Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
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.
Word of the day – gliniadur
Gliniadur is a Welsh word for laptop computer. It combines (pen-)glin, knee, with iadur from cyfrifiadur, computer, and could be translated as “kneeputer”. It is similar to the Irish for laptop, ríomhaire glúine (knee computer).
Other Welsh words for laptop include cyfrifiadur côl (lap computer), sgrin-ar-lin (screen on the knees) and cyfrifiadur cludadwy (portable computer).
The suffix adur denotes a tool or thing and also appears in geiriadur (dictionary, “word tool”), gwniadur (thimble, “sewing tool”), teipiadur (typewriter, “type tool”), and termiadur (a dictionary of terminology).
This word came up last night at the French conversation group when we were discussing how to say laptop in French (ordinateur portable) – are there any other words for laptop in French?
Do any other languages have interesting words for laptop?
Word of the day – purfle
Purfle is a very handy word that means “to decorate the surface of a violin”.
I came across it today in an article about the completion and publication after 45 years of the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary – the first historical thesaurus in the world in any language. The Thesaurus sorts words by date and meaning into more than 236,000 categories and subcategories, and the oldest words date back to about 700 AD.
Interesting discoveries include 265 ways to say ‘immediately’, multiple Anglo-Saxon words for diseases of the feet, as well as all sorts of words for stupid people, including medwis, modigleas, samwis, ungerad and stuntlic from the time of King Alfred (849-899); dumpish, dorbellical and grout-headed from Shakespeare’s time; and numskulled, born-muzzy, ram-headed and chuckleheaded from the late 18th / early 19th century.
Kishteenyn
Jea hoshee mee mp3 y yannoo jeh my chooid gishteenyn. Gooin lhiat kishteenyn? V’ad ymmydit jannoo recortysyn roish mp3 as CDyn car y keead vlein shoh chaie. Chionnee mee my chied kishteen ayns 1988 – albym lesh The Police – as ta ny smoo na keead aym nish. Myr shen bee tammylt beag roish ta jerrey er shoh.
Casetiau
Ddoe mi ddechreues i drawsnewid fy nghasetiau i mp3. Wyt ti’n cofio casetiau? Ro’n nhw yn eu defnyddio i wneud recordiadau cyn mp3 a CDiau yn ystod y ganrif diwethaf. Mi brynnais i fy ngasét cyntaf ym 1988 – albwm gan The Police – ac mae gen i mwy na gant erbyn hyn. Felly bydd sbel cyn i mi orffen hynny.
Sounds familiar
When I listen to languages I don’t know sometimes I like their sounds, other times I’m not so keen. I suspect that languages which sound at least vaguely familiar are more likely to appeal to my ears than those that sound completely alien, and that if I learnt any of those languages, my appreciation of them would increase.
As I get to know languages their sounds tend to grow on me, and the more I learn, the more I like them. In some cases, such as Irish and Scottish Gaelic, I liked the sounds of languages long before I could understand or speak them, in others, such as Taiwanese and Cantonese, I wasn’t overly keen on what they sounded like at first, but came to like their sounds. If I listen to other varieties of Chinese that I don’t know, then to one I do, it feels like ‘coming home’.
Chinese cube
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?
MG, MB & PP
Riyr hie mee dys cuirrey kiaull lesh Meinir Gwilym, arraneyder as screeudeyr arrane Bretnish voish Anglesey, as Mary Black, yn arraneyder ard-ghooagh Yernagh. By yindyssagh eh, as shoh yn chied cheayrt dy vel mee er n’akin bio. Fastyr jiu hie mee dys loayrtys lesh Philip Pullman, y ughtar ard-ghooagh ta screeu y treeskeealag “His Dark Materials”, as v’eh feer hymoil dy jarroo.
Neithiwr es i i gyngerdd gan Meinir Gwilym, y gantores a chyfansoddwraig o Ynys Môn, ac Mary Black, y gantores enwog o Iwerddon. Roedd yn ardderchog, ac dyna y tro cyntaf i mi clywed nhw yn fyw. Y prynhawn ‘ma es i i sesiwn gyda Philip Pullman, awdur y triawd o nofelau “His Dark Materials”, ac roedd hi’n ddiddorol iawn.
Puzzling prayer
Criw Bangor
Ta sheshaght chiaullee ny ynseydaghyn Bretnish, Criw Bangor, g’aahoshiaght noght, as ta y sheshaght chiaullee pobble ayn noght neesht. Hem dys sheshaght chiaullee ny ynseydaghyn rish oor, as dys y sheshaght chiaullee elley ny yei shen.
Mae Criw Bangor, côr dysgwyr Cymraeg, yn ailgychwyn heno, ac mae’r côr cymuned yn ymarfer heno hefyd. Mi a i i Griw Bangor yn gyntaf am awr, ac yna i’r côr arall.