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Monthly Archives: October 2006
New phrases page
I’m just putting together a new phrases page, which you can see here, and wonder if you could help. The phrase in question is “Do you speak … language?” with the reply “Yes (a little)”. In each case the language in question is the language of the question, for example, the phrase in French is […]
How old is your language?
When researching the background of the Siraiki language, which I’ve just added to Omniglot, I came across a claim that this language might be “the oldest language … of the world”. The arguments in support of this claim don’t appear to be particularly credible, but it’s interesting that the text includes such an assertion. An […]
Name the script
Here’s a question from gee – can you identify and decipher the following script? Some clues – the script was designed solely for one language – normally another script is used to write that language
Muppet shuffling
If modern management-speak, buzzwords and other jargon leaves you confused, then Shoot the Puppy: A survival guide to the curious jargon of modern life, by Tony Thorne, which I borrowed from my local library today, will help to enlighten you. The title of this post, muppet shuffling, refers to the practise of moving underperforming or […]
Language in books
The ways authors represent foreign languages in their books are interesting. In some cases, they use a different typeface to indicate that a character is speaking a foreign language. The typefaces used sometimes resemble the alphabet normally used to write the language in question. This enables the readers to follow what the characters are saying, […]
Word of the day – amynedd
amynedd [a'mənɛð] = y gallu i ddioddef, goddefgarwch, dioddefgarwch, dyfalbarhad, pwyll Examples of usage Amynedd sant sy genno fo. He has the patience of a saint. Bydd rhaid i ni fod dipyn yn amyneddgar. We’ll have to be a bit patient. Today’s word is something you need plenty of when learning a language – patience. […]
Language, Welsh, Words and phrases Comments Off
Mnemonics
Verses or rhymes used to help you to remember things are known as mnemonics. They’re sometimes made of the the first letters of a series of words you want to memorise. For example, Richard of York gives battle in vain for the colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, violet); Every good […]
Languages of Europe
I came across an interesting report from the European Commission about the languages of Europe today. It shows the proportions of people who are native speakers each of the official languages of the EU, and how many people speak them well enough to take part in a conversation. The language with the highest proportion of […]
Do my ears deceive me?
Sometimes people speak to you in a language you’re not expecting. You might assume they’re speaking in the language you were expecting, and try to make sense of their utterances as if they were in that language, which just confuses you. An example of this happened the other day when I went to pick up […]
Name the style of calligraphy
Today we have a quiz question sent in by TJ – can you identify the style of calligraphy of the piece below, and also the writing, language and what it says?