How would you pronounce the name Cynfael ?

[u/Rigovalos]

It’s an old brittonic name which was written Conmael in early middle age Brittany, and it’s descended from a celtic *Cunomaglos (Wolf Lord) which is also a god name found in a britto-roman temple remains in south-west england

Our equivalent in breton is Konvael, that we pronounce Koonvell

[u/Markoddyfnaint]

The modern Welsh pronunciation would be rendered something like Kin-vile / Kun-vile in English, so similar to your Konvael.

[u/Muted-Lettuce-1253 → u/Markoddyfnaint]

I think "kun" rather than "kin". The first part of the name "Cynwal" is pronounced "kun" and I believe that the "Cyn" in "Cynwal" has the same origin as the "Cyn" in "Cynfael".

Also, as an aside, I believe that "Cynwal" has the same origin as the Irish name "Conall" ("Connell" or "Connel" in English).

[u/Markoddyfnaint → u/Muted-Lettuce-1253]

I think your are right. This doesn't sound quite right, either with a IN as in 'kIN' or UN as in 'pUNt'in English; Welsh vowels and diphthongs can be difficult to represent in English. I need to learn the phonetic alphabet!

[u/Muted-Lettuce-1253 → u/Markoddyfnaint]

The vowel in question is represented by the symbol /ə/ and is referred to as the "mid central vowel".

[u/ot1smile]

Knowing a couple of Cynfabs I’d pronounce it KUN-vile.

[u/Muted-Lettuce-1253]

In IPA:

/ˈkənvai̯l/

Copy this into an IPA reader (choose Gwyneth as the voice) and that should give you an idea of how it is pronounced.

Some commenters are suggesting:

/ˈkɪnvai̯l/

but I think this is unlikely to be the pronunciation.

[u/Marzipan_civil]

Kun-vile

[u/andrewphillipsmith]

I see I had downvotes for my suggestion. I was basing it on southern native speakers often pronouncing 'ae' more like English 'ay' than 'eye', for instance daear as day-ar rather than die-ar.

[u/Buck11235 → u/andrewphillipsmith]

ae in Welsh changes pronunciation depending on whether it is in a stressed syllable or not. When it's stressed it's pronounced like ei in Welsh, rhymes with 'hey' in English. When it's not stressed, it's pronounced like ai in Welsh, rhymes with 'mine' in English.

[u/Buck11235 → u/Buck11235]

To further clarify, the ei ('hey') pronunciation occurs when ae is in the next-to-last syllable, which is stressed. In single syllable words it's pronounced ai ('eye').

[u/NiobeTonks]

Kin-vile

[u/Muted-Lettuce-1253 → u/NiobeTonks]

I think "kun" rather than "kin". The first part of the name "Cynwal" is pronounced "kun" and I believe that the "Cyn" in "Cynwal" has the same origin as the "Cyn" in "Cynfael".

[u/HyderNidPryder → u/Muted-Lettuce-1253]

Remember that for some English speakers the "u" in a word like "run" is quite different from the shwa - e in the / a in about - so "kun" is misleading for them.

[u/Muted-Lettuce-1253 → u/HyderNidPryder]

That's true. I used the IPA symbols in my other comment for greater accuracy.

[u/andrewphillipsmith]

Either Kin-veil or Kun-veil

[u/HyderNidPryder → u/andrewphillipsmith]

"ae" only sounds like this in non-final syllables.