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

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon

– le fil électrique = (electical) wire = gwifren (trydanol), weiar (trydanol) = neudenn (dredan), orjalenn (dredan)
– le fil de fer = (metal) wire = gwifren, weiar = neud-orjal
– en moyenne = on average = ar gyfartaledd = keitad
– le rendez-vous = appointment = apwyntiad, trefniad = emgav
– l’entretien (m) = interview = cyfweliad = emziviz
– la plaque chauffante = griddle = gradell = plakenn-dommañ (?)
– le niveau de vie (élevé/bas) = (high/low) standard of living = safon byw (uchel/isel) = live bevañ (uhel/izel)
– le contact avec les malades / le comportement envers les malades = bedside manner = emzalc’h gant ar glañvourien (?)
– Il a un bon contact avec ses malades = he has a good bedside manner
– le diagnostic = diagnosis = diagnosis = diagnostik
– saper, déstabiliser qn = to undermine = tanseilio = disfontañ
– il était bien pomponné = he was all poshed up

Zizolo

By Simon

I came across a word that particularly appealed to me in my Breton lesson today – zizolo (discovering) in the sentence Ar vro a zizolo bemdez en doare-se (He discovers the country every day in this way) – referring to Gwennole who goes cycling a lot. It is a mutated form of dizolo (to discover), and appeals to me because of the z’s and sound of the word.

The letter z is relatively rare in most of the languages I know, but is common in Breton and in the Pinyin for Mandarin Chinese. It gives words an interesting and unusual, almost exotic, look and sound, at least to my eyes and ears it does.

Do you notice some letters more than others? Are any letters exotic, unusual or unexpected to you?

SoundCloud

By Simon

I’ve been exploring SoundCloud recently after uploading a new song that I wrote last Sunday, and have discovered that there’s some useful material there for linguaphiles and language learners.

For example, there’s a group called United Sounds that is collecting recordings of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in many languages. You can also find recordings of conversations and songs in many different languages – I found quite a few in Breton, for example.

It might also a good place to upload recordings of you practising your languages and to get feedback, as there is a comments facility. Have you used it in this way at all?

New song – Make the most of it while it lasts

By Simon

Siliwen Road, Bangor with snow

I wrote a new song today entitled “Make the most of it while it lasts”. The beginnings of the tune came to me this morning when I was brushing my teeth, and the first few lines came to me while I was washing the dishes after lunch. I looked out of the window and saw that it was raining heavily, and decided to write something about the rain. This is what I came up with:

Make the most of it while it lasts
When the rain falls from the sky
Don’t you fret, don’t you cry
Just put on your boots and go outside.
Jump in puddles and go wild.
And release your inner child.
Then you won’t feel so blue any more.

When the temperature is falling
And the weather is appalling
It’s good to stay indoors sometimes.
To read a book, or watch a film
Or sing a song, or play some tunes
Or just to sit by the fire and doze.

So when the winter time has come
And you’re feeling rather glum
Don’t forget to smile and sing and dance.
Paint some pictures, bake some cakes
Talk to friends, skate on lakes,
And make the most of it while it lasts.

Here’s a recording:

Kig yar gant piz-bihan

By Simon

The more Breton I learn, the more connections I am finding with Welsh, and to some extent with French, in terms of vocabulary. Today’s lesson, for example, includes these words:

– korn = cornel (corner)
– straed= stryd (street) – e korn ar straed = ar gornel y stryd (on the street corner)
– iliz = eglwys (church)
– marc’had-mat (‘good market’) = rhad (cheap) – looks like a calque translation from the French bonne-marché
– kig = cig (meat)
– kig yar (‘hen meat’) = cyw iâr (chicken)
– piz-bihan = pys (peas) – looks like a calque of petit-pois.
– tartezenn avaloù = pastai afal (apple tart/pie)
– enez = ynys (island)

Yesterday we had deiz = dydd (day), beure = bore (morning), and noz = nos (night). The spelling and pronunciation disguises the related words, but once you get used to it, you can spot them more easily. It took me a while to realise that beure = bore.