Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
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.
Ideophones
What does the word tututu make you think of?
It’s an ideophone from Bebe (Naami) a language spoken in parts of Cameroon, and to a speaker of Bebe, tututu suggests the sound of a grinding mill.
Other ideophones in Bebe include:
- kpaŋkpaŋkpaŋ = the sound of a bell
- gbaaaŋ = the sound of a door closed with force
- waaa = the sound of a running water
- ŋgɔɔɔŋ = the sound of a lion roaring
- ŋaaaŋ = the sound of a baby crying
Source: Naami Orthography Guide, by Grace Tabah and Mkounga Tala Blaise
You can find out more about Bebe on Omniglot – this is a new page I added today, and finding out about the ideophones in this language inspired me to write this post.
An ideophone is a member of the class of words that depict sensory imagery or sensations, evoking ideas of action, sound, movement, color, or shape. They are also known as mimetics or expressives. Unlike onomatopoeic words, which imitate sounds, ideophones can also indicate action, state, intensity, smell, colour or manner. They are common in such languages as Japanese, Korean, Tamil, Yoruba and Zulu.
Here are some examples:
- がぶがぶ (gabugabu) = gulping, guzzling, gulp gulp – Japanese
- きびきび (kibikibi) = briskly – Japanese
- しとしとと降る (shitoshito to furu) = to rain or snow quietly – Japanese
- 가물가물 (gamulgamul) = (light) fading away into the distance, moving away faintly, in a blurred manner – Korean
- 버글버글 (beogeulbeogeul) = boilingly while spreading in all directions; bubblingly while spreading in all directions – Korean
- 꽁냥꽁냥 (kkongnyangkkongnyang) = lovey-dovey – Korean
- படபட (paṭapaṭa) = fluttering – Tamil
- புசுபுசு (pucupucu) = soft and bushy, fluffy – Tamil
- விறுவிறு (viṟuviṟu) = energetically, lively, spicy – Tamil
- khazimula = shining brightly – Zulu
- qaqa = bursting – Zulu
- jabula = happily – Zulu
Does your language have ideophones, or anything similar? Do you have any interesting examples?
For more information about ideophones see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideophone
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Korean_ideophones
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_onomatopoeias
Language Quiz
Immersion
After 7 weeks in China, I’m now back in the UK. I arrived home on Monday afternoon, after a long journey via Zurich and Manchester.
Sok Kwu Wan, Lamma Island / 南丫島索罟灣
I spent 6 weeks staying with friends in Zhaoqing (肇庆) in Guangdong Province in the south of China, then spent a week in Hong Kong. I visited places I’d been to before in Hong Kong, and some ones that were new to me, and generally had a good time. Hong Kong felt very busy and crowded, after the relatively relaxed Zhaoqing. I was last there in 1998, and it has changed quite a bit. There seems to be a lot more of everything – people, traffic, buildings, roads, railways, etc, but I did find some things that were familiar, like the Star Ferries and the trams.
Beilingshan Forest Park, Zhaoqing / 肇庆北岭山森林公园
While in Zhaoqing, I explored the local area and saw some beautiful places, but didn’t visit any other parts of China.
Few of the local people in Zhaoqing speak English, so I had use Mandarin or Cantonese, and interpret for one of my friends, who doesn’t speak much Chinese at all. This helped me to improve both languages. However, most of my interactions with locals were short and about everyday topics, such as buying things, ordering food in restaurants, or asking directions. I did have longer conversations about various topics with some people.
Being immersed in a language, as I was, doesn’t necessarily mean that all aspects of your ability in that language will improve. You need to make an effort to speak to people about all sorts of things, to read the language as much as you can, to watch TV and films in the language, and to listen to radio, podcasts, audiobooks or other material. It also helps to make some local friends who you speak to regularly, and/or find a language exchange partner or tutor.
My Mandarin is maybe at an A2/B1 level, and my Cantonese is at an A1 level at the most. I can have long conversations about various things in Mandarin, and short ones about basic things in Cantonese. Generally, people understand me and some said that it was unusual to meet a Westerner who speaks Chinese well. When reading Chinese texts, there are always characters that I’ve forgotten or don’t know yet, but I can usually get a good idea of what the texts mean.
While I was in Hong Kong, I tried to speak Cantonese with people as much as possible, unless they preferred Mandarin or English. I was able to communicate at a basic level and understand at least some of what I heard.
Language Quiz
Outside Aliens
As a non-Chinese person in China, a word you’ll hear quite a bit is 外国人 (wàiguórén), which means foreigner, foreign national or alien. Some people like pointing out any foreigners they see, and they might say or shout 外国人 at them, assuming they won’t understand.
Me in front of the Old City Wall in Zhaoqing / 我在肇庆古城墙前
外国人 [外國人] (wàiguórén) could be translated literally as “outside country person” or “foreign nation person”. A slang version is 歪果仁 (wāiguǒrén) which literally means something like “slanted fruit benevolence” or “askew results humaneness” [source].
When Chinese people look at me and say 外国人, I might reply by saying I’m not a 外国人 but rather a 外星人 (wàixīngrén), which means space alien or extraterrestrial. This often gets a smile or laugh. Or I might point that to me they are the 外国人.
When I worked in Taiwan, I was officially an alien as I had an Alien Registration Card, which I found quite amusing.
外国人 is a formal and polite to refer to a non-Chinese national, and seems to be used particularly to refer to people who don’t look Chinese or Asian. Other ways to do so include:
- 老外 (lǎowài / lou5 ngoi6) – “old foreign” – this is an informal, slang term for foreigners, particularly foreigners of non-East Asian ethnicities, and is used throughout China in Mandarin and Cantonese. It is seen as offensive or rude by some [source]. It can also mean a layman or amateur, and in Cantonese it can refer to a father-in-law, specifically a wife’s father [source].
- 鬼佬 (gwai2 lou2) – “ghost man”, “devil person” – used in Cantonese and Eastern Min to refer to a foreigner, particularly a white Westerner. It is considered derogatory [source].
- 洋人 (yángrén) – “ocean / foreign person” – refers to a foreigner, especially a westerner or Caucasian. Used in some varieties of Mandarin, Gan, Hakka, Jin, Wu and Xiang [source]
- 外宾 [外賓] (wàibīn) – “foreign guest” [source].
- 国际友人 [國際友人] (guójì yǒurén) – “international friend”.
- 外国朋友 [外國朋友] (wàiguó péngyou) – “foreign friend”.
In China, people who were not born in the area they live are known as 外地人 (wàidìrén – stranger, outsider, non-local, out-of-towner) by local people. I met quite a few such people in Zhaoqing [source].
In the few days I’ve been in Hong Kong, I’ve seen more 外國人 than I did in 6 weeks in Zhaoqing. There, it’s rare to spot a 外国人 in the wild. Here, they’re more common. Today, for example, I heard 外國人 speaking English, French, German, Dutch, Russian and other languages I didn’t recognise. There were quite a few at Victoria Peak, which I visited today.
A view from Victoria Peak (太平山), Hong Kong
In Japanese, 外国人 (gaikokujin) is used to refer to a foreigner, an alien, a foreign national or a person who is not Japanese [source].
The informal version, 外人 (gaijin), is used specifically for foreigners of European ancestry, and used to mean any outsider, or an estranged or unfamiliar person. After Japan opened up to the outside world in the 1850s, 外人 started to be used to refer to foreigners, especially foreigners in Japan. It is considered negative and pejorative by some these days [source]. It can also refer to ethnically Japanese people who have grown up outside Japan and are not Japanese citizens [source].
Language Quiz
One Another
The other day I came accross the word 彼此 (bǐcǐ) in one of my Chinese lessons. It means each other or one another, and while I’d seen both characters before, I hadn’t seen them together like this.
There is also the idiom 彼此彼此 (bǐcǐbǐcǐ) in Chinese, which means you and me both or that makes two of us [source].
彼 (bǐ) on it’s one means that, there or those in Mandarin Chinese [source].
I’m more familiar the character 彼 in the Japanese words like 彼 (kare – he, him or boyfriend) and 彼女 (kanojo – she, her, girlfriend), 彼ら (karera – they, them) and 彼氏 (kareshi – boyfriend, he, him)
彼 can also appear in Japanese words like:
- 彼 (are) = that (thing / person / time / place)
- 彼の (ano) = that, those, the – usually written あの
- 彼処 (asoko) = there, over there, that place, yonder, you-know-where, private parts, that far, that much – usually written あそこ
- 彼方 (achira) = that way, that direction, over there, yonder, that (one / person), foreign country (esp. a Western one) – usually written あちら
- 彼方此方 (achikochi) = here and there, various places, all around, all over, everywhere, throughout, muddled, confused, back to front – usually written あちこち
- 彼是 (arekore) = this and that, one thing or another, this way and that, around about, roughly, nearly, almost – usually written あれこれ, can also be written 彼此
Source: https://jisho.org/
此 (cǐ) on it’s one means this or these in Mandarin Chinese [source].
In Japanese 此 can appear in words such as:
- 此れ (kore) = this (one / person) now, this time, here – usually written これ
- 此の (kono)= this, last, these, parts この
- 此方 (kochira) = this way, this direction, here, this (one) – usually written こちら
- 此処 (koko) = here, this place, this point, here, now – usually written ここ
- 此奴 (koistsu) = he, she, this fellow, this guy, this person, hey you! – usually written こいつ
Source: https://jisho.org/
I’ve seen some of these words written with kanji in subtitles for songs online, perhaps to save space on the screen.
When I first started learning Japanese, I tried to learn all the rarely-used kanji like this, and wanted to know the kanji for every Japanese word, if they existed. I’ve since forgotten a lot of them, but the Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese lessons I’ve been working on recently have helped.
When I try to read texts in Chinese or Japanese, I can usually understand enough to get some idea of what they mean. However, there are often characters I’ve forgotten, or haven’t learnt yet, which can be frustrating. Fortunately, I can usually find them in a dictionary or translation app on my phone, or I can ask someone.
Language Quiz
Quick Brown Foxes
A pangram, or holoalphabetic sentence, is a sentence that includes every letter used to write a particular language at least once. The best-known example in English is “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”.
This pangram has been used used since at least the late 19th century. Telegraph companies such as Western Union used it to test the accuracy and reliabilty of their equipment, and these days, pangrams are used to display typefaces in computers, and for other programs.
An even more difficult challenge is to construct a short pangram using – that is, one that contains as few letters as possible.
Here are some examples:
- Quick nymph bugs vex fjord waltz (27 letters)
- Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex (28 letters)
- Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow (29 letters)
- How quickly daft jumping zebras vex (30 letters)
- The five boxing wizards jump quickly (31 letters)
- Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs (32 letters)
A perfect pangram is one that contains each letter of the alphabet once. here are some examples:
- Blowzy night-frumps vex’d Jack Q
- Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx
- Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
The Finnish word Törkylempijävongahdus, which means “a whinge of a sleazy lover”, is an example of a short pangram in one word. It contain all the letters of Finnish alphabet used to write Finnish words, but not the ones used to write words borrowed from other languages.
Are there similar examples in any other languages?
Another kind of pangram is a phonetic pangram, that is, one that contains all the phonemes of a particular language. Here’s one for English sent in by Murray Callahan, who inspired this post:
That quick beige fox jumped in the air over each thin dog. Look out, I shout, for he has foiled you again, creating chaos.
Can you come up with any others for English or other languages?
Sources and information about pangrams:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram
https://clagnut.com/blog/2380/
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pangram
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/385085/is-there-such-a-thing-as-pangram-for-phonemes