Scripts and alphabets

By Simon

I tend to use the words script and alphabet fairly interchangeably – I might talk about the Arabic script or the Arabic alphabet, for example. However I just noticed today that Wikipedia has one page on the Cyrillic script, which focuses mainly on the history of the script/alphabet, and separate pages for Cyrillic alphabets as used for particular languages (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc). The Latin/Roman script is treated in a similar way.

It seems that a script refers to the overall writing system rather than to the particular set of letters used to write a particular language, or alphabet. So you could talk about the Devanagari script, and the Hindi alphabet, i.e. the Devanagari letters used to write Hindi.

Have you come across this distinction before? Do you think it’s a useful one to make?

Selective attention

By Simon

The other day an English guy who has lived in Wales for many years and who doesn’t speak Welsh told me that when he listens to people speaking Welsh, he hears lots of English words, words derived from English, and words from French or Latin, so he believes that Welsh is made up mainly of such words.

I suggested that such words just seemed to be prominent and ubiquitous because they are the only ones he understands, and that the majority of Welsh words are completely different, though they share the same ultimate roots as words in most other European languages.

He wasn’t convinced, and when asked for examples, could only think of a few: parcio (parking) and ffenestr (window) and pont (bridge).

I can understand why he’s convinced that there are lots of words of English, French and Latin origin in Welsh – selective attention. It’s like if someone says that you don’t see many yellow cars around, you will start to notice ever yellow car and might become convinced that they are more common than they really are.

Have you any mistaken impressions of languages you don’t know?

When I first heard spoken Irish I thought it was mainly made up of the occasional English word, plus lots of agus (and), and mumbling in an Irish accent. Now I know better.

Fy filodfa gerddorol

By Simon

Mae’r nifer o offerynnau yn fy filodfa gerddorol wedi cynyddu eleni, ac mae gen i 30 o offerynnau bellach. Yr offeryn mwyaf newydd ydy piano, sy wedi cyrraedd Dydd Gwener diwetha. Piano ail law ydy o, a dw i wedi ei brynnu o eBay o ddyn yn Salford.

Ar hyn bryd mae gen i piano, iwcalili, mandolin, bouzouki, bodhrán, xaphoon, clarinét, casŵ, ffliwt, dau gitâr, dau harmonica, a cryn dipyn o recorderau, chwibanau ac ocarinas.

Fy filodfa gerddorol / My musical menagerie

My musical menagerie has grown quite a bit this year and now includes 30 instruments. The newest addition was a piano, which arrived last Friday. It’s a second hand piano that I bought on eBay from a bloke in Salford.

The menagerie currently consists of: a piano, a ukulele, a mandolin, a bouzouki, a bodhrán, a xaphoon, a clarinet, a kazoo, a flute, two guitars, two harmonicas, and quite a few recorders, whistles and ocarinas.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon

– être/rester coincé/bloqué = to be stuck = bod yn sownd = stankañ
– se coincer/bloquer = to get stuck
– être enlisé = to be stuck (in mud/sand) = bod yn sownd (yn llaca/tywod) = sac’hellañ
– s’enlisé = to get stuck (in mud/sand)
– à mi-chemin = half-way (in distance) = hanner ffordd = hanter hent
– à la moitié de = half-way (activity/time) = hanner ffordd = hanter
– surveiller = to supervise = arolygu, goruchwylio = evezhiañ
– la laverie automatique = laundrette = laundrette, siop golchi dillad = kanndi, kannerezh
– la mamelle, le pis = udder = cadair, pwrs, piw = bronn
– le pis-aller = stopgap = perth dros dro = defot gwell
– le chargement = load = llwyth = kargañ
– la bûche = log = boncyff = kef
– le bûcheron = logger, lumberjack = coetmon = keuneuder, koadour
– les paroles = lyrics = telynegion = gerioù

Origins of hard-to-pronounce sounds

By Simon

According to an article I came across today, hard-to-pronounce sounds in languages might have developed to show who belongs to particular groups and who doesn’t.

Apparently ancient tribal groups recognised that such sounds are a good way to identify ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, something they considered very important, as the sounds can only be made properly by those who have grown up speaking a particular language and pronouncing the particular sounds of that language. This is especially true of the clicks found in languages in southern Africa. This is possibly why some languages have a lot more difficult-to-pronounce sounds than others, and perhaps applies most to languages spoken in linguistically and culturally diverse regions – this last speculation is my own and doesn’t appear in the article.

Ithkuil

By Simon

Here’s an interesting article in the New Yorker about conlangs and specifically about Ithkuil, which, according to its creator, John Quijada, is “an idealized language whose aim is the highest possible degree of logic, efficiency, detail, and accuracy in cognitive expression via spoken human language, while minimizing the ambiguity, vagueness, illogic, redundancy, polysemy (multiple meanings) and overall arbitrariness that is seemingly ubiquitous in natural human language.”

For me ambiguity, vagueness, illogic, redundancy, polysemy and overall arbitrariness are some of the things that make languages so interesting, and I suspect that in some ways languages work better because of them. This certainly seems to be true of redundancy, which can help get the message across in less than ideal conditions, i.e. noisy environments, etc, and without ambiguity and polysemy puns and similar word play would not be possible, and poetry would difficult.

I have considered adding details about the Ithkuil script to Omniglot, but decided not to when I saw its complexity.

Blue stones

By Simon

An interesting Breton word I came across today is mein-glas, or slates (literally, ‘blue stones’). The French equivalent is ardoises, which I had to look up as it’s not a word that crops up every day, unless you’re a roofer or builder.

The Breton word is made up of mein (stones – singular maen) and glas (blue/green), and the French word is of uncertain, possibly Gaulish origin – the ard part might come from the Gaulish word *ard(u) (high), as in the Ardennes [source]. The ard element is also found in the Gaelic languages meaning high, tall, elevated.

Ardoise (slate) appears in such terms as:
– ardoise électronique = notepad computer
– bleu/gris ardoise = blue/grey slate
– toit en ardoise = slate roof
– carrière d’ardoise = slate quarry