Pronunciation of 'y'

Welsh General / Questions
#1

I’ve noticed that there is a consistent difference in the way that the letter ‘y’ is pronounced by Aran and Catrin when it’s not in the final syllable. An example being ‘hynna’. Aran pronounces it as per ‘rule book’ but Catrin pronounces it as ‘i’. Obviously it’s a very small and unimportant point but I’m just curious as to whether Catrin’s apparent ‘rule breaking’ is a regional difference though I’ve not seen mention of it anywhere.

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#2

That sounds more like what would happen with ‘hynny’ - I’ll often be more slangy on that, while Catrin will often tend towards a more ‘proper’ ‘hyn-ee’…

#3

GPC has hynna as being two words run together - hyn + yna. If you read it conservatively, as a contraction of two separate words, then hyn gets the monosyllabic clear y pronunciation: if you read it as one word, following the usual rules, it doesn’t.

I think Catrin consistently does the former & Aran the latter.

ETA: tl;dr - he says hynna, she says hyn 'na.

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#4

I just noticed the difference when reviewing the later few challenges in level 1 (e.g. at around 11.30 in 22) and it was one of those bitty things that keeps niggling from time to time so I thought that I’d try and put it to bed. :thinking: Similar thing happens with Aran’s and Catrin’s ‘llyfr’. :wink:

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#5

Yup - although that’s apparently because Aran has a bad habit of pronouncing it wrong!
It’s come up before in this thread: Hynna

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#6

Thanks Richard. :+1:

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