[Bryn-gwlad] Pronunciation of "Gwlad"

[Tim McDaniel]

Heather Rose Jones, aka Mistress Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn,
Harpy Herald (composer of the dance tune "Heralds In Love"),
has a PhD in medieval Welsh linguistics.  Sounds like we should be
swallowing the "w".

     ---------- Forwarded message ----------
     Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:40:32 -0700
     From: Heather Rose Jones <heather.jones at earthlink.net>
     To: tmcd at panix.com
     Subject: Re: Pronunciation of "Bryn Gwlad"

Word-initial "gw" _almost_ always represents a consonant cluster.
Technically, "gwlad" is a single syllable in Welsh, and is probably
best pronounced as if it were "GLAHD" except that you linger lovingly
on the "L" for a while.  The representation "goo-LAHD" will get you as
close as anything, as long as you remember that "goo" doesn't actually
count as an official syllable.  (This is the same principle by which
"Tangwystyl" is actually only two syllables.)

We actually have the writings of medieval Welsh grammarians on this
question, although they use a different set of words as examples.  In
the various 15th c. Welsh grammatical treatises, when they talk about
the definition of a syllable, they note:

"Some syllables are of one letter, such as _a_; and some of two, such
as _af_; some of three, such as _eur_; some of four, such as _kerd_;
some of five, such as _gwnaf_; some of six, such as _gwnawn_; some of
seven, such as _gwnaeth_; and there are never more letters in a single
syllable than that."

The words "gwnaf", "gwnawn", and "gwnaeth" are all conjugations of the
verb meaning "to do, to make" and demonstrate the same issues as the
opening of "gwlad'.

Does that help?

Tangwystyl

[in East Texas Welsh, "Tangwystyl" is six syllables -- DdL]