Generally I’m ok with it and in fact two of my favourite phrases to say are ‘ychydig o ffrindiau’ & ‘bach yn arafach’.
My difficulty comes when there are two instances of ‘ch’ very close together as in ‘eich plant chi’. For me to do a nice ‘ch’ requires plenty of air and no dryness in the back of the throat; in ‘eich plant chi’ I can do the first ‘ch’ properly but the throat doesn’t recover in time for the second so it comes out as ‘hi’!
Is this something that improves with practice or do I have to resign myself to not being able to pronounce phrases like this at normal talking speed ( I can do it if I say it really slowly but the effect is a bit comical).
Maybe I’m just being picky but I want to get it right and I’m also thinking people maybe won’t understand what I’m trying to say if the ‘ch’ isn’t quite there.
My poor english throat can get very ‘blino’ in Level 2 challenge 1.
Don’t worry @tim-30. If you make a sound anything at all similar to ‘chi’, the person listening to you will hear ‘chi’ and there will be no confusion. Experienced speakers will know that the only word making sense there will be ‘chi’ so that’s what they will hear.
And you will gradually get better with practice. When I first started learning Welsh I always had to have a cup of tea first to moisten my throat enough to get the ‘ch’ sound out. I was convinced that was why some Welsh people seem to drink a lot of tea but I got better at it over time.
I remember both of those! Eich plant chi is definitely trickier than bach yn arafach. I think the former is because it’s at the beginning of the word and doesn’t trip so easily off the tongue (or out of the throat!!) and feels clunky. But bach yn arafach is pleasingly emphatic!
Practise is all you need!
Another bit of phrase I find very pleasingly emphatic and musical in rhythm is ‘fod yn fwy agored’; nothing to do with ‘ch’ but I love when it comes up in level 2. Has to be with the mutation though (not bod) for full effect. As a musician these coming across things is like finding treasures.
Welsh has lots of pleasingly rhythmic patterns, especially when it comes to things written in cynghanedd - I think you’ll find that is a whole treasure box just waiting for you!
but I got better at it over time.