This and that

Most languages I’ve encountered seem to have a way of indicating that something or somebody is close to the speaker, i.e. this man, or close to the listener, i.e. that man. Some languages make a third distinction: that something is distant from both the speaker and the listener. In standard English you can express this idea by saying something like ‘that man over there’, but in some dialects of English you can say ‘yon man’, ‘yonder man’ or ‘that there man’.

Does anybody know of any languages that make further distinctions?

In the Celtic languages there are no single words for this and that. Instead they use the constructions ‘the man here’ and ‘the man there’.

Irish
an duine seo – this man
an duine sin – that man
an duine úd – that man over there / yonder man

Scottish Gaelic
an duine seo – this man
an duine sin – that man
an duine siud – that man over there / yonder man

Manx
yn dooinney shoh – this man
yn dooinney shen – that man
yn dooinney shid – that man over there / yonder man

Welsh
y dyn ʼma – this man
y dyn ʼna – that man
y dyn acw – that man over there / yonder man

Word of the day – haul

haul, noun = sun (the aul sounds like aisle)

Related words:
heulog = sunny
heulo = to be sunny
heulwen = sunshine
torheulo = to sunbathe
lliw haul = suntan
llosg haul = sunburn
sbectol haul = sunglasses
codiad yr haul = sunrise
machlud = sunset

Examples of usage:
Dw i’n hoffi codi’n gynnar er mwyn gweld yr haul yn codi = I like to get up early to see the sun rising

Mae’r haul yn machlud = the sun is setting

Yn llygad yr haul = in the sunshine (lit. “in the eye of the sun”)

Mae hi’n heulog iawn ac eitha boeth ym Mrighton heddiw = It’s very sunny and quite hot in Brighton today.

Dw i’n mynd allan i mwynhau’r heulwen rŵan. Time to go out any enjoy the sunshine now!

Music, memory and language learning

Combining language and music seems to be a effective way of learning. The rhythmic nature of music can apparently stimulate parts of your brain that ordinary studying cannot reach, and this makes words and phrases stick in your memory. Moreover, listening to music is something that most people enjoy, so it can make learning enjoyable and perhaps makes you more receptive to new information.

The Suggestopedia teaching method, developed by the Bulgarian doctor and psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov, uses carefully selected classical music to help make student’s feel relaxed and receptive. Has anybody experienced this?

I certainly enjoy learning songs in other languages. In fact it was partly or mainly music that sparked my interest in quite a few languages, particularly Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish and Portuguese. When listening to foreign songs I find it quite difficult to understand them, but after hearing them many times I start to pick out some of the lyrics. Sometimes I’m listening to a song and suddenly realise what part of it means – it’s like a picture that’s come into focus after being a bit fuzzy. Moments like that help sustain my enthusiasm for language learning.

Sources:
http://www.dtae.org/adultlit/connections/music.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/bpl-mtt062206.php
http://www.aare.edu.au/99pap/le99034.htm
http://www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/brainwaremap/suggest.html

Collective nouns

According to the Double-Tongued Word Wrester, the collective noun for unicyclists is a wobble. This makes sense as unicyclists do tend to wobble quite a lot, at least at first – I certainly wobble a bit when riding my unicycle. The collective noun for jugglers is a neverthriving – any ideas where this comes from? So is a group of juggling uncyclists a neverthriving wobble?!

There are many other collective nouns in English, some of which are rarely used or have been coined for fun. Most such words are for groups of animals or people. Relatively few are for inanimate objects. Some collective nouns come from the habitat of a particular creature, e.g. a cete of badgers, a nest of mice; others are based on a physical characteristics, behavioural traits or sounds made by animals, e.g. a prickle of hedgehogs, a sneak of weasals, a murmuration of starlings.

Here are a few more examples:

an aarmory or aardvarks
an absence of waiters
an army of frogs
a babel of words/languages
a business of ferrets
a clutter of cats
a chattering of choughs
a crash of rhinoceroses
a descent of woodpeckers
an embarrassment of parents
a fluther of jellyfish
a murder of crows
a parliament of owls
a shuffle of bureaucrats
a warren of wombats

Source: http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/

Word of the day – gaffen

gaffen, verb = to gape, gawp, stare

Example of usage:
gaff nicht, sondern hilf mir lieber! = don’t just stand there gawping, come and help!

Related words:
Gaffer(in) = gaper, gawper, starer
Gafferei = gaping, gawping, staring
glotzen = to gawp at something

Today’s word caught my eye while looking through my German dictionary. In British English slang, the gaffer is the boss or foreman, and your gaff is your home, though this usage is a bit old fashioned.

In Scottish Gaelic, the lovely word spleuchd means to gape, gaze, goggle, squint, stare, while the Welsh ceg agored (lit. “open mouthed”) is a stare.

Word of the day – billey

billey (BILL-ya) = tree, plural = biljyn (BILL-jin)

Examples of usage:
Vel biljyn sy gharey? (Are there trees in the garden?)
Ta. Tree biljyn mooarey as un villey beg (Yes. Three big trees and a small tree)

This word came up in today’s Manx lesson. While many Manx words are the same as or similiar to words in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, this particular word caught my eye because it’s completely different. In Irish the word for tree is crann (pl. crainn), while in Scottish Gaelic it’s craobh (pl. craoibhe) or crann . The Welsh words for tree are coeden (pl. coed) and prenn (pl. prennau) – also means wood/timber.

Complementary schismogenesis

Imagine you’re used to leaving only a short pause after someone else has finished speaking before you start; you’re speaking to someone who normally waits longer before speaking, and neither of you are aware of this difference is speaking styles. In such a situation, you will probably dominate the conversation, while the other person will have great trouble getting a word in edgeways. You might conclude that they have nothing much to say, while they might think you’re very pushy and unwilling to let them say anything.

If language and cultural differences become exagerated when they come into contact, what you have is complementary schismogenesis. This is a term coined by Gregory Bateson to describe what happens when people with different cultural norms come into contact: they each react to the other’s differing patterns of behaviour by doing more of the opposing behaviour.

Another example of complementary schismogenesis can happen when someone who is used to standing close to the person they’re talking to has a conversation with someone who feels more comfortable with a larger space between them and the other person. The first person will keep on moving closer while the the second will keep on moving away. This is also an example of proxemics – the study of how people use space.

Source: An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, by Raply W. Fasold & Jeff Connor-Linton

Languages Out There

Today I came across an organisation called Languages Out There that runs an unusual style of language courses – you spend an hour or two studying, then go out on the street with your tutor to practice the language you’ve learnt. For example, you learn out food and drink, then go out for a meal and order in the local language. The idea is to give you plenty of opportunities to make practical use of the language you’re learning with local people.

This sounds like more fun than sitting in a classroom all day – maybe I’ll give it a try sometime next year. They currently offer courses in English, Spanish, Italian, German and Czech.

So many languages, so little time

Often I wonder whether it would be better for me to concentrate on learning one or two languages really well, rather than trying to learn as many languages as possible. Although I’d really like to be fluent in all the languages I’ve studied, am studying and plan to study, I realise that this is perhaps an unrealistic ambition. So my aim, at the moment, is to become as fluent as possible in Spanish, Welsh and Irish, while continuing to study other languages.

Yesterday I came across an interesting blog by someone who describes herself as an “Aspiring Polyglot“. It seems she faces a similar dilemma to me – it’s good to know I’m not the only one!

Word of the day – плотник

плотник (plotnik), noun = carpenter

After a break of a few weeks, I started studying Russian again today. This week’s lesson is about occupations. It provides the Russian words for various jobs, but unfortunately doesn’t tell you how to say “I am a …” or “I work as a …”. Such sentences will hopefully appear later in the course.

Other words for occupations include:

секретарь (sekretar’) = secretary
доктор (doktor) = doctor
медсестра (medsestra) = nurse
зубной врач (zubnoj vrač) = dentist
учитель (učitel’) = teacher
пекарь (pekar’) = baker
механик (mexanik) = mechanic
студент (student) = student