h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So what is the definitive guide to pronouncing the word Llandudno?

As a student it was always regarded as a posh place, it did have a M&S and Macdonalds - something that Bangor at the time did not.

I'm English, and therefore stand ready to be corrected by any Welsh speakers on this one, but I am a regular visitor to North Wales and I think it only polite to make an effort to pronounce Welsh placenames correctly - so many English people just say them how they read or otherwise mangle them. I think this shows disrespect for an ancient language and an ancient culture.

Anyway, now I've got that off my chest, my understanding is that the 'll' sound is best produced by non-Welsh speakers like myself by placing the tongue in the 'l' position and trying to hiss, giving something like 'thllan'. The 'u' is pronounced like the 'i' in hint, giving 'thllandidno'.

That's how I say it anyway, and I haven't got myself in too much trouble with the Welsh so far!

I'm english too, and was rather hoping a welsh speaker would be able to answer the question.

I live in Wales so I'll check it out for you at a party tonight- great topic of conversation eh? I think the Kebab is right though.

I'm Welsh and give you ten out of ten!

So why do some English folks (particularly from the Midlands) persist in saying "Land udd no"?

I thought it was something like that.
As for why it get called land-dud-no I guess it's that the ll sound is quite hard to make and u pronounced as i isn't what's expected.

Yes, I go for thlandidno or khlandidno, too.

There's two good UK audio goes at it here:-

http://www.forvo.com/word/llandudno/

Unlike the rather poor one from Webster's dictionary here:-

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggllan03.wav=Llandudno

There is the tale of the two nurses tending to a Welshman in hospital... the less-good looking of the two turned to her friend and said "Did you realise Mr Hughes has the word "Ludo" tattooed on his, you know, penis? I wonder what for?"

"well" said the better-looking of the two. "He tells me it's his home town. Whenever I bathe him, it always reads "Llandudno"!"