A multilingual Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
Category: English
Fy filodfa gerddorol
Mae’r nifer o offerynnau yn fy filodfa gerddorol wedi cynyddu eleni, ac mae gen i 30 o offerynnau bellach. Yr offeryn mwyaf newydd ydy piano, sy wedi cyrraedd Dydd Gwener diwetha. Piano ail law ydy o, a dw i wedi ei brynnu o eBay o ddyn yn Salford.
Ar hyn bryd mae gen i piano, iwcalili, mandolin, bouzouki, bodhrán, xaphoon, clarinét, casŵ, ffliwt, dau gitâr, dau harmonica, a cryn dipyn o recorderau, chwibanau ac ocarinas.
My musical menagerie has grown quite a bit this year and now includes 30 instruments. The newest addition was a piano, which arrived last Friday. It’s a second hand piano that I bought on eBay from a bloke in Salford.
The menagerie currently consists of: a piano, a ukulele, a mandolin, a bouzouki, a bodhrán, a xaphoon, a clarinet, a kazoo, a flute, two guitars, two harmonicas, and quite a few recorders, whistles and ocarinas.
Les mots de la semaine
– être/rester coincé/bloqué = to be stuck = bod yn sownd = stankañ
– se coincer/bloquer = to get stuck
– être enlisé = to be stuck (in mud/sand) = bod yn sownd (yn llaca/tywod) = sac’hellañ
– s’enlisé = to get stuck (in mud/sand)
– à mi-chemin = half-way (in distance) = hanner ffordd = hanter hent
– à la moitié de = half-way (activity/time) = hanner ffordd = hanter
– surveiller = to supervise = arolygu, goruchwylio = evezhiañ
– la laverie automatique = laundrette = laundrette, siop golchi dillad = kanndi, kannerezh
– la mamelle, le pis = udder = cadair, pwrs, piw = bronn
– le pis-aller = stopgap = perth dros dro = defot gwell
– le chargement = load = llwyth = kargañ
– la bûche = log = boncyff = kef
– le bûcheron = logger, lumberjack = coetmon = keuneuder, koadour
– les paroles = lyrics = telynegion = gerioù
Blue stones
An interesting Breton word I came across today is mein-glas, or slates (literally, ‘blue stones’). The French equivalent is ardoises, which I had to look up as it’s not a word that crops up every day, unless you’re a roofer or builder.
The Breton word is made up of mein (stones – singular maen) and glas (blue/green), and the French word is of uncertain, possibly Gaulish origin – the ard part might come from the Gaulish word *ard(u) (high), as in the Ardennes [source]. The ard element is also found in the Gaelic languages meaning high, tall, elevated.
Ardoise (slate) appears in such terms as:
– ardoise électronique = notepad computer
– bleu/gris ardoise = blue/grey slate
– toit en ardoise = slate roof
– carrière d’ardoise = slate quarry
Les mots de la semaine
– le fil électrique = (electical) wire = gwifren (trydanol), weiar (trydanol) = neudenn (dredan), orjalenn (dredan)
– le fil de fer = (metal) wire = gwifren, weiar = neud-orjal
– en moyenne = on average = ar gyfartaledd = keitad
– le rendez-vous = appointment = apwyntiad, trefniad = emgav
– l’entretien (m) = interview = cyfweliad = emziviz
– la plaque chauffante = griddle = gradell = plakenn-dommañ (?)
– le niveau de vie (élevé/bas) = (high/low) standard of living = safon byw (uchel/isel) = live bevañ (uhel/izel)
– le contact avec les malades / le comportement envers les malades = bedside manner = emzalc’h gant ar glañvourien (?)
– Il a un bon contact avec ses malades = he has a good bedside manner
– le diagnostic = diagnosis = diagnosis = diagnostik
– saper, déstabiliser qn = to undermine = tanseilio = disfontañ
– il était bien pomponné = he was all poshed up
Zizolo
I came across a word that particularly appealed to me in my Breton lesson today – zizolo (discovering) in the sentence Ar vro a zizolo bemdez en doare-se (He discovers the country every day in this way) – referring to Gwennole who goes cycling a lot. It is a mutated form of dizolo (to discover), and appeals to me because of the z’s and sound of the word.
The letter z is relatively rare in most of the languages I know, but is common in Breton and in the Pinyin for Mandarin Chinese. It gives words an interesting and unusual, almost exotic, look and sound, at least to my eyes and ears it does.
Do you notice some letters more than others? Are any letters exotic, unusual or unexpected to you?
New song – Make the most of it while it lasts
I wrote a new song today entitled “Make the most of it while it lasts”. The beginnings of the tune came to me this morning when I was brushing my teeth, and the first few lines came to me while I was washing the dishes after lunch. I looked out of the window and saw that it was raining heavily, and decided to write something about the rain. This is what I came up with:
Make the most of it while it lasts
When the rain falls from the sky
Don’t you fret, don’t you cry
Just put on your boots and go outside.
Jump in puddles and go wild.
And release your inner child.
Then you won’t feel so blue any more.
When the temperature is falling
And the weather is appalling
It’s good to stay indoors sometimes.
To read a book, or watch a film
Or sing a song, or play some tunes
Or just to sit by the fire and doze.
So when the winter time has come
And you’re feeling rather glum
Don’t forget to smile and sing and dance.
Paint some pictures, bake some cakes
Talk to friends, skate on lakes,
And make the most of it while it lasts.
Here’s a recording:
Kig yar gant piz-bihan
The more Breton I learn, the more connections I am finding with Welsh, and to some extent with French, in terms of vocabulary. Today’s lesson, for example, includes these words:
– korn = cornel (corner)
– straed= stryd (street) – e korn ar straed = ar gornel y stryd (on the street corner)
– iliz = eglwys (church)
– marc’had-mat (‘good market’) = rhad (cheap) – looks like a calque translation from the French bonne-marché
– kig = cig (meat)
– kig yar (‘hen meat’) = cyw iâr (chicken)
– piz-bihan = pys (peas) – looks like a calque of petit-pois.
– tartezenn avaloù = pastai afal (apple tart/pie)
– enez = ynys (island)
Yesterday we had deiz = dydd (day), beure = bore (morning), and noz = nos (night). The spelling and pronunciation disguises the related words, but once you get used to it, you can spot them more easily. It took me a while to realise that beure = bore.
Spench, spence and sbens
Recently a friend told me that in North Wales the area under stairs is know as the spench – I hadn’t heard it before and didn’t know how to write it so this spelling is a guess. I found spench in the Urban Dictionary, which defines it as “the area under the stairs (often a cupboard) where things are stored. Used in North Wales.”
In the Geiriadur Mawr, one of my Welsh dictionaries, I found the Welsh word sbens, which is defined as “twll dan y grisiau” (a hole under the stairs) and is translated as spence.
The OED defines spence as “a room or separate place in which victuals and liquor are kept; a buttery or pantry; a cupboard.” and says that it is dialectal or archaic. It comes from the Old French word despense (to dispense), from the Latin word dispendere (to dispense, weigh out; pay out; open, spread out), from the Latin word pendere (to hang; depend; weigh out; pay) plus the prefix dis-.
Have you heard this word before, or do you have another word for the area//cupboard under the stairs?
Les bonnets à pompon
An nice French expression I discovered yesterday is bonnet à pompon, which is apparently the French equivalent of bobble hat, which some might call a beanie.
What do you call hats like this? Does the kind with a bobble have a different name?
For me the kind of hat with a bobble is a bobble hat, and the kind without is a woolly hat.