronounced as if 'iu':
>but any advice from the experts on the list would be much appreciated.
My middle name is 'Estyn' (Welsh for 'hope') and for 58 years the family has
pronounced it 'Estin'. But I have been researching the activities of one of
"Shakespeare's" step-fathers in South Wales. He was based at Dyffryn in
Llanwynno, in the Cynon Valley and those words are pronounced 'Duff-rin'
(with a rolled 'r'), 'Klan-wunno' and 'Kun-non'
You could just chicken out and call the place by its English name, 'Little
Orme'.
Peter Zenner
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