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

"Other languages are just flat-out jawbreakers and have no easy sounds at all -- Welsh comes to mind. Did you ever hear of vowels, Wales?"

I'm sorry but I must correct this stuff where I see it.

"Other languages are just flat-out jawbreakers and have no easy sounds at all"

Which languages? Most languages contain a lot of the same sounds (such as A,O,I,M,G,S,etc.). Languages can have their own sounds but do you seriously think that people would continue to speak a language that they can't pronounce?

Other languages may seem hard to you but this is just because you're not used to them.

"...have no easy sounds at all -- Welsh comes to mind. Did you ever hear of vowels, Wales?"

Welsh has 7 vowels - A,E,I,O,U,W,Y. I think it has a higher proportion of vowels per word than English.

As for pronounciation I tend to believe:- if you can speak a language then it's easy; if you can't speak a language then it's hard. Just because I can't speak French or pronounce it properly doesn't mean that 200 million people worldwide can't. You may find Welsh impossible to pronounce simply because you can't speak Welsh.
If you and I could not speak English then we would find it hard.



Re: Tongue Twisters - I don't know of any tongue twisters in Welsh, although there are plenty of examples of the Welsh 'playing' with their language. I'm sure that they could be constructed, it's just that the Welsh have gone in other directions.