Oideas Gael

Amárach tá mé ag dul chuig an scoil shamhraidh in Oideas Gael i nGleann Cholm Cile. Seo an tríú uair atá mé ansin ar an scoil shamraidh, agus an cúigiú uair atá i nGleann Cholm Cille. Beidh mé ansin ar feadh seachtaine, agus tá mé súil go mór leis.

Yfory dw i’n mynd i’r ysgol haf mewn Gwyddeleg a diwylliant yn Oideas Gael yn Glencolmcille. Dyma y trydedd tro imi bod yna am yr ysgol haf, ac y pumed tro imi bod yn Glencolmcille. Bydda i’n yna am wythnos, ac dw i’n edrych ymlaen yn fawr ato.

Tomorrow I’m off to Ireland for the summer school in language and culture at Oideas Gael in Donegal. This is the third time I’ve been to the summer school, and my fifth visit to Glencolmcille. I’ll be there for a week and am really looking forward to it.

Minority languages in Slovakia

According to a report on the BBC News website, under a new law which will apply from 1st September this year people who use minority languages in public services could be fined up to €5,000. That is, if the minority constitutes less than 20% of the Slovak population. Understandably this has not been well received by speakers of minority languages in Slovakia, especially among Hungarian speakers, who make up about 10% of the population.

Details of the new law are available here. These state that minorities have the right to use Slovak and their native languages, however only minorities that make up 20% or more of the population in a particular area can use their native languages when dealing with local government organisations. They also say that “Local administration bodies and their employees are not employed to speak a minority language.”

Word of the day – yaourter

The word yaourter (to yoghurt) is a French word for the way people attempt to speak or sing in a foreign language that they don’t know very well. Often they mishear and misinterpret the word or lyrics and substitute them with familiar words. For example the Queen song “I want to break free” becomes “I want a steak frites”. The lyrics of songs in your native language are often misheard as well.

It’s not just the French who yoghurt though – the line “sonnez les matines” from “Frere Jacques” becomes “sunny semolina” or something simliar in the mouths of English children. I think I sang it as “sloppy semonlina”. Another word for this phenomenon is ‘slips of the ear’.

Source: BBC News

Do you have any examples of yoghurting / slips of the ear / misheard lyrics?

Language and dementia

According to an article I came across today, people with good language skills early in life and develop dementia later in life are likely retain their memories better than those without such skills. They believe that testing the mental abilities of people in their early 20s can predict whether they will retain their mental abilities in their 70s and 80s.

It doesn’t say whether this involves language skills in one language or more than one, but other studies have found that being bilingual or multilingual can delay by several years the onset of Alzheimer’s and other conditions that tend to strike the elderly.

The article caught my eye because last night I sang with the Bangor Community Choir at Plas Maesincla, a care home for people with dementia in Caernarfon. Many of the residents perked up when we sang some well-known Welsh songs, such as Calon Lân and Sospan Fach, and quite a few joined in. So I think the songs might have triggered some happy memories.

Eisteddfod Llangollen

Yr wythnos ddiwethaf es i i’r eisteddfod yn Llangollen dwy waith – Ddydd Mercher es i efo ffrindiau prifysgol, a Ddydd Gwener es i yn ôl ar fy mhen fy hunan. Roedd y ddwy ddydd yn wych, ac mi weles i gerddor, gantorion a dawnswyr talentog o bob cwr y byd.

Nos Sadwrn roedd parti wych ar ffarm un o aelodau y côr cymuned yn Nhregarth. Parti diwedd y tymor ydoedd. Roedd hi’n bwrw glaw trwm, ond mwynhaom yn dda.

Llangollen Eisteddfod

Last week I went to the Eisteddfod in Llangollen twice – on Wednesday with friends from the university, and on my own on Friday. Both days were great, and I saw loads of talented musicians, singers and dancers from all over the world.

On Saturday night there was an end of term party for the community choir on the farm of one of the members in Tregarth. It rained heavily, but we had a great time.

Russian transliteration

Yesterday I came across a useful site that shows you how to transliterate Russian into various Latin transliteration systems, and into other alphabets such as Greek, Arabic, Thai and Georgian. The site also has an transliterator that transliterates Russian text into various transliteration systems; a transliterator that converts Chinese Pinyin texts into Cyrillic, and another that converts Japanese text in Hiragana or Katakana in Cyrillic.

Here are some example transliterations of the Russian version of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Original Russian text
Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

German transliteration
Wse ljudi roschdajutsja swobodnymi i rawnymi w swojem dostoinstwe i prawach. Oni nadeleny rasumom i sowest’ju i dolschny postupat’ w otnoschenii drug druga w duche bratstwa.

Greek transliteration
Βσγιε λγιουντι ροζνταγιουτσγια σβομποντνιμι ι ραβνιμι β σβογιεμ ντοστοινστβγιε ι πραβαχ. Ονι ναντγιελγιενι ραζουμομ ι σοβγιεστ’γιου ι ντολζνι ποστουπατ’ β οτνοσγιενι ντρουγκ ντρουγκα β ντουχγιε μπρατστβα.

Georgian transliteration
ვსე ლიუდი როჟდაიუტსია სვობოდნიმი ი რავნიმი ვ სვოემ დოსტოინსტვე ი პრავახ. ონი ნადელენი რაზუმომ ი სოვესტიუ ი დოლჟნი პოსტუპატ ვ ოტნოშენი დრუგ დრუგა ვ დუხე ბრატსტვა.

Another feature of the site is a dictionary of Russian slang, which is available in many language combinations.