| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| la fête; le foraine; la foire | (fun)fair | ffair | foar; kurioziteoù |
| le carême | Lent | Grawys | koraiz |
| un jeu de hasard | a game of chance | hapchwarae; chwarae siawns | c’hoari chañs |
| le cuivre (jaune); le laiton | brass | pres; efydd | kouevret; laton |
| la fanfare | brass band | band pres; seindorf pres | fañfar |
| le cuivres | the brass (section) | yr adran bres | kouevrennoù (?) |
| les huiles | top brass | prif swyddogion; pwysigion; pobl o bwys | |
| un self-made man; un autodidacte |
a self-made man | dyn a wnaeth ei ffortiwn ei hun | desket drezañ e-hunan |
| les frais | expenses | treuliau | mizoù |
| à court terme | short-term | cyfnod byr; tymor byr; byrdymor | berr dermen |
Category: English
Leeds and neglected languages
I’m in Leeds this weekend for an alumni reunion – it’s twenty years since I graduated from Leeds Uni with shiny new BA in Modern Chinese and Japanese Studies, and this is only the second time I’ve been back there since then. The East Asian Studies Department, where I studied, is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and there are various events to mark this.
I will be seeing old classmates and lecturers, and meeting others who studied in the same department at different times. It will be interesting to see where people have ended up and what they’re up to these days. I expect there’ll be some chat in Chinese and Japanese as well – my Mandarin is still fluent, but my Japanese is quite rusty.
On the train on the way here I was surrounded by Germans and was eavesdropping on their conversations. I could understand almost everything, when I concentrated, even though my German is perhaps even rustier than my Japanese. I did spend longer studying German, so perhaps it is more firmly embedded in my memory than Japanese.
Do you find that long neglected languages come back to you when you need them? Does it depend on what level you got to in them?
Sesiynau
Prynhawn ddoe roedd sesiwn cerddoriaeth da yn fy nhŷ, ac ar ôl cinio mi es i i’r côr cymuned. Yr wythnos ‘ma mi wnaethon ni canu caneuon yn Saesneg, Xhosa a Georgeg. Ar ôl hyn mi es i adref, ac yna i sesiwn cerddoriaeth gwerin yn y Skerries. Dyma’r tro cyntaf i mi mynd i’r sesiwn ‘na. Roedd ffrindiau yna o’r grŵp dawns forys, a phobl eraill dw i ddim yn nabod eto – myfryrwyr ydy’r mwyafrif ohonyn nhw, dw i’n meddwl. Mi wnaeth llawer o bobl yn gadael tua hanner wedi deg, ac ro’n i yna hyd un ar ddeg. Bydda i’n ceisio cyrraedd yn gynharach yr wythnos nesaf.
Yesterday afternoon there was a good music session, and after tea I went to the community choir. This week we sang songs in English, Xhosa and Georgian. After that I went home, and then to a folk music session in the Skerries. This was the first time I’ve been to that session. Some friends from the morris dancing group were there, and other people I don’t know yet – most of them are students, I think. A lot of people left at about half ten, and I was there until eleven. I’ll try to arrive a bit earlier next week.
Cyngerdd
Neithiwr es i i gynerdd yn y Caffi Blue Sky. Rhan o’r gŵyl barddoniaeth ydoedd, a dathliad cerddorol o waith Charles Causley, bardd o Gernyw. Yn anffodus mi fethodd un o’r perfformwr, Jim Causley o Ddyfnaint, yn dod, felly roedd dim ond dau berfformwyr – Julie Murphy a Ceri Owen Jones. Cantores o Essex yn wreddiol ydy Julie Murphy, a thelynor o Ganada yn wreddiol ydy Ceri Owen Jones, a maen nhw’n byw yng Nghymru bellach. Roedden nhw’n canu caneuon ac alawon hyfryd ar y telyn, y piano ac ar y trombôn, ac mae llais canu hyfryd gan Julie.
Last night I went to a concert at the Blue Sky Café. It was part of the poetry festival, and a musical celebration of a the work of Charles Causley, a poet from Cornwall. Unfortunately one of the performers, Jim Causley from Devon, was unable to come, so there were only two performers – Julie Murphy and Ceri Owen Jones. Julie Murphy is a singer originally from Essex, and Ceri Owen Jones is a harpist originally from Canada, and they both live in Wales now. They sang and played some beautiful songs and tunes on the harp, piano and trombone, and Julie has a lovely singing voice.
Cerddoriaeth a glaw
Mi wnes i gweithio bore ddoe, ac ar ôl cinio mi wnes canu rhyw alawon ar offer gwahanol. Mi wnes i parhau sgwenu fy nghân newydd hefyd, ac mae gen i pedwar pennill, mwy neu lai, erbyn hyn, ond dw i ddim yn siŵr am alaw eto. Mi wnaeth hi’n bwrw glaw trwn yn y prynhawn, ac gyda’r nos mi es i i’r tafarn Groegeg i ganu’r iwcwlili. Roedd dim mond dau ohonon ni yna, ac mi wnaethon ni penderfynu na fyddan ni’n cyfarfod ar nos Iau yr wythnos nesaf yn unig, heblaw mae pobl sy’n methu dod nos Iau a sy’n eisiau cyfarfod ar nos Lun.
I did some work yesterday morning, and after lunch I played some tunes on various instruments. I also continued writing my new song, and I now have four verses, more or less, though I’m not sure of a tune yet. It rained heavily in the afternoon, and in the evening I went to the Greek taverna to play the ukulele. There were only two of us there this week, and we decided that we’ll only meet on Thursday night next week, unless anybody can’t come on Thursday nights and want to meet on Monday nights.
Dydd Sul diog
Sgwrs a barddoniaeth
Mi ddaeth ffrind o’r côr cymuned i’r grŵp sgwrsio ddoe, ac ro’n ni’n siarad am ac yn yr Almaeneg yn bennaf. Dw i ‘di anghofio llawer o fy Almaeneg, ond mae’n dod yn ôl erbyn hyn. Ar ôl hyn mi es i adref am dipyn o fwyd, ac yna mi es i Caffi Blue Sky am noswaith o farddoniaeth a cherddoriaeth – rhan o wŷl barddoniaeth rhyngwladol. Mi wnaeth tri band lleol yn canu, ac mi wnaeth bardd o Wlad Pwyl yn adrodd ei gerddi yn y Bwyleg efo cyfeiliant un o’r bandiau. Roedd y band cyntaf yn uchel dros ben llestri efo gitâr trydan yn sgrechian, ond roedd y bandiau eraill yn well.
A friend from the community choir came to the conversation group yesterday, and we talked mainly about and in German. I’ve forgotten a lot of my German, but it’s starting to come back. After that I went home for a bit to eat, then went to the Blue Sky Café for an evening of music and poetry – part of an international festival of poetry. Three bands played, and a poetry from Poland recited with poetry in Polish with accompaniment from one of the bands. The first band were way too loud with an electric guitar screeching away, but the other bands were better.
Recordyddion
Bore ddoe mi es i i’r grŵp recordyddion, ond roedd dim ond dau ohonon ni yna – mi wnaeth un o’r aelodau angofio bod y grŵp yn cyfarfod ddoe – felly mi wnaethon ni penderfynu gohirio’r sesiwn hyd yr wythnos nesaf. Mi wnes i canu yn y côr MS yn y prynhawn, ac mi wnes i aros gatref gyda’r nos.
Yesterday morning I went to the recorder group, but there were only two of us there – one member of the group forget that we were meeting yesterday – so we decided to postpone the session until next week. I sang in the MS choir in the afternoon, and had a night in.
Do you cahoot?
When looking through one of my dictionaries today I came across the word cahoot, which I’ve only seen before in the form cahoots, as in the expression ‘in cahoots with’, i.e. to be in partnership or in league with. The dictionary entry has the s in bracketts – cahoot(s) – so it seems this words can be used in the singular as well. Have you heard it used like that, or do you use it like that?
According to the OED, cahoot can also be used as a verb meaning ‘to act in partnership’. The following example is given, ‘They all agree to cahoot with their claims against Nicaragua and Costa Rica.’, which dates from 1857, so I suspect this might not be a contemporary use of the word, though I may be wrong.
The OED also states that cahoot is ‘Used in the South and West [of the USA] to denote a company, or partnership’, usually in the plural.
Cahoot either comes from the French cahute (cabin; poor hut), or from cohorte, from the Latin cohort (court, enclosure, company of soldiers).
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| la boîte à gants; vide-poche | glove box | bocs/blwch maneg (?) | lak-pep-tra |
| le visage impassible | poker face | wyneb difnegiant | |
| le courroux; la colère | wrath | dig; dicter; digofaint | buanegezh; droug |
| les raisins de la colère | the grapes of wrath | grawnwin digofaint | |
| rayé(e); à rayures | striped | rhesog; streipiog | rezennet |
| le pull-over | jumper | siwmper | stamm |
| le directeur intérim | acting manager | rheolwr gweithredol | rener etreadegourien |
| les ordures | (household) rubbish | (y)sbwriel | stronkoù |
| les déchets | (garden) rubbish | cribinion | lostajoù; stronkajoù |
| la camelote | rubbish (junk) | hen drugareddau; sothach | brizhvarc’hadourezh |
| le orgue | organ (instrument) | organ | orglez |