Contrary to popular belief, the Welsh accent is not a singular entity, but a rich tapestry of diverse dialects. While many may immediately think of a specific accent when Wales is mentioned, our exploration will reveal the multitude of accents and dialects that grace the Welsh landscape.
What Are the Different Welsh Accents?
Let's start by recognising that there are many distinct Welsh accents. In the same way, there isn't a single Australian, New Zealand, British, or American accent; Wales is home to many different accents. If there are several London accents, there'll obviously be several Welsh accents.
Accents vary according to a person's location, socioeconomic background (sometimes called a sociolect), ethnic background, and even mother tongue. It should be noted that some accents will be different if the speaker isn't a native English speaker. After all, Welsh is spoken by many people in Wales, and people who speak English as a second language may have an accent related to their mother tongue rather than where they grew up.
Considering all this, we won't be able to cover every Welsh accent in a single article. Instead, we will group several regional and related accents by how linguists classify them.
Four distinct groups will guide our journey through Welsh accents: the North Welsh Accents, the South Welsh Accents, the West Welsh Accents, and the General Welsh Accents. Each group has its own unique characteristics that we will explore.
North Welsh Accents
North Welsh accents are also called Gog accents. This is because the Welsh for North Wales is Gogledd Cymru. You can even call it the North Walian accent.
This covers areas including Wrexham, Deeside, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Flint, Bangor, Llandudno, and Holyhead. Despite some of these places being very close to English cities like Manchester, the Northern Welsh accents aren't the same as Manchester accents.
This is a relatively large area for the UK to cover linguistically, as accents change starkly and rapidly across the country.
However, there are several constants across the accents of the people in the region.
Unlike other Welsh accents in the country's South, vowels in the South are typically more rounded and less likely to be pronounced like diphthongs.
Consonants are typically pronounced more clearly, which linguists believe has been influenced by the Welsh language, primarily spoken in the Western part of North Wales.
The Welsh language influence doesn't stop there, though. Thanks to the Welsh language, it's also more common for some North Welsh dialects to use Welsh loanwords and syntax.
The influence of Welsh accents extends to certain Liverpool accents, which were influenced by the accents of Welsh, Scottish, and Irish people.
South Welsh Accents
The South Walian accent is common in places across South Wales, like Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, and the Valleys, though these places also have their own accents.
The vowels in a South Walian Accent are more likely to be a diphthong or pronounced like two vowels. This is quite common in many Australian English accents, and you need to listen to a good Australian "no" to understand how a single vowel can sound like two.
In South Welsh accents, there's a sing-song quality that many people wrongly assume is common in every Welsh accent.
It should be noted that there are many notable differences in South Welsh accents between urban and rural settings. Urban centres like Cardiff and Swansea have more standardised accents due to cultural influences.
People in the Welsh Valleys, however, tend to retain a more pronounced regional accent that many people would associate with a Welsh accent.
Remember that all of these examples are still "Welsh" accents.
Here's the Welsh actor and TV presenter Rob Brydon talking about one particular Welsh accent.
West Welsh Accents
For those outside the UK, determiners like North, South, East, and West don't typically refer to exactly where you think they would.
In the case of West Wales, we're referring to the region of Pembrokeshire, which is at the country's southwestern tip.
In the very South of Pembrokeshire and southwestern Carmarthenshire in Wales, there's an area called Little England beyond Wales.
The Landsker Line is the linguistic border that separates this area from Wales. It isn't an official border and simply denotes the border between the English-speaking areas and Welsh-speaking areas in this region.
The effects of centuries of linguistic divisions on either side of this line can still be seen today. The area known as Little England beyond Wales has a much lower percentage of Welsh speakers than the areas immediately on the other side of the Landsker line.
The historical influence means that other English accents have heavily influenced the Little England beyond Wales accent and include far fewer Welsh phonetic features.
The vowel sounds share some similarities to Welsh. Still, they also include some characteristics from West Country English accents, the closest part of England to this part of Wales. After all, there are several different English accents, too, so this part of Wales doesn't just sound "English". After all, a Geordie accent won't sound anything like a West Country accent, but both accents are from England.
General Welsh Accents
Finally, we have some of the characteristics common to most accents across Wales and the characteristics that set them apart from many other accents around the UK like other English accents and Scottish accents.
Firstly, Welsh accents are non-rhotic, like many accents in England. This means that the letter "r" isn't explicitly pronounced after a vowel. In a sense, the "r" is pronounced because it changes the pronunciation of the vowel preceding it, but it isn't pronounced as an "r" would be at the start of the word, for example.
In most Welsh accents, this means that "cat" and "cart" would be pronounced differently, which they wouldn't be if the "r" was ignored.
All Welsh accents bear the indelible imprint of the Welsh language, the native tongue of Wales spoken by nearly 900,000 people worldwide. This linguistic heritage, deeply rooted in the Welsh culture, significantly shapes the accents and dialects of the region.
Elsewhere in the world, there are around 100,000 Welsh speakers in England, potentially up to 5,000 in Argentina, nearly 4,000 in Canada, and almost 2,000 in Australia. Of course, these smaller populations of Welsh speakers are unlikely to influence significantly the accents of these other places. Still, in Wales, there's a noticeable influence on the dialects and accents.
This influence extends to the syntax and vocabulary used, particularly in areas with higher percentages of native Welsh speakers. Loanwords from Welsh are also common in these areas, particularly for cultural references and everyday items.
The influence of the Welsh language also extends to the intonation of many Welsh accents across the country.
Some Welsh accents have a sing-song intonation, unlike the famously flat Brummie accent.
Famous People with Welsh Accents
We recommend listening to as many examples of Welsh accents as possible to better understand what Welsh accents sound like.
Luckily, there are plenty of famous Welsh people, including singers, actors, and celebrities. In most cases, however, it's best to listen to them in interviews, as singers and actors will tend to alter their accents while performing.
Tom Jones
The singer Tom Jones, who is from Pontypridd, has a South Welsh accent. He is famous for so many different songs, like "It's Not Unusual," "Delilah," and "Sexbomb." You can hear his accent loud and clear when speaking in interviews.
Here's an example of Tom Jones speaking.
Catherine Zeta-Jones
The actress Catherine Zeta-Jones also has a South Welsh accent and is from Swansea. By the way, she's not related to Tom Jones. The name "Jones" is incredibly common and is actually the most common in Wales, followed by "Davies" and "Williams."
While you can watch Catherine Zeta-Jones perform in movies like “Chicago” and “The Mask of Zorro”, you won't hear her Welsh accent.
Anthony Hopkins
The incredible actor Anthony Hopkins, famous for films like "The Silence of the Lambs," is from Port Talbot in Wales. He's also renowned for his South Welsh accent.
Again, look for him in interviews rather than in movies since most roles don't require a Welsh accent.
Learn More About Welsh Accents with a Tutor
If you'd like to learn more about different English accents from around the UK or the world, why not study them with an English or linguistics tutor?
If you need to learn an accent for a dramatic role, you can always work with a drama tutor or accent coach, too!
Search for what you want to learn on the Superprof website today and browse potential tutors' profiles.
Most of the tutors on the Superprof website offer their first session for free, so you can always try a few before choosing the right one.
You can also look for Welsh language tutors if this article on the Welsh accent has piqued your interest in the Welsh language.
With only a few thousand Welsh speakers in Australia, though, you may need to search for online tutors all over the world to find native Welsh language speakers!
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