Re: Describing the Welsh LL to non-linguists

As a kid I (L1 English Midlands-English) was always told to pronounce
it like < CL >.  I have also heard < HL > suggested as
an English approximation, and also '' sort of somewhere between CL and
HL''.



I have also sometimes heard it pronounced by non-Welsh speakers as <
THL > (i.e. /Tl/) when it is medial.  For example, you will
often hear we ignorant Saxons pronounce Llangollen as if it were spelt
(in English) as 'Clangothlen'



P.

--- On Fri, 14/11/08, Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...> wrote:
From: Arthaey Angosii <arthaey@...>
Subject: Describing the Welsh LL to non-linguists
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Date: Friday, 14 November, 2008, 7:39 AM

This may be a somewhat unusual request for Conlang-L, but it *is*
linguistics-related, so I'll ask anyway.

I'm writing a story for NaNoWriMo and in it, my main character trips
over pronouncing a word that starts with /ɬ/. How would a non-linguist
describe how it sounds or feels to pronounce? I'm not entirely sure
*I* am pronouncing /ɬ/ right, so your descriptions will also help me.
:) This is only mentioned in passing, since I'm not writing in the
Phonology Thriller genre ;) but I would still like to get the
description right.

Also, what transliterations are there besides "ll" for voiceless
lateral fricatives?


Thanks,
AA

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