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.

‘Bilingual’ dolphins

By Simon

According to an article I found today, dolphins sometimes make whale-like calls. Researchers from the University of Rennes in France recorded dolphins at an aquatic park in Port-Saint-Père and found that they make noises very similar to humpback whale calls, particularly when resting during the early hours of the morning. This is the first time dolphins have been observed mimicking sounds they’ve heard in this way a significant period of time after hearing them.

Apparently dolphins and humpback whales have been observed in the wild interacting with each other in a seemingly playful way, and it’s possible that there is some level of affinity between the two species.

Sign languages

By Simon

I’ve been thinking about which language(s) to focus on this year. My studies of Russian petered out before Christmas, partly because I haven’t any pressing need to learn it. Since then I’ve been trying to decide whether to continue with Russian, to learn a new language, or to work on a language I’ve already studied.

As I was given Teach Yourself British Sign Language for Christmas, I’ve decided to have another go at it. The book and accompanying DVD seem to be clear and well put together, and cover not just signs, but also grammar, Deaf culture and etiquette. I might also learn some more Spanish.

In other sign language-related news, it is now possible to learn Icelandic Sign Language (íslenskt táknmál) online on SignWiki, if you already know Icelandic. Icelandic Sign Language developed from Danish Sign Language (Dansk Tegnsprog) and was officially recognised in Icelandic in May 2011, according to the IceNews website.

Musket inscription puzzle

By Simon

Here is a mysterious inscription on a musket that was posted on the Omniglot fan club recently:

Mysterious musket inscription

See a larger version of this image.

The person who sent this in the asked me to post the image here with this analysis from Christopher Ray Miller:

I think this is more likely in the Kaithi script, which is closely related to modern Gujarati script, both being descended from informal styles of writing Nāgarī (before it gained the “Deva-” prefix). Although in most 19th and 20th century examples of Kaithi, the ‹l› letter looks more or less like a cursive Greek Theta, there are a few examples of it with the same ‘C-I’ shape as Gujarati that we see herein the second and fourth positions from the end.

What makes me think this is probably Kaithi is the ‹v› just below the right end of the metallic attachment on the top of the gun. It is the same basic shape as ‹w› in Gujarati and Devanagari, but has a small circle below it, which corresponds to the dot/nuqta diacritic for ‹v› in Kaithi, the only thing distinguishing it from ‹b›. (The two letters merged because in most languages of northeastern India, the older distinct /v/ and /b/ phonemes merged into /b/, just like in Spanish, for example.

The letter just above the second ‘0’ and above and to the left of the ‘9’ shape (probably the numeral ‘1’) seems to be an early version of ‹j›, more similar to the old Nāgarī shape than the 19th-20th century Kaithi shape, which is like a ‘S’ rotated 90º. The letter just to the right of the putative ‹j› looks very much to be the Kaithi ‹a› letter.

I imagine this is in one of the languages of northeastern India that commonly used Kaithi script, e.g. Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi and others.

Can anybody translate the inscription and/or add anything to this?

Paid a gwgu!

By Simon

I learnt the Welsh expression Paid a gwgu! [paɪd a ˈgʊgɨ] from friends in Aberystwyth yesterday. It means ‘Don’t frown/glower/scowl!’. I like the sound of gwgu, which doesn’t seem like a frowny word to me – it’s more like a baby’s babbling. Related words include gwg (frown) and gwgus (frowning).

Words for frown in Irish, grainc and gruig, are possibly related to the Welsh word gwg. Other words frowny Irish words include púic and místá. The verbal expression is grain/gruig a chur ort féin (to put a frown on oneself), and an idiomatic way of saying, for example, ‘he frowned at me’ is bhí muc ar gach mala aige chugam (“he had a pig on each eyebrow to me”).

Pelmeni

By Simon

Pelmeni (from: http://www.st-petersburg-dd.de/ru/gerichte/russische/pelmeni.html)

Characters in the novels by Andrey Kurkov (Андрій Юрійович Курков) that I’ve read recently often enjoy a bowl of dish of pelmeni, which is obviously some kind of food, but is not translated. I wondered what pelmeni might be, so thought I’d find out.

According to Wikipedia, pelmeni are “dumplings consisting of a filling wrapped in thin, unleavened dough that originated in Siberia”. The dough is made of flour and water, with eggs sometimes added, and the filling is minced pork, lamb, beef, mutton or other meat, mixed with pepper or other spices and onions, or with fish or mushrooms. They are cooked by boiling them in water or broth, or by frying.

In Russian they are known as пельмени (pel’meni – pl) / пельмень (pel’men’ – sg), in Belarusian they are пяльмені (pyal’meni), in Ukrainian they are пельмені, (pel’meni), and in Latvian they are pelmeņi. The name comes from пельнянь (pel’nyan’), which means “ear bread” in the Komi, Udmurt, and Mansi languages.

According to the School of Russian and Asian Studies Russian pelmeni (русские пельмени) come from Siberia and the word comes from Komi, though the receipe might originally come from China. They certainly sound like to Chinese 餃子 (饺子) jiǎozi.

Here are some pelmeni recipes:
http://tasterussian.com/russian-pelmeni-recipe.html
http://www.russianfoods.com/en/pelmeni/
http://www.ruscuisine.com/recipes/breads-and-pastry/dumplings/n–524

Are you a fan of pelmeni, or do you have something similar in your country?

Gordon Bennett!

By Simon

Gordon Bennett! is used as an exclamation of surprise or disbelief. According to The Phrase Finder, it first appeared in print as an exclamation in a 1937 novel by James Curtis – You’re in the Racket Too, and is possibly a version of the exclamation Gor blimey!, a euphemistic version of God blind me!.

It is also believed that the exclamation is related to one James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1841-1918), a journalist whose father, also James Gordon Bennett, founded the New York Herald. JGB Jr. was apparently notorious for his wild lifestyle and extravagant spending and newsworthy stunts.

Is Gordon Bennett! used in other English-speaking countries?

Are toned-down versions of oaths, like Gordon Bennett!, used in other languages?