Hood

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of MieczysXaw Piotrowski and the cooperation of Jozef Popiel, Director of Biaiowieski National Park, Poland, who kindly allowed me to roam freely in the last primeval forest in Europe.

Many of the old Celtic words and names are strange to modern eyes, but they are not as difficult to pronounce as they might seem at first glance. A little effort-and the following rough guide-will help you enjoy the sound of these ancient words.

Consonants – As in English, but with the following exceptions:

c: hard – as in cat (never soft, as in cent)

ch: hard – as in Bach (never soft, as in church;

dd: a hard th sound, as in then

f. a hard v sound, as in of

ff. a soft f sound, as in off

g: hard – as in girl (never soft, as in George)

ll: a Gaelic distinctive, sounded as tl or hl on the sides of the tongue

r: rolled or slightly trilled, especially at the beginning of a word

rh: breathed out as if h-r and heavy on the h sound

s: soft – as in sin (never hard, as in his); when followed by a vowel it

takes on the sh sound

the soft – as in thistle (never hard, as in then)

Vowels – As in English, but generally with the lightness of short vowel sounds

a: short, as in can

a: slightly softer than above, as in awe;

e: usually short, as in met

e: long a sound, as in hey

is usually short, as in pin

is long e sound, as in see

o: usually short, as in hot

6: long o sound, as in woe

o: long o sound, as in go

u: usually sounded as a short i, as in pin;

u: long u sound as in sue

6: short u sound as in muck

w: sounded as a long u, as in hue; before vowels often becomes a soft

consonant as in the name Gwen

y: usually short, as in pin; sometimes u as in pun; when long, sounded

e as in see; rarely, y as in why)

The careful reader will have noted that there is very little difference between i, u, and y-they are almost identical to non-Celts and modern readers.

Most Celtic words are stressed on the next to the last syllable. For example, the personal name Gofannon is stressed go-FAN-non, and the place name Penderwydd is stressed pen-DER-width, and so on.