WikimediaAnyone who has ever been lost in Wales (and doesn’t speak the language) will know just how hard it is to try and describe where you are.
As you struggle to decipher how to pronounce a language that contains an incredible lack of vowels, you then have the whole issue of impossibly long place names (see Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch) to deal with.
FlickrHowever, the language does have its hidden gems. The Welsh word for microwave is the brilliantly descriptive ‘popty-ping’ and, I was informed by my Welsh speaking housemate, there is no way to pluralise the word ‘watch’ without saying ‘portable timekeeping devices’.
Anyhow, us non-Welsh speakers can probably all agree that, given how different the language is, it’s amazing we don’t need our passports to cross the border.
But just give some of these pronunciations a go anyway…
