Month: November 2006

Spot the difference

By Simon

Can you spot the difference between the following two Urdu words?

the Urdu words for donkey and cushion

If your house was on fire and you had to jump out of the window, which of the above would you prefer to land on?

One of these words means cushion (gadda), the other donkey (gadha), and they got mixed up in the Urdu translation of a fire safety leaflet that was produced in Scotland, according to Translation is an Art. The English text said “Never jump straight out of a window. Lower yourself on to cushions”, while the Urdu translation said “Never jump out of a window straight. Put yourself on a donkey.”

According to the dictionary on UrduWorld.com, gadda actually means mattress, rather than cushion.

Polyglot language exchange

By Simon

I came across another useful site for language learners today – Polyglot, which describes itself as a ‘free language exchange community’ where you can ‘learn languages and make friends’. The site apparently has over 100,000 members.

As well as finding online language exchange partners and penpals, you can also use the site to set up realworld meetings with other language learners. I might try to set something up in Brighton.

Some of the features of the site, like the forms, only work properly in Internet Explorer, and if you try to enter more than eight languages in the ‘Languages you want to learn’ section it says ‘Don’t over estimate yourself’, but apart from that, the site looks good.

Head over heels

By Simon

When you’re head over heels about something or someone it means that you’re very excited, and/or turning cartwheels to demonstrate your excitement. This idiom is often used in the phrase ‘head over heels in love with’. It was probably first used in the 14th century, when it was ‘heels over head’, which makes more sense. At some point the components got reversed.

Other idioms used to indicate that things are not as usual include ‘upside-down’, ‘topsy-turvy’, ‘arse over tea-kettle’, ‘higgledy-piggledy’, and ‘arse over tit’.

The Spanish equivalent of this idiom is patas arriba (paws on top) – this is one I learnt today, and in Chinese it’s 亂七八糟 (luànqībāzāo = confusion seven eight rotten). What about in other languages?

Fireworks

By Simon

Tomorrow is Bonfire Night in the UK, a time when there are many firework displays, and large bonfires upon which we burn guys – effigies of Guy Fawkes, who was part of a failed plot to blow up the British parliament on 5th November 1605. Quite a lot of fireworks are being set off tonight as well.

The English word fireworks is not as interesting as the equivalent in other languages. For example, in Spanish they’re ‘artificial fires’ (fuegos artificiales), in Chinese they’re ‘smoke flowers’ (煙花), in Japanese they’re ‘flower fire’ (花火), in Welsh they’re ‘wild fire’ (tân gwyllt), and in Irish they’re ‘fire art’ (tinte ealaíne).

Word of the day – rio

By Simon

Today’s word, rio, means frost, freezing or ice in Manx, and river in Portuguese. In Spanish, río means river, stream, torrent, lengthy, long-lasting, epic or interminable.

Related Manx words and phrases
riojey = ice up, freeze, frost, icing
rioeeagh = frosty
rioghar = icicle
rioee = glacial
crammag rio = ice hockey (lit. “ice snail”)
moddey rio = husky (lit. “ice dog”)
coyr rioee = fridge
Eean y ghob jiarg = Jack Frost (lit. “Red-mouthed John”)
Ta Eean y ghob jiarg mooie jiu = it’s frosty today

Example of usage
Chan nel bodjal er-egin ‘syn aer jiu as bee rio ayn noght, son shickyrys.
There’s been barely a cloud in the sky today and it’s certainly going to freeze tonight.

The sun’s been shining most of the day here and it’s been pleasantly warm indoors, but the moment you step outside you’re hit by the cold. There’s a ring around the moon as well – a sure sign of frost.

Are there equivalent names for Jack Frost, the personification of frost or winter weather, in other languages?

Fun languages

By Simon

Many years ago while travelling in China, I heard Norwegian being spoken for the first time when I met some Norwegians in Guangzhou. To me their language sounded sort of familiar and quite funny – a bit like German being spoken by very drunk people. Danish and Swedish sound similar to me and I think it’s the intonation that makes them sound like fun languages and puts a smile on my face. I also quite like the sounds of Dutch, which again sounds to me like a funny kind of German.

The only Germanic languages I currently know are English and German. I plan to learn one or two others, Norwegian and maybe Dutch, in the not too distant future.

A friend recently starting learning Norwegian and he’s really enjoying it. He finds it a quirky and fun language and says that he’s never before studied a language that makes him laugh out loud so frequently.

Which languages put a smile on your face?

Time capsules

By Simon

A while ago I came across an interesting language learning-related idea but then promptly forgot where it was. I finally found it again today here. The idea is that you record yourself speaking the language(s) you’re learning every so often, then go back to the recordings later to see how much progress you’ve made. These recordings could be said to be linguistic time capsules.

If you’ve learning to play a musical instrument or to sing, you could make something similar – a musical time capsule.