Welsh speakers - pronouncing 'LOWRI"???

[missjackson]

It's 'LOW'-ree, am I right? Low as in opposite of high?
People seem to be saying 'L-ow-ree' (Ow as in ouch) but maybe I am just not finding the right welsh speakers, or for some reason that TV presenter says her name like that and now everyone thinks that's correct.
I like both ways actually, but I just need to know the right one! We live in Wales, are both half Welsh, but not welsh speakers.

No it's Low as in rhymes with now. I grew up in Wales and attended a welsh/English school....so was taught Welsh until the age of 13 or so. I'm not fluent but have known a few Lowri's.

I am Welsh and have always pronounced the 'Low' bit to rhyme with WOW, not as the opposite of high.

Low (rhymes with how) re

It is LOW-ree, as you say in the OP. not rhyming with 'now' at all. The Welsh pronunciation is Low-ree.

Gosh - xposts with 3 people who are wrong! I have just checked with my Welsh speaking workmate and it's definitely Low (rhyming with Bow).

I'm Welsh and have only known it be pronounced as LOW (opposite of high) REE

It's Low as in the opposite to high. Welsh pronounce each letter. So, in actual fact its "low ooo ree" the letter "w" is an "oo" sound in welsh.

OK, now I'm really confused! So, just to check, duellingfanjo does your welsh speaking workmate mean LOW rhyming with BOW (the sort your poodle would wear) or BOW like bow down (ie also rhymes with how and now)?

I know sometimes there are differences between north and south Wales pronunciation so maybe that accounts for it?

Hmmm, the search continues.... Thanks for all your help!

Sort of - DH's Welsh auntie pronounced Salford artist 'Lowry' as 'low' (opposite) to high). She was from Swansea.

Welsh friend from near Rhyl pronounces it as 'low' rhymes with how.

I'm from Wrexham North Wales and for me is Lowri as in how.

I'm on Anglesey, which is north Wales, but has its own set of rules

I think it could be a South/North difference.

My cousin is called Lowri - we pronounce it Lowry like the artist. Also north Wales here!

I have a close friend called Lowri. Welsh is her first language and she lived near Bangor for the first 15 years of her life. Her name is pronounced Lo - ree and her nn is Lo. She blames Lowri Turner, the presenter, for people mispronouncing her name!

missjackson, it's Low as in Bow, the kind your poodle would wear. Really it is, that's the proper Welsh pronunciation.

It's common for even Welsh people to pronounce it wrong just like they do with aneurin, thinking it's a-nye-rin when it's actually a-neigh-rin. The Welsh alphabet/language comes with its own set of rules.

It's true that lots of welsh people name their children with names they can't pronounce properly or which have been used for famous people but pronounced incorrectly.

Duelling is right and speaks sense .

I am North Wales and as I said further up...we say Lowri like "bow-ri"...but bow as in take a bow not what a poodle wears.

here you can hear how to pronounce it correctly.

Thanks everyone! DF thanks especially for the pronunciation clip, that's brilliant! So it probably is a genuine case of both ways are okay, even if Lo-ree is officially correct. Which doesn't really help me!

Give the choice, I like Lo-ree the best, but I can't face a lifetime of correcting people and not sure that's fair to inflict on her anyway! Maybe best avoided then... shame.

One of my favourite Welsh names is Iona but it's pronounced Yona and I know most people would say eye-oh-na. Similarly Lois (loys) which people pronounce Low-is.

That clip though...it has such a heavy accent! And that's the reason...I mean just listen to the correct pronunciation of Rhys! here

How many English speakers say the popular name of Rhys like that!??

I won't even begin with Llyr!

Lowri...the way I say it with an English accent is natural. If I start imitating the voice on the website...well I sound silly. The voice on the website is not saying "Lowri" to rhyme with Toe...or bow...or blow...but its somewhere inbetween.

Doesn't vocabulary and pronunciation differ depending where you are in Wales - North, Mid or South? I had relatives in Welsh-speaking North Wales and English speaking North Wales, while dh's family comes from S Wales and the words used vary, let alone the spelling and pronunciation. I notice that site only gives Ieuan as the equivalent to John, btw, not Ifan - is Ifan not a perfectly good Welsh name?

I grew up in Wales with English as a first language, and had fairly fluent Welsh by the time I left high school (for the purposes of socialising, watching TV, reading books/newspapers etc). I am certain I have heard Welsh people pronounce Lowri both ways (well, approximately; you can't generally write out in English exactly how something is said in Welsh, just as you can't for French or Italian). I think I would read it out loud differently depending on whether it came in the middle of a Welsh sentence or an English one.

I think it's up to you OP. But if you choose the one that rhymes with MOW as in the lawn...then you'd better be prepared for people saying it "wrongly" a lot.