Category: Language

Cernyw

By Simon

Cychod hwylio yn Aberfal

Mi orffenes i ddrafft cyntaf fy nhraethawd hir Ddydd Llun yr wythnos hon, ac ar Ddydd Mawrth mi es i i Aberfal yng Nghernyw i weld fy mrawd a fy rheini. Mae fy mrawd newydd orffen ei daith o gwmpas y byd yn ei gwch hwylio Kika, ac ro’n ni’n yn Aberfal i’w groesawu o yn ôl. Mae’r lle yn hyfryd ac mi fwynheuon ni yn fawr.

Cornwall

I finished the first draft of my dissertation on Monday of this week, and on Tuesday I went down to Falmouth in Cornwall to see my brother and my parents. My brother has just finished his circumnavigation of the world in his yacht Kika, and we were in Falmouth to welcome him back. It’s a really nice place and we had a good time there.

Falmouth / Aberfal

By Simon

A view of Falmouth harbour early in the morning

I just got back to Bangor after spending a few days with my family down in Falmouth (Aberfal) in Cornwall (Kernow). My brother has just finished a circumnavigation of the globe in Falmouth four years after setting sail, and we went to welcome him back. His adventures are recounted on his blog.

While in Cornwall I was on the look out for any bits Cornish I could spot. There were plenty of Cornish flags and bumper stickers, some with Kernow on them, some of the leaflets about local attractions have place names in English and Cornish, and the Cornish motto, “One and all / Onan hag oll” appears in both languages on the Cornwall Council logo. One bookshop I visited had a few Cornish language courses and dictionaries, but apart from that, there was very little Cornish to be seen, and none whatsoever to be heard. There may be more Cornish around in other places, but the superficial impression I got was that Cornish is not as visible in Cornwall as Manx is in the Isle of Man.

Body language and autism

By Simon

According to research reported in this article, people with autism have difficult interpreting body language, which makes it difficult for them to understand other people’s emotions. The research used animated clips of figures made up of dots showing emotions which the participants with autism had trouble identifying them correctly. I wonder how they would have fared if real people or videos of real people were displaying the emotions.

On a related note, in Frans de Waal’s book, Our Inner Ape, which I read recently, he mentions an American woman with Asperger’s Syndrome who found she was able to relate better to gorillas than humans and got a job as a gorilla keeper. She found it difficult to deal with direct stares and questions from people, and preferred the way the gorillas were “looking without looking, and understanding without speaking”. She was able to understand the body language of the gorillas, and found that they responded to her as well, comforting her when she showed signs of distress.

Eisteddfod y Bala

By Simon

Mi ddes i yn ôl o Iwerddon Nos Sadwrn. Mi fwynheues fy hunan yn fawr iawn yn siarad a chanu yn y Wyddeleg trwy’r wythnos efo hen ffrindiau a ffrindiau newydd. Ac mae fy Ngwyddeleg wedi gwella tipyn bach hefyd. Yfory dw i’n mynd i’r Eisteddfod yn y Bala efo Criw Bangor (côr y dysgwyr) ac byddan ni’n cystadlu efo 11 corau eraill.

Tháinig mé ar ais ó Éirinn oíche Sathairn. Bhain mé an-sult as a bheith ag caint agus ag ceol Gaeilge i rith na seachtaine leis séan cairde agus cairde nua. Agus tá mo chuid Gaeilge ag feabhsú freisin. Amárach tá mé ag dhul go dtí an Eisteddfod i mBala leis Criw Bangor (cór na foghlaimeoirí) agus rachaidh muid in iomaíocht leis 11 coir eile.

I got back from Ireland on Saturday night. I had a wonderful time there speaking and singing Irish all week with old friends and new friends, and my Irish has improved somewhat. Tomorrow I’m off to the Eisteddfod in Bala with Criw Bangor (the Welsh learners choir), and we’ll be competing with 11 other choirs.

Language modes

By Simon

I’ve just returned from a wonderful week of Irish language and culture in Gleann Cholm Cille in Donegal, Ireland. This was my fifth visit to Gleann Cholm Cille, and my third time at the summer school – I enjoy it so much that I keep going back. And I’m not the only one – many of the people I met there last year and the year before were there again this year, and many of the first-time visitors said that they’d be back.

I spent most of my time there immersed in Irish language, songs and music. Although this week is the only one during the year when I get to speak much Irish, my proficiency in the language does seem to be improving. I still make plenty of mistakes, of course, but am getting better as expressing myself in the language without resorting to English very much.

One thing I noticed was that when I tried to think of Welsh equivalents some of the Irish words and phrases I encountered, they often refused to surface from wherever it is they lurk in my memory. I suspect this was because my brain was in Irish mode and this suppressed my other languages to some extent.

Have you had any similar experiences with languages?

By the way, apologies for Omniglot being down temporarily – it was something to do with the firewall, which I think I fixed now.

Oideas Gael

By Simon

Amárach tá mé ag dul chuig an scoil shamhraidh in Oideas Gael i nGleann Cholm Cile. Seo an tríú uair atá mé ansin ar an scoil shamraidh, agus an cúigiú uair atá i nGleann Cholm Cille. Beidh mé ansin ar feadh seachtaine, agus tá mé súil go mór leis.

Yfory dw i’n mynd i’r ysgol haf mewn Gwyddeleg a diwylliant yn Oideas Gael yn Glencolmcille. Dyma y trydedd tro imi bod yna am yr ysgol haf, ac y pumed tro imi bod yn Glencolmcille. Bydda i’n yna am wythnos, ac dw i’n edrych ymlaen yn fawr ato.

Tomorrow I’m off to Ireland for the summer school in language and culture at Oideas Gael in Donegal. This is the third time I’ve been to the summer school, and my fifth visit to Glencolmcille. I’ll be there for a week and am really looking forward to it.

Minority languages in Slovakia

By Simon

According to a report on the BBC News website, under a new law which will apply from 1st September this year people who use minority languages in public services could be fined up to €5,000. That is, if the minority constitutes less than 20% of the Slovak population. Understandably this has not been well received by speakers of minority languages in Slovakia, especially among Hungarian speakers, who make up about 10% of the population.

Details of the new law are available here. These state that minorities have the right to use Slovak and their native languages, however only minorities that make up 20% or more of the population in a particular area can use their native languages when dealing with local government organisations. They also say that “Local administration bodies and their employees are not employed to speak a minority language.”