Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Category: Language
Christmas
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Sorry, we’re out of smiles
Translation:
– A baguette please.
– With this?
– ?
– With a plant please
– With this?
– With a surfboard please
– With this?
– With a smile please
– Sorry. I don’t have any more of them.
The phrase avec ceci ? literally means “with this?”, but I suspect in this context it might mean something like “(would you like) anything else?”. Is that right?
This comic / cartoon was brought to you by Frantastique, who are offering French lessons with an exclusive 20% reduction to all Omniglots readers.
That’s enough!
The Russian word всё (vsjo) [fsʲo] is a useful one that can mean various things depending on the context: everything, still, always, all the time, nevertheless.
Here are some examples:
– Вот и всё; Это всё = that’s all
– Мне всё равно = it’s all the same to me
– Я всё равно пойду туда = I’ll go there all the same
– Всё? Да, это всё = Have you got everything? Yes, that’s everything
– Всё хорошо = Everything’s fine
– всё же = all the same
– всё ещё = still
– Мне всё мало = I just can’t get enough
– а всё-таки = all the same, nevertheless
One handy tip I got from the Russian Made Easy podcasts is that when learning a new word that has a variety of meanings, like всё, it’s hard to grasp all it’s nuances straight away. Instead your understanding of what a word means and how it’s used builds up over time the more you hear it, see it and use it.
Sources: Reverso, Russian Made Easy, The Oxford Russian Dictionary
Ditties, dictation and digits
A ditty is a short, simple song, like the ones I write. It comes from the Old French dite (composition), from the Latin dictatum (something dictated), from dictare (to dictate), a frequentative of dicere (to say, speak), which is related to dicare (to proclaim, dedicate), from the Proto-Indo-European root *deik- (to point out).
Some English words that come from the same root include dictate, diction, and digit, which came to be related to numbers as a result of counting on fingers. Other words that developed from this root include the Latin digitus (finger), the German zeigen, the Greek δίκη [díkê] (custom, right, judgement), and quite a few more.
The word teach also comes from the *deik-, via the Old English tæcan (to show, point out, declare, demonstrate; to give instruction, train, assign, direct; warn; persuade), from the Proto-Germanic *taikijan (to show).
Source: Online Etymology Dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries and the Indo-European Lexicon.
Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| avoir conscience (de qch) | (to be) aware (of) | ymwybodol (o); gwybod (am) |
| se rendre compte de | to become aware of | dod yn gyfarwydd â; dod yn ymwybodol o; dod i wybod |
| l’intoxication (f) alimentaire | food poisoning | gwenwyn bwyd |
| souscrire à | to subscribe (to an opinion) | cefnogi; arddel; coleddu |
| l’ovation (f) debout | standing ovation | cymeradwyaeth sefyll |
| on s’est levé pour l’acclaimer | he was given a standing ovation | cododd pawb i’w gymeradwyo |
| contrebandier | smuggler | smyglwr |
| trafiquant de drogue | drug smuggler | smyglwr cyffuriau |
| draguer | to dredge (a river) | carthu |
| les ouvrages anticrues; les ouvrages de protection contre les eaux |
flood defences | amddiffynfeydd llifogydd |
| la zone inondable | flood plain | gorlifdir; gwastatir; llifwaddod |
| être en crue | to flood (river) | gorlifo; llifo |
| occasionnel | occasional | ambell; ysbeidiol |
| la table d’appoint | occasional table | bwrdd bach |
| la flaque (d’eau) | puddle | pwll; pwdel |
Large vocabulary? Do you know how to use it?
A lot of language learning approaches I’ve read and heard about focus on learning as much vocabulary as possible, and not worrying too much about grammar, at least at first. For example you might focus on learning the most commonly-used phrases and words, and on using them at every opportunity. Later on you might learn a bit of grammar.
In the Russian lesson I listened to today, the tip of the day is to focus on learning a relatively small amount of vocabulary and learning how to use it in a variety of contexts, rather than learning a lot of vocabulary, and then not being able to use it very well. Once you can use the words you know grammatically, it’s not so difficult to add more vocabulary.
In another lesson in this course the presenter suggests that learning grammar from books and tables isn’t very effective, and that it’s best to learn it from lots of examples and exercises which focus on real colloquial language.
I’m finding the course very useful and like this approach. It introduces various aspects of Russian grammar gradually and gives you plenty of opportunities to practise using them.
What are your thoughts on this?
Stuckies, pleeps and doos
I came across some interesting Scots words in a TED talk today which I hadn’t heard before – stuckies, pleeps and doos.
What do you think they mean?
Clue: they’re types of bird.
In the talk the presenter, a native speaker of Scots, explains how he was told from his first day at school that many of the words he was using were wrong, and that it was the same story for many other children. They have to learn ‘proper’ English words. He talks about how Scots has been marginalised and replaced by a version of English spoken with a Scottish accent known as Attic or Scottish English. He explains how words in Scots have much richer associations in his brain than their English equivalents.
Here’s the talk:
How much can you understand?
Answers
A stuckie is a starling, a pleep is an oyster catcher, and a doo is a dove.