Category: Language

Word of the day – yaourter

By Simon

The word yaourter (to yoghurt) is a French word for the way people attempt to speak or sing in a foreign language that they don’t know very well. Often they mishear and misinterpret the word or lyrics and substitute them with familiar words. For example the Queen song “I want to break free” becomes “I want a steak frites”. The lyrics of songs in your native language are often misheard as well.

It’s not just the French who yoghurt though – the line “sonnez les matines” from “Frere Jacques” becomes “sunny semolina” or something simliar in the mouths of English children. I think I sang it as “sloppy semonlina”. Another word for this phenomenon is ‘slips of the ear’.

Source: BBC News

Do you have any examples of yoghurting / slips of the ear / misheard lyrics?

Language and dementia

By Simon

According to an article I came across today, people with good language skills early in life and develop dementia later in life are likely retain their memories better than those without such skills. They believe that testing the mental abilities of people in their early 20s can predict whether they will retain their mental abilities in their 70s and 80s.

It doesn’t say whether this involves language skills in one language or more than one, but other studies have found that being bilingual or multilingual can delay by several years the onset of Alzheimer’s and other conditions that tend to strike the elderly.

The article caught my eye because last night I sang with the Bangor Community Choir at Plas Maesincla, a care home for people with dementia in Caernarfon. Many of the residents perked up when we sang some well-known Welsh songs, such as Calon Lân and Sospan Fach, and quite a few joined in. So I think the songs might have triggered some happy memories.

Russian transliteration

By Simon

Yesterday I came across a useful site that shows you how to transliterate Russian into various Latin transliteration systems, and into other alphabets such as Greek, Arabic, Thai and Georgian. The site also has an transliterator that transliterates Russian text into various transliteration systems; a transliterator that converts Chinese Pinyin texts into Cyrillic, and another that converts Japanese text in Hiragana or Katakana in Cyrillic.

Here are some example transliterations of the Russian version of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Original Russian text
Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

German transliteration
Wse ljudi roschdajutsja swobodnymi i rawnymi w swojem dostoinstwe i prawach. Oni nadeleny rasumom i sowest’ju i dolschny postupat’ w otnoschenii drug druga w duche bratstwa.

Greek transliteration
Βσγιε λγιουντι ροζνταγιουτσγια σβομποντνιμι ι ραβνιμι β σβογιεμ ντοστοινστβγιε ι πραβαχ. Ονι ναντγιελγιενι ραζουμομ ι σοβγιεστ’γιου ι ντολζνι ποστουπατ’ β οτνοσγιενι ντρουγκ ντρουγκα β ντουχγιε μπρατστβα.

Georgian transliteration
ვსე ლიუდი როჟდაიუტსია სვობოდნიმი ი რავნიმი ვ სვოემ დოსტოინსტვე ი პრავახ. ონი ნადელენი რაზუმომ ი სოვესტიუ ი დოლჟნი პოსტუპატ ვ ოტნოშენი დრუგ დრუგა ვ დუხე ბრატსტვა.

Another feature of the site is a dictionary of Russian slang, which is available in many language combinations.

eolotthowghrhoighuay and ghoti

By Simon

The word ‘eolotthowghrhoighuay’ was devised by Alexander Ellis in 1845 to demonstrate the eccentric nature of English spelling. It’s supposed to spell ‘orthography’, and uses the eo from George, the ol from Colonel, the tth from Matthew, the ow from knowledge, the gh from ghost, the rh from rheumatic, the oi from Beauvoir, the gh from laugh, and the uay from quay.

Ghoti is a better-known example which is apparently spells ‘fish’, with the gh from tough, the o from women and the ti from nation. According to Wikipedia, it first appeared in print in 1874 and is credited to Willian Ollier, who used it in a letter in 1855, though it’s usually attributed George Bernard Shaw. Ghoti is also the word for fish in Klingon.

The trouble with both these words is that the letters or combinations of letters are not pronounced in these particularly ways when you take them from their normal positions. gh, for example, rarely appears at the beginnings of words, except in words like ghost.

You could spell fish ‘phoche’ (photo women quiche), according to this site.

Hungarian runes

By Simon

Yesterday at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod I was quite surprised to see Hungarian Runes / Rovás (Székely Rovásírás) being used. They appear on the logo and publicity material of a Hungarian drumming group who perform Hungarian folk dances and songs that date back to the 11th century, a time when the Székler Magyars were writing with the rovás.

The group, called Feher Taltos Traditional Hungarian Drummers (Regélő Fehér Táltos), is very good, and well worth going to see.

Here are some examples:

Examples of Hungarian rovás

I think the bit of writing on the right, which comes from the group’s flyer, reads, “Regélő Fehér Táltos Hagyományőrző Egyesület Dobcsapata”, which I assume is the group’s name in Hungarian.

Word of the day – skeet

By Simon

Skeet, which apparently comes from Old Icelandic, is a word you’re likely to hear frequently in the Isle of Man. It’s means gossip, more or less. People will ask you, “Got any skeet (at you)?” and will try to find out all about who you’ve seen, where they were and what they were doing, who they were with, and so on. The holder of any juicy skeet will try and keep as much of it to themselves for as long as they can to build up the suspense.

You can also have a skeet (look) at something, for example if you’ve brought something new people will ask for a skeet at it, and having a skeet at the neighbours from behind your net curtains is a common practice.

In Manx the word skeet means sneak or news, and jollys-skeet is a voyeur.

Other meanings of skeet include:

– clay targets used in trapshooting – known as clay pigeons in the UK
– a poker hand consisting of a 9, a 5, a 2, and two other cards lower than 9.
– loud, disruptive and poorly educated person of low social status (in Newfoundland slang)
– to squirt