FFFFound
Out of context: Reply #41
- Started
- Last post
- 368 Responses
- ********0
Welsh is one language that gives Dutch a run for its tongue-twisting money. The "ll" sound is a real bear. From what I can tell, it sounds like a soggy "htl" coming around the corner of one's tongue.
So "Llewellyn" would be pronounced in phonetic English something like "HTLOO-weh-htlun"... "y" often sounding like a short "u" as in "run".
Sometimes I think people try to make their native language virtually unpronounceable to the outsider.
gramme
(Aug 23 07, 13:28)Ahah. i love this, man!
I'm a bit of a linguistics nerd, you know, and I'm a lazy one too, to tell the truth. but I think I can honestly ease up this dispute. For a better tomorrow.
It's a bit nonsense (no offense pls) saying that the welsh is harder than dutch in its "tongue-twists" showing the welsh "ll" against the dutch "ghl"
that would be like having the asturian "chxixón" for the spanish "Gijón"
thing is that welsh, like asturian it's not harder: it's older.
Welsh, such as Basque and the old languages of iberia like Asturian, Leonese, Gaelecian-Portuguese are the oldest living languages in Europe.
Of these of course, Basque is the oldest language of all, still untouched by other languages. This is the main aspect that Basques defend in their fight against the castillian. I think it's an honest fight with the wrong methods, but i'm no one to judge.
As Asturian-Leonese and Gaelecian-Portuguese suffered modification from Latin, the Basque language maintained its own specificity - probably because it was a remote region - or because they were already claiming what they claim now.
Anyway, the "ll" the "ghl", the "gn", the "lh", the "ñ" or "nh" are western (celtic) phonems. that's why most historians (above the the sound of the crowd) claim that Iberia and the British Isles were home to native tribes that endured roman and danish occupation.