An interesting French word I learnt yesterday is escroquerie [ɛskʁɔkʁi], which means a swindle or fraud. It comes from escroquer (to swindle). A related word is escroc (villain, baddy). It probably comes from the Italian word scroccare (to eat or live at others’ expense) [source].
Other English equivalents of escroquer include scrounge, sponge, cadge and blag. Are there others? What about in other languages?
Apparently it’s National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day today. It’s also National Licorice Day, and Be Kind to Lawyers Day, at least in the USA. Is it a special day elsewhere?
The equivalent of the grilled cheese sandwich in the UK is known as cheese on toast, and in French it’s known as a Croque Monsieur, which usually includes ham as well. The American version dates back to the 1920s, but apparently the idea of combining cheese and bread like this started in Ancient Rome.
Here’s a little video in French from Frantastique about fromages (cheeses) and mouches (flies:
To learn more about fromages, mouches and French – try out Frantastique for 7 days!
By the way, Gymglish will be offering a 30% off discount to all users how have signed up to their lessons. This is to celebrate their 12th birthday!
Do you have other names for this type of sandwich?
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| la myrtille | blueberry; bilberry | llusen |
| la canneberge | canberry | llugaeronen, cryglusen |
| la sauce à la canneberge | cranberry | sôs/saws llugaeron |
| féroce | fierce | ffyrnig, gwyllt |
| passer outre à | to override | mynd y tu hwnt; diystyru |
| les contraires s’attirent | opposites attract | croes yn denu |
This week I am doing a course in Scottish Gaelic songs at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye. While all the songs I’m learning are in Gaelic, the class it taught mainly in English, so I don’t get to speak much Gaelic in class. Outside class there are plenty of opportunities to speak Gaelic with college staff and other students, who are doing courses in language, fiddle or step dancing.
This is my fifth visit to the college, and each time my Gaelic gets a bit better. I rarely speak it at home, apart from to myself, but do listen to online Gaelic radio and occasionally read things in Gaelic. I tend to mix Irish and Scottish Gaelic a bit as I know a lot more Irish, and if I don’t know how to say something in Scottish Gaelic I try it in Irish. Sometimes it works.
On the way here and in the college I’ve heard and/or spoken quite a few different languages – plenty of English and Gaelic, and also Spanish, Italian, French, Irish, Welsh, Mandarin, Japanese, Russian and German. So this is a good place to practice a variety of languages.
When up-dating the Which language should I learn? page on Omniglot this week I decided to try and find out not only which languages have the most speakers, and also which ones have the most learners.
The top ten languages in terms of overall number of native (L1) and second language (L2) speakers are:
| Language | L1 speakers | L2 speakers | Total speakers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin Chinese | 850 million | 180 million | 1,030 million |
| English | 340 million | 510 million | 840 million |
| Arabic | 240 million | 250 million | 490 million |
| Spanish | 400 million | 90 million | 490 million |
| Hindi | 260 million | 120 million | 380 million |
| Russian | 150 million | 110 million | 260 million |
| Portuguese | 215 million | 35 million | 250 million |
| French | 80 million | 140 million | 220 million |
| Bengali | 190 million | 20 million | 210 million |
| Indonesian/Malay | 60 million | 140 million | 200 million |
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
If you count Hindi and Urdu speakers together, as I’ve done with Indonesian and Malay, the number of L1 speakers is 324 million, L2 speakers number 214 million, and the total number of speakers is 438 million. This doesn’t change the rankings of other languages.
The languages with the most learners are English (600 million), French (100 million), and Spanish (21 million). If you add these figures to the above totals, English moves into first place, French into seventh place, and Spanish into fourth place.
The most popular languages to study in the USA are Spanish, French, American Sign Language (ASL), German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Latin and Russian [source].
In Europe the most studied foreign languages are English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian [source].
I couldn’t find any figures for the number of Chinese learners, but there were 234,275 takers of the Chinese Proficiency Tests in 2012 [source]. I suspect that the total number of people learning Chinese isn’t huge, but it has increased over the past few years.
Do you have details of which languages have most learners in other countries?
People who enjoy learning languages, travelling, learning about different cultures and/or meeting people from different countries tend to be more open to difference, and more tolerant. At least that is my experience. While other people might be more inclined to fear the different and the foreign.
In UK schools the most widely-taught languages are French, German and Spanish [source]. Other languages, such as Italian, Russian, Mandarin and Japanese are also taught, but they are less common. Many British people go on holiday to France or Spain, so the ability to speak French or Spanish might be useful for a few weeks each year. The rest of the time these languages aren’t all that useful, unless you have lots of French, German or Spanish-speaking friends, or you end up living or spending a lot or time in a country where they’re spoken.
I’m not saying that these languages aren’t worth learning – all languages are worth learning, as far as I’m concerned. However, might it be a good idea if schools started also teaching languages that are actually spoken in their local areas? Languages like Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Arabic, Polish, Cantonese and so on. Pupils could use what they’re learning regularly, and maybe by learning more about the communities that speak these language, any fear and suspicion they have of the other and the foreign would diminish.
| français | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|
| le rouge à lèvres | lipstick | minlliw, lliwydd |
| le rouge, le rouge à joues | rouge | powdwr coch, rouge, gruddliw |
| la suie | soot | huddygl, parddu |
| être sur le cas | to be on the case | |
| dire qch sur un ton pince-sans-rire | to say sth tongue in cheek | dwueud rhwybeth â’ch tafod yn eich boch dwueud rhwybeth â’ch tafod am eich dant |
| rappeler qch à qn | to remind sb of sth | atgoffa rhywun o rywbeth dwyn rhywbeth i gof rhywun |
| l’Hôtel Matignon | residence and offices of French Prime Minister | |
| l’orchestre (m) | stalls (in a theatre) | seddau blaen |
| la fosse | orchestra pit | pwll cerddorfa |
| le balcon | (dress) circle (in a theare) | seddau’r cylch cylch y boneddigion y cylch cyntaf |
| la loge | box (in a theatre) | bocs, côr seddau |
| le lavabo, la cuvette de lavabo | wash basin | basn ymolchi |
| la prunelle | sloe | eirinen dagu |
| le gin à la prunelle | sloe gin | jin eirin |
| racler les fonds de tiroir | to scrape the barrel | crafu’r gasgen |
| le chevalier | knight | marchog |
| le cavalier | knight (in chess) | marchog |
| le plan d’urgence | contingency plan | cynllun at raid cynllun wrth gefn |
In theatres in the UK the seats at ground level in front of the stage are usually known as stalls or orchestra stalls. If there are balconies above that level, the first balcony might be known as the dress circle, grand circle or balcony, the second as the upper circle, grand circle, first circle or circle, the third as the upper circle or gallery, and the fourth as the gallery. There may also be private boxes along the sides of the theatre. The exact terms vary from theatre to theatre.
In French the stalls are known as l’orchestre, les fauteuils d’orchestre or le parterre, the first level balcony might be le balcon, the second level balcony might be la galerie, and the third level might be le paradis (paradise) – ‘the gods’ is sometimes used for the highest level of balconies in English. Boxes are les loges.
A parterre in English is a “a formal garden constructed on a level surface, consisting of planting beds, typically in symmetrical patterns, separated and connected by gravel pathways.” [source]. Parterre can also refer to the ground level part of a theatre (stalls) and the audiences who congregate there. The word pit is also used [source]. The denizens of the pit or yard in Shakespeare’s Globe theatre were known as a groundlings, stinkards or penny-stinkers [source].
The French word parterre has also been borrowed into Russian as партер and is used to refer to the stalls in a theatre.
What terms are used in theatres you go to?
Last night I discovered that the French equivalent of “Number 10”, which in the UK refers to the British Prime Minister, is Matignon or L’Hôtel de Matignon, the official residence of the French Prime Minister.
Number 10 is shorthand for Number 10 Downing Street, is the official residence and office of the British Prime Minister, and the headquarters of the executive branch of the British Government. The British Government is also referred to as “Westminster”, from the Palace of Westminster where the British Parliament meets.
The Scottish Parliament is informally referred as “Holyrood” – named after the area of Edinburgh where it meets, while in Northern Irish Assembly is referred as “Stormont”, after the Stormont Estate where the main government buildings are. Stormont comes from the Stoirmhonadh, (place for crossing the mountains) and is named after a district in Perthshire in Scotland. The National Assembly of Wales / Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru is referred to as the Assembly in English, and y Cynulliad or y Senedd (the Senate) in Welsh. I don’t know of any particular metonyms for it.
Using the name of a place or building to refer to an institution or other organisation is known as metonymy, from the Greek μετωνυμία (metōnymía) – a change of name. Other examples include using Hollywood to refer to the US film industry, and Silicon Valley to refer to the US high-tech sector.
Are metonyms used to refer to governments, prime ministers, or other government institutions in other countries?
Translation:
– A baguette please.
– With this?
– ?
– With a plant please
– With this?
– With a surfboard please
– With this?
– With a smile please
– Sorry. I don’t have any more of them.
The phrase avec ceci ? literally means “with this?”, but I suspect in this context it might mean something like “(would you like) anything else?”. Is that right?
This comic / cartoon was brought to you by Frantastique, who are offering French lessons with an exclusive 20% reduction to all Omniglots readers.