Royal turkeys and other birds

By Simon

Pavo real

Last night I discovered the Spanish word pavo real, which means peacock, or literally ‘royal turkey’, and which conjured up an image of a turkey in ermine robes wearing a crown.

It also reminds me of the Mandarin Chinese word for swan, 天鵝 [天鹅] (tiān’é), which could be translated as ‘heavenly/celestial goose’. The Mandarin word for peacock is 孔雀 (kǒngquè) or ‘great sparrow’. [source]

The word pavo comes from the Latin pāvō (peacock), from the Ancient Greek ταώς (taōs), and thought to be ultimately from Tamil தோகை (tōkai).

The words for peacock in many European languages come from the same root: Aromanian: pãun; Breton: paun; Catalan: paó; Cornish: payon; Dutch: pauw; French: paon; Friulian: pavon; Galician: pavo, pavón; German: Pfau; Italian: pavone; Occitan: pavon; Old English: pāwa; Portuguese: pavão; Romanian: păun; Romansch: pavun, pivun; Sardinian: paboni, paone; Serbian: paun; Welsh: paun [source]. However in Manx a peacock is a kellagh aalin (‘beautiful cock(rel)’) or a kellagh eairkagh (‘peaked cock(rel)’) [source].

Are there interesting words for peacocks, or other birds, in other languages?

The word pavo has quite a few other meanings in Spanish, including:

– silly thing, idiot; five peseta coin; sucker (in Spain)
– stowaway (in Chile)
– large kite; big shot; evil-looking person (in the Andes)
– youngster, kid
– cold turkey
– silly – e.g. ¡no seas pavo! = don’t be silly!

From: Reverso

Iban alphabet

By Simon

I thought that almost all the world’s writing systems were on Omniglot, but today I discovered another one: the Iban alphabet, which was invented in 1947 by Dunging Anak Gunggu.

Iban alphabet

It’s a partly syllabic, partly alphabetic script that never really caught on, mainly because there was no tradition of writing among the Iban-speaking community. During the past few years there have been efforts to revive it mainly by Dr Bromeley Philip at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Sarawak, Malaysia – I’ve written to him to ask about the current situation.

Iban is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, but I’m sure you knew that.

For me it’s always exciting to discover a previously unknown (to me) writing system like this.

Pantoufler

By Simon

Yesterday I discovered the interesting French word pantoufler /pɑ̃.tu.fle/, which, according to Reverso means to “switch from civil service to the private sector (French elite jargon, usually to make more money)”.

According to Wikpedia the related word pantouflage refers to high-level French civil servants, usually former students of the École Polytechnique or the École nationale d’administration, going to work in private enterprise. It also applies to politicians doing the same thing. Someone who engages in pantouflage at known as a pantouflard, which is also translated as stay-at-home.

The word pantoufler come from pantoufle (slipper), which combines pan (a piece of cloth) with the suffix -oufle, which denotes mbloated objects and muffled sounds. A pantoufle was originally a cloth shoe [source].

Apparently the term revolving door is used for this practice in the USA.

In Japan this practice is known as 天下り [amakudari] (“descent from paradise or the sky”).

Are there similar expressions and practices in other languages?

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
la surabondance superfluity gormodedd gourfaoter
superflu superfluous gormodol didal; diouverus
le pari a bet bet; mentro arian pariadenn
parier to bet betio; mentro; chwarae hap pariañ
les futilités; les bagatelles trivia pethau dibwys/diwerth raneoù
la dune de sable sand dune twyn tywod tevenn (traezh)
le gage pawn (in chess) gwerinwr gouestl
le paon [pɑ̃] peacock paun paun
la paonne [pan] peahen peunes paunez
la pantoufle slipper sliper; llopan; esgid nos pañtoufl
pantoufler to switch from civil servant to the private sector   luduenniñ
pantouflard stay-at-home cartrefol; diantur; difenter ludu
se relaxer to chill out ymlacio dibrezañ; dizalc’hen
le soap; le feuilleton soap opera sioe sebon; opera sebon heuliadenn
tour à tour alternately bob yn ail a bep eil
l’échange exchange cyfnewid eskemm
intermédiaire go-between canolwr hanterour
le relais; l’auberge hotel, inn llety, gwesti leti; ostaleri
le relais (electronic) relay relái relae

Warming up

By Simon

It’s generally a good idea to do a bit of warming up before physical activity, especially sport. It also helps to do some warm up exercises before playing a musical instrument – I usually play a few scales before launching into other pieces on the guitar and piano, for example – and vocal and physical warms up are a good idea before singing.

I wonder if there are equivalent exercises you could do before using a language you’re learning. Speaking is a physical, as well as mental, activity, so some warming up might be useful. Maybe this could involve practising the sounds of the language at different pitches and speeds, putting them together in various combinations and just playing about with them a bit. You could focus on particular sounds or combinations that you find challenging. It could also involve going over very familiar phrases and having mini conversations with yourself. Maybe it could also involve playing with inflections, playing with verb tenses, noun cases and so.

When I was learning the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), I found it helped me to sing the different vowel sounds at different pitches. I haven’t tried this with particularly languages yet, but might give it a go.

Do you do anything like this? Do you think it is / would be helpful?

Language learner/speaker finder

By Simon

Today a friend told me about an app he’s developing that shows you where other language learners are in your vicinity and enables you to contact them to suggest a language exchange. You enter your details, including your native language(s) and the language(s) you’re learning, and it shows you if there’s anybody around who speaks the language you’re learning and is learning the language you speak.

It sounds like a great idea to me, and I thought something similar might be useful for speakers and learners of minority languages to find others who speak the same language. My friend, who is based in Zurich, is planning to develop such an app for Romansh speakers, and we might develop one for other languages like Welsh as well.

Does anybody know if any such apps already exist?

Very short stories

By Simon

Yesterday I came across an idea of writing very short stories in just six words. Here are some examples from Wired Magazine written by sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers:

Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back.
– David Brin

Lost, then found. Too bad.
– Graeme Gibson

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
– Richard Powers

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
– Harry Harrison

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
– Ernest Hemmingway

The last one was written by Hemmingway in the 1920s after his colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work. So this certainly isn’t a new idea. There are many more on Six Word Stories.

On discovering this, I started wondering whether such stories could be written in languages other than English. I thought it might be easier in some languages than in others. So can you come up with any six word stories in any language or combination of languages? If it’s not possible in six words, maybe ten words would work better.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg Brezhoneg
le gratte-papier pen(cil)-pusher clercyn louf-torchenn
l’écurie (f) stable (for horses) ystabl kraou (-kezeg)
la fausse couche miscarriage erthyliad (naturiol) kolladenn
l’erreur judiciaire miscarriage of justice aflwyddiant cyfiawnder fazi barnerezh
le mal d’altitude altitude sickness salwch pen mynydd  
le vertige vertigo pendro; pensyfrdandod pennfoll