
Transcription · Welsh
Welsh transcription services
Native Welsh transcribers for public sector meetings, legal proceedings, broadcast material, research interviews and corporate content. Northern and Southern varieties, bilingual Welsh-English recordings, verbatim or clean read, time-coded and format-ready.
About Welsh transcription
Find the right Welsh transcription for your project
Welsh is one of Europe's oldest living languages, spoken natively by over half a million people in Wales. It holds official status under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which places a duty on public bodies to deliver services in Welsh — making it the only language with de jure official status anywhere in the United Kingdom.
The language has distinct regional varieties, broadly Northern and Southern Welsh, differing in vocabulary, pronunciation and idiom. It also uses consonant mutations that change the opening letter of a word depending on grammatical context, a feature that makes automatic speech recognition markedly less reliable than it is for English.
At GoLocalise, we work with professional Welsh transcribers who are native speakers, and we manage every step — file intake and brief, transcription, time-coding, formatting and final delivery — so the transcript you receive is accurate to the audio and ready for its intended use.

Choose your format
Three ways to transcribe the same recording
The right one depends on what the transcript is for. If you are not sure, tell us the use case and we will recommend it.
Full verbatim
Every wordCaptures every utterance, pause and non-standard pronunciation exactly as spoken, including false starts and overlap.
Best for
Legal proceedings, research interviews, compliance content
Clean read
EditedRemoves filler words, false starts and repeated phrases for readability, while keeping meaning and speaker intent intact.
Best for
Corporate video, interviews for publication, content to be translated
Summarised
Key pointsCondenses the discussion into structured key points rather than a full record of the conversation.
Best for
Executive briefings, legal summaries, research documentation
What's included
What comes with every Welsh transcript
Welsh, English, or both
A source transcript, an English translation, or the two side by side. The translation is produced from the original audio, not from the transcript alone.
Timecodes
Stamped at the interval you need — per speaker turn, per paragraph or at fixed intervals, matched to your edit or subtitle workflow.
Speaker identification
Every turn attributed, by name where you supply them or by role where you don't — including through overlap.
Proofreading pass
A second native Welsh linguist reads the transcript against the audio before it reaches you.
Terminology kept
Legal, medical or technical vocabulary rendered to the convention your sector uses, not paraphrased.
Your format
Plain text, Word, PDF, SRT, VTT or a client-specific template — tell us the next step.
How it works
One project manager, from brief to delivery
A structured workflow, built so accuracy and confidentiality are verified at each stage rather than assumed at the end.
File intake and brief
We review your audio or video, confirm the transcript type (verbatim, clean read, time-coded), and note any terminology, speaker labels or formatting you need.
Transcriber assignment
We match your content to a native Welsh transcriber with the right background, whether legal, medical, corporate or media.
Transcription and QA
The transcriber works directly from your files. A second linguist reviews the transcript against the audio for accuracy, speaker identification and consistency.
Delivery
Formatted transcripts in your chosen format, whether plain text, SRT, VTT or a client-specific template, on budget and on time.
For multi-speaker research, hearings or archive projects, we assign a coordinated team and agree milestones up front.
Who we work with
Industries that rely on Welsh transcription
A written record is a compliance requirement in some sectors and an accessibility one in others. These are the Welsh briefs we see most.
Legal & compliance
Hearings, depositions and arbitration, transcribed verbatim and formatted to requirement.
Automotive & electronics
Technical briefings, supplier negotiations and training material.
Broadcast & media
Interviews, documentaries and archive footage, with subtitle-ready templates.
Market research
Focus groups and interviews, including sessions with heavy speaker overlap.
Business & shared services
Client calls, process documentation and training material.
Academic & research
Lectures, field interviews and research material.
Confidentiality
Who hears your Welsh audio
Welsh transcription often means board material from a head office in the head office, arbitration, pre-release production audio or research interviews recorded on the understanding they stay private. So who hears it matters as much as how accurately it is captured.
Your files are uploaded through an encrypted system, handled by a named Welsh transcriber under NDA, and never fed into public speech-to-text tools. We will sign your own confidentiality agreement, follow your retention rules, and delete everything on delivery if your policy requires it.
Encrypted upload
No loose files over email.
NDA as standard
Yours or ours, before we start.
No public AI tools
Your audio never trains anything.
Deletion on request
Files removed on delivery if you need it.
Welsh specifics
The first letter of a Welsh word is not fixed
Welsh mutates the opening consonant of a word according to grammatical context. Cath (cat) turns up as gath, nghath and chath. Cymru turns up as Gymru and Nghymru. Same word, four different first letters, and all of them correct in their place. A transcriber who does not know this either writes what an English-trained ear thinks it heard, or silently normalises the form and changes the grammar.
The consequence is specific to transcription, and it is the one clients discover late. A Welsh transcript is not searchable if the reader does not know about mutation. Someone running a find on Cymru through forty pages of minutes will not match yng Nghymru, and will conclude the subject never came up. It is also why automated tools struggle: the model has to recover a base form from an initial letter that is not its own. We transcribe the mutated form as spoken and, where the document has to be searched or indexed, note the base form alongside it.
Then there is the regional split. Northern and Southern Welsh differ in everyday vocabulary — rŵan against nawr for "now", llefrith against llaeth for "milk" — as well as in pronunciation and idiom. Standard written Welsh covers most general content, but if the audio carries a strong regional accent or dialect-specific terms, we assign a transcriber from that region. Tell us where the recording was made and we will match it.
Transcription rates
Professional Welsh transcription
Best for clean read transcripts of corporate video, interviews and internal communications.
- Native Welsh transcriber
- Verbatim or clean read
- Speaker identification
- Proofreading pass
A complete managed service for legal proceedings, multi-speaker research and longer-form content requiring verbatim, time-coded or translated deliverables.
- Everything in Standard
- Subject-specialist linguist
- Timecodes and speaker IDs
- Welsh and English in one pass
Priced by runtime, audio quality, number of speakers and turnaround, and backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us a sample for an exact, no-obligation quote.
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What happens after the transcript
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Most common questions
Which Welsh dialect should the transcriber be familiar with?
Most general content works with standard Welsh, but Northern and Southern varieties differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and idiom. If your audio features a strong regional accent or uses dialect-specific terms, we assign a transcriber from that region. Tell us where the recording was made and we will match it.
Can you handle bilingual Welsh and English audio?
Yes. Much of the Welsh-language content we handle switches between Welsh and English within the same recording, particularly in interviews, broadcast programmes and public-sector meetings. Our transcribers work bilingually and mark each language switch, so the final transcript reads naturally in both rather than being stitched together from two separate passes.
Why can't I just run Welsh audio through an automated tool?
Because Welsh mutates the opening consonant of a word depending on grammatical context, so the same word appears with several different first letters. An automated model has to recover the base form from an initial that is not its own, and it frequently gets it wrong in a way that reads as fluent Welsh while saying something else. Add regional vocabulary and mid-sentence switching into English, and the output needs enough correction that starting from a native transcript is faster.
Will I be able to search the Welsh transcript?
Yes, if you tell us that matters. Because of mutation, searching a Welsh document for a word in its base form will miss every mutated instance — a find on Cymru will not match yng Nghymru. Where a transcript has to be searched, indexed or used as a reference record, we note base forms alongside the spoken ones so nothing is lost to a keyword search.
The recording is poor and several people talk over each other. Is that a problem?
It is normal work. Phone audio, site noise, focus groups and meetings where three people speak at once all get transcribed here; what changes is how long it takes and how much of it a second pass has to resolve. Where a passage is genuinely inaudible we mark it rather than guess, with a timecode so you can check it yourself.
Can you tell me in advance what you will be able to capture?
Yes. Send a sample first and we listen to it before quoting, then tell you straight what we expect to get and what we do not. That is a better conversation before you book than after the transcript arrives.
Can I get the transcript and an English translation?
Yes, as a source transcript, an English translation, or the two side by side. The same native transcriber produces the source text and a separate qualified translator works from the original audio rather than from the transcript alone, which is what keeps a mishearing from travelling into the translation.
Should I ask for verbatim or clean read?
Clean read suits corporate video, interviews for publication and anything heading for translation: filler words and false starts come out, the meaning stays. Verbatim is what legal proceedings, compliance material and research interviews need, because every utterance and pause is on the record. Your project manager confirms the choice against your end use before work starts.
Is my audio kept confidential?
Yes. Files are uploaded through an encrypted system, handled by a named transcriber under NDA, and never fed into public speech-to-text tools. We can sign your own confidentiality agreement, work to your retention rules and delete everything on delivery.
How much does transcription cost?
Every file is quoted on its own terms. Runtime, audio quality, how many people are speaking, the turnaround you need and whether you also want a translation all move the figure, so there is no flat per-minute rate that would be honest across all of them. Send us a sample and we will come back with an exact, itemised number, backed by our Price Match Promise.
How quickly can you deliver?
Most short files come back within 24 to 48 hours. Length, audio quality and whether you need time-coding or full verbatim all affect it, and a large multi-speaker project is scheduled rather than rushed. Your project manager confirms the timeline before work starts, not after.
How will the finished Welsh transcript be delivered?
In whatever the next step needs: plain text, Word, PDF, Excel, SRT, VTT or your own template, with timecodes and speaker labels set the way you want them. Tell us what happens to the transcript after we send it and we format it for that, rather than handing you a file you have to rework.
What do you need from us to quote Welsh transcription?
Less than people expect: the recording, or even a few minutes of it, its total running time, roughly how many people are speaking, and whether you want verbatim or clean read. Poor audio does not stop a quote, it only changes it, so send it as it is rather than trying to clean it up first. A named project manager comes back with an itemised quote, normally within four working hours.
How quickly will we hear back, and who will we be dealing with?
More than half of enquiries get a reply within thirty minutes during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm UK time), and the itemised quote normally follows within four working hours. After that you have one dedicated project manager who owns the job from brief to final file — not a ticket queue, and not a different name on every email. If it is easier, call +44 207 095 5730 and ask for them by name.
We are still pitching and the budget is not signed off. Can we still get a Welsh quote?
Yes, and it is one of the commonest reasons people get in touch. Tell us it is for a pitch and you get a figure you can put in front of your own client, itemised so it stands up to being picked apart, with no obligation and no follow-up sales calls if the pitch goes elsewhere. If it lands, the quote still holds and we already know the project.
What if we find a cheaper Welsh quote somewhere else?
Send it over. Our Price Match Promise covers like-for-like work, and because our quotes are itemised you can see exactly what is being compared — which is usually where the gap turns out to be, in a revision pass, a licence or a delivery format that the cheaper figure quietly left out. If it really is the same work for less, we match it.
Can we start with one file before committing the whole Welsh project?
Yes, and we would often suggest it. One episode, one module, one commercial tells you more about whether we are a fit than any showreel, and it prices the rest of the run properly instead of by estimate. Bigger projects are then planned in clear milestones, so you are signing off the transcripts as they arrive rather than all of them at the end.
Ready to transcribe your Welsh audio?
Send us the files and tell us where the transcript will end up — we'll come back with an exact, itemised quote.
The complete solution to localise your content
Voice over
- State-of-the-art studios
- Neumann microphones
- On-hand sound engineers
- 1,000+ voice actors
Translation
- 100+ languages covered
- Tailored to your needs
- Stringent quality control
- Dedicated project managers
Subtitling
- Experienced subtitlers
- Industry-standard software
- Burn-in and graphic editing
- Open and closed captions
Transcription
- Improve accessibility
- Reach a wider audience
- Boost SEO and video views
- Maximise video engagement



