Category: Language

Too much time?

By Simon

Before finding my current job, I spent almost a year searching for work while staying with my parents. During that time, I had great plans to learn languages, the guitar, and various other things. I did manage to acquire a basic knowledge of Welsh and Esperanto, but rushed through the courses with the aim of finishing them, rather than trying to learn the languages as thoroughly as possible. My efforts to learn the guitar didn’t come to much – I learnt a few chords and tunes, but soon got out of the habit of practising regularly. I found myself putting things off, knowing that I could do them later. In the end, I ended up doing not very much. It was as if I had too much time.

A couple of weeks ago, I started learning the guitar again. This time I’m having a lesson once a week, am practising every day, and am trying to learn as much as possible on my own. Finding time to practise the guitar, to study languages, and for all my other hobbies, doesn’t seem to be a problem, even though my spare time is limited.

Name the language

By Simon

Here’s a sample text in a conlang. Can you work out which language it is and which languages it’s based on?

Si lla der goninew gwollar, lleman tra’ll yspeid, e’ll noeth cadd e’ll diwrn rhump di’n der a’n der, gwan sewenir-nu’ll pobl – ychweilan, dorfen, nascen, e foren – yn mun, yn ddynaldad. Gwan di gi i mheg.

Ynsee Gaelg (Learn Manx)

By Simon

Ynsee Gaelg is a new site I found this week that contains Manx language lessons, games, stories, news and information about the language. The lessons are available at three levels: Toshiaghteyr (Beginners), Meanagh (Intermediate) and Ard (Advanced) and include sound files for all the phrases and texts, something that’s lacking from other online Manx lessons. The stories and news are in English or Manx.

I’m impressed with this site – it contains a lot of useful, well-presented content, and also looks good. Now if I can just find a bit of time amongst my other activities, I’ll use it to learn some more Manx.

I find Manx texts quite difficult to read due to lack of familiarity with the spelling system. If I read the texts aloud however, I can often understand them better.

Kernewek/Kernowek/Kernuak/Curnoack

By Simon

Moves are apparently being made to establish a single written form of Cornish, which currently has four different spelling systems. The Cornish Language Partnership has set up a Linguistic Working Group consisting of Cornish speakers with a good knowledge of the language to recommend a solution to this excess of orthographies. A conference will be held this month to discuss this matter. If an agreement is reached on a single written form, it will be used in schools and for official purposes.

I understand that the lack of a standard spelling system is discouraging some people from taking Cornish seriously. If a standard can be agreed on, this could lead to more people learning the language.

Here are a few Cornish-related sites I found yesterday.

Cornish for Absolute Beginners
http://www.howlsedhes.co.uk/dallether/dlan0.shtml

Radyo an Norvys – a pod cast in Cornish
http://www.dasunys.net/podcast.htm

Cornish forum – discussions in and about the Cornish language
http://www.dasunys.net/php/

Tablys leveryans – Cornish pronunciation tables
http://www.dasunys.net/tables.htm

House of Languages

By Simon

House of Languages

According to Eurolang, the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) is planning to provide over half a million euros to fund the setting up of Linguamón – Casa de les Llengües (House of Languages), a museum dedicated to the world’s linguistic diversity in Barcelona. The museum will use multimedia systems to allow for high levels of interaction with actual or virtual visitors, and will also have an auditorium, a documentation centre, a specialised library and an area for academic research. It is hoped that the museum will become a “worldwide centre of excellence and innovation”.

There is already a website for the project, which contains information in quite a few different languages, including Catalan, Arabic, Welsh, Hindi, Tamazight and even Catalan Sign Language (Llengua de signes catalana). The sign language version has text in Catalan and videos of the sign language. This is the first sign language version of a website I’ve seen.

Unintentional questions

By Simon

In many languages a raising inflection at the end of a statement makes it into a question. A post I read the other day on Invading Holland discusses the authors’ struggles with the Dutch language. Particularly the way he adds a raising inflection to the ends of statements, not because he want to make them into questions, but because he’s unsure if he’s saying them correctly and seeks confirmation.

This is often misinterpreted because rather than answering the unspoken question, i.e. “Did I get that right?”, people tend to doubt his sanity when he appears to ask them questions like “I’ll have a coffee?” or “I’d like to go to the station?”. He calls it the ‘The Unintentional Question Effect’.

When speaking foreign, I’ve also been known to unleash unintended questions on unsuspecting interlocutors, and have noticed others doing the same thing.

Maintenance v reactivation

By Simon

A post on Tim Ferriss’ blog that I came across the other day, via Confessions of a Language Addict, asks an interesting quesion:

How can you possibly maintain fluency in two foreign languages — let alone five or six — if the opportunities to use them are months or years apart?

He then explains how he reactivated his German before visiting Germany recently by watching German films, reading German manga and a German phrasebook, and also using flashcards. He reckons that once you reach an intermediate to advanced level in a language, trying to maintain it at that level could be a real struggle of you don’t have regular opportunities to use it and you may also develop bad habits. Instead he recommends that you spend 1-3 weeks reactivating and reviving your knowledge of the language before you need to use it.

What do you think? Is it better to keep a language ticking over, or to brush it up only when you really need it?

I’m trying to maintain and improve the languages I’m focusing on at the moment (Czech, Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic), while practising my other languages when I get a chance to keep when ticking over.