Welsh orthography

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Welsh orthography uses 29 letters (including eight digraphs) of the Latin script to write native Welsh words as well as established loanwords.[1][2]

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A B C CH D DD E F FF G NG H I J L LL M N O P PH R RH S T TH U W Y
Titlecase forms
A B C Ch D Dd E F Ff G Ng H I J L Ll M N O P Ph R Rh S T Th U W Y
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a b c ch d dd e f ff g ng h i j l ll m n o p ph r rh s t th u w y

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 letter ⟨j⟩ has only recently[when?] been accepted into Welsh orthography: for use in words borrowed from English which retain the /dʒ/ sound, even when it originally was not represented by ⟨j⟩ in English orthography, as in garej ("garage") 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").[a]

The letters ⟨k, q, v, x, z⟩ are sometimes used in technical terms, like kilogram, volt and zero, but in all cases can be, and often are, nativised: cilogram, folt and sero.[3]

  1. ^ "Yr Wyddor Gymraeg/The Welsh Alphabet". Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Alphabets". Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  3. ^ Thomas, Peter Wynn (1996) Gramadeg y Gymraeg. Cardiff: University of Wales Press: 757.


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