Torch carrying

By Simon

The expression to carry a torch for someone came up when I was putting together this week’s mots de la semaine for the French Conversation Group. We talked about my experiences in Shetland, where lots of people were carrying flaming torches, and this got me wondering why you might say that you’re carry a torch for someone.

According to Wiktionary it might date back the the Greek and Roman wedding torch tradition, which involved the bride lighting a torch from her hearth on her wedding night, and taking it to her new home to light the hearth. The torch was associated with Hymen (Ὑμήν) or Hymenaios, the Greek god of wedding ceremonies.

So if you’re carry a torch for someone it means that you’re in love with them or romantically infatuated with them, but your feelings might not be reciprocated.

The French equivalent is en pincer pour qn, and in Welsh it’s caru rhywun (o bell) yn ofer, llosgu dy gariad at rhywun yn fud, or cadwai fflam dy serch at rhywun ynghyn. What about in other languages?

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon

– une torche flambeau = flaming torch = ffagl = torch flamboz
– une lampe de poche = (pocket) torch = tortsh = kreuzeul
– en pincer pour qn = to carry a torch for sb = caru rhywun (o bell) yn ofer
– au point = in focus = mewn ffocws, yn eglur = en e reizh
– pas au point = out of focus = aneglur, allan ohoni
– mettre au point = to focus = canoli, ffocysu = fokusañ
– agité(e) = rough (sea) = garw, stormus, tymhestlog, tonnog = rust
– négociant, marchand = merchant = masnachwr = marc’hadour
– la télécommande = remote control = teclyn pell-reolaeth = pellurzhier
– le cireur de chaussures = shoeshiner = glanhäwr esgidiau
– mendiant = beggar = cardotyn, cardotwr = klasker
– s’entendre avec qn = to get on with sb = cyd-dynnu’n dda gyda rhywun = en em glevet
– le respect de soi, l’amour-propre (m) = self-esteem = hunan-barch, hunan-dyb = karantez an-unan

Standard v non-standard English

By Simon

According to reports on the BBC, a primary school in Middlesbrough has sent out a letter to parents asking them to stop their children from using certain ‘non-standard’ phrases and pronunciation.

Here are some examples:
– It’s nowt – it’s nothing
– Gizit ere – please give me it
– Yous – the word you is never a plural
– I seen that – I have seen that or I saw that
– I done that – I have done that or I did that

According to the headteacher of the school:

“We would like to equip our children to go into the world of work and not be disadvantaged. We need the children to know there is a difference between dialect, accent and standard English. The literacy framework asks children to write in standard English. I am not asking the children to change their dialect or accent but I don’t want them to enter the world of work without knowing about standard English.”

The headteacher says that she isn’t asking the kids to change the way they speak, but at the same time she is asking their parents to ‘correct’ the kids non-standard phrases and pronunciation – a bit of a mixed message.

In another report on this story, the headteacher is quoted as saying:

“I don’t want the children to be disadvantaged. Using standard English in applications and job interviews is important. You don’t want the children to lose their identity, but you do want them to be able to communicate properly with people and be understood. We are going to teach them the rules. If they decide not to use these rules with friends that is fine, but I want them to know that when they are filling in application forms and speaking in a formal situation they should use standard English.”

She also mentions that there has been a decline in spelling and grammar, with children reading less for pleasure.

Perhaps if the children were taught to read and write both in standard in English and in their local dialect, they would read more.

There’s some interesting discussion in and about Middlesbrough dialect on the the BBC Voices site.

Have you been corrected for using ‘non-standard’ forms of speech at school or elsewhere?

Bangor Polyglots

By Simon

Last night the Bangor Polyglot conversation group met for the first time. I’ve been wanting to set up a group like this for a while as a way to practice my languages and to meet other polyglots. Last month it finally started to come together: first I found a suitable place and time for it to take place – I chose the Ship Launch Inn near Bangor pier because it’s quiet on a Monday night, the only night I have free at the moment. Then I posted about the group on the Bangor couchsurfing group, and set up a Facebook group.

I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested or would turn up, but was reassured when a number of people have joined the Facebook group and/or have expressed an interest on the Couchsurfing group. In the end two others came last night – a Welsh lass who speaks Welsh and is learning Cornish; and a Cornish lad who speaks German, and is learning Cornish, Welsh, Dutch and Finnish. They are both interested in language and languages in general, and in conlangs, and are frequent visitors to Omniglot – surprisingly, even though over 50,000 people a day visit Omniglot, I rarely meet people who know the site well. We talked mainly in English and Welsh, with a bits of German, Dutch, Breton, French, Irish, Finnish, Japanese in the mix.

Have you taken part in any similar groups?

Shetlandic and Up Helly Aa

By Simon

Up Helly Aa fire festival
Up Helly Aa Senior Jarl Squad in their galley

There were plenty of people speaking Shetlandic, or at least using some Shetlandic words at the various events I went to yesterday. At a concert in the afternoon the host and the performers were all locals and spoke with Shetlandic accents and used local words for some things. One of them also sang a song in Shetlandic.

Up Helly Aa fire festival
circling the galley

There seems to be a continuum which runs from Scottish English or Scots with a Shetland accent and maybe a few Shetlandic words to broad Shetlandic. The Shetlandic word I’ve heard most often is peerie, which means small.

Up Helly Aa fire festival
circling the galley

In the evening there was a procession involving hundreds of people holding flaming torches. Some were dressed as Vikings and pulled a replica Viking galley through the streets. At end of the procession they parked the galley in the middle of a field and the torch bearers circled round it. Once they were all there, they sang a few songs then threw their torches onto the galley, which burned brightly.

Up Helly Aa fire festival - the burning of the galley
burning of the galley

A bit later there were parties at various places, known as halls, around Lerwick (I was in the hall at the Isleburgh Community Centre). Each of the 47 squads who had taken part in the procession travelled around the halls performing their party pieces. Most of these involved dancing and/or music, plus some comic sketches, mainly in fancy dress, with a lot of men dressed as women. The parties went on until 8am this morning, so I was up for 24 hours – rather longer than normal for me – after which I was rather tired and slept until this afternoon. Others had breakfast and carried on partying today, which is a public holiday here.

Up Helly Aa fire festival
Up Helly Aa Junior Jarl Squad

Many of the squads had Shetlandic names, such as Da Rumbling Stanes, and some did songs in Shetlandic. Here’s an example (to be sung to the tune of Status Quo’s Rockin’ All Over The World):

Guizing Aa ower Da Toon
Up Helly Aa, Up Helly Aa here we go.
Wir haeing a party. Pittin on a show.
Here we go-o.
Guizing aa ower da Toon.

Stevie Grant, Stevie Grant. It’s your day.
Cheer dee up da ranks. Set dee on dee way.
Here we go-o.
Guizing aa ower da Toon.

Fir wir filsket, wir filsket, wir filsket, wir filsket.
Up Helly Aa filskit. Wir aa filsket.
Here we go-o.
Guizing aa ower da Toon.

Some cry fir weemin Jarls. We say no.
Wir gean tae stick wi e da Status Quo.
Here we go-o.
Guizing aa ower da Toon.

Notes
Stevie Grant is the Guizer Jarl (chief viking) this year, so I suppose that guizing is what he does in that role.

Filsket = high-spirited

I took some of the photos using the night scene mode on my Samsung Galaxy web tablet, which is really difficult to hold still, so many of them turned out blurred.

Up Helly Aa

By Simon

Up Helly Aa, Shetland

This week I will mainly be in Shetland for the Lerwick Up Helly Aa fire festival, which starts tomorrow. I haven’t seen any Vikings yet, but there’ll be plenty around tomorrow night.

I have heard quite a few people speaking with Shetland accents, which sounds to me a bit like Scots with some Scandinavian prosody. I haven’t heard anybody speaking broad Shetlandic yet, apart from recordings in the museum, but am listening out for it.

The combed giraffe sings like a saucepan

By Simon

I came across a number of interesting French idioms today in this article in The Guardian, including peigner la giraffe (combing the giraffe), which means to waste time on a pointless task, and chanter comme une casserole (to sing like a saucepan) or to sing terribly. It also mentions a Dutch idiom, broodje aap verhaal (monkey sandwich story), which refers to persistent rumours or urban legends.

English equivalents of peigner la giraffe include idling, dossing (about), doing nothing (much), killing time, and so on. Do you have any others?

How about English or other language equivalents of chanter comme une casserole or broodje aap verhaal?

Breton

By Simon

This week I reached the half-way point in my Breton Assimil course (lesson 50) and have entered the ‘active phase’. So for every new lesson I also go back to an earlier lessons and translate the French versions of the dialogues and exercises into Breton. I also translate them into Welsh, just for fun. So far I’m finding the translations easy, but have to check some of the spellings.

My impression of the Assimil course so far is that it is a good way to learn a new language. Each lesson provides some new words and grammar, but doesn’t overwhelm you with new stuff. In Colloquial Breton the lessons cover far more material, which can be a bit intimidating at first. For example, when a new verb is introduced in Colloquial Breton all forms for a particular tense are given, while in the Assimil course the different forms are usually introduced over several lessons. I think I prefer the gentle, gradual approach of Assimil, but will go back to the Colloquial course once I’ve finished the Assimil one. If I need to know all the different forms of a verb or other conjugated word, I can look in the grammar section at the back of Assimil, or in my Breton grammar book,

As well as studying a bit every day, I listen to Breton radio regularly, and am beginning to get the gist of some of the things I hear, or at least can recognise some of the words. I haven’t heard any Breton songs that I really want to learn yet, but I hope there’ll be a few. I have also bought a Breton version of the first Harry Potter book and plan to read it soon, perhaps in parallel with the Welsh and/or English versions.

Have you used Assimil courses to learn any languages? What are you impressions of them?