Author: Simon

I am a linguist, web developer and musician. I live in Bangor in Wales and run Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages, as well as making the Radio Omniglot Podcast.

London

By Simon

While in London this weekend I heard many different languages being spoken, including different varieties of English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese. Those were just the ones I recognised. I spoke mainly English while I was there, plus some Mandarin and a little Japanese and Portuguese. The next time I’m there I might take my digital recorder to record some of the polyglot babble.

In Bangor you can find speakers of quite a variety of languages, but the linguistic diversity of London and other big cities is much higher, so whatever language you want to practise, you can probably find people to speak with.

Here are a few photos I took of the firework display the ended the Thames Festival.

There’s a video of part of the Sing for Water concert I took part in here

Sing for Water London

By Simon

This weekend I’ll be in London for Sing for Water London, a concert featuring a massed choir made up of members of 50 or so choirs from all over the UK with the aim of raising money from WaterAid.

So if you happen to be in London on Sunday afternoon, please come along to the Scoop next to City Hall on the south bank of the Thames at 3pm to listen to and support us.

We’ll be singing songs in English, Zulu, Baga and Georgian.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon

– le portail = gate = gât / porth / llidiart
– la critique = review (of book, film) = adolygiad
– le cours = lesson, course = gwers / cwrs
– faire un stage = to do/go on a (training) course = gwneud cwrs (hyfforddiant)
– le petit bâtiment préfabriqué = Portakabin
– aiguisser / affûter = to sharpen (knife) = hogi / awchlymu / minio
– tailler = to sharpen (pencil) = hogi / awchlymu/ minio
– le poignet = wrist = arddwrn
– la ronce = bramble = miaren
– la ronceraie = bramble patch
– la mûre = blackberry = mwyaren
– la cardère = teasel = cribau’r-pannwr gwyllt
– carder = to card (wool) = cardio
– la moisissure / les champignons = mould = lwydni
– la Tamise = (River) Thames = Tafwys
– tamiser = to sieve, sift = gogru / rhidyllu / rhidyllio
– lumière tamisée = subdued lighting = golau isel

Have you heard?

By Simon

I’ve just finished a new video. It’s in English this time and has similarities and references to previous videos. I added Chinese subtitles just for fun, and because it was a good excuse to practise my Chinese. If you spot any mistakes in the Chinese, or you’d like to translate the subtitles into other languages, just let me know.

I recorded the voices using my default RP accent for one character, and a sort generic northern accent for the other which contains elements of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Labhair Gaeilge liom

By Simon

I just watched a video of an interview in Irish that Benny Lewis did on Raidió na Life, the Irish language radio station in Dublin. Benny mentions that he has had a t-shirt made with “Labhair Gaeilge liom” (Speak Irish with me) on it and that people who see the shirt speak Irish to him, if they can, even in places where he didn’t expect to find Irish speakers.

What a good idea, I thought. In Ireland you can’t tell if someone speaks Irish just by looking at them, so you never know who to speak Irish to, and people don’t know if you speak Irish either. A t-shirt like Benny’s clears up both uncertainties. The same is true in Wales, Scotland and other places where minority languages are spoken – you don’t know who speaks them. Similar clothing or badges could be useful for other languages as well.

It would be interesting to wander round London, for example, wearing a t-shirt with “Labhair Gaeilge liom” and/or “Siaradwch Gymraeg â fi” (Speak Welsh with me) to say how many Irish and/or Welsh speakers you could find. Or I’m sure you’d get a lot of interest if you wore a badge saying “你可以跟我说汉语” (You can speak Chinese to me).

Have you tried this for any languages?

Could you give me translations of this phrase in various languages so I can put together a new phrases page?

Reading aloud

By Simon

I heard an interesting programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday about reading aloud. It discussed how people studied the skill of reading aloud during the 18th century, including how to stand, how to hold your head, and what to do with your hands and face. There were manuals which taught people how to read aloud in the style of admired readers of the time. The presenter also talked to people how regularly read aloud to their children and/or to each other, and they said that it’s a skill that comes with practice.

Do you read aloud to yourself and/or to others? If you do, what kind of things do you read?

If you enjoy reading aloud in your own language, or in other languages, maybe you could share some examples with visitors to Omniglot.

When reading books and other material in foreign languages I often read aloud. I find it helps me understand what I’m reading and to work out which words go together and how they’re related. It is also a good way to practise your pronunciation. It’s better if you have a native speaker to help, or an audiobook to listen to, but even without these aids, it’s still a useful thing to do. If I’m reading a story I might try to give each character a different voice. Sometimes I even read English texts aloud, particularly things I’ve written. I find this helps me to spot mistakes and to check the flow of the text.

Indo-European language origins

By Simon

According to an article I came across today on the BBC, a study by researchers in New Zealand suggests that Indo-European languages originated in Anatolia about 8-9,500 years ago, and not in the Central Asian steppes about 5-6,000 years ago, as many believe.

The researchers used methods developed to study virus epidemics to work out the relationships between Indo-European languages and where they came from, and they concluded that the spread of the languages coincided with the expansion of farming 8-9,500 years ago. There aren’t many details of their method in the article, but it does mention that they compared vocabulary across 100 modern and ancient languages using phylogenetic analysis.

More details are available in Science (if you have access).